ATS cube: Are you in or out?

Originally posted by jedimiller
it's more like paranormal reserch or a theory on why people act a certain way.

I would say it has more to do with psychology than anything esoteric. But that would be putting it into a box. And since I believe there is no box, but just the illusion of a box...

I'd rather be outside .

I've read a thousand times if once that someone great once said that those who would give up freedom (privacy?) for security deserve neither. That said, there appear to be advantages to membership in certain types of circles, and indeed one might provide more information to obtain this membership than would commonly be available, publicly speaking.

It would seem that more details are indeed necessary for me to decide whether to make the irrevocable decision to once-and-for-all enter the cube. I do have some practical questions, if I may...

a) How dire are the threats forcing me to make a soon decision? Is this something I would take my chances against, versus losing privacy for 'assured' safety?

b) What is the perceived consequence to my having lost privacy?

c) How much privacy did I lose? (a fixed degree; ongoing degradation, if so, at what rate?)

Life otherwise, I'm guessing, is good inside the cube, as much as could be expected given the cube's implied boundaries which limit interaction with the outside 'world'.

If you choose to reply to these ponderings of mine, Jedi, I'm not looking for any scientific formulas or politically-correct psychobabble, it's just that these are the types of questions I would pose for my brain's response to any similar request for a controlled paradigm shift.

Interesting post, always intrigued with thought-challenges like this

I wouldn't want to be kept inside anything forever.

What if someone farts!

2PacSade-

I would fend for myself outside the cube before i ever gave up my personal privacy. I see where you're going with this jedimiller, it's a neat topic. Wrong forum, maybe, but it's a good topic regardless. I don't see how people are having trouble understanding the concept.

reply to post by Roland Deschain


Somehow I don't see this "concept" as being so complex as you may think.

reply to post by jedimiller


Is this basically a secondary representation of our world right now?

Live in a cube where all your movements are watched by outsiders you can't see all for the illusion of security?

Or live outside the cube to be free and move around as you please, but risk an attack that may or may not come?

It sounds like our world today. Sacrifice liberty and privacy for security, or have liberty and risk attack.

Put me outside the cube. What ever happens happens.

I would prefer to be on the outside of the box, for multiple reasons.

As you describe it, those on the outside of the box control those within it. They see everything that the box dwellers do, they hear everything they hear, they become their owners. I would rather control, and give freedom and choice to the people inside the box, instead of be controlled by a "God" Of sorts.

If I was on the outside of the box, I would have many more freedoms then those inside of it. There wouldn't be any limits to what I did, or where I went. Without protection of the walls, vulnerability would be a problem. Although there is no protection, there is still the option to fight. Fighting for freedom sounds alot more humane then sitting inside the box watching fellow human beings murdered outside, doesn't it?

reply to post by jedimiller


I’m on the outside, banging on the walls with a sledgehammer trying to get people in there to at least think outside of it, even if they can’t step outside of it. Whether they can hear me in there or not, I’m still doing it.

i would DEFINATELY live outside the cube, BUT i would reveal myself to those inside and outside the cube (seeing as its "glass" they can see me and we can communicate...

i would then take the oppurtunity to understand what the immediate threat is to those inside the cube and work out a way where we could get along without a crutch!!!

reply to post by jbondo


Hmm, who said anything about it being complex? Why are you putting words in my mouth? I don't think this is complex. I simply answered his question because I wanted to. This is not a thread for people to come in and state opinions about whether or not this thread is in the right forum for this topic. I don't understand why everyone wants to play mod around here.

I would probably remain outside of the cube, for fear of any kind of transmogrifing hot dog microwave time travel experiments.

I rather be the cube.

Honestly? I think you should be more specific using metaphors. Specially when the subject is popularity.

No one I know here at ats fits into any particular 'box'.
This is where people of similar minds gather to bounce ideas back and forth.
As for me, I guess I am too claustrophobic to be inside the box, yet the question is unfair in my oppinion because I would see ats as the outside of the cube in your illustration and the world as perceived by the average person, locked into the inside.
Do you know what I mean? Also my first thought was if you would be supplying the hotdogs and if so to the people on the inside or outside of the cube?

Is it a smoking cube?

Or, could I get a smaller, otherwise identical cube of my own?

I have fifty bucks. Get back to me.

it would really depend on whose box i'd be in...

I choose to be both within the cube and outside the cube. If a decision can be made a point is free to travel as it wishes, the decision is not "in or out" but "active or inactive".

Hmmm...very intriguing...

My choice would be to be outside of the box. I mean, whats life without pain, sorrow, happines, privacy, self-determination, etc.? I would be giving up a majority of that inside the box, all for some invincilble protection. What if that protection fails, in the unlikyl scenario it will, ?

At first i was leaning towards inside the box, but then i just started thinknig about the gains/losses.

PS , alot of you guys are overcomplicating this ahahah.

I would rather be in a dodecahedron......just for the hell of it. And there are more corners to store beer in, in a dodecahedron, and people would be like "hey check out this guy in a cube, and then they will be like, nah the cube guys old news, this guys got a dodecahedron, thats way cool", and then I will be like famous and stuff

Originally posted by OptionToChoose

a) How dire are the threats forcing me to make a soon decision? Is this something I would take my chances against, versus losing privacy for 'assured' safety?

b) What is the perceived consequence to my having lost privacy?

c) How much privacy did I lose? (a fixed degree; ongoing degradation, if so, at what rate?)

a) No immediate threat. but you know that you are open to any future attacks. from all sides and all places outside the cube.


b) No consequence, but as long as you know that you can be terminated and killed off inside the cube. it's total control from the outsiders. And at any rate they can tell you what to do. And in the end, does it matter to you? having given up your privacy for 100% safety? would you rather die in the nuclear blast or have someone spy on you?




c) You lost all your privacy. the people on the outside can see you at everymoment of your life. While you shower, while you sleep, while you eat and have sexual relations with other users. Your calls are monitored and you become a uniform communal society. but remember, you know you are inside and you are being monitored, but you don't know who it is in particular.