Imagine you managed an organization that could: Deliver several pounds of goods undetected and unstoppable, into several hundred million homes worldwide all on the same night, and to select which among thousands of possible goods go to which homes.
hi santa this is what i wan;t for cristmas i wan't my famaliy to have the best crist mas ever and the world to and this is something elis i what i wan't for cristmas a gitar and a dsi please
I for one think Santa is real. It's just that there are only two or three nice children in the world. The parents of all other children just buy presents for their kids and lie saying Santa put them on the nice list.
I've never met a truly nice kid but I assume with billions of kids there must be 2 or 3 nice ones.
Great, simple description of what could enable the *ultimate* totalitarian regime! How bad would it be? I guess it depends on what the rules are. Be "nice" and get everything you want. Sounds like "heaven" to me!
Funny to ponder the nanotechnology implications as well WRT Santa.
It is also interesting to note that Santa could be much, much, more. Instead the bar was set quite low for him. Good post!
As an atheist parent who has been unable to convince my five year old son there isn't a god (he's gone Pascal's wager on me), I thank you for providing the bright side to santa.
what if santa had made a kind of faustian bargain -- he had absolute control over a worldwide delivery network -- but could only deliver toys or other crap designed and built by the likes of mattel.
As atheist parents, Santa Claus is something that is completely unbelievable which every child is expected to believe. They get to experience several things which will help them in life, and which we normally don't encourage:
1) They see us encouraging a belief that they find out is totally false.
2) They share a bizarre belief with practically everyone, and get much positive feedback for it.
3) After learning the truth, they may find that feigning belief continues to benefit them.
While we are raising them to Overcome Bias (tm), Santa Claus is a fun chance for them to practice living in the big, biased world.
As for dealing with naughty children, I'm pleased to note that Santa's pall Krampus seems to be making something of a comeback this year.
Krampus is a mythical creature. In various regions of the world – especially Austria– it is believed that Krampus accompanies St. Nicholas during the Christmas season, warning and punishing bad children, ...In some rural areas the tradition also includes birching – corporal punishment with a birch rod ... especially of young girls. Images of Krampus usually show him with a basket on his back used to carry away bad children and dump them into the pits of Hell.
dear santa am i on your nice list from jayden sheedy1
You'll see here http://www.youtube.com/watc...at around 04:18 how Superman helped to defeat the KKK. Just imagine if he had an iPhone and went around the world collecting data for Goodguide http://www.goodguide.com/ab...
hi santa this is what i wan;t for cristmas i wan't my famaliy to have the best crist mas ever and the world to and this is something elis i what i wan't for cristmas a gitar and a dsi please
Christmas message from SAI.
SAI_2100: 'You'd better watch out, you'd better think twice, I'm going to find out whose been naughty and nice...'
I for one think Santa is real. It's just that there are only two or three nice children in the world. The parents of all other children just buy presents for their kids and lie saying Santa put them on the nice list.
I've never met a truly nice kid but I assume with billions of kids there must be 2 or 3 nice ones.
Great, simple description of what could enable the *ultimate* totalitarian regime! How bad would it be? I guess it depends on what the rules are. Be "nice" and get everything you want. Sounds like "heaven" to me!
Funny to ponder the nanotechnology implications as well WRT Santa.
It is also interesting to note that Santa could be much, much, more. Instead the bar was set quite low for him. Good post!
kebko,
As an atheist parent who has been unable to convince my five year old son there isn't a god (he's gone Pascal's wager on me), I thank you for providing the bright side to santa.
One of my cousins once received coal.
Thing is, by most people's standards he was probably "nice."
@ FeministX: Eh? Why would you want a weasel under your tree?
Now I've seen it all: Hanson equates child with adult aspirations, child with adult charity.
what if santa had made a kind of faustian bargain -- he had absolute control over a worldwide delivery network -- but could only deliver toys or other crap designed and built by the likes of mattel.
As atheist parents, Santa Claus is something that is completely unbelievable which every child is expected to believe. They get to experience several things which will help them in life, and which we normally don't encourage:
1) They see us encouraging a belief that they find out is totally false.
2) They share a bizarre belief with practically everyone, and get much positive feedback for it.
3) After learning the truth, they may find that feigning belief continues to benefit them.
While we are raising them to Overcome Bias (tm), Santa Claus is a fun chance for them to practice living in the big, biased world.
Naughty or Nice? Depends on whether or not he slips a sable under the tree for me and hurries down the chimney tonight.
I do hope he's naughty. That's my kind of nice.
Humans love trying to convince each other that a selfish person should act altruistically!
As for dealing with naughty children, I'm pleased to note that Santa's pall Krampus seems to be making something of a comeback this year.
Krampus is a mythical creature. In various regions of the world – especially Austria– it is believed that Krampus accompanies St. Nicholas during the Christmas season, warning and punishing bad children, ...In some rural areas the tradition also includes birching – corporal punishment with a birch rod ... especially of young girls. Images of Krampus usually show him with a basket on his back used to carry away bad children and dump them into the pits of Hell.
As planned.