Are AVEN threads inanimate objects?

[Missing]

Are AVEN threads inanimate objects? If they are then they can’t suffer and don’t feel pain, so then it won’t matter if they die. If the majority of votes say that threads are inanimate objects, I’ll ask a mod to mercilessly kill this thread by deleting it. If they aren’t inanimate objects then we probably shouldn’t kill it.

 

This picture of a puppy has nothing to do with anything.

[The French Unicorn]

That's the only thing I could think about reading the question. I wanted to find a meme about it, didn't find the one I wanted and don't want to bother making it. So here's the whole scene. 

 

[ElloryJaye]

Hmm.  They could be animate objects (as opposed to living things).  I suppose we'd then have to ask a robot whether or not they feel pain.

 

Alternatively, are threads objects at all?  A thread has no physical existence except as a clump of flipped bits somewhere.  It's effectively an abstraction.  Do abstractions count as objects?

 

[Fraggle Underdark]

Hmm, but then when you get down to it, physical objects themselves are basically abstractions. Our mind separates a bunch of bound molecules and says this part is part of the tree and this part is part of the ground. Going further, even a tree or anything else is almost completely empty space, its atoms and molecules consisting of particles zipping around in vast empty space (on that scale). Even the sense of touch, in a certain way you're never "really" touching anything, it's electromagnetic repulsion you're feeling that stops your hand going through things. (Honestly I'd say it's a strong case that we are touching things and that's just what touch means, but anyway.)

 

In conclusion, die thread die! Kill! Kill!

[Guest]

isn't an aven thread a conversation? is a conversation an object?

 

I guess in object oriented programming it would be... lol

[Janus the Fox]

They're a collection of Objects in a Class though (programming humour)

[Typhoon]

Threads are nothing more than data on a server somewhere. They do not feel sorrow, joy or any other emotion. While a thread might bring happiness, information or some shocking fact it is a person who made it that way. Asking if a thread is alive somehow is like asking if a piece of paper is beautiful. There is no beauty in the paper but you can give it beauty by adding to or changing it in whatever way you want.

[EvaLynn]

Each thread has the parent who gave birth to it. The parent of this thread even gave it a puppy. It should be nurtured. 

[DragonflytotheMoon]

It's those who contribute to the threads that bring it to life. The thread itself isn't alive in the sense it has brain activity, a heart beat, it breathes, etc. The people adding to the discussion certainly do. Some may not care if this or any other messages were removed. Others would be dismayed because the various conversations have been insightful, humorous, touching & so forth. They enjoy being able to engage. Which could become problematic if they realize that, at any time, the words they've expressed (sometimes with difficulty) will now be obliterated. 

[Absentminded]

Well, they hold patterns that contain information, a bit like DNA. The AVEN server will automatically attempt to prevent hacking, so unless someone posts something, the thread will stay the same, ergo homeostasis. When a new person comes onto the thread, they bring new ideas and change perceptions that can alter the entire course of discussion of the thread, therefore, it is responsive to it's surroundings. It takes in new ideas and considerations to extend itself, prolong it's lifespan (in the case of a thread, how long it's active), and to change its own content, in this sense, it metabolizes.

 

The only thing preventing this thread, and any other active discussion on the whole internet, from meeting the biological definition of life is a lack of cells. So no, I'd say it's not an inanimate object.

 

However, just being animate doesn't mean it has a sense of self preservation. We bring the consciousness, here, so if we, the readers and writers, don't want the thread to live on, than the thread itself doesn't care if it dies. If we want the thread to continue, then it truly has its own sense of self preservation.

[ElloryJaye]

Hmm.  Life "is defined by the capacity for growth, reaction to stimuli, metabolism, energy transformation, and reproduction."  (Thank you, Wikipedia.)  So how many of those do threads have?  They certainly grow.

[Missing]

Welp, the votes are in and this thread will live to see another day.

 

Consider yourself lucky, thread.