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Neat post, Omk. And thanks for the thumbs-up on *The End of Science Fiction*. Everyone who asked for the book should now have it. The offer remains open as long as this thread is active.
On a personal note, I've certainly never been influenced by alleged religious codes of 'morality' and have never refrained from what I'd consider wrong-doing because of possible legal repurcussions and punishment.
This doesn't make me anyone special and certainly doesn't mean that there aren't things in my past that now shame me.
Much of what we consider 'morality' is hard-wired into us through evolution and is about group well-being as much as personal survival. Also, some stuff is just not cricket according to what we learned at our mothers' knees and by the good example of others as we matured.
The 'golden rule' outdates the gospels by thousands of years. The inbread desire to do no harm and to hope others will reciprocate is natural. It is behaviour to the contrary that's out of the norm.
A week to live? I think I'd try to contact everyone I know to express my love and appreciation (by phone and email because landmail wouldn't arrive in time with the French postal service handling it) ... and then I'd settle down with a bottle of good malt whisky and my knock-out wife, and re-run all my old Star Trek movies for as long as is left. Might even finish painting the bathroom.
Cheers. Neil
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