Yesterday, just before I was due to leave work, one of my former students came in to talk for a bit. He has a habit of doing this, and sometimes he overstays his welcome, but oh well. He came in for a serious reason, though--he had experienced something extraordinary.
In his Ethics class, taught by a colleague I know fairly well, the discussion had recently turned to the effects of immortality on moral behavior. This student had voiced the opinion more than once that if humans were to extend life indefinitely, they might very well end up monstrous--because life would cease to have meaning. As he put it, "personally, I don't know if I wouldn't end up being murderous, simply because I had gone nuts."
Perhaps not the wisest words to speak in a class, but in a case of hypothetical reasoning, certainly even an unpleasant or weird response isn't totally out of bounds?
This instructor reported this student to the campus police for uttering "threats;" they tracked him down in the University Center, escorted him out, and subjected him to a search of his belongings and to questioning. Fortunately, he cooperated and didn't give them any reason to get nervous. I am not at all comfortable with this treatment of a student who did nothing more than respond perhaps too honestly to a classroom hypothetical.
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