The Thought Experiment Thread

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Zapcon
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Re: The Thought Experiment Thread

Post by Zapcon »

Astraios wrote: The Language Fairy offers you a native-level command of every language in the world, bar one. Which would you choose to be not fluent in?
English

It is time to elect the world leader, and yours is the deciding vote. Here are the facts about the three leading candidates:

Candidate A: He associates with crooked politicians, and consults with astrologers. He's had two mistresses. He also chain smokes and drinks up to ten Martinis a day.
Candidate B: He was ejected from office twice, sleeps until noon, used opium in college and drinks a large amounts of whisky every evening.
Candidate C: He is a decorated war hero. He's a vegetarian, doesn't smoke, drinks an occasional beer and hasn't had any extra-marital affairs.


Click here to see what the answers mean.
Legion wrote:[triangular slavery] > [african polyrythms] + [western folk music] (+ (sometimes) [western art music]) = [biggest explosion in diversity since the Cambrian]

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finlay
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Re: The Thought Experiment Thread

Post by finlay »

godwin's law! thread over. Also hitler wasn't actually a vegetarian iirc

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Re: The Thought Experiment Thread

Post by Nortaneous »

iirc Hitler went vegetarian after the death of Geli Raubal but later began to occasionally eat meat
Siöö jandeng raiglin zåbei tandiüłåd;
nää džunnfin kukuch vklaivei sivei tåd.
Chei. Chei. Chei. Chei. Chei. Chei. Chei.

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Re: The Thought Experiment Thread

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Re: The Thought Experiment Thread

Post by Nortaneous »

Both of the relevant books that I have (Adolf Hitler by John Toland and The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich) say Hitler originally went vegetarian in his period of depression after Geli Raubal's death, unless I'm horribly misremembering. He might have continued with it because of gastric problems, though.
Siöö jandeng raiglin zåbei tandiüłåd;
nää džunnfin kukuch vklaivei sivei tåd.
Chei. Chei. Chei. Chei. Chei. Chei. Chei.

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Re: The Thought Experiment Thread

Post by vampireshark »

Here's a thought:

For some odd reason or another, your native country no longer wants you (in other words, you're being expelled). Where would you choose to settle, and why?
What do you see in the night?

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finlay
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Re: The Thought Experiment Thread

Post by finlay »

either southeast asia or south america where it's warm, or canada where i can get citizenship...

but let's face it, i plan on going to these places anyway

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Re: The Thought Experiment Thread

Post by Ashroot »

I'd say Mexico. Build an island out of plastic bottles, and set sail. Though after I get my hands on some money I would do a scaled up version where everyone speaks my conlang. Donations? Anyone who wants to learn my soon to be lang?

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Re: The Thought Experiment Thread

Post by bulbaquil »

Astraios wrote: The Language Fairy offers you a native-level command of every language in the world, bar one. Which would you choose to be not fluent in?
Inuktitut.
Zapcon wrote: It is time to elect the world leader, and yours is the deciding vote. Here are the facts about the three leading candidates:

Candidate A: He associates with crooked politicians, and consults with astrologers. He's had two mistresses. He also chain smokes and drinks up to ten Martinis a day.
Candidate B: He was ejected from office twice, sleeps until noon, used opium in college and drinks a large amounts of whisky every evening.
Candidate C: He is a decorated war hero. He's a vegetarian, doesn't smoke, drinks an occasional beer and hasn't had any extra-marital affairs.
I abstain. There shouldn't be a "world leader." If I cannot abstain, Candidate B. Even if I hadn't read the link and thus already knew who they were, vegetarianism is a deal-breaker. I don't care what my leaders got up to in their youthful years.
vampireshark wrote:For some odd reason or another, your native country no longer wants you (in other words, you're being expelled). Where would you choose to settle, and why?
Australia, because... it's there, lurking, on the other side of the world from me.

You MUST choose one of the following two options. You do not have the option of choosing "neither"; if you do, you get the drawbacks of both and the benefits of neither.

1. Tomorrow, a source of extremely cheap, squeaky-clean, carbon-neutral, totally renewable energy is found that could power a civilization of 1 trillion people each of whom use twice as much energy per capita as the average American, and all environmental damage to the planet since 1900 is undone, but the feminist and gay rights movements completely disintegrate, and all their accomplishments since 1900 are irreversibly rolled back - laws repealed, executive orders rescinded, constitutions amended, etc.

2. Tomorrow, all prejudice against people on the basis of biological sex, sexual identity, sexual orientation, etc. ends forever, worldwide... but the environmental movement completely disintegrates, and all its accomplishments since 1900 are irreversibly rolled back; governments will ignore the plight of any and all endangered species and dismiss even the most irrefutable scientific research claiming any climate change is anthropogenic, etc., etc., and the fossil fuel reservoirs are restored to pre-industrial levels, meaning you won't have peak oil to bail you out either, not for a long while.
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Re: The Thought Experiment Thread

Post by Pthagnar »

question betrays total ignorance of marxist science + the materially conditioned nature of doctrine, might as well be about triangles being irreversibly given four sides

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Re: The Thought Experiment Thread

Post by Bristel »

If you have to measure gay right's accomplishments in terms of laws and stuff, then I'd say say that it was worth the energy discovery.

If you could for one day, discover new insights about the universe, would you choose to focus on the incredibly large and distant, or the incredibly small?
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Re: The Thought Experiment Thread

Post by bulbaquil »

Pthug wrote:question betrays total ignorance of marxist science + the materially conditioned nature of doctrine
The ignorance goes beyond that. I don't know what either of the things you're talking about even are, which is something I'm completely fine with.
MI DRALAS, KHARULE MEVO STANI?!

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Re: The Thought Experiment Thread

Post by Pthagnar »

bulbaquil wrote:
Pthug wrote:question betrays total ignorance of marxist science + the materially conditioned nature of doctrine
The ignorance goes beyond that. I don't know what either of the things you're talking about even are, which is something I'm completely fine with.
w/e go ahead and take living in a place that isn't totally a moral shithole as well not being totally an economic shithole for granted, its not like people died or anything!!!

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Re: The Thought Experiment Thread

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Bristel wrote:If you could for one day, discover new insights about the universe, would you choose to focus on the incredibly large and distant, or the incredibly small?
Incredibly big... like galaxies and star systems and stuff like that.

What do you do when you discover and an endangered animal that only eats endangered plants?
Legion wrote:[triangular slavery] > [african polyrythms] + [western folk music] (+ (sometimes) [western art music]) = [biggest explosion in diversity since the Cambrian]

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Re: The Thought Experiment Thread

Post by Trailsend »

Zapcon wrote:What do you do when you discover and an endangered animal that only eats endangered plants?
Set up rehabilitation programs for them both.

Suppose you plan to have kids (and the devil exists):
The devil informs you that your first child will be born either deaf, or blind--which one is up to you. What do you choose?

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Re: The Thought Experiment Thread

Post by Astraios »

Trailsend wrote:Suppose you plan to have kids (and the devil exists):
The devil informs you that your first child will be born either deaf, or blind--which one is up to you. What do you choose?
Deaf. Then I'd have a better reason to learn sign language.


If you could choose how you will die, what way would you choose?

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Re: The Thought Experiment Thread

Post by Zapcon »

Astraios wrote:If you could choose how you will die, what way would you choose?
Skydiving without parachute, by far the best way to go.

In continuation, which would you prefer, a semi-slow lethal injection, or electric chair. Both taking the same amount of time.
Legion wrote:[triangular slavery] > [african polyrythms] + [western folk music] (+ (sometimes) [western art music]) = [biggest explosion in diversity since the Cambrian]

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Re: The Thought Experiment Thread

Post by Bedelato »

Astraios wrote:The Language Fairy offers you a native-level command of every language in the world, bar one. Which would you choose to be not fluent in?
English. Cuz I'm already native in it, so there's nothing to lose.
At, casteda dus des ometh coisen at tusta o diédem thum čisbugan. Ai, thiosa če sane búem mos sil, ne?
Also, I broke all your metal ropes and used them to feed the cheeseburgers. Yes, today just keeps getting better, doesn't it?

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Re: The Thought Experiment Thread

Post by Soap »

Im revivng the thread, because no one ever posted another question.


If you had to go through life without Google or without shoes, which would you prefer? Assume that your choice changes the world for everyone, not just you. i.e. its either a world with no Google or a world with no shoes. (I came up with this because I read a list of most useful inventions in which people ranked "Google" higher than "shoes")
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Re: The Thought Experiment Thread

Post by Zapcon »

By far without both. I hate both Google and shoes and think that they are equally terrible inventions.
Legion wrote:[triangular slavery] > [african polyrythms] + [western folk music] (+ (sometimes) [western art music]) = [biggest explosion in diversity since the Cambrian]

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Re: The Thought Experiment Thread

Post by faiuwle »

(The game is that you are supposed to post another question, Zapcon.)

I'd give up Google, as it's really just a convenience/shortcut for doing something you can already do with another search engine, or heck, in a library. Shoes are an irreplaceable means of protecting your feet.

From another forum, some time ago: If you had to choose between giving up eggs (and everything that's made with them) or cheese (and everything that's made with it), which would you pick?
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Re: The Thought Experiment Thread

Post by Astraios »

faiuwle wrote:If you had to choose between giving up eggs (and everything that's made with them) or cheese (and everything that's made with it), which would you pick?
That's easy. Eggs make me violently sick, and I like cheese, so I would give eggs up without a second thought. I guess I would miss cakes and things, though.

If you had the power to condemn one member of your immediate family (parents, siblings, children) to a life of eternal bad luck, and you had no choice but to condemn one of them, who would you condemn?

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Re: The Thought Experiment Thread

Post by Risla »

My brother, no questions asked. After all the bullshit he's given me for getting sick and being disabled...

If you had the opportunity to get a metric fuckton of money if you changed your name to that of someone quite famous, and could never tell anyone why you changed it, a) would you? and b) whose name would you pick?

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Re: The Thought Experiment Thread

Post by patiku »

I'd change my name to Osama bin Hitler (twofer).

Due to technicalities in the law, you are now absolute ruler of the Central African Republic. You have enough military support to enact any changes that you want. What do you do?

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Re: The Thought Experiment Thread

Post by Drydic »

Invade Cameroon to gain access to the sea.

You awaken to find yourself in the streets of Singapore, with naught but the clothes on your back and a pack of chewing gum. A policeman is glaring at you. What do you do?
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