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[est]

Hey here's the thing: you've had a curse put on you.  I don't know how it happened, maybe a wizard did it.  In 10 seconds your entire life is going to be randomised, after which you will have all your new life's experiences, plus a memory of what happened to you and what this life was like (but none of the helpful knowledge you gained during it).

The wizard has asked you to choose one thing to remain the same across both lives.  What would you tell him?  Explain your reasoning.

(Note: Because the wizard is unimaginative you will still be a human, and still be on Earth, regardless of whether extra-terrestrial life exists)



I have an idea what my response would be, but I'll answer a bit later. I don't want to lead the answers any particular direction.

[The Seldom Killer]

Nothing.

If you're going to get changed, you may as well go as far as you can.

[pwhodges]

It's really hard to decide what constitutes "a single thing" in a question like this.  My rather broad-ranging single thing I'd ask to keep is my appreciation of music; nothing more practical makes sense, because other changes may make it useless.

[David_Dovey]

I was going to say that I'd choose to still be where I am right now, because I'm enjoying being out in the world, away from home. But hey, if everything's getting randomised, maybe I'll wake up somewhere even more interesting. That could be nice.

So I guess I would choose to remember the lessons I have learned about being empathetic, and being aware of my privilege. I wasn't always particularly understanding of people who aren't as lucky as I am, and I know that it's not a given, that there are many, many, many people who never will be. I think knowledge of those few basic things have made me an immensely better person, and I consider it extremely important.

[est]

Nothing.

If you're going to get changed, you may as well go as far as you can.

Ok!

The wizard has altered your life and you are now a woman living in Maseru city in the Kingdom of Lesotho, Africa.

Or maybe you aren't!  After all, there is an approx 8% chance you died during your birth.

Seeing as you are a woman living in an urban area flip a coin.  Heads you win, tails you have AIDS.

There is a very good chance you have been raped, possibly by a family member or close friend of the family, and possibly in the hope that it would cure their HIV/AIDS.

Even if you don't have AIDS you will almost certainly die before you are 40.

Enjoy your exciting new life!

[Inlander]

Question: can we remember our old life?

[David_Dovey]

It says that in the OP, I think?

[Metope]

Okay, I want to keep my artistic knowledge/talent please. I mean, no matter if I'm rich or poor, who or where I am, the fact that I'd still have the ability to do what I love doing the most would be very comforting.

[valley_parade]

Record collection.

[calenlass]

I... kind of like my life the way it is, actually. I guess I would want most to keep my brain the way it is? That is, my reasoning skills and my intellect. I don't know how I would deal without having any of the practical knowledge I have now, but I guess I would have some other practical knowledge.

I guess I might actually say my fambly. I like mine a lot. :/

[Eris]

I... kind of like my life the way it is, actually.

Too bad!

[Lunchbox]

My cat please.

[Zingoleb]

I'd keep my musicial inclinations. I'm pretty good at that! Not much else, though.

[imagist42]

I would probably hang on to my knack for languages! That could be handy pretty damn well anywhere. Plus, it kind of indirectly feeds a lot of other things I love.

[Barmymoo]

I think I would like to keep the fact that I live in a country where life is not a constant and nigh-impossible struggle to survive, but maybe that is either selfish or not in the spirit of this game.

[Inlander]

It says that in the OP, I think?

Oh hey look at that!

[est]

I think I would like to keep the fact that I live in a country where life is not a constant and nigh-impossible struggle to survive, but maybe that is either selfish or not in the spirit of this game.

Nope.  That is kind of the point, actually.  About 1.7 billion people live in absolute poverty, which translates to about 25% of the world.  Almost half the world live on less than $2.50 a day, and about 80% on less than $10/day.  Being concerned about your lot in life and basically about self-preservation seems to me to be a very real and important part of the exercise.

I have been trying to think of the perfect answer to this whereby the dickhead wizard couldn't fuck your life entirely on a whim, but I really don't think that there is one.  I have thought of answering "my parents", but even then he could make it so they give you up for adoption and you're raised by a couple of drunken yokels who beat you, discourage your schooling, etc. or that you are born to the same parents but you have Downes Syndrome.

I have seen someone answer "my camera", which on the surface of it seems like a horrible answer.  But when you break it down it's kinda good, because it means that you have been born in a country where you can own something like an expensive camera, and that you are in a position to do so.  It also implies that you are probably interested in photography, and if not then you are in a position to buy something of that value on a whim.

[tania]

my fantastic ass

[Dliessmgg]

pencil and paper

That can be used for useful stuff and for fun stuff.

[Katherine]

I'd like to keep the same level of happiness that I have right now.

[axerton]

So, is it just your life being randomised? so for instance if you did say "my parents" it wouldn't alter anything about their life?

Also is it truly random or is the wizard a dick who will try and find a way to twist any situation to be bad for you.

[imagist42]

it's pretty much safe to assume all wizards are dicks, dudes

[tania]

an interesting cracked article for those who are putting some serious thought into their answers - five things you think will make you happy but won't

me, i'm still sticking with my ass. it's phenomenal

[Eris]

It will definitely come in handy when you need to whore yourself out to pay for food.

[tania]

yes yes it is a little known fact that all six billion people on the planet who are not me are, in fact, whores with no other means of income

[Eris]

yeah but the wizard is a dick, remember?


(are people losing their senses of humour? I thought it was obvious I was making a joke?)

[KvP]

Tania is very earnest about her ass.

[tania]

if the wizard's a dick and he's going to intentionally try to pick a bad outcome for you then the outcome of the shuffle isn't random at all, which to me kind of defeats the entire point of the exercise?

whatever i liked this thread better back when john rawls wrote it and it took me like four goddamn months to finish

[est]

I'd like to keep the same level of happiness that I have right now.

This is a pretty good answer, one that I was thinking of since the last post I made.  It guarantees that whatever else has changed about you you are still about the same in regards to how you feel about your life.  I'm pretty sure there are millions of people I could trade places with right now and remain completely satisfied with life.  There are also a few billion that I'm sure I would not want to be put into the shoes of.  I wouldn't want to be stuck in an Indian slum or one of the more violent Brazilian favelas, for example, especially with the given proviso that I would remember the relative ease that I had in this life, and know that if not for that fuckin' wizard I'd still have a decent life.

So, is it just your life being randomised? so for instance if you did say "my parents" it wouldn't alter anything about their life?

Also is it truly random or is the wizard a dick who will try and find a way to twist any situation to be bad for you.

It'd mean that your parents would be the same people they have been, but it wouldn't guarantee that they'd make the same decisions about you all over again this time around.  Also, things that affect your life directly, like whether or not you have elder siblings, and the status of the other members of your extended family would be in play.

And I'd say that it would be mostly random, but depending on how the wizard feels that day in general, or about you personally he may attempt to influence the outcome of the curse to either help you or harm you.  However, due to the extreme nature of the options involved the wizard's influence over the final result would be relatively localised and would have to fit in with normal Earth rules.  So while he can't give you a second head or something dumb like that he could think "ok, this person should probably live in China and work in an electronics factory" or perhaps "this dude should totally be a woman now, aww yisssss"

[Eris]

oh yeah, I obviously thought she was being completely serious, which is why I made a comment that was also completely serious.

[Buttfranklin]

Access to good education.

[tania]

it actually struck me as sorta ignorant, even faintly insulting with regards to the actual lifestyles and prospects of individuals living in second and third world countries who frequently find millions of different ways to survive and find happiness despite their substantially lower levels of income than us privileged folks but i mean like everyone's already established that's the internet for you, misunderstandings all up ins. this post is redundant and mean now and probably wasn't worth writing

[Patrick]

ONE THING, I DON'T KNOW WHY
IT DOESN'T EVEN MATTER HOW HARD YOU TRY
KEEP THAT IN MIND I DESIGNED THIS RHYME TO EXPLAIN IN DUE TIME
ALL. I. KNOW.
TIME IS A VALUABLE THING
WATCH IT FLY BY AS THE PENDULUM SWINGS
WATCH IT COUNT DOWN TO THE END OF THE DAY, THE CLOCK TICKS LIFE AWAY
IT'S SO. UN. REAL.

(no, I didn't look this up)

[Eris]

honestly my first thought when you posted that was how interesting the difference between what is seen as a fantastic female arse compared to a male one, and how that would translate if you gat changed to a dude. Then there is also the whole differing opinions depending on countries and ethnicities, so if you were moved to a different culture how they would react to your arse, and whether they would think it was fantastic or not. But seeing that you were obviously making a joke post I figured it was a bit silly making a post about that.


But yeah, ignorant and insulting and being an arrogant privileged jerk makes much more sense. good point there, thanks for making me feel great about myself.

[Yunior]

This thread was so close to being about butts, why are you guys ruining this

[axerton]

So, is it just your life being randomised? so for instance if you did say "my parents" it wouldn't alter anything about their life?

Also is it truly random or is the wizard a dick who will try and find a way to twist any situation to be bad for you.

It'd mean that your parents would be the same people they have been, but it wouldn't guarantee that they'd make the same decisions about you all over again this time around.  Also, things that affect your life directly, like whether or not you have elder siblings, and the status of the other members of your extended family would be in play.

In that case, I think I would choose to keep my current relationship with my girlfriend.

Not in a "shes the most important thing in my life right now" way, but more the fact that it puts some serious limiters on who I would end up being. In order to even know her I would still have to be in a fairly good location, and to be considered date worthy by her I'd have to be reasonably intelligent and I couldn't be too big of a jackass or a loser.

As far as I can tell that doesn't leave too much wiggle room for the wizard to dick with me.

[calenlass]

I don't know if "the education I got" is too much to ask for, but I would like to keep that, or something like it ("access to similar education", etc). It definitely affected my perspectives and opened up a whole facet of learning stuff I have come to realise most people don't understand at all. I would regret losing that a lot, I think.

So assuming I am still born genetically and chemically me, I guess I would take the education thing. I have managed to bully my way into being sort of ok with my life, and I'd like to think I would do it under other circumstances too, but I might not have had the self-assuredness or the confidence to do it.

[est]

Being born genetically and chemically you cannot be assumed.  You could be a chinese dude, or an english lady, or a juggalo or whatever.

[calenlass]

Well, shit, then. "Happiness" becomes the only feasible answer, I think, because absolutely anything else becomes completely arbitrary. Sure, you might keep your camera because you think it predisposes you to a place where you could own one, but maybe you nicked it off some hapless tourist, and someone else in the ghetto will see you with it and shiv you for it. You might get a great education, but only because the horrific deaths of your family members got you workers comp to pay for it, or you might be bitter. Your new perceptions and reasoning would probably be entirely different, so you couldn't guarantee any particular capacity for knowledge or common sense or anything. Your bew preferences would likely render any other choice you make irrelevant.

So basically, the question is "Imagine what would happen if someone else magically had the memory of your life transplanted into their brain. Also, they get your cat."

[JD]

I played a computer game like this once. I'll see if I can find it again.

[est]

So basically, the question is "Imagine what would happen if someone else magically had the memory of your life transplanted into their brain. Also, they get your cat."

No, not really.  Paraphrased from the first post :

In 10 seconds your entire life is going to be randomised by a wizard, who is putting a curse on you.

You will have all your new life's experiences, plus a memory of what happened to you and what this life was like (but none of the helpful knowledge you gained during it).

The wizard has asked you to choose one thing to remain the same across both lives.  What would you tell him?  Explain your reasoning.

And I kinda thought that the wizard's malevolent/mischievous intent was obvious due to him putting a curse on you in the first place.

[KvP]

You guys shitted up this thread right quick.

[Nodaisho]

Honestly, Est shitted it up when he turned it into a heavy-handed "Think about how lucky you are" PSA.

Yes, I'm lucky. I'm very lucky. But sitting around thinking about how lucky I am compared to other people just leads to me getting depressed at my lack of power. So, for the sake of my liver, I don't think about it. Fuck you if you think that makes me morally inferior.

[scarred]

Yeah the first "Here's what you are now!" post really destroyed any positive perception I had of this thread.

[tania]

i wanna talk about john rawls and his intuitive equality of opportunity and social contract arguments, let's talk about john rawls and his intuitive equality of opportunity and social contract arguments

[Eris]

I don't think he was ever going to post how people would turn out, it was more showing how different a person you could be after the randomisation. What is with all the judgey going on in this thread? No judgey, people!

[KvP]

I want to talk about the privilege of having a great ass

[est]

Nodaisho, I didn't mean it the way you've taken it.  If I meant for us to think about anything in this thread it would be more how best to outwit the wizard who is trying to put a curse on us.  The post to TSK was meant to highlight how badly it could go if you don't care about the answer or treat it as "what is your favourite thing in the world?" instead.

[est]

To be fair, I think that I probably could have communicated things a lot better in my OP, but it was 6:45am and I just wanted to get the idea out and thought people would understand my intent a bit better than they did.

[tania]

I want to talk about the privilege of having a great ass

it's fucking awesome