Current Contemplations

- Would the rate of abortion drop dramatically if men were to have children instead of women? Would the general competitive spirit between men cause no fetus to be left behind?

- If perception is reality, and we all have our own perceptions of things, how many realities must there be at any given time? How do they all co-exist? Keeping this in mind, how can we ever expect to really see eye to eye with another person & be in a relationship with him/her? What if we all had to draw a “scene” from mental images only… how many renditions would there be? Can witnesses really be trusted?

- Why is it windier on bridges (than, say, flat lying areas)? I pretty sure there’s a physics theory for this… I just can’t think what.

- If sex is reasonably good the first time you have it with someone, how likely is it to be better the second time, when it may be sans the drunkenness & awkwardness of having to figure out what they don’t like? Should one-night stands like these actually be given 2 or 3 chances to gauge full potential?

- In most situations, and especially health, is it better to know, or not know? Would you rather drop dead of a disease without warning or continue to plod along allowing yourself only half the things you could do previously?

- When is it time to settle for less than the ideal (regardless of the situation)? What is the cost-benefit analysis, and what are the variables that should be considered?

- Given you could have only one in abundance, would you rather have the money or the time?

- Does privilege actually ruin us? When we cease having to use our skills to achieve something, do we tend to become the under-achieving mental/intellectual equivalents of aimless slugs? Is our drive, as a species, to acquire the most material comforts for our offspring potentially causing them more harm than good?

- What do children, being a largely negative NPV (net present value) project really provide for us aside from a well accepted and legitimized channel for our narcissism, and possibly one of the purest forms of selfishness (looking out for our own genes)?

- Given it’s normal for people to be selfish and look out for their own interests almost all the time, what causes people to be heroes? Is it just that they don’t have time to register the selfishness & think things over? Is there a higher, collective level of selfishness that is shared by the human race that supersedes the individual so that the species can not completely disappear? Does that happen in other species?

- Are humans the only species in the food chain without whom the planet could go on perfectly fine? Are we basically just a semi-intelligent virus?

- Who first looked at a pair of knickers, and a pair of stockings, both reasonably comfortable articles of clothing on their own, and sewed them together into the medieval torture contraption that is pantyhose?

- Ever wonder who picks the “feature presentation” movies for long haul flights? Is it a comedian with a macabre sense of humor, a thwarted script writer intent on indirectly torturing the potential audience s/he couldn’t have, a psychoanalyst trying to run a covert experiment to study the hand of media in complete mental breakdown, or just a true sadist (at par, perhaps, only with the inventor of pantyhose)?

- What is the psychology of boredom? Why are some people more easily bored than others? Is it wrong to be intellectually promiscuous (given there is no intent to follow through with a more conventionally understood form of cheating) – after all, can one person ever really completely satisfy another long term in this aspect?

2 comments:

Sf said...

On Heroes :
Being a hero is one extreme form of selfishness. It is an easy shortcut to fame (and fortune if lucky). Movies promote this all the time.
And of course, the government needs the concept to be able to send young kids to war.

Unknown said...

I was thinking about that realities thing on the way to the airport in Dusseldorf. There was some crappy band playing and I couldn't help thinking that if all of life was an illusion, or in my head, or whatever, that the gods must be laughing when they allowed me to percieve "BoyBands".

And, Bridges are windier because contact with the ground slows down the air currents. Less Ground = Less resistance = higher wind speeds. It's why my hair always looks windswept.