(no subject)
Mar. 7th, 2012 12:38 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
naathQuestion meme, questions from chess
1) You can perfectly replace any current politician with yourself. You will acquire their position, their history, their contacts, their memories etc etc, but also retain your own memories etc (you can choose whether to take on their appearance / body or not). They will take your place and live your life with only slight disorientation (they don't get to keep their memories etc). Do you perform this action, and if so who do you pick? If you wouldn't, why not, and who would you pick if the switch was compulsory?
I don't think I'd want to do that. I think it is an unacceptable thing to do to the person on the other end of the switch. Also I don't really like politics very much, so don't really want to be thrust right into the heart of it. Supposing I was being forced to do so then I'd be tempted to go right for the very top - David Cameron, putting me in a position to SEIZE POWA mwahahahahaha.
2) Aliens kidnap you and insist that you accept some kind of technological enhancement which is primarily a weapon (e.g. laser eye beams, implanted unobtanium claws), but are open to negotiation on the details. What do you persuade them to give you, and why?
I wonder how widely they define "weapon". Ideally I'd like them to enhance my brain so I can think better about designing military hardware. Then I'd turn my military hardware thoughts to civilian uses (design a mine clearing robot and have it clean floors for instance...). If that's off the cards then I'd definately be up for vision enhancement - really good night vision would be dead handy for avoiding motorists at night, getting around in dark campsites, etc. not needing glasses would be a small bonus. I wonder if one can weaponise prosthetic tails...
3) You are given the power to wipe one country off the map entirely; it won't be a violent destruction, it will just cease to exist, the land that it occupied being shared amongst its current neighbours (and the people will have Always Lived In Eastasia, and most of the effects it had on the world will have had some other cause). If you don't use this power, it will be given to someone else. Do you use it, and if so on which country, and what effects do you expect that to have on the world?
Oh gosh, that power could have some frightening consequences! In a lot of locations I suspect that the people wouldn't simply be peaceful Eastasians, but rather form (potentially violent) secessionist groups to get away from being part of the hated whatever-it-is (we could imagine someone has *already done this* to Kurdistan...). In a malicious-revenge way I think I'd quite like to do that to Serbia but I don't expect it's the sort of thing that would actually help. Naturally I don't trust "someone else" randomly chosen to have better judgement than me (although maybe if I could pick the someone), so I wouldn't want to just pass the buck. Which leaves me with the notion of removing one of the tiny countries which are already happily largely integrated with their neighbours - San Merino, Andorra, Monaco, and the Vatican City come to mind. I'd have to think about the tax implications of wiping out some of these places; but I think removing the Vatican's temporal power would be A Good Thing. So them.
4) A ticket for a flight into space (an orbit and a visit to the International Space Station) arrives through the post. Assume that you meet the relevant physical requirements. You can use it, transfer it, or sell it. What do you do and why?
I'd sell it. Because whilst I think going into space would be very very cool I think having access the money which at current going-rates would probably be a really very large sum indeed would allow me to have things I think are more long-term useful to me. Such as a house. Sorry, I'm a bit obsessed about house having.
5) You recieve a letter congratulating you on winning the secret lottery to populate a base on the surface of Mars. The project seems plausible and you have heard rumours of it, and there is nothing to indicate that its general philosophy does not align with yours in any major or serious way. Do you take up the offer? Are there any further investigations you would need to do or conditions you would need to have stipulated before you can make the decision?
I think my major concern about going to Mars would be leaving behind all the nice people I know here; so I'd want to know if any of them could come too (and would any of them come, of course they'd have to make they're own choices about that). And what would communication to Earth be like, I'm guessing regular trips would be impossible. I would quite like to be a pioneering Mars colonist, although I'm not sure if I'd be any good at it.
6) Conscription is reintroduced, and somehow you don't manage to get a medical / age / gender exemption. Which branch of the forces and military job specification do you attempt to get placed in - or do you attempt to resist the draft in some illegal fashion, even though the penalties are likely to be severe? (You can assume the situation for deployments is pretty much as it is now; not everyone gets deployed but there's a decent chance, there are many small nasty local asymmetric somewhat-morally-grey conflicts rather than one big war going on.)
There appear to be jobs in the armed forces for people who do better behind desks than behind guns, I'd like one of those please. I'm not sufficiently a pacifist to refuse in the face of severe penalties to be conscripted; but I do think I'd do very badly at shooting people, I do know I do very badly at shooting targets with arrows (I think my wonky eyesight doesn't help). If actually forced out into the field then I think logistics support in some way - organising stuff, I like organising stuff. If I found I was organising really unethical stuff I'd like to hope I could subtly fail to organise it into actually happening.
7) You wake up one morning and there is a smallish bronze fire-lizard in your room, waiting patiently for you. It indicates, with a mixture of hope and sadness, that you should follow it to some nearby location as soon as possible. What do you do? What do you expect happens next?
Follow it of course! (and hug it and luff it and ask it its name). I expect, oh, well, I don't know what to expect at all really. Right out of normal expectations is that sort of thing. Dragons probably.
chess1) You can perfectly replace any current politician with yourself. You will acquire their position, their history, their contacts, their memories etc etc, but also retain your own memories etc (you can choose whether to take on their appearance / body or not). They will take your place and live your life with only slight disorientation (they don't get to keep their memories etc). Do you perform this action, and if so who do you pick? If you wouldn't, why not, and who would you pick if the switch was compulsory?
I don't think I'd want to do that. I think it is an unacceptable thing to do to the person on the other end of the switch. Also I don't really like politics very much, so don't really want to be thrust right into the heart of it. Supposing I was being forced to do so then I'd be tempted to go right for the very top - David Cameron, putting me in a position to SEIZE POWA mwahahahahaha.
2) Aliens kidnap you and insist that you accept some kind of technological enhancement which is primarily a weapon (e.g. laser eye beams, implanted unobtanium claws), but are open to negotiation on the details. What do you persuade them to give you, and why?
I wonder how widely they define "weapon". Ideally I'd like them to enhance my brain so I can think better about designing military hardware. Then I'd turn my military hardware thoughts to civilian uses (design a mine clearing robot and have it clean floors for instance...). If that's off the cards then I'd definately be up for vision enhancement - really good night vision would be dead handy for avoiding motorists at night, getting around in dark campsites, etc. not needing glasses would be a small bonus. I wonder if one can weaponise prosthetic tails...
3) You are given the power to wipe one country off the map entirely; it won't be a violent destruction, it will just cease to exist, the land that it occupied being shared amongst its current neighbours (and the people will have Always Lived In Eastasia, and most of the effects it had on the world will have had some other cause). If you don't use this power, it will be given to someone else. Do you use it, and if so on which country, and what effects do you expect that to have on the world?
Oh gosh, that power could have some frightening consequences! In a lot of locations I suspect that the people wouldn't simply be peaceful Eastasians, but rather form (potentially violent) secessionist groups to get away from being part of the hated whatever-it-is (we could imagine someone has *already done this* to Kurdistan...). In a malicious-revenge way I think I'd quite like to do that to Serbia but I don't expect it's the sort of thing that would actually help. Naturally I don't trust "someone else" randomly chosen to have better judgement than me (although maybe if I could pick the someone), so I wouldn't want to just pass the buck. Which leaves me with the notion of removing one of the tiny countries which are already happily largely integrated with their neighbours - San Merino, Andorra, Monaco, and the Vatican City come to mind. I'd have to think about the tax implications of wiping out some of these places; but I think removing the Vatican's temporal power would be A Good Thing. So them.
4) A ticket for a flight into space (an orbit and a visit to the International Space Station) arrives through the post. Assume that you meet the relevant physical requirements. You can use it, transfer it, or sell it. What do you do and why?
I'd sell it. Because whilst I think going into space would be very very cool I think having access the money which at current going-rates would probably be a really very large sum indeed would allow me to have things I think are more long-term useful to me. Such as a house. Sorry, I'm a bit obsessed about house having.
5) You recieve a letter congratulating you on winning the secret lottery to populate a base on the surface of Mars. The project seems plausible and you have heard rumours of it, and there is nothing to indicate that its general philosophy does not align with yours in any major or serious way. Do you take up the offer? Are there any further investigations you would need to do or conditions you would need to have stipulated before you can make the decision?
I think my major concern about going to Mars would be leaving behind all the nice people I know here; so I'd want to know if any of them could come too (and would any of them come, of course they'd have to make they're own choices about that). And what would communication to Earth be like, I'm guessing regular trips would be impossible. I would quite like to be a pioneering Mars colonist, although I'm not sure if I'd be any good at it.
6) Conscription is reintroduced, and somehow you don't manage to get a medical / age / gender exemption. Which branch of the forces and military job specification do you attempt to get placed in - or do you attempt to resist the draft in some illegal fashion, even though the penalties are likely to be severe? (You can assume the situation for deployments is pretty much as it is now; not everyone gets deployed but there's a decent chance, there are many small nasty local asymmetric somewhat-morally-grey conflicts rather than one big war going on.)
There appear to be jobs in the armed forces for people who do better behind desks than behind guns, I'd like one of those please. I'm not sufficiently a pacifist to refuse in the face of severe penalties to be conscripted; but I do think I'd do very badly at shooting people, I do know I do very badly at shooting targets with arrows (I think my wonky eyesight doesn't help). If actually forced out into the field then I think logistics support in some way - organising stuff, I like organising stuff. If I found I was organising really unethical stuff I'd like to hope I could subtly fail to organise it into actually happening.
7) You wake up one morning and there is a smallish bronze fire-lizard in your room, waiting patiently for you. It indicates, with a mixture of hope and sadness, that you should follow it to some nearby location as soon as possible. What do you do? What do you expect happens next?
Follow it of course! (and hug it and luff it and ask it its name). I expect, oh, well, I don't know what to expect at all really. Right out of normal expectations is that sort of thing. Dragons probably.
(no subject)
Date: 2012-03-07 02:17 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-03-07 02:23 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-03-07 03:33 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-03-07 03:47 pm (UTC)If you accept the premise, probably the best ethical weapon would be a painless stunner that really worked. If you could duplicate it, it would give police an intermediate ground between "asking nicely" and "throwing poison in people's eyes", and even if not it could let you get out of nasty situations without hurting someone.
I agree a tail would be cooler :)
(no subject)
Date: 2012-03-07 03:48 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-03-07 03:49 pm (UTC)I don't know. If I wanted to be in UK politics that badly, I probably should be already. But if I can take the place of Murderous Dictator X, then I probably have an obligation to do so.
(no subject)
Date: 2012-03-07 03:50 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-03-07 05:01 pm (UTC)I'm faintly reminded of the spaceship Lying Bastard in Ringworld, which carried any number of things that could function as very effective weapons but all of them could be defended as things it was carrying for some legitimate and plausible peaceful purpose. This is the same criterion but in reverse.
So lasers are probably out, because they require a lot of safety precautions if you want to not hurt people with them. Wolverine-style adamantium claws would probably relieve you of the need to carry a penknife, which is not much but it's a start.
Or, hmmm. Since I've mentioned Ringworld already, perhaps one can also apply the Kzinti Lesson in reverse: a weapon that functions sufficiently like a reaction drive can be used in peacetime for getting around quickly! Give me some kind of built-in high-muzzle-velocity flamethrowery thing, and I can sit on a bicycle and point it backwards :-)
(no subject)
Date: 2012-03-07 05:31 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-03-07 05:35 pm (UTC)cross the streamsuse both beams at once doesn't really provide a non-warlike justification for needing the thing to have both beams in the first place. (Or, even if you can justify the need for each one separately, failing to provide a safety interlock to make them mutually exclusive.) So yeah, the Lying Bastard didn't really do all that well at its stated goal.(no subject)
Date: 2012-03-07 06:47 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-03-07 05:38 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-03-08 09:38 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-03-07 08:36 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-03-07 09:59 pm (UTC)If you did have a situation maxim, what would it be?