Hypothetical Questions | Chocolate Mints In a Jar

Hypothetical Question: If your life was turned into a movie

If your life was turned into a movie, which movie would it be? It doesn’t necessarily have to be like your life, it is a hypothetical question after all.

Who would play you?

Who would play members of your family or your significant other?

Would you change the ending in the movie?

Moral dilemmas

I was at Virgin and saw a book of 101 moral dilemmas. I thought it was interesting but decided not to buy the book, here is an example of a moral dilemma. More examples here.

The Overcrowded Lifeboat

In 1842, a ship struck an iceberg and more than 30 survivors were crowded into a lifeboat intended to hold 7. As a storm threatened, it became obvious that the lifeboat would have to be lightened if anyone were to survive. The captain reasoned that the right thing to do in this situation was to force some individuals to go over the side and drown. Such an action, he reasoned, was not unjust to those thrown overboard, for they would have drowned anyway. If he did nothing, however, he would be responsible for the deaths of those whom he could have saved. Some people opposed the captain’s decision. They claimed that if nothing were done and everyone died as a result, no one would be responsible for these deaths. On the other hand, if the captain attempted to save some, he could do so only by killing others and their deaths would be his responsibility; this would be worse than doing nothing and letting all die. The captain rejected this reasoning. Since the only possibility for rescue required great efforts of rowing, the captain decided that the weakest would have to be sacrificed. In this situation it would be absurd, he thought, to decide by drawing lots who should be thrown overboard. As it turned out, after days of hard rowing, the survivors were rescued and the captain was tried for his action. If you had been on the jury, how would you have decided?

Personally, I have been thinking about it for hours and I can’t decide. On one hand he did save some people but on the other he did so by killing others. What do you think?

Hypothetical Question: If you could be someone else for a day who would you be?

If you could try out someone’s life for a day who’s life would be for you? Imagine if you could be an international football star, a neurosurgeon or maybe even a tree hugger. I want to be an astronaut. Zero gravity and seeing the earth a blue dot from outer space sound like a good day’s work but I definitely wouldn’t want to do it all my life. What would you want to do or who would you want to be?

Hypothetical Question: if you were a cartoon character who would you be?

I think I would definitely want to be Velma Dinkley from Scooby Doo. She’s smart and great at solving the mysteries. My only real problem is that I would have a really limited (or nonexistent) wardrobe and I don’t really like wearing orange. I think I went through a phase and wanted to be Captain Planet.

Who would you love to have lunch with?

If you could have lunch with anyone, dead or alive, real or imaginary, who would you pick? Personally I would love to have lunch with so many different people. On the top of my list would be my father, he passed away 9 years ago and I miss him and would just love to spend a couple of hours. Maybe ask for advice, tell him about my life and just talk. My mother’s grandmother would also be an amazing lunch date, she passed away before my parents got married but my mother always speaks so highly of her that I wish I could have met her. I would also like to meet many writers and journalists like J.K. Rowling, Robert Fisk, Thomas Friedman and Galal Amin. There are also many fictional characters whom I would love to meet like the little Prince from Antoine de Saint Exupéry‘s book, Garfield, James Bond (I want to play with all the super spy gadgets), Dilbert and Betty Suarez (of Ugly Betty).

Democracy – the question

I am part of a wonderful group of girls who are part of a book club. Most months we vote to choose which book will be our required reading book to be reviewed at the end of the month. This month the choice was between two books, one I had already read and one I was already planning to start reading. Here is my real question is democracy a good thing? Most people chose the book I had already read so that’s the book of the month. A democracy by definition is where the majority of the people get to choose what everyone (including the opposing minority) should do. Is that fair? What if you are always part of the minority, does that mean the democracy to you is just another dictatorship only led by a group of people instead of one person? I am of course in no way saying that iron rule is a better idea but what if the book was chosen say by randomly picking out its name from a hat? At the end of the day reading is not such a big deal, you could always find one where people are mostly like yourself so you will end up reading mostly books you like, but again is that a good thing? Isn’t diversity a better thing? There are cultures where they have a group of “elders” who decide the clan’s fate, but that is not a good idea all the time, the elders might be out of touch with the rest of the population or just out of date or might not always be able to reach the best decision for whatever reasons. I know this should probably be listed under byzantine discussions but I still can’t decide which is the best political or choice system out there and could easily argue for or against any system. In the end the best option is always where the benefits outweigh the drawbacks.
What do you think?

Hypothetical Question: Do overs?

Play Button

If you could go back and change an action in your life would you choose to do that? Here’s the catch, if you choose to go back you have to go through your life all over again taking the risk that whatever you change might change everything else that came after that event. Years ago I read a book called Replay, by Ken Grimwood. Jeff Winston the protagonist a 43 year old radio journalist dies and wakes up 18 years old again, he gets to redo his life while still remembering his old life. He gets to “replay” his life several times at different ages too each time starting older than the one before. He memorizes airplane crashes, stocks, tries to save a friend from suicide and things like that. The book was one of the most insightful books I have ever read. I would love to re-read it now and see how I would feel about it.

I used to believe that if you make your own decisions you should have no regrets and that even if you think you made a mistake you should be proud of it, make it right and move on. I remember having this discussion when I was 23 with someone at work who was 10 years older and he said that he used to think so too and that when you get older you do have regrets even if they are small ones or trivial ones. I think now I sort of agree but I still think that if you hold yourself accountable for your decisions you should not have many regrets just perhaps nostalgia for what should or could have been.

“Regret for the things we did can be tempered by time; it is regret for the things we did not do that is inconsolable.” Harris, Sidney J.

Would you want a do over? What would you redo? Would it be worth the risk?

Hypothetical Question: #2 organ transplant

After my first hypothetical question, I felt that what if the situation was switched. What if (Allah la ye2adar) you were the one needing a transplant. Could you accept a kidney from a loved one, knowing that the organ might get rejected? You could be jeapordizing their health too? You would need lots of medical attention for the rest of your life?

Hypothetical question: organ transplants.

This is a purely hypothetical question and is not based on any current (Allah la ye2adar) events. If you could donate an organ like a kidney to your mom, dad, spouse, child, sibling or best friend; would you? I say kidney because my assumption is that you are not dead, you have two of them and you really only need one and you can make that decision while you are alive. Would you choose to give them a couple of years/months more for them to live? If you are already dead then this question does not apply, but do you have the ability to let go of your own kidney just to try to help someone else? And the bigger question is, could you do that knowing that the organ might be rejected and you would have lost a kidney in vain? your special person would have to go through the rest of their life on medication to prevent the rejection of that organ, they would always have low immunity and other general unpleasantness?

Which is more merciful? To help them enjoy what is left as much as possible or to give them more time but one that might not be as enjoyable?

If you were a soft drink what would you be?

Question number two from the crazy questions series. If you were a soft drink what would you be? What fizzy drink or non-fizzy drink is the most like you? Personally I used to say I was a Diet Pepsi ( I hate Coke) but recently with the new Pepsi Max, I think I am a mix of both, fizzy and it sort of bites. And yes Pepsi should only be drunk out of the can straight from the fridge with no straw to kill the fuzziness.

So, what drink do you think you are?