there  could  be  snakes  in  here

Question was " What would the world be like if everyone was like you ?" People took a couple of very different scenarios from that: either physical identity (a world of clones, body and mind) or philosophical identity (a world in which everyone shared your values) or both (because of confusion between those two, or some mind-body identity intuition), or even neither (because focussing on behaviour only). One friend asked if Uma Thurman would have a beard like him, a line of inquiry which got obscene very quickly. Most people assumed that 7 billion people would morph overnight, and that the great new Them would have to deal with the world as it is currently (scarcity, egotism, path dependency, cognitive bias), rather than bending any other variables to make e.g. perfect uniform social justice possible. The intuition pump was for people to report the things they see as essential about themselves. (Can someone have your exact values or personality without also having y...

(c) Olafur Eliasson (2010), Your uncertain shadow I sent out another one of those round-robins  with which I fish for large identity statements from my friends. This time: " if you were a computer game, what computer game would you be? " I meant the question metaphorically ("what game has features, broadly construed, that you also have?") but people took it literally ("what game world would you like to be in?") as often. Making this latter interpretation is itself a Statement of sorts. CR: "On a good day, Grand Theft Auto - popular because fun to mess around with, but equally if not more more rewarding when engaged with more deeply. On a bad day, Metal Gear Solid - pretentious, talks too much." [Metaphorical, and received within 5mins of my sending the challenge.] RM: " Haze. Never great, never popular, pseudo-intelligent, made by better people capable of great things. Desperately trying to escape its British origins. Not qui...

Eric Smith (2007) If, in some cataclysm, all of scientific knowledge were to be destroyed, and only one sentence passed on to the next generation of creatures, what statement would contain the most information in the fewest words? I believe it is the atomic hypothesis that all things are made of atoms - little particles that move around in perpetual motion, attracting each other when they are a little distance apart, but repelling on being squeezed into one another. In that one sentence, you will see, there is an enormous amount of information about the world, if just a little imagination and thinking are applied . - Richard Feynman Asked some mates what single piece of information they would pass on were all modern knowledge destroyed. Was hoping their answers would reveal something essential about them, but I did expect some trolling too - which can anyway also be essential. (JH: "Careful now that swan could break your arm".) CW: "Eat lots...

Ray Johnstone (2010), " Francis Bacon - Icon of the C20th " Recently asked friends what their favourite decade of the twentieth century is. Answers are varied and cannot fail to say things about us. Noughties (1900-1909) RH: The first one. Cos still optimism. SS: Early 1900s e.g: 1900-1910!!! The wild west was still vaguely wild but on the wind down!!! HW: 1903-1913. Few will pick 90s - we're too burned by hindsight. Teens CK1: Sassoon, Owen, Thomas, Rosenberg. Death of Enlightenment scientism. Twenties RM: I had a dream once I was brass player in 1920s-type town with trams. I was in a café when I suddenly felt a strong pull to run. So I ran outside - the light fell softly and air was pleasantly cool. I saw a streetcar pull away in front of me and felt an immense melancholy as a result. I fell on my knees and cried, a trumpet in my hands. Based on this I would go 20s. AS: 20s! What style, no? Class was not dead. AK: Jazz Age. JC: 20s. Why? Me: I think it's a nice, ind...