Answer truthfully

The birth of the universe (big bang)! It would be terribly difficult to witness as the light reaching your eye is traveling at a constant speed and spacetime would be rapidly inflating all around you but a boy can dream. Barring that ... damn you're really making me think let's see ... soo many things take too long to be considered an event. I really desperately want to see how language developed through the medium of people but that was over a long period of time.

I would love to see Einstein or Newton during some of their eureka moments although there wouldn't be any fireworks so it would be visually boring. The assassination of Julius Caesar would be exciting and you could check out Rome in all its glory at the same time. Ancient Greece and Egypt would be on my short-list of locales. There are plenty of ancient battles that would be intensely entertaining. The signing of The Declaration of Independence, and the Magna Carta, and Hammurabi writing his code all come to mind. The "first" time Neanderthals met Homo Sapiens would be very interesting. If you're looking for one answer I gotta go with my first one, albeit impossible due to our cursed physical limitations. I'm sure I missed a bunch of good stuff but the topic covers a fair amount of material ... all of it, lol.

If you could slap anyone in the entire world living today, who would it be?

 

That's tough. I can't think of anyone that I really want to slap. I mean, there are groups. I'll just go with all the people who look at everything as a sin and look down on people.

Do you believe in fate, free will or something else altogether?

 

Free will is just something spoken about in order to understand the staggering array of possible consequences that can arise based on decisions we make trillions of times every single day. We live in a vast sea of variables and we're totally adrift apart from our precious frontal lobes which allow us to predict far into the future thereby allowing us to make "choices" continually progressing in complexity and utility.

I don't believe in fate in terms of a plan specifically designed for any individual. I don't believe in any supreme being with knowledge of everything past present and future. I do take that concept though, and apply it to the thought experiment of Laplace's Demon.

If there were an entity that knew the location, direction, and velocity of every single molecule and force in the universe, the most elaborate super computer ever conceived perhaps, I think that that entity could predict events as far into the future as the computational power of the machine would allow. So in that way I think the future is just as linear as the past. The past happened one exact way, and based on the physical structure of everything on or near earth, the future of earth will happen one exact way. The seven pounds of grey matter inside my skull (with the help of electrical and chemical signals) can comprehend this and accept it.

I still function much better if I am alert and actively attempting to seek pleasure and set myself up for a more pleasurable future. I'm not totally resigned to the fact that things will happen a certain way and I can't change them. I can't change the fact that I've spent this much time writing about the same subject that I've already spent hours upon hours wrestling with. I can change the fact that I'm currently writing about the same subject that I've already spent hours upon hours wrestling with (welcome to my present), but it gives me pleasure somehow, I guess because in the future I will be happy that I have a more accurate understanding of the way living things go about living. I get giddy every once in a while about feeling fulfilled by quenching my thirst for knowledge.

This line of thinking raises some really serious moral questions, particularly with respect to criminals' punishment. So many people are dealt a raw hand, and some unspeakably complex set of circumstances leads to them doing something that harms other people, or hurts society as a whole. They make miscalculations and often end up spending significant portions of their lives behind bars because of it. Each one individually had more control over his or her actions than any other party or outside influence, we know he or she is the one who made a mistake and could of acted differently, and so we say they are to blame.

I'm sure punishments deter criminals and they must be enforced perpetually in order to ensure that the greater good prevails, but I can't justify what happens to any given individual on a case by case basis if they were born to a poor family in the inner city and I was born to an affluent family in the suburbs. Determinism dictates that they had no choice in the matter, Pragmatism has us programmed to ignore this minor inconvenience in order for society to function optimally. The greater good is served.

So essentially I believe in directionless fate, but I realize that acting like free will exists seems to provide me with more motivation on a moment to moment basis. Sorry for rambling, thanks if you finished reading.

 

That's right ... a question.

Do I come off more insightful or insane?

 

If it helps you make your life better and happier, you are insightful.
If you spend the rest of your life obsessing, but are never able to move forward because of it, insane.
Straddling the fence here.


If you could put someone into someone else's shoes for one day, which two people would you choose and why?

 

I would put [insert Muslim religious authority here] in [insert average Muslim woman here]'s shoes and be satisfied by the look of horror spreading across their face as they realize the way their faith has been subjugating 50% of their population for centuries.

How many different countries have you been to?

 

a little over 50....

what is the furthest distance you have ever walked....

 

That's funny I thought of that question right before the country one.

Probably 4 or 5 miles ... pushing a bike ... with a flat tire ... not fun at all.

Under what conditions does someone visit 50+ countries in a lifetime?

 

in my case it was with uncle sam in the AF......

what is the furthest distance you have traveled from home?....

 

Maybe 1200 miles, up north to Canada, as far south as The Bahamas. Not really any east - west action at all strangely enough.

Did Uncle Sam ever touch you in a naughty place?

 

no but he made me wear funny lookin green clothes all the time...

Whats the highest elevation you've ever been on a mountain.....

 

What a dick!

I'm not completely sure, I've been in the Appalachians briefly. Maybe a thousand feet.

What's the longest you've gone without sleep?

 

3 days

What's your favorite sport to play/watch?

 

to watch..hockey...it was also my fave to play growin up but now i groove on road hockey with my grandson[1]i used to play highly competitive junior hockey when i was a kid with parents fightin and shit...this one time[at band camp]i was coachin this team of 11 year olds and we had this kid that was by far the best player in the league....he was turkish and his father was always yelling in turkish nonstop when his kid was on the ice...the kid later told us that his dad was yellin instructions to him,tellin him which kids to pass to,or not pass to,also which kids to try and 'take out'; with a well placed hip check..

yert,thank-you for not leavin me a yes and no answer,evil totem poles and deep thoughts on destiny and free will,cool....

do you have fake id

 

Much love man!

No fake ID, I'm at that special place where I have all the legal permission I need from the government and the only thing left to do is slowly decline into old age for the next century or so.

What's the strangest thing you've ever eaten?

 

around 14,000 in the mountains in Colorado....

Do you remember what you did yesterday?:toetap05:

 

Course father's day with pops and sis. Ping pong, poker, pizza, pool, soccer, rummy, alcohol (no weed good memory) good times.

Ever been caught masturbating vigorously?

 

no cant say that I have,,,which is surprising

where is the craziest place you ever had sex

 

hmm on the couch, into the floor. it was mucho funo

Where would you want to have sex if you could choose, anywhere or on anything

 

On a running Hog (Harley Davidson) ~>

NOT moving,

just purring...

Do you enjoy casino games?