What If Questions

What if there was a way to feed knowledge into our brains without having the learn?

You could look at the scenery or just think.

Like the Hypno-Oven or whatever in The Stars My Destination?

Gah! my quote thing didn't work. On the first one I was replying to Andrea's comment on how we don't get intellectually stimulated while walking. The second was a reply to Derek.
Sorry

Quote :

Our society has gotten so fast paced that spare time becomes wasted time. So maybe it all depends on perspective.

Wow, I totally agree with your point here. I'm probably another example of this fact as well. I always have *something* to do, and when I don't, I honestly don't know what to do with myself. And then I feel awful about wasting time that I don't have, and I force myself to do something productive. It's kind of scary that I can never let myself "relax" from living in such a frantic and fast-paced fashion.

It is not healthy to live this way. It takes a toll after a while. About a month ago I spent a whole morning sitting on Venice beach watching the waves come in. It seems like that would be boring, but it wasn't. Everyone should do something like that periodically. Don't read. Get away from advertising. Just watch something natural, big or small, and don't think either. Just experience. Let the language processing circuits rest.

John Edlund

I don't know if anyone's noticed, but Sarah does that. She sits and watches the wind in the pepper trees and the shadows they cast on the street. Trust me, it's not common to do that. I feel bad about writing that part in for Sarah's character so early though. I feels wrong to insist Sarah is thoughtful just by writing that short bit. It's like she hasn't earned it yet.

So anyway... I don't think many of us have much free time in the first place (I definitely have free time). Get some free time before you go off and stare into the blue sky and the blurry flecks of stuff floating inside your eyeballs.

TheDirector wrote:

It is not healthy to live this way. It takes a toll after a while. About a month ago I spent a whole morning sitting on Venice beach watching the waves come in. It seems like that would be boring, but it wasn't. Everyone should do something like that periodically. Don't read. Get away from advertising. Just watch something natural, big or small, and don't think either. Just experience. Let the language processing circuits rest.

I have to agree with you Professor. I feel that we get so focused on our own little worlds that we fail to stop and look at the little things such as the waves crashing on the beach or the clouds drifting by. We all need that escape from our fast-paced, instant gratification lives and just relax. Boredom is caused by the need for instant results and if we don't get them we move to something else. So if we can just learn to relax, boredom wouldn't be as big of an issue.

What if males could get pregnant without assistance from science?

I like how none of our what if questions ever came to narrative fruition =P unless I missed something.

Still got some pretty good stories on the other thread though.

Derek wrote:

What if males could get pregnant without assistance from science?

isn't that kind of like what happens in that one Ursula K LeGuin book Professor Edlund made the handout in the first class from? The Left Hand of Darkness?

Well, it's androgenous people turning into either a male or female at certain times of the month so they could get pregnant, but close enough, right?

Hmm...If males could get pregnant, where would the baby come out of? Cause if it's you-know-where, then it could get pretty ugly and very paingul. Or maybe they would just do C-sections. With all these hormones we're consuming in our food and the chemicals we're coming into contact with every day, who knows what could happen?

Ooh! What if you could get yourself pregnant--self-insemination? That would be totally messed up!

spleahy wrote:

TheDirector wrote:

It is not healthy to live this way. It takes a toll after a while. About a month ago I spent a whole morning sitting on Venice beach watching the waves come in. It seems like that would be boring, but it wasn't. Everyone should do something like that periodically. Don't read. Get away from advertising. Just watch something natural, big or small, and don't think either. Just experience. Let the language processing circuits rest.

I have to agree with you Professor. I feel that we get so focused on our own little worlds that we fail to stop and look at the little things such as the waves crashing on the beach or the clouds drifting by. We all need that escape from our fast-paced, instant gratification lives and just relax. Boredom is caused by the need for instant results and if we don't get them we move to something else. So if we can just learn to relax, boredom wouldn't be as big of an issue.

What if we were programmed to relax? What if we were FORCED to take a vacation? It would become part of law that we would have to take a break and do absolutely nothing away from the rest of the busy world.

aitokunaga wrote:

Ooh! What if you could get yourself pregnant--self-insemination? That would be totally messed up!

That would be weird... What would the purpose be? If it's just to reproduce, what if we could reproduce without having to be pregnant?

Wouldn't it be weird if we could order our offspring as if they were items in a Subway sandwich selected through an electronic kiosk?

Check out the Phantom Dust Story also under (separate thread).

Like Wind, says, these ideas never become stories it seems. That's okay. It's cool to putz around with things like this.

emmanalo wrote:

Wouldn't it be weird if we could order our offspring as if they were items in a Subway sandwich selected through an electronic kiosk?

That sounds like Gattaca, where parents choose what kind of child they want, the children are all genetically perfect, and "love children" are like the Untouchables.

just for the hell of it since class is over...

what if there was an epidemic affecting sci-fi script writers all over the world that gave them incurable writers' block? what if those script writers disguised themselves as college English professors, taught SF classes, and coaxed bright young minds to post what if questions in a forum unknowingly developing story lines of future movies???

That's kind of accusing Dr. Edlund of taking all of our finals and making movies out of them without our permission. I wouldn't go so far as to call myself a "bright young mind" either. After all, Dr. Edlund can't make a movie out of my story because I didn't finish it in time and had to give him a summary. Summaries just don't cut it.

No epidemics spread visually please...I like my creative process the way it is thanks.

Sorry if that offended; it was merely a joke.

What if we could genetically engineer humans with animal traits. It would be as simple as going to the doctor and getting spots or a tail. Similar to plastic surgery

emmanalo wrote:

Sorry if that offended; it was merely a joke.

lol. Um, actually, erin, I think Multi was joking around with you xD

and I slightly agree with you. Hard to trust anyone these days.

*suspicious glare*

djhull wrote:

What if we could genetically engineer humans with animal traits. It would be as simple as going to the doctor and getting spots or a tail. Similar to plastic surgery

Forget spots and tails. I want wings!

Although truthfully I don't really need them ;D

emmanalo wrote:

Sorry if that offended; it was merely a joke.

Wind's right, I was joking around with you. Don't worry about it.

Alice, in Second Life, if you want a new body part, you got to buy it or build it yourself.

To tell the truth, I have never written a screenplay. However, with all of these cool ideas here . . .

John Edlund

Wind wrote:

djhull wrote:

What if we could genetically engineer humans with animal traits. It would be as simple as going to the doctor and getting spots or a tail. Similar to plastic surgery

Forget spots and tails. I want wings!

Although truthfully I don't really need them ;D

There's a story in our VoW book like that. I just skimmed over it but it had something to do with a character that does gene therapy to like a reptile or something to that effect. It's near the beginning of the book.

Wind wrote:

djhull wrote:

What if we could genetically engineer humans with animal traits. It would be as simple as going to the doctor and getting spots or a tail. Similar to plastic surgery

Forget spots and tails. I want wings!

Although truthfully I don't really need them ;D

I'd take gills so I could breathe underwater. I'd have them somehow adjusted to air.

Or, I'd have that light thingy go off my forehead like the deep sea fish.