SciFi and Fantasy Book Club discussion

I dunno about you, but I have these nerd debates not infrequently. Please feel free to post your own (but let's keep it PG please!)

Here's my first.

Would you rather live in a world with magic and quests but no electricity or running water, OR live in a future where everything was provided to you but the differences between person and machine were so slight that you were always tracked and hackable?

Magic and quests 1000%

Would you rather live on Roshar (Stormlight Archive) and be Stormblessed or on Scadrial and be Mistborn?

Allison wrote: "Would you rather live in a world with magic and quests but no electricity or running water, OR live in a future where everything was provided to you but the differences between person and machine were so slight that you were always tracked and hackable?"

We already live in something pretty close to that second option, so I guess I'd go fantasy just for a change of pace.

I choose the modern conveniences of the future.

Allison wrote: "Would you rather live in a world with magic and quests but no electricity or running water, OR live in a future where everything was provided to you but the differences between person and machine were so slight that you were always tracked and hackable?"

My ultimate dream is to be a brain in a jar, or preferably just a consciousness in a net, so this one is easy. Track me all you want, as long as I don't have to deal with the squishy human bits!

People aren't that great. I vote for machine world.

Mason wrote: "Would you rather live on Roshar (Stormlight Archive) and be Stormblessed or on Scadrial and be Mistborn?"

Roshar a million times!

Anna wrote: "My ultimate dream is to be a brain in a jar"

Lmao...

Mason wrote: "Would you rather live on Roshar (Stormlight Archive) and be Stormblessed or on Scadrial and be Mistborn?"

Mistborn

Future for sure, how are you supposed to read your kindle books without electricity? Consciousness in a net! I am down with that.

I chose future. Then, I’ll use the holodeck (or equivalent) to create a magic world to play in. When I bore of it, I’ll take my shower in the future and let big brother watch and log it all in his file on me.

Allison wrote: "I dunno about you, but I have these nerd debates not infrequently. Please feel free to post your own (but let's keep it PG please!)

Here's my first.

Would you rather live in a world with magic an..."

Magic, running water is easy to come by. Water Falls are us.

Hank wrote: "Future for sure, how are you supposed to read your kindle books without electricity? Consciousness in a net! I am down with that."

Pretty much my exact thoughts! I'm not really worried about being tracked. I'm pretty boring. The agent assigned to me would either fall asleep, or be concerned about how much time I spend looking up random Fandom things on Pinterest. Maybe my agent will become a Supernatural fan!

Aha, but you could also be hacked! You could be, like, the Terminator, except not realize it!

I plan on being the hacker, my new hero is the Clockmaker from The Prefect without the whole attaching bombs to someone's neck thing.

Hank wrote: "I plan on being the hacker, my new hero is the Clockmaker from The Prefect without the whole attaching bombs to someone's neck thing."

It's good to have goals. Haha!

Maaaaaagic!

Mason wrote: "Magic and quests 1000%"

You died of dysentery, age 14.

Skynet for me, please.

Magic and quests! I don't want to be hacked, and magic can easily make up for a lot of things we do with technology.

All the magic, all the time. Add a droplet for some elf or dwarf made steel and I'm all in.

Fun topic. :) Magic and quests sound cooler at first but, realistically speaking, I’m a programmer with minimal real-life skills suitable for quests. Also, there are a lot of painful ways to die if one is a victim of magic.

So I’ll go with the future setting, because I would more likely be a productive member of society and my skill set would be a little better suited to learning to protect myself from the modern dangers of tracking and hacking, to whatever extent I decided to be worried about that.

Would you rather have any one question you asked answered fully and truthfully by an omniscient entity OR the ability to make any changes you wanted to your reality for 24 hours?

Allison wrote: "Would you rather have any one question you asked answered fully and truthfully by an omniscient entity OR the ability to make any changes you wanted to your reality for 24 hours?"

Would the changes be permanent? Like if I changed my house, would it stay changed? If so, I'd love that. I can make a lot of changes in 24 hours!

If not, then definitely the question. But I would want it recorded so I could broadcast whatever I learned. The world could really use some better information. Especially these days.

Kristin B. wrote: "Allison wrote: "Would you rather have any one question you asked answered fully and truthfully by an omniscient entity OR the ability to make any changes you wanted to your reality for 24 hours?"

..."

Just 24 hours! Then reality resets.

Allison wrote: "Just 24 hours! Then reality resets.
..."

Yeah, I'll take permanent knowledge over temporary joy any day. :)

Allison wrote: "Would you rather have any one question you asked answered fully and truthfully by an omniscient entity OR the ability to make any changes you wanted to your reality for 24 hours?"

I'd probably want the question, but I'd have to figure out what to ask first.

I would live with 100 cats for 24 hours.

Allison wrote: "Would you rather have any one question you asked answered fully and truthfully by an omniscient entity OR the ability to make any changes you wanted to your reality for 24 hours?"

I know the answer is 42 so I'll pick the later.

Definitely the question.

If I could change reality for 24 hours and those changes stayed, then I'd pick that, but if it's temporary... seems pointless.

Allison wrote: "Would you rather have any one question you asked answered fully and truthfully by an omniscient entity OR the ability to make any changes you wanted to your reality for 24 hours?"

I would change the entire world so everyone could get a taste of what it would be like if we weren’t petty and selfish. When it changed back, it might inspire enough people to effect real changes in the world.

That would benefit the most people.

Allison wrote: "Would you rather have any one question you asked answered fully and truthfully by an omniscient entity OR the ability to make any changes you wanted to your reality for 24 hours?"

Oh I like the ability to make changes to my reality.

I need my running water and electricity, so the future it is with me. I imagine my past selves (?) before the mid 20th century were probably terrible for their times 😅.

Would you rather have a prehensile tail but no opposable thumb or have to sleep 14 hours a day but have heightened senses?

Would ALL my senses be heightened? I guess it might be worth smelling everything for a guaranteed 14 hours of sleep.

Yes, all senses! Possibly even the sixth sense.

Allison wrote: "Would you rather have a prehensile tail but no opposable thumb or have to sleep 14 hours a day but have heightened senses?"

the latter sounds like a cat

CBRetriever wrote: "Allison wrote: "Would you rather have a prehensile tail but no opposable thumb or have to sleep 14 hours a day but have heightened senses?"

the latter sounds like a cat"

I may have had a muse ;-)

and 14 hours might be a bit short of normal adult sleep time for cats

CBRetriever wrote: "and 14 hours might be a bit short of normal adult sleep time for cats"

I took the average. I was going to say 18 based on my lazy bums, but the internet informs me that's extra lazy, even for a cat. (And before anyone gets concerned, they are very happy, healthy animals, just incredibly lazy!)

So, which would you rather?

(Funny anecdote, I initially said tail, no thumbs. My spouse told me there was no way I could live without thumbs. So I tried to prove him wrong by picking up my sandwich without thumbs. It promptly exploded and I almost lodged an entire avocado in my lung I started laughing so hard.

"See? You can't go 10 seconds without thumbs without dying," he said, sort of amazed, sort of sad. Probably because he has a partner that can't get through a meal without a near-disaster.)

14 hours of sleep every time....sounds like weekends as a teenager. As long as I don’t have a teenager and have to go into their room and smell it. You’d need 14 hours of uninterrupted sleep to recover from the sensory overload.

I’m currently getting very little sleep and I’m always exhausted. Old menopausal women don’t sleep much.

Allison wrote: "Would you rather have a prehensile tail but no opposable thumb or have to sleep 14 hours a day but have heightened senses?"

I’d rather have whatever drugs you’re on.

Trike wrote: "Allison wrote: "Would you rather have a prehensile tail but no opposable thumb or have to sleep 14 hours a day but have heightened senses?"

I’d rather have whatever drugs you’re on."

Claritin for everyone!!!

Allison wrote: "Would you rather have a prehensile tail but no opposable thumb or have to sleep 14 hours a day but have heightened senses?"

This is a tough one. Because I'm at work 9 hours a day. Add in travel time and 14 hours of sleep and my day is over. Unless my heightened senses gets me a job that I can make a lot more money in a lot less time, then my day is shot. (Plus my husband and my boy-child can be pretty stinky. A better sense of smell may not be in my best interest.)

On the other hand, I like my thumbs. (Well, I like them on both hands actually.) But since I mostly read on a kindle I think I could do that without thumbs. My job is mostly on a computer and I really only need thumbs for the space bar. With the prehensile tail I can carry in extra groceries. And really, it's all about making less trips after shopping. I think I'd go with losing the thumbs and gaining a tail. (I'd have to make my husband alter all my pants. Because, you know, no thumbs for sewing.)

Allison wrote: "(Funny anecdote, I initially said tail, no thumbs. My spouse told me there was no way I could live without thumbs. So I tried to prove him wrong by picking up my sandwich without thumbs. It promptl..."

I am typing this without tumbs. First I almost flagged your comment trying to reply. Then I mispelled just about every word. It took me 1p minutes. I,mm going with sleepy extra sen see s

Having sliced a chunk off the thumb of my dominant hand and been unable to use it for a month, I can tell you that it's very possible to adjust to not having a thumb. It actually took me a little while to get used to using it again after that. I typed this pretty easily without using either thumb. I'd want more hours in my day.

Cut the sandwich in half and use both hands to hold it. It takes some patience to relearn the ways you think about basic actions as well as learning to preform those movements. And time for your hands to adjust to being used in unfamiliar ways.

There is almost nothing for which I'd be willing to give up another 7 hours of my day. I already feel like there aren’t enough hours. I might do it in exchange for the ability to manipulate time, or for super speed, or for something that would compensate for the lost hours, but not for heightened senses which in itself would have both advantages and disadvantages. Imagine how much more a stubbed toe or a papercut would hurt, much less a serious injury. How much more miserable would even a cold or a headache be? I’m already a light sleeper, so how would I manage my required 14 hours of sleep a day with heightened hearing?

So I’ll have to go for the prehensile tail with lost thumb(s) as the lesser of the two evils, since at least the tail could be used to compensate for the thumbs. I’d prefer to pick “none of the above”, though! What kind of sadistic choice is this? ;)

Funny, when I think of having heightened senses, I think of all the things I tune out that I wouldn't want to be tuned in to. Do I really need a better whiff of the catbox down the hall? Do I really want to hear the beetle skittering across the patio? My eyesight isn't great, so heightened vision would be cool.

When I taught 5th grade, we did an activity in which the students had to tape down both thumbs and then try to do various tasks (to gain an understanding and appreciation of our wonderfully amazing skeletal system). Some kids are very competitive, and they found ways to do the tasks without thumbs. And most of them didn't even have tails to compensate.

That being said, I vote no thumbs and tail. Now if you'll excuse me, I have a banana to peel.