If given free reign with a person of similar interests/background/sense of humor/etc., what conversation topics would be most likely to come up?
That question randomly popped into my head because Emily, a graduate student in philosophy, remarked how she always found herself having to inform people that their ideas for a perpetual motion machine wouldn’t work.1
It occurred to me that I have some recurrent conversation topics. Like, a lot. Hypotheticals are one of them. A colleague recently accused me of always asking about a ‘Fake World.’ And my Fake World is always populated by:
- Time travel
- Wishes with trade offs
- Radical changes to wealth/safety/circumstance
- Minor super powers
- Massive political and social changes, executable on a whim.
After Emily inspired this train of thought, I tried asking the same question to someone else who was nearby. Her response:
“Well, me and Emily always find ourselves complaining about the patriarchy.”
… Okay, then.
- Apparently, among Canadians with limited educations in Emily’s home town, the combination of bathtubs of water and magnets can solve the world’s energy needs. [↩]
I have woke up a few times in the ambulance myself with a little bladder problem. Always fun when you are on the small town fire department. It seems to come up as a topic of conversation when they visit me in the hospital. I even woke up with painted toenails. Always nice to have friends haul you to the hospital. Hazeing and razzing is one of my side effects.