memes propagate themselves in the meme pool by leaping from brain to brain

1. Would you be happier with more control over what happens in your life or more control over your response to what happens? How could you gain more such control? 

    this makes me laugh, a little ruefully. I've been accused, alternately, of trying to exercise too much control over what happens in my life ("being a perfectionist") and also over my response to what happens (internalizing, withholding, codependent).

    I suppose that I wish that my wishes were truth. Having my own way, or at least not feeling so stifled by things happening to me, about which I seem to have no say. Maybe that would mean controlling the stuff that's happening, and maybe about controlling the reactions to what's outside my control?

2. If, without being detected, you could spy electronically for the next month and watch anyone, anywhere, anytime like a fly on a wall, would you? If so, who would you watch and how closely? If not, why not? 

    ahhhhhhh, no. What goes around, comes around. I'd love to have access to certain things, like which stock to buy or lottery numbers to choose, or even the fastest and least yappy grocery store checkout. But, people? That's contrary to my introversion, the desire for non-interaction, the strong wish to be left alone. Anyway, I hate to imagine falling victim to that sort of thing, and have to assume that if it were possible for me (and if I opened the door by using it), then it would necessarily come back to haunt me. Yuck.

3. If someone threw a party for you and invited everyone who ever mattered to you, who would you be most excited about seeing? What would make you the most anxious?

    Most excited: Andrew, a high school friend. We lost touch many years ago, but I still think of him so often.

    Most anxious: not a specific person but the interplay among the people present. Some who still mean a lot to me are in that category because they know my secrets—and that knowledge, combined with some of their other traits, would make them none too pleased with some of the others about whom I have cared in the past but who have (thank God) since gone.

4. If you were on a jury, would you be able to convict a person for something you didn't think should be considered a crime? 

    Yep. It's not about me and my feelings, but rather about applying a rule to a set of circumstances. If I feel strongly about something, and think it ought not to be criminal, there are other avenues for me to express that.

5. Do you feel comfortable going to dinner or movies alone? Would you rather be by yourself in such a situation or with someone you only marginally enjoy? 

   absolutely comfortable with it. In fact, I've found that I get noticeably better service when dining alone vs. with others—though that depends on the sort of restaurant. In very nice restaurants, single diners are sneered at because they're "wasting" a potentially more lucrative table. The middle 60%, though, seem to treat someone by themselves a bit better than they would otherwise. I like the very different feeling that one gets, about the food and the experience, when not doing it as much for the company. 

    I don't love going to the movies anyway, so it's not something I seek out. I would, though, be totally comfortable going alone.

    Would I rather be by myself than with someone I only marginally enjoy? Hell, yes. Why spend time with someone "marginal" anyway?

6. You're on an airplane talking pleasantly to a stranger of average appearance. Unexpectedly, the person offers you $30,000 for one night of sex. If you knew there were no danger and you'd get the money, would you do it? If the payment were meaningfully raised or lowered, at what point would you change your answer? 

    I do not think that I would, and my reasons are solely a matter of logic.

        Is this person attractive, sufficient to make said night possible?

            If no, then No, because I'm not having sex with someone who is unattractive, whether for free or $30,000 or $3,000,000,000.

            If yes, then, why is this attractive person wanting to buy sex for $30,000? Are they super rich, lazy, terrible in bed? Demanding in ... ways that shall not be elucidated here? Why in the Hell was I talking pleasantly with them? How was the offer broached? Theoretically, an attractive person wouldn't need to spend that much for gratification. Is the money part of their "thing"?

    The amount of money being "meaningfully" raised or lowered would not affect my analysis. 

7. How would you react if you learned that a sad and beautiful poem that touched you deeply had been written by a computer? 

    it would make me like the poem less, for sure. Poetry resonates because it is so personal to the poet, and then becomes personal to me. That personal nature paradoxically illustrates "what it means to be human" and going through stuff that we all experience but very few of us can put into words. Beauty, truth, grief, silliness, unrequited ... everything. If a machine is popping out imitations of that because of an algorithm, it perverts the whole concept of expression. 

    For what it's worth, I feel the same about AI-generated "art" or "music." It is grotesque.

 

[from The Book of Questions; the title quotation is by Richard Dawkins, from The Selfish Gene]