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Old 08-31-2009, 07:24 PM   #2821
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1. Do you ever find yourself liking a work of art less if its creator holds views you find offensive?
2. Do you ever find yourself concerned that a view you hold might offend someone?
3. Do you ever find yourself concerned that someone might have the wrong idea about a view you hold and will feel offended when they probably shouldn't?
  1. Yes
  2. No
  3. Not anymore
  1. Have you ever heard a piece of recorded music that caused you to want to throw your instruments into the ocean?
  2. Can you still hear music that gives you inspiration to play better?
  3. Do you still possess the ability to cry at beautiful musical passages?
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Old 09-01-2009, 01:03 AM   #2822
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  1. No, I can't say I have. I'm unclear on whether you feel that way because you're jealous or because you're so disappointed.
  2. Every piece of music gives me inspiration to play better. Usually right after I listen to a piece of music, I run straight to the piano and improvise something crazy.
  3. Sure.

============================================

  1. How much of your personality can be explained through stories of your childhood?
  2. What aspects of yourself can't?
  3. How similar are you to your parents?
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Old 09-01-2009, 01:05 PM   #2823
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1. Most of it. I've come to think of myself as some kind of heroic underdog anti-hero archetype, and find myself allying with others who feel the same, mainly because I was treated badly by my peers as a young child.
2. I didn't like loud noises when I was little, but primarily play loud brass instruments today... what's up with that?
3. Similar enough that you'd quickly be able to tell they're my parents.

***

1. Do you believe there's such a thing as "human nature", and if so, what is it?
2. Do you make as much, less, or more money compared to your parents?
3. Have you ever had someone sing to you?
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Old 09-01-2009, 04:04 PM   #2824
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1. There are two sides to human nature. They sometimes conflict with each other, but neither one is in itself hard to understand.

First, you're trying to satisfy your body. So you'd like to get yourself into situations where you won't be hungry, where you're sitting comfortably, where you don't have to exert yourself. The important thing is comfort. Also, you'd like to see things that please your eye, and hear things that please your ear, and all that. You try to construct a model of behavior that'll keep you happy on this basic level.

Second, you're trying to find opportunities. Opportunities to talk, opportunities to think, opportunities to act. Anything that gets you the opportunity to do something is perceived as good, and anything that takes away opportunities to do things is seen as bad. The point of doing one action is to then be presented with two possible actions as a result. When you don't have opportunities, you try to get some. When you have opportunities, you make every effort to preserve them and then try to get more.

I truly believe that almost all human behavior is the result of these two basic patterns.


2. I don't make money.


3. Um, what? What does that mean? Like, if I was a baby once and family members sang me lullabies to get me to sleep, is that what you're talking about? I find it hard to believe that there's anyone who's never had anyone sing to them. Or are you speaking of a particular kind of song, like a love song or something? If you clarify your question, I'll clarify my answer.



===========================================
  1. What is the most distant relative you have that you're close to?
  2. What is the closest relative you have that you're distant from?
  3. Imagine the worst relative you could possibly have. (Not a real person, of course.) What would he or she be like?
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Old 09-01-2009, 05:08 PM   #2825
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  1. What is the most distant relative you have that you're close to?
  2. What is the closest relative you have that you're distant from?
  3. Imagine the worst relative you could possibly have. (Not a real person, of course.) What would he or she be like?
1. My sisters in Illinois.

2. My brother (who is a physicist and works at JPL at Caltech), just 5 minutes from me. We love each other but don't really bond like you see in the movies (ethnic families can be this way).

3. H/She would be the amalgamation of all the worst traits of everyone in my family, including me.

----------------------

1. What do you think of Imogen Heap's new album, Ellipse?
2. Name at least one musician who you would take with you on a stroll in your neighbourhood (via MP3 player) or a jaunt through town.
3. Name a track in your music library that you hadn't listened to in the longest time.
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Old 09-18-2009, 01:34 PM   #2826
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Originally Posted by Intrepid Homoludens View Post
1. What do you think of Imogen Heap's new album, Ellipse?
2. Name at least one musician who you would take with you on a stroll in your neighbourhood (via MP3 player) or a jaunt through town.
3. Name a track in your music library that you hadn't listened to in the longest time.
1. I haven't heard it. I have two songs by miss Heap and that's enough for me.
2. Squinky or Trumgottist.
3. 'Common People' by Paul Young.

-_-_-_-_-_-

1. Why do people fear death?
2. Where does fantasy come from?
3. How do you know you are self-conscious?
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Old 09-18-2009, 03:36 PM   #2827
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1. Probably some kind of evolutionary survival mechanism.
2. Imagination, which I believe is humanity's greatest strength.
3. Because, uh, I frequently get anxious about saying or doing the right thing in front of other people?

***

1. Do you think it will ever be possible for humans to fall in love with artificial intelligences (as seen in this xkcd)?
2. Have you ever talked like a pirate on any day other than Talk Like A Pirate Day?
3. What's your favourite Python sketch?
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Old 09-19-2009, 12:58 PM   #2828
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1. Do you think it will ever be possible for humans to fall in love with artificial intelligences (as seen in this xkcd)?
2. Have you ever talked like a pirate on any day other than Talk Like A Pirate Day?
3. What's your favourite Python sketch?
1. All my life people have been telling me that we can marry a robot within twenty years. So I guess we still have to wait a long time.

2. In fact it was yesterday. A friend of mine has a pirate curse generator on his iPhone and we had some fun with that.

3. I'm not a big Python fan but I liked the 'what have the Romans brought us?' scene from Life of Brian.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

1. Do you mend your clothes yourself if they are broken?

2. Do you like to dress to stand out, or do you rather blend into the background?

3. Do you like to give speeches for an audience?
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Old 09-21-2009, 02:18 PM   #2829
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1. No, I'm hopeless with sewing machines. The only part of home ec I enjoyed was cooking.
2. Blend in, generally, but I also like to have something amusing on my shirts to spark conversations. There are, however, many special occasions in which I like to wear a silly hat and/or a costume.
3. Absolutely. My favourite part is when everyone shows up in their underwear.

***

1. Do people find you humourous?
2. To what extent do you believe in your own sanity?
3. Have you ever refused to answer a question because you didn't like how said question was asked?
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Old 09-21-2009, 07:01 PM   #2830
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1. Yes, actually.
2. Hmm. Interesting question. To be honest, I don't really see myself as possessing any degree of sanity. I'm a logical, rational person, and I have the added bonus of compassion and a conscience, so that makes sanity irrelevant for me. Whatever amount I have hasn't affected my life so far.
3. No, because I'm a smartass and so would rather answer the question in a snarky way than avoid the question.

~~~

1. Why do I have an impulse to go trainsurfing every time a train goes by?
2. Why do I have no problems with things other people think are insane, like, as said above, trainsurfing?
3. After being in a sociology class, I have to ask, what is so fucked up with society?
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Old 09-21-2009, 07:13 PM   #2831
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Originally Posted by Giligan View Post
1. Why do I have an impulse to go trainsurfing every time a train goes by?
2. Why do I have no problems with things other people think are insane, like, as said above, trainsurfing?
3. After being in a sociology class, I have to ask, what is messed up with society?
1. Because you are an explorer, just like everybody else. You want to know what is where the train goes.
2. Because you haven't grown up yet. Most men don't ever grow up. Please don't ever grow up, because grown-up men are very scary.
3. I would rather ask WHY society is messed up the way it is.

---

1. Why is society messed up the way it is?
2. What do you think is the first step in improving our society?
3. Is society really more messed up than it used to be?
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Old 09-22-2009, 09:28 AM   #2832
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1. With all our growing scientific and technological advances, the world we live in has gotten (metaphorically) smaller, and as such, we're forced to deal with more people of different cultures and traditions than we did previously.
2. Learning to accept people who are different from us, and recognising our societal privilege -- chances are, if you can access this website, you have privilege of some sort -- and accepting responsibility for our actions.
3. Society was always messed up. It's just that now, due to the circumstances I mentioned above, we're forced to be aware of it.

***

1. What's bad about growing up?
2. What's good about growing up?
3. Do you think women are more pressured to grow up than men are, and if so, why/why not?
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Old 09-22-2009, 07:16 PM   #2833
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1. What's bad about growing up?
2. What's good about growing up?
3. Do you think women are more pressured to grow up than men are, and if so, why/why not?
  1. Nothing, as long as you don't lose your sense of wonder.
  2. Arguably, wisdom.
  3. I think so, but I'm not sure why. It may not be pressure, as much as it is fact that it happens in general, or at least it is due to expectations. In no small part, I think it may be the procreation and nurturing aspects of women's nature. But I'm no expert on the matter.
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  1. What aspect of your life now do you miss that you once enjoyed in childhood?
  2. Do you feel that relatively, wisdom came to your earlier than most, or were a slow-turner, to come to terms with realizations later in life than most?
  3. Do you have any problem IN GENERAL with the scientific concepts that child-bearing females are mostly the nurturing gender, while the male gender in suck relationships are still the dominating hunter-gatherers? (I have no doubts that this is shifting of late, but isn't it still the general case?)
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Old 09-23-2009, 04:09 AM   #2834
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  1. When I was little I'd get into pointless (physical) fights just for the sake of having fights. I found that exhilarating. (I was an angry kid.) I kind of miss that. I stopped when it got to the point of ganging up with my friends on an innocent victim, and we lost. I got a lot of much-needed humility that day.
  2. Well, that story was from when I was twelve, so I'd say I'm pretty slow at growing up. Right now I'm living at home with my parents with no job, and I'm 21. I'm not even sure what "wisdom" is yet.
  3. Yes, I absolutely do. And for the record, that's not a "scientific concept", it's a theory. Which I don't hold by. I believe that men and women are mentally exactly the same, and that all differences in behavior come from either physical differences or (more usually) differences in how they're treated by society. There's a huge discrepancy between how harshly we treat men, and how condescendingly we treat women. The theory of evolutionary roles is just propagating sexist stereotypes and should not be given legitimacy.

=================================================

  1. What skill of yours do you value least?
  2. What skill of yours do you value most?
  3. What was the last time someone surprised you with a skill you didn't expect of them?
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Old 09-23-2009, 10:05 AM   #2835
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Yes, I absolutely do. And for the record, that's not a "scientific concept", it's a theory. Which I don't hold by. I believe that men and women are mentally exactly the same, and that all differences in behavior come from either physical differences or (more usually) differences in how they're treated by society. There's a huge discrepancy between how harshly we treat men, and how condescendingly we treat women. The theory of evolutionary roles is just propagating sexist stereotypes and should not be given legitimacy.
Yes! This.

Quote:
Originally Posted by MoriartyL View Post
  1. What skill of yours do you value least?
  2. What skill of yours do you value most?
  3. What was the last time someone surprised you with a skill you didn't expect of them?
1. I try to value all of my skills to some degree, but I admit to being less partial to skills that almost everyone has, versus skills that make me more unique. For instance, I can cook, but so can many other people, and a significant number of those people are better at cooking than I am.
2. Game design, because I've dedicated my livelihood to it.
3. I still continue to express very pleasant surprise when a man demonstrates that he's in touch with his emotions.

***

1. How nurturing are you?
2. How dominant are you?
3. Do you think we, as a society, have much use for the concept that some people are "typical" and other people are "exceptions"?
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Old 09-23-2009, 12:49 PM   #2836
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1. How nurturing are you?
2. How dominant are you?
3. Do you think we, as a society, have much use for the concept that some people are "typical" and other people are "exceptions"?
1 & 2. I can only answer these questions together with Step's last question 3:
Quote:
Originally Posted by Stepsie
Do you have any problem IN GENERAL with the scientific concepts that child-bearing females are mostly the nurturing gender, while the male gender in suck relationships are still the dominating hunter-gatherers? (I have no doubts that this is shifting of late, but isn't it still the general case?
I am convinced that women and men are not exactly the same. People have instincts, and I think women are indeed more nurturing than men, in general. There have been a few 'experiments' in bringing up babies of which the sex could not be determined easily like girls, who eventually turned out to be boys. Because of the fundamental difference between girls and boys, these people had a very hard life.
That said, I don't think men are by definition the dominant sex. I know enough couples where the lady 'wears the pants,' so to speak. The fact that men are dominant in most societies is probably a cultural thing. There are societies where women are the dominant sex.
Now to answer questions 1 and 2: Many people have called me 'miss,' either on purpose or by accident. Apparently I have many female characteristics. I do feel the need to nurture sick people in my environment and to check on my friends' well-being every now and then. And about my dominance: I think you'd better ask my friends and ex-colleagues. I don't consider myself very dominant.

3. What we do need is a model for 'the average person.' The average person has length this with standard deviation that, and IQ (whatever that is) 100 with standard deviation so. But the average person does not exist, so we are all exceptions.

------

1. Would you rather be a nurturing women than a dominant man?
2. What do you think are good characteristics of a boss/manager?
3. Do you see any differences in the way female bosses and politicians handle their work compared to men in the same position? If yes, what are those differences?
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Old 09-23-2009, 01:03 PM   #2837
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Originally Posted by MoriartyL View Post
Yes, I absolutely do. And for the record, that's not a "scientific concept", it's a theory. Which I don't hold by. I believe that men and women are mentally exactly the same, and that all differences in behavior come from either physical differences or (more usually) differences in how they're treated by society. There's a huge discrepancy between how harshly we treat men, and how condescendingly we treat women. The theory of evolutionary roles is just propagating sexist stereotypes and should not be given legitimacy.
That theory sniffs of intellectualism with a dash of feminism. I admire the notion but being physically different is exactly why I'd argue we're not the same. If we're physically different then it's surely not unreasonable that our brains are formed differently even before society has had an effect on us or we are aware of our differences. I think it's a shame that society compounds any gender disparities but I think even in isolation there would be very different behaviour patterns.

Also, how does sexuality fit into this? If the brain is a blank slate equal to all others when born then what determines our sexuality? Is homosexuality, even heterosexuality a choice, a decision imposed upon us or is it built in? It's overly simplistic to say that everything we are is purely nurtured and not nature. Up to a point I believe it's nature and beyond that well who knows. Interesting question Speck with an interesting answer Mory.

I'll get my coat.

EDIT: Thanks tsa for your answer too!
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Old 09-23-2009, 01:16 PM   #2838
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Thank you for your answer too geggis! You added beautifully the things I couldn't put into words.
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Old 09-23-2009, 02:17 PM   #2839
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There have been a few 'experiments' in bringing up babies of which the sex could not be determined easily like girls, who eventually turned out to be boys. Because of the fundamental difference between girls and boys, these people had a very hard life.
I looked at some of those articles about boys raised as girls, and it's not clear from them how much of that suffering was due to the gender switch and how much of it was due to how weirdly everyone was treating them throughout their lives. What I understood from reading the articles was that the adults around the kids all knew the kids were weird, and treated them accordingly, but that the kids weren't told why. That must be torturous for a kid. I can easily see that kind of low self-esteem turning into transsexualism, especially if the kid is physically fit enough to identify with boys. (These "girls" were obviously stronger than any of the other girls.) So I think it's jumping to conclusions to say that the study proves anything about genders. The behavior of the kids can be explained too easily as the effect of social and physical circumstances.

Quote:
Originally Posted by geggis View Post
If we're physically different then it's surely not unreasonable that our brains are formed differently even before society has had an effect on us or we are aware of our differences. I think it's a shame that society compounds any gender disparities but I think even in isolation there would be very different behaviour patterns.
It is true there are significant hormonal and physical differences between men and women, and it is also true that male and female brains are significantly different. This could mean that the physical differences are compounded by the mental differences, resulting in radically different behavior between men and women. Or it could mean that the differences in the brain are necessary to negate the effects of the physical/hormonal differences. (Which are there for reproductive reasons, I imagine.) It's not so clear-cut a question.


Quote:
Originally Posted by tsa View Post
1. Would you rather be a nurturing women than a dominant man?
2. What do you think are good characteristics of a boss/manager?
3. Do you see any differences in the way female bosses and politicians handle their work compared to men in the same position? If yes, what are those differences?
  1. There's a time for being compassionate, and there's a time for being decisive. But if I absolutely had to fit myself into a narrow and uncomfortable stereotype, I think the "nurturing woman" sounds like a marginally better role to play.
  2. A single-minded pursuit of what needs to be done, the willingness and eagerness to take criticism and throw out bad ideas, the empathy to understand each worker's strengths and weaknesses, and the strong desire to make every worker feel useful.
  3. No.

===========================================

  1. Do you know any women who are especially decisive or aggressive?
  2. Do you know any men who are especially good with kids or empathetic?
  3. What's your favorite platformer?
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Old 09-23-2009, 02:37 PM   #2840
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Quote:
Originally Posted by geggis View Post
That theory sniffs of intellectualism with a dash of feminism.
Gee, you say that like it's a bad thing or something!

Quote:
Originally Posted by tsa View Post
1. Would you rather be a nurturing women than a dominant man?
2. What do you think are good characteristics of a boss/manager?
3. Do you see any differences in the way female bosses and politicians handle their work compared to men in the same position? If yes, what are those differences?
1. All of the above and neither of the above, all at the same time!
2. I respect bosses and managers who are talented at what they do, who don't feel the need to step on other people to get to where they are, and who are good at mentoring people who aspire to excel in their field. I am fortunate to be working for such a person at this point in time.
3. In terms of actual performance, I've seen more evidence that there's greater variance between individuals than there exists between genders. In terms of public perception, however, one recurring trend I see is that females in positions of responsibility are more likely to have their failures attributed to their gender, whereas males are only blamed individually, as seen in my favourite xkcd comic.

EDIT: Oops, Mory beat me to tsa's questions, so I'll answer his.

Quote:
Originally Posted by MoriartyL View Post
  1. Do you know any women who are especially decisive or aggressive?
  2. Do you know any men who are especially good with kids or empathetic?
  3. What's your favorite platformer?
1. I can be when provoked. One of my very good friends fits this definition to a tee. So do many older women I admire, though their aggression tends to be more based in wit and intellectualism than in physicality.
2. My father is great with kids, and I have at least a couple of very dear male friends who have a sense of empathy I can only aspire to.
3. Psychonauts.

***

1. What, in your mind, is feminism?
2. Do you consider yourself a feminist? If not, do you consider yourself a feminist ally? Why/why not?
3. Does it make sense to you for a person to say "I'm not a feminist, but I believe that men and women are equal," and why/why not?
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