truth or dare - readers' answers

1/May/97

You are confident that you today and you ten years ago are the same person. True or false?

2/May/97

Other genes are the natural enemies of a gene. True or false?

True. They form an environment in which the gene either can survive or must fail. It is the exact function of a natural enemy.
Kenji

3/May/97

Pragmatism is not serious. True or false?

If you mean that being pragmatic isn't being serious, then it's true, as seriousness often prevent people from reaching solutions.
Kenji

4/May/97

Polygamy is advantageous to men. True or false?

False in a sense that many not-so-talented men would not have any wives whereas every woman will have a husband to whom she does not have to devote her life.
Kenji

5/May/97

Tall people tend to be timid. True or false?

True. For millions of years, physical strength has been a very important factor of survival in the animal kingdom, and larger animals have been taking advantages of being stronger than others. However, for the past several thousand years in human history, physical strength has lost its importance and something else has become more important. But being an animal, a human still remains to be afraid of bigger others, and in effect taller people often feel isolated.
Kenji

6/May/97

Melodies are spatial. True or false?

True, because it's concerned with height, and it has something to do with the wiring of our brains.
Kenji

7/May/97

You feel your being is industrialized. True or false?

It must be, but somehow I don't feel that way now.
Kenji

8/May/97

We do not have future. True or false?

True, as every time we think about future, we regard it as if it's present.
Kenji

9/May/97

Societies propagate. True or false?

True. Societies have their own reproduction systems, and the genetic information being passed is called ideology.
Kenji

10/May/97

It is inhumane to live naturally. True or false?

True, because one of the inherent properties of human being is to defy Nature.
Kenji

11/May/97

You are the most important person for you. True or false?

True, as without me I cannot appreciate the presence of others.
Kenji

12/May/97

A time machine can be conceived because of the structure of our brains. True or false?

True. For our brains, both the past and the future are present.
Kenji

13/May/97

Happiness is the goal of your life. True or false?

False, at least in the way everybody else feels happiness. My goal is to know everything.
Kenji

14/May/97

Science is a philosophy. True or false?

True. What science tells us is not the truth about the universe but the truth about how we perceive the universe. In this sense, science always remains to be a study of our mind and reasoning like philosophy is.
Kenji

15/May/97

Your biggest enemy is in yourself. True or false?

True. I am my limitation to overcome.
Kenji

16/May/97

Time is a psychological entity. True or false?

True. It is worthwhile to find out if time as we know remains even if there is no observer to determin its direction.
Kenji

17/May/97

You are aware of your role. True or false?

False. Every time I influence other people in some way, I discover a new role of mine which I had never been aware of before.
Kenji

18/May/97

Capitalism suspends thoughts. True or false?

True. Capitalism optimizes people's thinking patterns so that they will gain maximal from minimal thoughts.
Kenji

19/May/97

Liberty, equality and philanthropy are opposite of democracy. True or false?

True. Liberty does not generate equality, and philanthropy does not generate liberty. Democracy in its original form lets liberty, equality and philanthropy (the range of selection is the liberty), but it will hit the wall of contradiction as it grows.
(translated from the original Japanese text)
KatsuyukiOrito

True. Democracy is run by, and is optimized for the mediocre majority, who would prefer comfortable slavery to liberty, insular exclusion to equality, and social narcissism to philanthropy.
Kenji

20/May/97

Pro-choice is the humane way. True or false?

True, as the humane way is to try to put the nature under control.
Kenji

21/May/97

Marriage is driven by mediocrity. True or false?

True. Talented people can live and leave their genes to the next generation without such an agreement.
Kenji

22/May/97

Downfall of humanity will save the Earth. True or false?

False. Without humanity, the concept of saving someone or something will be nonsense. The Earth will just continue to be.
Kenji

23/May/97

Training shapes your personality. True or false?

True. A personality is a set of tendencies in reacting against events, in other words how receptors in the brain are programmed through training.
Kenji

24/May/97

It is not a laughing matter. True or false?

False. Everything is a laughing matter.
Kenji

25/May/97

Time is your enemy. True or false?

Suppose time is my enemy. How do you propose that I can beat it?
Kenji

26/May/97

Equalitarianism in schools lead us to the end of the civilization. True or false?

True. Mediocre people may think that equalitarianism is more respectful for the human right of each student, but mediocre students only would agree. Others don't give a damn. Actually, it is harmful for others as equalitarianism don't respect their talent or talentlessness. It will give mediocre students the impression that they are more successful than others. Imagine a society full of these people.
Kenji

27/May/97

Economic strength is a mental strength. True or false?

True. Economy is a virtual system created and agreed by our brains. Money for example is just a number, and having many of which is just a mental state, which of course is quite meaningful to the brains themselves.
Kenji

28/May/97

Being intelligent is more beneficial than being physically fit. True or false?

False. Intelligence, which is how well the brain works, has many aspects; being physically fit is one, as it has been one of the primary features of a brain.
Kenji

29/May/97

Shopping is ritualistic. True or false?

True. It is an acquiring of sacred goods, and pacifying the social imbalance resulting from it using holy tokens.
Kenji

30/May/97

Fetishism naturally follows from the brain structure. True or false?

True. Our perception is always fetishistic. When we think of an object, what we really deal with is the corresponding abstraction in the brain.
Kenji

31/May/97

Capitalism has a dead end. True or false?

True. The unit of optimization in capitalism is either a person, a partnership or a corporation, which are legal entities that can own capitals. Since capitalism is a system consists of these entities, the optimization will always be local. It is known that local optimization does not necessarily optimize the whole system, and given the complexity of the system, it is very likely that it fails.
Kenji