truth or dare - readers' answers

1/Nov/97

There is a landscape which Japanese only can see. True or false?

2/Nov/97

Your face is unreal. True or false?

True. My face is unreal to me because I don't usually see it the way it is. Mostly I see its mirror image. In fact, the mirror image looks quite real to me.
Kenji

3/Nov/97

A human body is as big as half the globe. True or false?

True. I think a body is spread as far as its senses can get information. My sense is now in the form of a world-wide computer network able to obtain information even from the other side of the globe. But the networks doesn't cover the whole planet. Perhaps it's as big as half the globe.
Kenji

4/Nov/97

You have not used your whole brain capability yet. True or false?

True. I don't have a driver's license and don't know how to drive a car. This lets my brain have some extra space which I can use for other things, I believe. But my general belief on brain capability is that the space is very limited for the working knowledge, so that it has to be switched when I try to do many different things. Perhaps I'm talking about attention capability rather than the whole brain one, though.
Kenji

5/Nov/97

Anyone who does not enjoy his or her current situation is stupid. True or false?

True.
Kenji

6/Nov/97

Any waste has a human origin. True or false?

True. Nothing is a waste unless so regarded by a human.
Kenji

7/Nov/97

Genetic engineering can create a perfect human. True or false?

False. For one thing, genes can decide just when and where certain chemical reactions should occur, which is not enough to define a human. For another thing, what a perfect human means depends on who is answering the question.
Kenji

8/Nov/97

Everything is a matter of bucks. True or false?

If you are asking if everything is economical, then it's true, because nothing exists for a human until he or she evaluates it.
Kenji

9/Nov/97

Only soundness of mind can make it possible for you to laugh. True or false?

Perhaps it's true, as our laughing means we think ourselves are sane.
Kenji

10/Nov/97

Chimpanzees have their own gods. True or false?

There is a possibility, because I think the concept of god comes from our tendencies to worship a boss, which has a primate origin.
Kenji

11/Nov/97

It is peculiar to human that we consider the high C and low C as the same sound. True or false?

I think it's true. I heard that human only can distinguish between sounds such as C or D.
ulara

False perhaps. It is a question of why a sound goes an octave up when its frequency gets doubled. I think it has something to do with the mechanism of our throat to make sounds. Certainly multiplication is an geometric operation one can easily implement in a machine. This must be also true if it had something to do with the way a sound is processed in our brains while we listen to it. Any animal who has the similar mechanism to make or listen to sounds as ours may have a concept of an octave.
Kenji

12/Nov/97

Plastic is more friendly to our environment than paper is. True or false?

True, depending on how it's utilized. Plastic is more robust than paper, so that it's more easily recycled if proper design is used.
Kenji

13/Nov/97

Our current technology can move Jupiter. True or false?

I hope it to be false.
(translated from the original Japanese text.)
ulara

True. In fact, we have already done so. When a space craft uses a planet's gravity to assist accelerating itself, it acquires some energy, and the planet loses some instead, resulting in slowing it down to go around the sun. We did use Jupiter's gravity to assist Voyagers' flights. But in Jupiter's case, since the difference of mass between the planet and the space crafts is so huge that the effect on Jupiter's orbit will be unnoticeable for many millions of years from now.
Kenji

14/Nov/97

Parallel worlds exist on Earth. True or false?

True. Everyone has their own view of the world. It's as if the world consists of many parallel worlds.
Kenji

15/Nov/97

You are made out of all other people. True or false?

True in a way that presence of all other people defines me.
Kenji

16/Nov/97

Most of your friends are neurotic. True or false?

True. Everyone is more or less neurotic. There is no perfectly sane person in the world, or he or she would look just insane.
Kenji

17/Nov/97

Any science is agricultural. True or false?

True. Predictions mean much for both science and agriculture. A theory is widely accepted when predictions it makes are proven to be true. It looks as if scientists want the nature to behave accordingly to their perception, which is what agriculture is in principle.
Kenji

18/Nov/97

Buddhism is a linguistics. True or false?

True. Buddhism talks about human perception of the world, which is a sort of language.
Kenji

19/Nov/97

Your favourite news program is more sensationalism than journalism. True or false?

False. They are not my favourites.
Kenji

20/Nov/97

You need a meta-brain to understand a brain. True or false?

True because understanding is not self-sufficient.
Kenji

21/Nov/97

Money can buy anything. True or false?

True. Anything which can be evaluated can be bought, and such a thing is everything we can ever conceive of. It does not matter if we can really possess things we buy. Transaction can surely take place.
Kenji

22/Nov/97

Everyone is going to get killed. True or false?

True. Something must kill you in the end or you will live forever. But there's no point in stating it in such a sensational way.
Kenji

23/Nov/97

The nature loves symmetry. True or false?

False. If it weren't for asymmetry, the universe would be stayed in the state of total chaos. Natural forces are asymmetrical. Think for example of gravity.
Kenji

24/Nov/97

It is an illusion that a mirror image is horizontally reversed. True or false?

True. It's the front and the back which are reversed.
Kenji

25/Nov/97

The world is already bankrupt. True or false?

With this population, yes, it is true.
Kenji

26/Nov/97

Graphical interfaces are more friendly to users than text-based ones. True or false?

It depends. For blind people, graphical interfaces are useless. While editing text, a keyboard-based interface is less awkward to use than a pointing device-based one. Graphical interfaces are easier to understand in many other situations.
Kenji

27/Nov/97

Happiness will inevitably change its appearance in the near future. True or false?

True. Our life style is destined to change in order for survival.
Kenji

28/Nov/97

A person with a strong assertion irritates you. True or false?

Pretty much.
Kenji

29/Nov/97

Your words are musical. True or false?

True. It's easy to make some music out of them.
Kenji

30/Nov/97

It is plain wrong to hit a person. True or false?

False. I think we have to face the fact that hitting is a way of communication. It is too obvious for the S & M case, but it is also true for usual friendship.
Kenji