Consequences

[qwerty]

Fun topic because I can....

I've always believed that everything I do happens and I am content with that I wouldn't change a thing (I have regrets but wouldn't change my actions) because everything culminates to a point of where I am and defines me. But every once in a while I wonder would I be a different person if I didn't do something or if I did something else.

So multi-part discussion:
If you could do just one thing without the fear of consequences - as in after you did it you could rewind and not do it if it didn't work out - what would you do?
Do you think like that some times?

[Rei]

I would tell all the people who annoy the hell outta me how increadibly annoying and pointless ad worthless they are. :thumbsup:

Okay seriously. I don't know what I'd do. I can't think of anything. I mean, if I skipped all my classes, and then just having to rewind and redo all of them anyway is kinda pointless. ;D I don't think I've ever seriously wanted to do something that I wouldn't want to take the consequences of. So essentially, I don't remember anything I 'regret' not doing because I feared the consequences.

[bikerscars]

i focus on the present and near future to the point where rewinding events/decisions never really interest me

sure the thought of 'what if' enters my mind occasionally but i direct those thoughts to future decisions

i guess it would be nice to tell people how you really feel/think about them...but what would be the point?

[mikey]

I plead the 5th ;)

[OneBadMother]

Well, there's not really anything I want to do that's limited by severe consequences. Unless it's laws of gravity or the inevitability of death, in which case I'd like to be able to float around and explore all of the world and the universe without dying of asphyxiation or burning to death.

[Rei]

I plead the 5th *;)
I've been accused of using that strategy too much ;D

[mikey]

You can never use that strategy too much ;)

[Rei]

Well, there's not really anything I want to do that's limited by severe consequences. Unless it's laws of gravity or the inevitability of death, in which case I'd like to be able to float around and explore all of the world and the universe without dying of asphyxiation or burning to death.

Now that's an idea...

[Guido]

I have actually thought about doing this, but not quite in the manor you suggest. If I could rewind time and redo something over again, I would live my life as I am living it now. I'd imagine I'd be a little more risky with a lot of decisions in general, but nothing terribly major. Then when I die, I'd rewind and start over using my new life experience.

[Firelie]

I'd rewind to age 18 and hit myself upside the head in an effort to knock all the stupid out, then go about my higher education with a definite goal from the beginning rather than wasting time and money chasing random ideas about what I "want to be when I grow up."

[Jbmontag]

I try not to do this. I rationalize I couldn't be who I am now without making the decisions then, and I like me.

[Firelie]

I try not to do this. I rationalize I couldn't be who I am now without making the decisions then, and I like me.

Yeah, I try not to either, but I'm at a point in life where everyone I used to know is growing up, getting married, having kids and careers, and I'm still stuck in sophomore-level college classes because I took 3 years to make up my mind when I knew what I wanted to do at age 20 and chose to ignore it and go with something I thought might be more profitable. Wtf was I thinking, I've never cared about money.

[Jack]

I try not to. What if you could?, and by changing a decision it makes your future comparative to the one before, or worse. If you have gone this far, through all of your s**tty decisions in life, then they must somehow be the right ones, right?

Yesterday doesn't physically exist! :thumbsup:, and IMO that makes for a good FUTURE discussion.

[rasoirviolon]

hmmm interesting question :thinking:

not to sound morbid, self-absorbed or morose but if i could do one thing over, i'd probably prevent my birth (just to see what it would have been like if my twin had a brother instead of me).

and i always wonder what it would have been like for my parents if i wasn't born premature... i'm not sure if this even pertains to the question since this relates more to alternate realities.

[phoenix]

I plead the 5th *;)

I'm with Mikey on this one. Anyone who's had a bad marriage/divorce should plead the 5th...

[jeffersonian]

There are a ton of things that need to be understood here before I can begin to determine how to use it.

For example, does 'no consequences' mean I don't remember the experience, either? Obviously, that's a consequence of one kind, but I'm not sure that's what you meant.

If I get to remember, then I'm just quitting my job and going to a library to read for 30 years, rewind, and feel minimally prepared for life.

If I can't remember it, maybe I'd commit a host of immoral and violent acts just to see how I felt about them. I've often wondered how shocked the average person really would be after murdering someone. We might all be much more comfortable with it than we'd care to admit.

[qwerty]

There are a ton of things that need to be understood here before I can begin to determine how to use it.

For example, does 'no consequences' mean I don't remember the experience, either? Obviously, that's a consequence of one kind, but I'm not sure that's what you meant.

If I get to remember, then I'm just quitting my job and going to a library to read for 30 years, rewind, and feel minimally prepared for life.

If I can't remember it, maybe I'd commit a host of immoral and violent acts just to see how I felt about them. I've often wondered how shocked the average person really would be after murdering someone. We might all be much more comfortable with it than we'd care to admit.

:) good point about the forgetting... It was intended as a chance for you to test a path you see and would otherwise discard because of the risk involved, or the lack of benefits versus the price you have to pay, so you would keep your memory. An example would be this: I took on a job to help me pay for uni and it was the sort of job that sucked me in completely and screwed up my grades (which I've been fixing for the past year), At one stage because of the job and it's effect on me I almost dropped out of uni to work full time and then come back to uni at a later date. I'm glad I didn't drop out now but I'm interested in what would have happened to me as the decision split at the time was 49-51 (the problem was the lacking future in it and knowing that I grow bored of it sooner or later).

Like Guido said living life completely then have the chance to live it again but making completely different decisions just to see how they pan out and seeing that I have always been correct.

Murder is an extremely interesting concept, not that I'd do it and I'd imagine it to be something that I wouldn't get a rise out of but what is life without the experiences you undertake?

And I guess that was the aim of the game. INTJ's are future orientated but also completeness chasers (I have spent months modeling a problem in my head and then implementing it with an great sense of achievement for 10 minutes then another month improving the original model for infinite completeness (something I can't implement, but can theorize).

Sorry to make this is long post but it's got me started down a path now as well. Much to the agony of my friends and supervisors I love to model universes build on infinite complexity and infinite parallelism with infinite entry points(each object is infinite in depth and within each element of the depth lays more infinte depth traveling in a completely different direction) and then see what I am at as convergence(the coming together of everything to create myself, my world and the things around me at this point in time which also has infinite complexity - which you've covered with your belief revision question)). I guess it's one of those consequences I'd be interested in seeing what would turn out if I didn't need to solve other problems or pay rent and I could just work on that for the rest of my life. Unfortunately I see that something of that complexity is nearly possible to create or solve in a single life time - I guess that's why I would want to live again and again to complete it.

[jeffersonian]

Indeed, I'm not eager to make murder a priority, but if you dont' have consequences, why not try everything?

I like your comments on seeking completeness. That's a mode of operation for me, but I've never expressed so properly.

[matthew]

If you could do just one thing without the fear of consequences - as in after you did it you could rewind and not do it if it didn't work out - what would you do?

I might have a child, to see how he or she would turn out.


Do you think like that some times?


Not usually, no.

[OneBadMother]

Actually, that's an interesting idea, Matthew. Especially if you could try over and over again, raising them differently each time, just to see what works best.

[Nomad]

I think I would have chosen right instead of left once when I was in the Army, because the string of events leading from that choice had some terrible consequences, and I think i would have just stepped forward and kissed my ex fiancee, when that urge struck. I'm virtually certain that my life would be completely different if I had done that.

That being said, I have no regrets, I'm just curious. I like myself, and have self respect. I'm told, over and over, by groups of friends who have never met each other, that I'm tough, strong, loyal and honorable. I paid the price, but what of it? Life is good. But it would be an interesting experience.
-Nomad