Vraifaux's
Truth or Dare
Readers' Answers
1/Oct/96
It is humanly wrong to spit on a face of another person.
True or false?
False. Spitting in many cultures is considered rude, but it is not
universally true for the whole human race. If I'm not mistaken, there
exists a culture in which spitting on someone's face is a way of
greeting.
Kenji
It's very wrong and especially mean and unrespectfull to spit in
somebody's face. You can better say something like S.O.A.B. than spit,
though this is not very nice either of course.
PC 44 (k.112)
2/Oct/96
None of typhoons, hurricanes or cyclones can be considered alive.
True or false?
False. These meteorological phenomena maintain their internal states
by interacting with their surroundings, which is the most prominent
property of life. Of course we may deny their being alive by focusing
on the differences from other lives on Earth, but in this way we may
overlook many possibilities of the forms of life in the universe.
Kenji
3/Oct/96
The following definition of life is sound and complete:
A life satisfies all of the following conditions: a) it maintains
its internal state, b) it interacts with its surroundings in order
to obtain energy, and c) it reproduces.
True or false?
False. This definition excludes viruses because they do not reproduce
(but whether viruses are alive or not is an open question anyway).
Also, it excludes species such as leopon, which lasts for one
generation only. Plus some natural and artificial phenomena satisfy
this definition.
Kenji
4/Oct/96
A dead body is not living.
True or false?
False. A dead body, whose definition varies in judicial systems, is
typically a body whose either brain or heart stopped working. Which
means other organs may still be functioning, which is especially true
when the brain has stopped while the heart is still beating. This is
the reason why transplant of vital organs is possible in the first
place. It is when the blood supply stops that the organs start to die
gradually. A dead body is in between alive and dead.
Kenji
5/Oct/96
A credit card is useful in a desert island.
True or false?
True. A credit card can be used as: a) a ruler, b) a bookmark, c) a
shovel (to dig), and various other things. As a thin plastic
rectangular object is unique in a desert island, it will be precious.
Kenji
6/Oct/96
The speed of light is always constant.
True or false?
False. The speed of light varies in substances it has to go through.
That is the reason of refraction.
Kenji
7/Oct/96
Equal opportunity promotes discrimination.
True or false?
true!
don't let the fate to give the best of everything to a few ones,
instead, let's try all of us to share everything with your neighbour
Jose Maria Lopez
True. The effort to give everybody an equal opportunity tends to
cause discriminative decisions, such as limiting the number of people
from each racial group who can be employed.
Kenji
8/Oct/96
Sexuality is the basis of mortality.
True or false?
True. Before sex appeared in the history of life on Earth, mortality
was not necessary and in fact there was no death by natural causes.
Sex introduced mortality because the parents had to die sometime in
order to give the offsprings better chances of survival.
Kenji
9/Oct/96
For any triangle existing in this universe, the angles of the triangle
sum to 180 degrees.
True or false?
False. For one thing, the angles of a triangle sum not to 180 degrees
in non-flat universe like ours. But in the first place, a triangle does
not exist in this universe.
Kenji
10/Oct/96
A triangle exists.
True or false?
False. A triangle does not exist in this universe, but a brain sees
it. A line does not exist in this universe, but a brain sees it. That
is of course if you believe in today's physics where everything is
made of quantums. Geometry exists only in our brains.
Kenji
11/Oct/96
A corporation is alive.
True or false?
False, a corporation is neither alive nor is it dead. A Corporation is
an idea perpetrated by those who do not want to be responsible for their
actions;in and of itself it is not organic, thus it can not be
conscious, which to me, is the definition of life.
Tymothy
true
Louise Boruch
True. It maintains its internal state. It interacts with its
environment to obtain energy. It reproduces.
Kenji
12/Oct/96
Being intellectual and being alive are independent from each other.
True or false?
False. One has to be alive to be intelligent. Or, to be more precise,
One will be perceived alive when it seems intelligent. Both ideas -
being intellectual and being alive - are invention of human brains,
and these two ideas are closely related according to the wiring of
our brains.
Kenji
13/Oct/96
Your body is more like a phenomenon than an object.
True or false?
True. Our bodies are like waves, and are never made of the same
objects. The materials of which our bodies are made will be replaced
completely with different materials in two years. It is a process of
this metabolism which should be identified as a body, not the
substances of which it consist.
Kenji
14/Oct/96
An effect may take place before its cause.
True or false?
True. The sequence of time is constructed by our brains and we can
perceive an effect taking place before its cause. I have a friend
who has actually experienced it when she fell while ice skating.
Kenji
15/Oct/96
FGM (Female Genital Mutilation) is humanly wrong.
True or false?
False. As long as it is supported without a question in a society, it
isn't wrong in that society. If the society decides to go with the
western way of living, then it becomes wrong. Yes, it is a human
right issue, but what is a human and what right a human has depend on
each society, because a human can only be socially defined.
Kenji
16/Oct/96
Every human behaviour was pathological in its beginning.
True or false?
True. Human behaviours like wearing clothing or using verbal
languages must have looked strange for the majority of people when
the first person did it. In fact any behaviour was pathological in
its beginning because only a few among many did it first. This should
go as far back as the first animal who moved out of the water to the
land or the first bacterium who used oxygen to produce energy.
Kenji
17/Oct/96
The power of love is based on electromagnetism.
True or false?
True. Among the four different powers in this universe, only
electromagnetism and gravity can affect us in a meaningful way.
Since gravity can only pull us to Earth, the power of love must
be based on electromagnetism. Indeed, love is a chemical reaction
in a brain and chemical reaction is powered by electromagnetism.
But on the second thought the gravity of Moon surely affect our
psychological states by creating a rhythm.
Kenji
18/Oct/96
Nature is based on the principles of capitalism.
True or false?
True. Nature is about accumulating resources and propagate.
Kenji
19/Oct/96
Your death is conceptual.
True or false?
True. My death is conceptual to me because I can never experience it -
when it happens, I won't be there.
However, for my body, death is a daily occuring in a microscopic level.
Kenji
20/Oct/96
A death can be experienced.
True or false?
False. See my answer to the previous question.
Kenji
21/Oct/96
A brain has to name everything.
True or false?
True. Everything is a language to a brain, including the rest of the
body it tries to control. But a language is not everything.
Kenji
22/Oct/96
Nature has its own volition.
True or false?
False. If it does, we may not know, and any answers to any questions
are limited within the human intelligence.
Kenji
23/Oct/96
Human is the only animal which genetically engineers others.
True or false?
False
Ernesto Staroswiecki
False. Every animal affects other animals' chances of survival and
therefore is a conductor of natural selection. Which means that every
animal is responsible for the contents of the genetic pool to come.
Kenji
24/Oct/96
Language acquisition is analogous to dissection.
True or false?
False
Ernesto Staroswiecki
True. By dissecting, medical scholars define boundaries among
internal organs, which do not exist in Nature. By acquiring a
language, children define boundaries among concepts, which do not
exist in Nature.
Kenji
25/Oct/96
Our bodies are analogies of available technologies.
True or false?
True. Our perception of the bodies has been based on our
understanding of machines, whose models so far have been expanding
from mechanics to electronics and genetic engineering.
Kenji
26/Oct/96
Dolphins may appreciate the high quality sound of CDs.
True or false?
False. I cannot deny they just might, but their music must be
different from ours. Besides 44.1kHz sampling must be dull for the
ears of dolphins who can hear much higher frequencies of sounds.
Kenji
27/Oct/96
Reality is grammatical.
True or false?
True. Reality is a language which our brains can handle. Otherwise
it cannot be perceived and therefore is non-existent as far as we are
concerned.
Kenji
28/Oct/96
Reality is more virtual than real.
True or false?
True. Like virtual reality, reality is perceived through our senses,
which filter most of what could be real.
Kenji
29/Oct/96
Time is something else.
True or false?
The question is bogus.
Kenji
30/Oct/96
It is humanly wrong to betray your friends.
True or false?
False. In fact, no behaviour is humanly wrong. What is right or wrong
is a property of a society, not of the human race.
Kenji
31/Oct/96
Your answer to this question is false.
True or false?
I haven't decided yet. (-;
Eric
I'm sure big radishes are produced somewhere.
Kenji
Always under déconstruction
Copyright © Kenji Saito, 1996