Someone invents a new safe, harmless psychedelic drug that purports “1 year in 1 hour.” That is, every time you take the drug, you are taken on a trip into an alternate consciousness that feels exactly like an entire year has passed, but it’s only an hour long in real life. The manufacturer touts this as a way of adding time to your life - “a normal human life flies by awfully quickly; 75 short years and it’s over. But with this drug you can feel like you’ve lived many hundreds of years by the time you’re on your deathbed.”
The drug costs $100 per pill. You don’t get to choose what your trip will be. The vast majority of trips are reported to be good or at least boring/unremarkable (such as working in wheat fields), but a few are reported to be nightmare-ish. The good news is that each trip pill packet also comes with a trip-ending pill, which you can take any time to end the trip if it goes bad.
There are no true adverse physical or psychological effects, but most users report that once the trip is over, they are dazed for days because of how long, vivid and thought-provoking their year-long trip was - even though it was only 60 minutes in real time.
If you would normally die at age 80 but take 200 such trips, you’ll feel like a 280-year old when you die.
How many pills would you buy and take trips with, over the remainder of your current life?
According to the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), nineteen music albums have sold at least 15 million copies in the U.S. Which of those albums (listed below) do you own/have you owned, in some format (i.e., vinyl, tape, CD, digital, etc.)?
Eagles, Their Greatest Hits (1971-1975)
Michael Jackson, Thriller
Eagles, Hotel California
AC/DC, Back in Black
Led Zeppelin, Untitled (“Led Zeppelin IV”)
Fleetwood Mac, Rumours
Guns N’ Roses, Appetite for Destruction
Garth Brooks, No Fences
Shania Twain, Come on Over
Elton John, Greatest Hits
Boston, Boston
Bruce Springsteen, Born in the U.S.A.
Metallica, Metallica
Alanis Morissette, Jagged Little Pill
Pink Floyd, Dark Side of the Moon
The Bee Gees, et al., Saturday Night Fever soundtrack
I’m 60 and in the last 3 months I’ve had a deep vein thrombosis, I’ve been treated in the hospital for a pulmonary embolism, and my prostate cancer has returned. My financial planner says I can retire right now. Should I?
You’ve always been struggling with a particularly difficult class/topic, such as organic chemistry or vector calculus. You keep having to re-take the class due to getting F’s.
One month, however, things suddenly “click” for you and you get it all and it all makes perfect sense, and suddenly is a breeze. You can solve every problem. Problem is, if you soar straight from F to A+, the teacher will suspect you are cheating - and the school has a reputation for expelling students with little due process for suspected cheating.
All you need is a passing grade (D). Would you purposefully mark a few questions wrong on your exams and homework so that you get a less-suspicious grade of C or B instead of A for the class?
I’d score some wrong so that I get a B
I’d score some wrong so that I get a C
I won’t score anything wrong. I’ll answer everything correctly and get an A+.