There are various things in life that for different reasons we will never experience directly (and I’m in the camp that you can’t really understand something completely unless you have experienced it yourself), for reasons of plot you have been offered the chance to experience whatever it is of your choice* with no harmful consequences other than whatever impact it is going to have on your psyche and mental well-being (if you say ‘I would like to experience what it was really like to storm the beaches at Normandy’ for example…well…)
I’m thinking of things like, ‘I would like to experience what life is like as a black person in American society’, rather than ‘I would like to experience hot sex with whatever celebrity of my choice’, we can take the latter as read I think, though something like, ‘I would like to experience making love as the opposite sex’ would be more in the spirit of the scenario.
So what would you choose?
*a god has appeared and given you the chance, a real-life holodeck has been created, full-sense virtual reality has been perfected etc the mechanism doesn’t really matter
Sexual love as the opposite sex is right up there at the top of the list.
Personal flight, like Superman, is also up there, although it’s a fantasy, not a reality, and so might be excluded from your hypothetical. (But, then, so is opposite-sex sex.)
I’d like to fly in a small plane (as a passenger is fine) and that’s easily within my reach. I’m saving up my money to go to the airport and talk to the local flying club.
I’d like to spar with a boxer in a boxing ring – someone who’d go easy on me, and accommodate my obvious lack of skill. A really good trainer, who’d give me advice at the absolute beginner’s level. Maybe he’d even let me pop him once or twice, just for the joy. (I guarantee, I cannot hit him hard enough for him even to notice!)
I’d love to make a run with a bobsled team. Three people who know what they’re doing…and me. I know I’ll ruin the balance for them, but I’m presuming on their charity. (Just as with the boxer.)
I’ve never painted in oils. I’m pretty sure I’ll be no damn good at it. This, too, is actually within reach; I’ve just never wanted to make the investment in time and money.
It’s been decades since I last rode horseback. I’d enjoy that again!
I want to experience this for myself, just to see what it is I might be missing. I have a feeling I’m missing out on a lot, based on the emotional experiences people talk about having that I have never experienced before. I’d like to be able to do a better job imagining what they’re talking about, at the very least.
But I do worry that getting a brief glimpse would do more harm than good. Maybe it’s better for me to not know what I’m missing than be mired in constant longing and frustration.
I think its fine to add in things like this, I’d certainly like to give it a try
Interesting choices! It would also be possible to try out different weight classes of boxing, I don’t know much about boxing but I imagine a featherweight requires some different skills than a heavyweight for example.
That’s a good point, it would be similar for someone who is totally colour-blind asking to experience colour-vision for example I suppose.
I’d like to know what is like to get up in the morning in Verkhoyansk, Siberia, when it is minus-80, and walk in the crunchy snow, in a town where there are actually people living like that. Maybe some place in Arctic Canada would do, like Pangnirtung or Tuktoyaktuk, where it is often minus-55. I haven’t lived in a cold place in over 50 years, a few mornings in Moncton at minus-25. I walked to school in minus-30 a couple of times, which is no big deal when you’re a kid. When it’s that cold on weekends, you get up and go out and play.
I’m not going to come in and reply to every post in this thread but this one got my attention because I was just saying the same thing to a Canadian friend a few days ago that I would like to experience a really cold winter, the coldest it has ever gotten around here in my lifetime is -18 degrees C and that was exceptional.
Needless to say his response was, “No you really, really, don’t”
I would also like to experience an extreme weather event, like a tornado at close range, an earthquake or a hurricane.
Is time travel allowed? Because I would love to experience Christmas revels at the court of Elizabeth I or James I. (1604 for choice, because seeing the first recorded performance of Measure for Measure would be amazing.)
If not, I think I would like to try on being male, just to see what it’s like. (Not necessarily the sex part, although that would be interesting if it happened; I think I’d be more interested in finding out how people react to and interact with men differently, and whether there really are differences in how men and women experience emotions or whether it’s all stereotyping.)
I never really thought about it until this thread (after I forgot what I first thought of), but I want to speak and understand every language in the world.
Skydive. While there is no way in Hell am I doing this, I would like to have the experience of having done so. When we get to the point that we can plant “memories” directly into a brain, sign me up!
I have a fascination with ghost towns and structures - esp. wooden roller coasters. If there is a tour group forming up, I’m in.
Hang gliding.
But, at this point I’d settle for a single month in good health. Also having the money to exploit this would be a bucket list entry.
No way am I actually creating a Bucket List - I would then start on the logistics and scheduling required to complete the List.
Q:
What do you do after completing your Bucket List? By definition, you’ve done all you ever want to do…
Morbid as it is, I would like to be a member of the Challenger or Columbia crew. What was it like when you realized that you were going to die within minutes.
I have to admit that I would enjoy being a 27-ish woman in a Los Angeles club (read, pick-up place) back in the 1980s. I know it from the male perspective. What do the gals experience?
Many people have told me over the years that I have a dictatorial manner. I agree with that, but fortunately have never held a management or supervisorial employment position. I often wonder what kind of a boss I would have been had I held such a position.
Mildly diverging:
I would like to enter the elevator of a DeBeers diamond mine and descend to the bottom.
Add new items to the list! Hey, wait, now I’ve been to Yellowstone…but I haven’t been to Crater Lake. Or King’s Canyon. Or Canyon de Chelly. Or Grand Escalante. Or…
Do it again! I’ve been to Carlsbad Caverns three times in my life…and would very happily go again! I’m a frustrated writer, hacking my way through a novel: once I finish…I wanna do it again!
I’ve done it many times, and recommend it to anyone with an interest. It’s so different from flying in an airliner; you can see out both sides (and if you’re lucky, the front), go where you want, see familiar places from the air, etc. We take flying too much for granted these days. Go up in a small plane and get a reminder of why people dreamed of it for millennia.
If you can get to a bobsled track, I think they do sell rides. I like to try driving a bobsled, but I’d want to start near the bottom on the first try and work my way up to the full track.
I always wanted to experience a really snowy winter. Last year in Boston definitely qualified. I kind of enjoyed it; got some amazing pictures.
I saw an episode of The Twilight Zone in the 1980s where a lady discovered that she could stop time whenever she said “Shut up”. People and objects would remain motionless but she could move around freely and look at things and touch them (including the posterior of a young man on the sidewalk, as I recall). Things would start moving again using another magic word.
I’ve always thought this would be a great way to look at things (monuments, landscapes, works of art, wild animals) in detail with ample time and no consequences. Not very good for social interaction, though.
