Hypertheticals
Imagine since childhood, you have wondered whether there can be a mechanism where one’s thoughts could be projected the way PowerPoint presentations are projected. However, one winter morning, you meet a magician who tells you that he has the power to read people’s thoughts. To show that he indeed can read your mind, the magician tells you what you are thinking about in the current moment, as well as how you perceive him. All the revelations are indeed correct. The magician offers to display all your daily thoughts on a large screen as such an occasion would make you achieve your dreams if you allow him to display thoughts publicly for that single day. However, there is a caveat to the offer. You either choose your relatives and friends to watch your thoughts or classmates and the professor. Which one will you choose?
Assume you are an editor of one of the most influential newspapers in your country. In that regard, you have the power to censure the publications in the newspaper and determine what is printed on the front pages. Traditionally, the front pages are meant to highlight the main story of the day in a bid to attract the readers and stir their interest in buying the newspapers. One day, three significant events happened in your country, and all of them are significant. First, the researchers have just announced that the trial vaccines of the Covid-19 have proven 99 percent effective, a substantial breakthrough in the fight against coronavirus. Two hours after such an announcement, there is an attempted murder of the President-designate who has just won an election against all the odds. Before dusk, the army confirms that there is an alien invasion in the part of the country as UFO was sighted, and the aliens are preparing to attack. As an editor, which story will you place on the front page?
You have just completed your high school education and are now entering the gap year. While most of your high school classmates have received their acceptance letters and are waiting to join different colleges, you are still in limbo about the college you will join. Such an instance hurt you immensely since you are not aware whether your application was rejected despite graduating top of your class. Several days have passed, and no communication has reached you concerning your next step as far as your joining college is concerned. Fortunately, you get a scholarship from one of the tech giants, and they are willing to sponsor your studies everywhere in every country you will choose. Additionally, the fact that you are assured of the scholarship also come with stipends and other benefits. More importantly, you are guaranteed a ten-year contract with annual earnings tuning to over seven hundred thousand dollars. However, you have to pursue a course that the company will choose for you. In a twist of events, you discover that your younger brother collected your acceptance letters from colleges and kept them in his room. All acceptance letters are from Ivy colleges of your dream, and both are offering you an opportunity to pursue your long-held career. What will you choose?
Imagine there is an apocalypse, and you are only one surviving with your dog who has fought alongside you in wadding off the enemies you encounter. To your surprise, you have discovered that your dog has unique abilities that enable it to sense danger miles away and alert you. In most of the dramatic escapes you have made, it is down to your dog, and you feel firmly attached to it. However, when you reach the final stages of the escape, one of the enemies that have annihilated everyone in your country captures and only agrees to release under one condition; you kill your dog, or you remain their captive forever, but with your dog. Which option will you take?
You have just won a lottery after multiple unsuccessful attempts. Your previous attempt to win the lottery has seen you extremely immersed in such activity to the extent that you had lost your family, and you have been prohibited from seeing your children since your gambling behavior is a bad influence on the children, according to the jury. Worse, your unwell mother had gone through a series of check-ups, and the results indicated that she needs immediate surgery to save her life. On the same note, your wife and children have agreed to come back home if you will give them all the money you won and rebuild your lives as a family. The surgery costs 99 percent of what you have won. What will you do?
Assume you are a high school teacher, and just like any other middle-income families, you encounter hardships and is compelled to work in a carwash to make ends meet. You have an expectant wife and a terminally ill child who spends most of the days in the hospital. With the health condition raking up bills and the responsibility as the provider of the family weighing on you, you also realize that you have stage two prostate cancer after a biopsy. However, you are a talented schemer who has not been caught. Life presents with two options, join your former student in pulling off one of the cleanest bank heists or stick to the status quo and watch everything fall apart. What choice will you go for?
Imagine gangsters break into your home where you have your mother, partner, and over $100,000. In one of the tragic scenes in your life, a misfortune strikes, and the only way out is to choose from one of the three options presented to you to remain safe. According to the gangsters, the money going is unquestionable, but also, either your mother or the wife has to die. Therefore, what option will you go to guarantee your safety owing to the condition that you must remain alive, and either your mother or wife must die?
Assume you are an elected leader with an immaculate reputation and an unmatched track record. Recently, one of the tabloids fabricated a story about you engaging women in the brothel, yet you are a married man. Three weeks later, your family is in jeopardy, so is your reputation. Before things cool down as your approval rating continues plummeting, another tabloid quoted an anonymous source that has files that you use your position to influence tenders and enrich yourself. However, all these stories are phony and political, thus lacks any ground. Which of the two accounts will affect you most?
Imagine you are a Jew living during the Second World War, and the Allied Powers are closing in on Adolf Hitler and his henchmen after most of the cities in Germany fell. You are living in the countryside in Germany have an elaborate bunker that can hide an individual for years and powers to transform an individual and give them another different look. On this day, Hitler and his people approach you to help them hide in exchange for thousands of kilos of gold carried in the Nazi train. You have only two options; either to help them or take the gold and remain quite. What will you do?
You have lied to virtually everyone about your acceptance to college and the course you pursue in such colleges. Interestingly, of all these people you have lied to, you told them different stories about the course you pursue and the college you are attending. After completion, all these people come together to organize a banquet at your honor and have invited you. The twist is you have to tell the audience about you, the program you pursued, and the college’s name. Take note; these hosts are your only potential employers. What will you do?