Jump to content
Sign in to follow this  
tegan

You Have One of Three Wishes

  

36 members have voted

  1. 1. You may choose only one

    • Never need to sleep again
      24
    • Never need to eat again
      9
    • Never need to breathe again
      3


Recommended Posts

Another thing that occurs to me: sleep, and by extension our daily rhythm, divides our lives into neat, finite chunks of time. This is, I believe, a huge motivator for us to get things done. Without the looming deadline of the day's end, I'd be less effective in getting to work. Faced with a sea of infinite time, a life's worth of it, I'd get so little done, because there was no 'final few hours' in which to do things, no limited evening to get the most out of. I think the result would be a way sloppier work ethic and possible less actual accomplishments.

But maybe this is a case where the concept is so alien to me I just can't imagine it. Perhaps the human mind would figure out ways to deal with this.

[ADDED] I was being a little charged with my opinion on eating. I enjoy food when I'm confident it's safe, but there is an element to eating that vexes me, and I always worry about eating possibly dangerous things, especially when I'm out. I'm happy for you if that's not the case for you, but it is for me. We all have our little ways in which we're fucked up.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

You can still choose to sleep Rodi.  The way the wish is phrased in this case means that you don't need it, but you can still do it if you like.  So if you like dreaming or some kind of separator between days, you can still have that.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

That's fascinating. I wonder how that would work. Could you go to bed despite never being tired, without not actually needing to sleep? And would that form the same incentive to get things done, knowing your break is entirely voluntary?

In any case, the wish would be wasted for me, since I have no beef with sleep. I'm surprised that well over half of the voters dislike sleeping so much! I'd think that unless you actively hate sleeping, and unless you've got a weird love/hate relation with food like I have, choosing not needing to breathe again was the easy choice. But hardly anyone cares for it! I wonder if it's because we take it for granted and we don't notice breathing in our lives as we do sleeping and eating.

What links these three is that they're all biological necessities, over 'mere' biological desires such as cleanliness, sex, comfort, etc. Do these come to us as burdens? Things we're saddled with? Evolution has given us a great many incentives to enjoy them: a breath of fresh air in the morning is blissful, eating provides us with all manner of deeply pleasing sensations, sleeping is akin to what I imagine to be a fantastic drug trip (and completely free in every way). But look how modern, craven man has come to view these things. The first we give no single thought, the second becomes an ordeal filled with poisonous hazard, the third an insuperable waste of time.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Personally, I feel about sleeping the way you feel about eating.  I enjoy eating so much I'd do it even if I didn't need to so it would be a wasted wish for me.  And while I like having cool dreams and the feeling of going to sleep when I'm tired, I'd rather just not be tired in the first place, not to mention the ever looming threat of bad dreams and nightmares.  Breathing is such a background thing that I'm not bothered by the need to do it and I don't think it's removal would really benefit me in a significant way.  Eating and sleeping are more active, concious choices.  I would imagine that eliminating one of them would have a larger impact on your life.

 

I think the overall goal of the wish is to eliminate one thing you "need" so that you can focus more on things that you "want".

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Actually, since oxygen is a highly volatile compound, not needing to circulate it through our lungs and blood anymore would mean we'd theoretically live a lot longer. Oxygen plays a big part in cell degeneration. It's the thing that gives us life and the thing that kills us.

On second thought, I'm not a scientist, I realize this is information I picked up a long time ago and it may be complete fiction or BS.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I can't pick an answer without trying to base it on what would have the biggest change on how the world works. I guess I would pick eating.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Not having to eat would have zero impact on whether I get fat (I can probably count the times I've eaten because I "needed" too on my invisible third hand that doesn't exist because WOOOO FIRST WORLD). 

 

Since I can still sleep if i choose to, sleeping is the clear choice for me. 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
Sign in to follow this  

×