To ask for weird realisations you’ve had about life?

[goergia]

Things about mundane life that you’ve never given much thought but suddenly think “Now I think about it, that’s weird.”

I had one of these today. I live in a mid-terrace, neighbours are nice and quiet and we don’t hear a peep. A few days ago I had a snoop at one of the next-door neighbour’s house on Rightmove after seeing it was for sale, and realised that they have their bed right up against our party wall as I do mine. So even though I sleep in bed alone every night, there’s actually 2 people who I don’t really know just a couple of inches away from me! I don’t know why but for some reason it creeps me out. I’ve realised that in terraced houses you’re actually sharing one building with lots of people, many of whom you will NEVER interact with.

Thanks to covid, how little we really know about viruses. How they spread especially. Blows my mind that we couldn’t decide if they are mostly picked up from aerosolised particles, or through touching contaminated surfaces. How did we (scientists) not already know this?

How many people have a complete lack of common sense. Drives me batty on a daily basis. Particularly as I have to interact with them in my job

@goergia

Another one I have, is consciousness in the sperm or the egg?

So if in an alternate universe my mum had shagged a bloke other than my dad, but at the same time I was conceived in this universe (so the same egg), would the baby still be ‘me’ and have my consciousness?

Similarly, if my dad had slept with another women at the same time and the same sperm that resulted in me had fertilised another woman’s egg, would the baby be ‘me’?

I sometimes wonder if my mum and dad had got it on the date after I was conceived or the night before instead, would that baby have been me? Or completely different? After all no two individual sperm are the same - so even a 5 min difference could have meant a totally different looking and sounding human.

All this Ukrainian stuff is really getting to me. Russians sending in their army to murder, terrorize, rape, etc. Just like the Germans in WW2, and like we’ve done to many countries too, even in recent times.

I think this is less likely to happen with female leaders.

"I think this is less likely to happen with female leaders."

I wouldn't bank on that.

@Gwenhwyfar

"I think this is less likely to happen with female leaders."

I wouldn't bank on that.

I would bank on it

@Comedycook

I find it mad to think that when I was born in 1981, there were quite a few people walking around who were born in the nineteenth century...I was probably in my pram with my mum in a shop queue with them. I think that's crazy!

I can clearly remember in 1979 my dad telling me about a conversation that he'd just had with his mum. In it she recalled sitting on a wall in the street and a man walked by and told her to get down because she was too high up. She had been 3 years old. She remembered it clearly even though she was 90. It must have happened in 1892. My grandma! It blows my mind every time I think of it.

"I would bank on it"

Based on a comparison of male and female leaders and how warmongering they have been or just based on lazy gender stereotypes?
Even the 'saintly' Aung San Suu Kyi is presiding over violence against Muslims and Thatcher was no pacifist.

i think about when i die. how i will be in the middle of life - mid way through a series on tv, part way through a book, that sort of thing. life doesn't tie up and that freaks me out sometimes

@icelolly12

That there are billions upon billions of variations of human faces- two eyes, a nose and a mouth on a circle, yet they are somehow all different enough to be instantly recognisable to us as humans.

How can there be so many billions upon billions variations of essentially two eyes, a nose and a mouth to be instantly recognisable?! Do other animals, e.g. squirrels and pigeons also recognise each others subtle facial differences?

and why are faces 'beautiful'? I mean any of them? Why, of all the things on the planet are we drawn to them so much? What is about a face that makes it more beautiful than a flower, or a mountain or a lake?

and why are faces 'beautiful'? I mean any of them? Why, of all the things on the planet are we drawn to them so much? What is about a face that makes it more beautiful than a flower, or a mountain or a lake?

Lots of studies about this.

Lakes etc are not necessarily more beautiful than people, I haven't heard that said before, but we know humans are drawn to each other simply because of the familiarity factor. Same reason so many couples look similar to each other, we are attracted to what is familiar.

Another factor is symmetry. Faces that are symmetrical are more pleasing to the eye, also those with babyish features ie big eyes, small nose, as it triggers our sense of protectiveness and a warmth that we have for babies and children.

@RoseHarper

I wonder what the next big invention will be that alters our lives? One hundred years imagine handing someone a smart phone? You can access the answer to every question, communicate with anyone in the world - their minds would have been blown. I think it might be health related, a "cure" which means that our current lifespans are altered drastically. Our way of life and general thinking would be so altered if we lived longer, attitudes to work/life and the impact on the planet would be huge.

I think it will be hyperloop as the dominant means of transport, international and domestic. Not in my lifetime, though.

That life is a series of 'sliding doors' moments. If I hadn't decided to apply for my job, I wouldn't have met my husband. If I hadn't had sex in March 2012 my son wouldn't exist... Etc.

This boggles my mind...
That I'll be in the background of some strangers photos. I'll never know it or see those pictures but I will be on some somewhere!!!!

@MardyOldGoth

I had a Facebook memory pop up the other day. I'd posted about going for a curry with my dad. My dad died on the same date the following year. It was his death day but we didn't know the year before so we were just ignorantly eating our curry and chatting away on April 7th because April 7th had no meaning back then.

I'm sorry for your loss

It occurred to me recently that, every year, I live through what will become my own death date - totally unaware of its future significance.

@louderthan

I realised recently that people don't really change fundamentally; they just get different haircuts and different jobs and different relationships.

That's not true though

@mjf981

Thanks to covid, how little we really know about viruses. How they spread especially. Blows my mind that we couldn’t decide if they are mostly picked up from aerosolised particles, or through touching contaminated surfaces. How did we (scientists) not already know this?

How many people have a complete lack of common sense. Drives me batty on a daily basis. Particularly as I have to interact with them in my job

I think we did know it about other viruses (and different viruses spread different ways), but not about this one because it was so new.

@Antarcticant I think about this all the time. When I hear about a person dying unexpectedly and I look at their Facebook and see they'd posted one month ago and I just think, Jesus, they were literally on a countdown to their death and had no idea. I suppose we all are but it's weird to think. I could be typing this message and die tomorrow and have no idea. It's so strange.

The two triangles in pre-packed supermarket sandwiches are not made from the same square of bread.

My DM and my DMIL were born on the same day. I find that amazing.

weird fact on the Horizon science programme. If you added up all the people on earth and subtracted the empty space in the atoms that make up all those people, the solid stuff left would be about the size of a sugar cube. had to go for a lie down after that. WTF?

@CounsellorTroi

My DM and my DMIL were born on the same day. I find that amazing.

Mine and my sisters MIL's were born on the same day and went to primary school together.

Another one I have, is consciousness in the sperm or the egg? neither, its created by their union.

So if in an alternate universe my mum had shagged a bloke other than my dad, but at the same time I was conceived in this universe (so the same egg), would the baby still be ‘me’ and have my consciousness? no. The one made by your Dad would be you. The other one would have 50% of someone else's genetics so you may look similar if you both looked like your mom or you could look totally different. From genetics and environment of being raised by someone different, you'd be as different as half siblings raised apart.

Similarly, if my dad had slept with another women at the same time and the same sperm that resulted in me had fertilised another woman’s egg, would the baby be ‘me’? no, see above.

I sometimes wonder if my mum and dad had got it on the date after I was conceived or the night before instead, would that baby have been me? Or completely different? may depend on if your Dad had a wank in between. The sperm that made you might have gone down with the shower water. Assuming it was only briefly after, it's impossible to say, but there's a good chance a different sperm would have made it through first.

@Tinkerbellflowers

The two triangles in pre-packed supermarket sandwiches are not made from the same square of bread.

How do you know that!!!!!

Both parents and serial killers like to collect pieces of another human.

That everyone in the world lies horizontally at night and closes their eyes for 7 hours. If this not happen, pandemonium within lives, families and communities ensues.