Refusing forced-choice hypotheticals

you’ve found someone you believe to be your soulmate after 20 years of marriage would you rather find out 1) they’re going to die of a painful slow degenerative disease over the next 5 years requiring constant care 2) find out they’ve been cheating all along

Jan 7, 2024

life doesn't hand you pre-written options. 🌌🏔️ when you're choosing, it hands you a mix of vast uncertain open-endedness 👐😮 and when you're receiving what has happened, it hands you one option

I would personally pick the "write your own option" box, and I would like to find out after 20 years of marriage that my wife has a mutation that makes her and some of our kids immune to cancer, and that can be used to solve cancer for the rest of humanity 👍👍👍

also you are not under any circumstances required to express hypothetical preferences (or even have them) (you are free to, but you don't have to)

Ludwig Yeetgenstein @yeetgenstein · Nov 21, 2022

When people ask hypothetical questions you can simply refuse to answer. When they say “ok but what if you had a gun to your head”, you can still refuse; the gun is still hypothetical. I’ll answer if you care enough to put an actual gun to my head, but you probably don’t.