Twelve Questions Challenge

Hive account@shadowspub nominated me for the #twelvequestions challenge created by Hive account@hobotang in his fantastic introduction post. Take a moment and go upvote it!

1. What three meals would you have before heading to the International Space Station?

Tacos. Umm, because tacos.
General Tso's Chicken. With sticky white rice.
Strawberry Haagen Dazs. That's a meal. Don't judge me.

2. What section of the newspaper would you be?

It's a toss-up between the Op-Ed and the Comics.

3. If you were immortal, at what age would you choose to stop aging, and why?

Depends on the type of immortality. If it's like the Elves in the Tolkien Universe where I live forever unless killed, I would probably become nihilistic and possibly suicidal after I believed I had obtained all possible knowledge. That may take a thousand years or a billion, but I would get bored eventually. If it was true immortality, I would stop aging the day before all these age lines in my face appeared.

4. What sport would you compete in, if you were in the Olympics?

Summer Olympics: 50m Rifle 3 Position
Winter Olympics: Biathlon

5. If you had to go back in time to live the rest of your life, where/when would you go?

I know too much about temporal mechanics to answer this question without being anal-retentive. If we live in an Omniverse, reverse time-travel is impossible. I would be stuck in the moment my time machine activated and since time itself will eventually end, being stuck in that loop forever is a paradox. Even if it is possible ... think of it like this: If Marty McFly actually went back to 1955 and met his own mother in a linear timeline, she would have retained the memory of meeting him even "before" he made the trip. Furthermore, even if his presence hadn't been observed by a whole town full of people, the people in 1955 would have no immunities to the 1985 bacteria he carried back with him, and he would likely have caused a pandemic that killed millions. Regardless of what I did, however, I could only live my life up until the very moment I was required to repeat the time travel, which is just a paradox stretched out over a longer period. If we live in a Multiverse, I might be able to travel to a universe which has the same physics as ours and exists in what we perceive as the past, but whatever I did there would have no effect on my original reality. In that case I would visit other-me the day before they had a particular appointment with a particular head-shrinker at 15 years of age, and advise them to be honest. Simple. Inception, perhaps. But I wasn't always the good person you all know and love today.

6. If time and money were no barrier, what would you create?

Tempting, after the previous question, to reply, "A time machine." But if I was T'Challa or Tony Stark or Bruce Wayne or Adrian Veidt (why aren't there any women in comics with unlimited resources?), I would fund fusion research aimed at virtually-limitless energy production, which would hopefully result in world peace but would more likely result in us seeking other excuses to be barbaric toward one another. Once achieved, I would create a containment device that could withstand the gravitational pull of super-massive objects like "black holes" and use it for space exploration.

7. Have you ever completed anything on your bucket list?

I don't have a bucket list, and the only thing I really want to achieve before I die is to own an industrial hemp farm. I don't have the resources to do so on my own (apart from all the other things in everyday life), but I do have a plan to get there. Now if I could just get my brother to focus, or find some investors ...

8. What would be the most surprising scientific discovery imaginable?

A Theory of Everything. Because it's probably unattainable without an objective measurement of our Universe's geometry, which itself is probably impossible without a power source capable of providing enough thrust to overcome the gravitational pull of all the mass in the Universe. I wrote a little bit about this here.

9. Are you a good witch, or a bad witch?

I'm probably a good witch now, but I wasn't always. Nor will I claim that my concept of "good" and "bad" are objectively true at all times and places. (Some of you get the reference.) Because I'm neither so arrogant nor so childish. Let's say I'm a good witch but I know my enemy. Intimately.

10. If you had to teach a class on one thing, what would it be?

The Philosophy of Physics.

11. Which band/artist - dead or alive - would play at your funeral?

Tool.

12. What book/movie recently read/seen would you recommend, and why?

I can't answer this "recently", because I haven't had much time for books - we have hundreds here but I've read maybe a third of them - but my favorite book is probably Buffalo Soldiers by Robert O'Connor. The best movie I've seen recently is probably Isle of Dogs and my all-time favorite movie is probably The Departed. Because they are reflections of reality.