Dilemma 4/7/09

They went to sea in a Sieve, they did,
In a Sieve they went to sea:
In spite of all their friends could say,
On a winter's morn, on a stormy day,
In a Sieve they went to sea!

--Edward Lear

You have the magical power to stop one and only one of the following two scenarios. Which would you prevent?

1. A medical researcher working on a cure for AIDS disappears at sea.
2. An inventor working on a completely renewable, cheap energy source disappears at sea.

Dilemma 4/6/09

Yesterday, upon the stair
I saw a man who wasn’t there
He wasn’t there again today
I wish, I wish, he’d go away.

--William Mearns

You have the magical power to stop one and only one of the following two scenarios. Which would you prevent?

1. A time traveler goes back in time and prevents World War II and the Holocaust.
2. A time traveler goes back in time and prevents you from being born.

Dilemma 4/5/09

hate blows a bubble of despair into
hugeness world system universe and bang
-fear buries a tomorrow under woe
and up comes yesterday most green and young

--e. e. cummings

You have the magical power to stop one and only one of the following two scenarios. Which would you prevent?

1. The world is consumed by hatred.
2. The world is consumed by fear.

Dilemma 4/4/09

Up the airy mountain
Down the rushy glen,
We daren't go a-hunting,
For fear of little men;

--William Allingham

You have the magical power to stop one and only one of the following two scenarios. Which would you prevent?

1. Two little girls in your neighborhood disappear and are never found.
2. The government mandates that all children under the age of 18 get GPS tracking implants.

Dilemma 4/3/09

When we’ve fought the battle bravely and are beaten to the wall,
’Tis the sneers of men, not conscience, that make cowards of us all;
And the while you are returning, oh! your brain is on the rack,
And your heart is in the shadow of the shame of going back.

--Henry Lawson

You have the magical power to stop one and only one of the following two scenarios. Which would you prevent?

1. An unemployed man commits suicide.
2. A failed company's CEO commits suicide.

Dilemma 4/2/09

April is the cruellest month, breeding
Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing
Memory and stirring
Dull roots with spring rain.

--T. S. Eliot

You have the magical power to stop one and only one of the following two scenarios. Which would you prevent?

1. Lilacs that are bioengineered to glow in the dark accidentally crossbreed with normal lilacs until there are almost no normal lilac plants left.
2. Potatoes that are bioengineered to produce an important vaccine accidentally crossbreed with normal potatoes until there are almost no normal potatoes left.

Dilemma 4/1/09

Some say the world will end in fire, Some say in ice. --Robert Frost

You have the magical power to stop one and only one of the following two scenarios. Which would you prevent?

1. A freak scientific accident triggers a runaway ice age, destroying all life on Earth and turning the world into an uninhabitable ball of ice
2. A freak scientific accident triggers runaway global warming, destroying all life on Earth and turning the world into an uninhabitable inferno.