Here is a very interesting challenge. Let me know your thoughts.
Question: You are in a hot air balloon and losing air quickly. You can survive but you must start throwing off the
weight on board. Look at the list of what you have with you and rank order which you would get rid of first. Provide a
written response discussing the choices you made and why. Be sure to reflect on the last item that you keep with you.
Rank
p e a c e
t r u t h
j u s t i c e
k n o w l e d g e
t e c h n o l o g y
f r e e d o m
l o v e
n o u r i s h m e n t
f a i t h
maximum 600 words
There is no right answer, we are looking for your ideas. This exercise is intended to assess your critical thinking skills and your writing skills.
I decided to group things, because I thought some were essentially equal in importance. Faith I threw out first, because I’d throw that out even if I weren’t going down. Next I dropped Technology and Nourishment, because with the things I kept, I could recreate them. I threw out Technology slightly earlier, because food’s more important (also probably because I live in the First World and I take nourishment for granted). Next went Peace and Love and Justice, because again, they can be built from the things I kept. I don’t think I could rank them at all, because I don’t even think that they’re separate things. Next I got rid of Knowledge, which was a tough choice, but ultimately with Freedom I can find Knowledge. I kept Truth for last, because without Truth everything else would have been meaningless.
Tomorrow, I might rank them differently. Also, some of the words, I interpretted in a non-necessary way (like, nourrishment I interpretted to mean extra food, but it could also mean the food I’ve already eaten, or even emotional or intellectual nourrishment).
Thanks for all your insights friends. BTW, it is not a homework assignment. Anyway as i mentioned there is no ONE CORRECT ANSWER. The way i see it is given below:
In a hot air baloon you can descend only by controlled reduction of hot air, but in this case you do not have the control. So it is out of your control at what speed to decend. Generally it is a matter of minutes maybe 30 to 60 minutes for a person to descend, I presume. So probably I could do without the following ASAP:
1.technology (it has not helped here obviously otherwise I would not be in deep shit).
2. Justice
3. Peace
4. Love
Then I throw out:
5.nourshiment (bcoz i think i can survive hour w/o food)
6.freedom
7.truth
8. faith
Lastly I keep
9. Knowlwdge (bcoz i should have practised dangerous landings and case scenarios where equipment failed and what to do in such a case )
So in all probability knowledge of what to do and practicing and applying that knowledge gained is the key. As someone very smart that i know said to me " You dont now what all you really do not know, So go and get the knowledge. BTW pursuit of knowledge is ongoing)
Can be done without IMO. Technology because though its fun and useful, it is not essential for happiness. Justice because it can be replaced with forgiveness. Freedom because no one is truly free anyway
Then would go
Truth
Knowledge
Faith
I love all of these things but could deal with being a gibbering mess as long as I felt at peace, loved and was not hungry. I don’t really know what would happen without knowledge and faith… acting on instinct perhaps?
Finally would Go
Nourishment
Peace
and Id keep love, because I dont think its worth living without
God damn I’m just a big hippy
“Peace”. Peace is for the privelaged and the lucky. We’ve never really been that peaceful. Peace goes over board.
“truth”. Truth is nice but if you’re dead it’s useless. Not to mention a lot of truth is useless anyway. Over the edge it goes.
“justice”. I would rather be a slave than dead. Bye bye justice…
“knowledge” I’ll save you until i have no other choice. Without knowledge i might not be able to make decisions.
“technology” technology Is very useful, but not in a plummeting hot air balloon, unless it’s a parachute. I’ll just found new technology wherever i land… technology got me into this mess! overboard!
“freedom” well i’m not free as it is, so we might as well make it official.
“love”. They say love is free, but if it weighs anything then it can go right over the edge too
“nourishment” Before i throw this over i would probably take a few bites. I would be forced to gabmle and hope there is nourishment wherever i land.
“faith”. Faith is actually the fist thing to go. As soon as the balloon started acting funny i began forsaking my spiritual beliefs by cursing them out profusely, then emotionally recantig and begging for mercy, then realizing my faith wasn’t going to save me, i turned into a cynic.
And all i have left is my knowledge… Hopefully i land succesfully…
Hopefully i’m able to use this knowledge to re-achieve all the things that were lost.
Justice - “I am falling from the sky in a hot air balloon, from my perspective this is not justice, therefore, already being unjust, I dump it”
Freedom - “Being locked up or enslaved would be an improvement from falling from the sky”
Nourishment - “If its between being hungry now or falling now, I choose hunger”
Technology - “Obviously this is what got me into this situation, and if I do not have the technology to fix my perdicament then its useless weight.”
Now it gets hard.
Truth - “I can take a lie, especially if this lack of truth involves the fact that I’m not really in a hot air balloon, so mabye getting rid of truth would make my current situation Untrue.”
Faith - “Well, if something is inclined to catch me, its going to do it whether I believe in it or not, so faith serves almost no purpose”
Knowledge - “Atleast I will be blissfully ignorant of Kinetic Energy just before I hit”
Unfortunately, my belief system would allow me to die rather than rid myself of inner peace and love. Therefore, sadly, I can’t really include those as I couldn’t really provide a decent reason to do so, as I’d honestly choose death. Why lose two things that define who I am, to save who I am? In that instance, I would be saving someone else.
I would wait for the very last possible moment, and jump off with justice so I had something good to land on…Everyone knows truth and technology do not belong on a balloon because they are too sharp… Is that how you got the leak???.. If you have faith, you don’t need a balloon…Knowledge is nice, but if it will not fit between your ears you have too much… Peace, love and freedom are good for filling balloons; but if you have justice you will always have enough of those…Nourishment is the one thing no one needs, and should not carry anywhere…If you are going there, and there is no food, you should not go, and if you have food where you are, then why go… Let me offer some suggestions from a man who jumped out of a few planes…Only bird shit and fools fall from the sky… And this from me… Idiots consider hypotheticals… I did it this time for your fun. But as a noted English Jurist once said: There are no imaginary cases… While we deal in realities we do well… We should remember that reality presents us with enough problems, and it is only by assuming the greatest luxury that we distract ourselves with inanation… Keep your eye on reality…It can only get you while you are turned away…
Peace - If peace is on a a hot air balloon wouldn’t it be good to throw peace into the world? Off it goes
Truth - I like the ability to lie and the privilege to be lied to. Off it goes
Justice - Trick Question! this doesn’t exist
Knowledge - This is Magically Delicious
Technology - I’ll get some after I survive. Off it goes
Freedom - Trick! Off it goes
Love - It’s a Trap! Off it goes
Nourishment - Runner-up due to my fear of death and preference of living
Faith - I’d rather be depressed about my situation than have unfounded hope for suriving
Moral values do not have weight, and they do not take up space…They take time, commitment, and recognition to make them real in our lives… Yet, I doubt you could show me anyone who can live without some justice… Technology usually means some machinery…It cannot all be contained within thought… Other than that, only nutrition weighs much, as I can tell by being thirty pound ahead on mine…
How can you weight these concepts against the individual?
They are inseparable!
Neither has a weight in specified value…Only physical weight
The concepts will only have weight in the individual not in themselves, in accepting that, disposing of the concepts is no solution.
The only solution if the objective is too keep the balloon airborne is self sacrifice taking with you the concepts themselves. If the solution is to save your self there is no solution…
First of all; I do not recall there being a solution, but only a problem… Whether it is a solution or not, people often try to live without their moral values/concepts…And people often give up their moral concept/values to preserve life, which a free person must do to become a slave, to keep life, which is to keep hope…The simple fact of human existence is that we cannot live socially without moral concepts, and yet, alone, or without life none of these qualities has meaning… With the propect of life, or of a return to humanity, moral values keep their meaning, but when life is going all meaning loses meaning… Life is meaning, meaning is being… Come down to earth and live again… The experience alone cannot be shared, so it is never real… Think of life as Irish Hell, you will be so busy shaking hands with old friends you won’t have time for pain…
“You can survive but you must start throwing off the
weight on board.”
The solution I implied; sacrifice stuff on board to keep yourself and the balloon floating. Most people would want to survive. If we are not meeting a goal from throwing stuff over board, then the details of the question are not very meaningful.
I see it as a problem asking for ‘us’ to think of a solution. In which I did…my answer not of course being right or wrong because there are no right or wrong answers.
People are inseparable of concepts. You are as ‘free’ as you think you are.
A person can only deprive you from physical things not abstract concepts. Even if they screw with your brain you are now being deprived of something that does not exist, at least not to you.
Furthermore, the weight of these concepts you are perceiving are inseparable of the mind. Even If you could completely ‘sacrifice’ a concept for another you would essentially be sacrificing part of yourself.
The goal of saving yourself by sacrificing concepts cannot be met.
We are the moral concepts… and yes I would imagine a social life would be difficult without emotional/moral constructs.
I wouldn’t call it true… I think I might disagree with some of what I said.
Natural selection favors implications of physicality and the manipulating behaviors on the environment that cause proliferation. In other words: the result of a physical structure is what is selected for, not the physical structure itself. This gives implications or concepts a REAL quality? The physical is still not seperable of the result because the results causation is physical…But I might say they are both as real as it gets.
So…
A) concepts and there causes are inseparable.
B) Concepts are as “real” as physical things( depending how “real” is defined of course)
I’d throw
p e a c e
t r u t h
j u s t i c e
k n o w l e d g e
t e c h n o l o g y
f r e e d o m
n o u r i s h m e n t
f a i t h
off for the hell of it, and then jump out myself allowing the balloon to hit peace and land peacefully.
I don’t think it’s a good strategy.
I mean, if you are loosing the hot air, you don’t want to stay in higher altitude.
You DO want to descent as soon as possible, and then near the ground, reduce the rate of descent to crash land.
So, we shouldn’t throw anything until we reach terminal velocity.
And then, prepare throwing away everything at once at the predetermined altitude, depending on the rate of descent and other factors.
Probably I would throw everything around 10 - 30 feet high, including the gondola with the heavy propane gas tanks.
The rest would be the body weight and the remaining balloon acting like a parachute.
