a happy marriage, fabulous wealth, political power). My wife and I made up this group game which involves giving people currency-poker chips or Monopoly money-and allowing them to bid on a number of life attributes (e.g. Life Auction: A Fascinating Way to Learn What People Value
I don't want to spoil it for you, but if you're ready to hear it, it's upside-down at the bottom of this page. However, when this question was posed on an online discussion forum, someone came up with an answer that got more kudos than any other, and, while bizarre, is kind of brilliant. There is no perfect object to see you through a situation like that. In truth, this is a super hard question because it's partly about surviving in a foreign place with nothing but the clothes on your back, and it's partly about integrating a modern person into a savage, superstitious, and disease-ridden time in history. Plus, if people caught on to the fact that your barrel's contents magically heals people, someone might steal it from you-or, even worse, you could be burnt at the stake for witchcraft!Īnother popular answer is "a gun" but, don't forget, one gun can only hold so many bullets, and it can't defeat an entire medieval army. If you showed up to a town with a huge barrel filled with a mysterious substance, it would be like a ball-and-chain for you, making it difficult to move around to find food and shelter. For example, many people say "a computer," but there is no electricity in the middle ages, so a computer is near-useless! Others say things like "a barrel of penicillin" but, don't forget, you don't have any friends or a place to live. Part of the fun of asking this question is actually shooting down the most common answers that people give, most of which are impractical. The object you choose can contain only the parts and accessories that are normally part of that object, such as wires or batteries, but nothing else. Besides that object, nothing else but the clothes you're currently wearing can come with you. You can bring exactly one modern object back with you to help you survive and thrive during that time. "You are sent back to the Middle Ages in a time capsule the size of a telephone booth. Pose the following question to a group of people-it's sure to get an animated conversation going and can reveal a lot about each person: The Ultimate Theoretical Discussion Question