Provocative Questions

Fandango’s Provocative Question #199

Fandango46 Comments
FPQ

Welcome once again to Fandango’s Provocative Question. Each week I will pose what I think is a provocative question for your consideration.

By provocative, I don’t mean a question that will cause annoyance or anger. Nor do I mean a question intended to arouse sexual desire or interest.

What I do mean is a question that is likely to get you to think, to be creative, and to provoke a response. Hopefully a positive response.

I wasn’t going to post a provocative question post today because, while I’m slowly on the mend, especially compared with where I was last week at this time, I’m still feel like I’m running on empty, energy-wise. But given that I yet remain — for a few more days, anyway — in acute, post-operative ortho rehab for a fractured hip and partial hip replacement, I thought this question seemed apropos.

Have you ever fractured a bone (or bones) that was serious enough to require inpatient hospitalization and a post-operative stay in a rehab facility? What bone(s) did you break? How long did it take in rehab (inpatient or at home) before you were back to “normal”? And did you actually achieve the same level of functionality you had prior to the fracture(s)?

If you choose to participate, you may respond with a comment or write your own post in response to the question. Once you are done, tag your post with #FPQ and create a pingback to this post if you are on WordPress. Or you can simply include a link to your post in the comments. But remember to check to confirm that your pingback or your link shows up in the comments.

Fandango’s Provocative Question #198

Fandango21 Comments
FPQ

Welcome once again to Fandango’s Provocative Question. Each week I will pose what I think is a provocative question for your consideration.

By provocative, I don’t mean a question that will cause annoyance or anger. Nor do I mean a question intended to arouse sexual desire or interest.

What I do mean is a question that is likely to get you to think, to be creative, and to provoke a response. Hopefully a positive response.

This week’s provocative question was actually triggered by a couple of recent posts at Renard’s World about artificial intelligence (AI) writing tools called ChatGPT. Here’s one post in which he shares his thought about it, and here’s a second post in which he talks about the rise of AI-generated content.

This whole AI-generated content thing intrigued me, so I downloaded a free AI writing app called Genie to my iPhone. I gave Genie a list of six daily prompt words and asked it to write a short story using those words. Here’s the post that Genie produced, in case you’re interested in reading it.

So, for today’s provocative question, just for grins and giggles, I asked Genie to write a provocative question for me. Here’s what Genie gave me:

What would happen if Al surpassed human intelligence?

If you choose to participate, you may respond with a comment or write your own post in response to the question. Once you are done, tag your post with #FPQ and create a pingback to this post if you are on WordPress. Or you can simply include a link to your post in the comments. But remember to check to confirm that your pingback or your link shows up in the comments.

Fandango’s Provocative Question #197

Fandango32 Comments
FPQ

Welcome once again to Fandango’s Provocative Question. Each week I will pose what I think is a provocative question for your consideration.

By provocative, I don’t mean a question that will cause annoyance or anger. Nor do I mean a question intended to arouse sexual desire or interest.

What I do mean is a question that is likely to get you to think, to be creative, and to provoke a response. Hopefully a positive response.

This week’s provocative question is one that Rory, the Autistic Composter, conducted a “mini-interview” of me where he asked a bunch of questions that I answered. You can read the interview with my answers here if you want to.

One of the questions he posed, and which I answered, intrigued me, especially given today’s giant political divide, not just in the U.S., but globally. So I thought I’d borrow Rory’s question to me, and ask it of all of you. Ready?

In your interpersonal relationships with acquaintances, friends, and family, are you able to separate political ideologies from the people who hold them? Why or why not?

If you choose to participate, you may respond with a comment or write your own post in response to the question. Once you are done, tag your post with #FPQ and create a pingback to this post if you are on WordPress. Or you can simply include a link to your post in the comments. But remember to check to confirm that your pingback or your link shows up in the comments.

Fandango’s Provocative Question #196

Fandango25 Comments
FPQ

Welcome once again to Fandango’s Provocative Question. Each week I will pose what I think is a provocative question for your consideration.

By provocative, I don’t mean a question that will cause annoyance or anger. Nor do I mean a question intended to arouse sexual desire or interest.

What I do mean is a question that is likely to get you to think, to be creative, and to provoke a response. Hopefully a positive response.

The holiday gift-giving season this year has pretty much drawn to a close. Sometimes we get gifts that are real head-scratchers. For example, one of the gifts I received this year was this:

This gift got me thinking about some of the more, well, unusual gifts we receive for the holidays (or birthdays or other occasions). And that leads me to this week’s provocative question:

What was the most unusual, unique, weirdest, or most useless holiday gift you received this year? Please feel free to substitute birthday or other occasion gift if that works better for you.

If you choose to participate, you may respond with a comment or write your own post in response to the question. Once you are done, tag your post with #FPQ and create a pingback to this post if you are on WordPress. Or you can simply include a link to your post in the comments. But remember to check to confirm that your pingback or your link shows up in the comments.

Fandango’s Provocative Question #195

Fandango40 Comments
FPQ

Welcome once again to Fandango’s Provocative Question. Each week I will pose what I think is a provocative question for your consideration.

By provocative, I don’t mean a question that will cause annoyance or anger. Nor do I mean a question intended to arouse sexual desire or interest.

What I do mean is a question that is likely to get you to think, to be creative, and to provoke a response. Hopefully a positive response.

The former U.S. president, Donald Trump, announced last week an online store to sell $99 digital trading cards of himself as a superhero, an astronaut, an Old West sheriff, and a series of other fantastical figures. He made his pitch in a brief, direct-to-camera video in which he audaciously declared that his four years in the White House were “better than Lincoln, better than Washington.”

These digital trading cards, which Trump says are similar to baseball cards, are actually nonfungible tokens, or NFTs, that effectively allow a person to claim ownership of a digital file. They’re to baseball cards what Bitcoins are to paper money. Revenue from the sale of these cards will go to Trump personally under a licensing deal. None of the proceeds will be provided to his 2024 presidential campaign.

So my question to you is simply this:

What do you think of Trump’s digital trading cards? Do you think it reflects a sound business and/or political strategy? Do you think it’s ridiculous and is something undignified for a former U.S. President (and 2024 presidential candidate) to do? Or do you have no opinion one way or the other?

Just so you know, Trump’s “limited edition” collection of digital trading cards sold out in less than a day, generating $4.5 million in sales for him. Did any of you, by any chance, buy one?

If you choose to participate, write a post with your response to the question. Once you are done, tag your post with #FPQ and create a pingback to this post if you are on WordPress. Or you can simply include a link to your post in the comments. But remember to check to confirm that your pingback or your link shows up in the comments.