Ep.5: Lucky, Loved and a Little in Front

In this episode of No Good Options, Darren, Sam and Pete discuss whether they'd want to see exactly how much everyone likes them, imagine a world where every luck-based superstition suddenly becomes real, and debate whether it would be better to stop time or see two minutes into the future.

Along the way, the conversation drifts into disastrous first dates, rabbit farming, magpies and the moral dilemma of time travel. As always, what starts as three simple hypothetical questions quickly descends into the usual overthinking, and unintended consequences.

Look out for new episodes every 2 weeks and if you enjoy this episode, we'd really appreciate a good rating on your podcast platform of choice and a share with anyone who enjoys questionable debates and impossible decisions. If you want to find out more or you have a scenario you'd like us to discuss in a future episode then head over to www.nogoodoptions.co.uk

Disclaimer: The views, opinions, arguments, and questionable decisions discussed in this episode are part of a light-hearted comedy conversation based on hypothetical scenarios. Nothing in this podcast should be taken as professional advice, factual guidance, or a serious life plan. Listener discretion is advised.

Transcript

Darren 0:28

Hello and welcome to No Good Options, a podcast where we ask the what if, if you could, and the would you rather questions that are just begging to be asked. Each episode we bring a different scenario to ask each other, ranging from the absurd to the surprisingly thought-provoking. I'm your host, Darren, and with me today is my co host Sam and our guest Pete. So let's kick things off with let's go with me first this time. So what if everyone could see? I don't know if I want to go with that one.

Pete 0:53

Yeah.

Sam 0:54

What if everyone could see? I think everyone already can see. Uh that's not like not much of a big one, actually. I think if we could see everything would be the same.

Darren 1:02

I'm gonna go with what if you could see a number over everyone's head, and that number was how much they liked you on a scale of one to a hundred.

Sam 1:09

Ooh, that's tough. Do I know immediately or do I have to work it out? So I wake up one day, see numbers above everyone's head, and I'm trying to figure out it takes me like a couple days. Like I'm wondering how long it would take me to work out that the number meant how much they liked me.

Darren 1:22

First thing, what would your natural instinct be if you suddenly saw numbers on people's head? Where what would you start with?

Sam 1:27

What? Honestly, my first instinct is I must be going crazy. I'm going to have to like wait a minute just to see whether it passes. And if it doesn't pass within like 10 minutes, I'm probably phoning like 111 or going to AE to check myself in. So what would that phone call sound like, Sam? Take us through it. It's just like Do you want do you want do you want one of us to play the phone operator? Yeah, yeah, yeah. If you want to go flight phone operator, do you want to go phone operator? I'm phoning it up. Like you're opening. Do you want to do Hello your computer 111? How can we help? You've completely missed the dial dial, you know. Oh, just yeah, yeah, it's like beep, beep, beep. I'll do the bring bring.

Darren 2:02

So yeah, it'll just be like you pick up the phone, Sam.

Pete 2:04

Beep, beep, beep, bring, bring, bring, bring. Hello, you computer 111. How can we help?

Sam 2:09

Hi. This could be a crazy question. I have not taken any drugs, but I am seeing numbers above everyone's head. Is this uh something that I should go to immediately say A? Can this wait for a GP appointment? Is it a recent thing?

Pete 2:22

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I woke up this morning. Is it this morning? Okay. Do you know to your knowledge, have you hit your head or had any kind of injury? Nope. No problems at all.

Sam 2:30

Just I'm seeing numbers. Everyone's is quite different. If I start talking to someone for too long, it does start going down.

Pete 2:37

Okay. And are there different coloured numbers?

Sam 2:40

Oh, yes. So these numbers, like obviously, the um the lower it is, the more red it is.

Pete 2:44

I think what we do is you should come in and see somebody because that's not really normal. So what would it we'll get a call back from one of our doctors, but in the meantime, uh I would like you to sort of maybe get ready because I think we're gonna try and get even an ambulance to you or for you to go into it.

Sam 2:58

I'm seeing the number over the phone while I'm talking to you now, and I'm assuming that's your number. It's going down quite a lot. Like, why is it? I didn't know they could go minus us. What are you gonna do to me? No, no, no.

Darren 3:08

The first thing is Pete, you have got a new occupation right there. Yeah, I mean it's screamed us down. I thought, I wonder where we'll go with this, and you went so sincere with it.

Pete 3:22

I'm working a career. I flipped straight back into the UN.

Darren 3:29

That's how convinced I was. So let's let's assume that hot that whole thing is an irrelevant part of it.

Sam 3:34

Yeah, yeah, you know it's otherwise my first like year is going through psychiatric appointments. So I wake up with the knowledge, I know what the numbers are, I've had like a dream, and like a mysterious entity has come down and said, I'm giving you a gift. You've taken a magic pill.

Darren 3:48

Someone a doctor gave you a pill and said, if you take this pill, you can say what people really think of you, how much they like you from a scale 1 to 100. They've given you a pill and you've gone, yes, I want this pill. I mean, do you want the pill?

Sam 3:59

Do I want the pill? That's our opening question. And I think I do take the pill, even if I know it probably will make my life worse. Because that's going to be difficult. Like you go, you see your parents, and their numbers are way lower than you thought they were going to be. That's a difficult thing to come back from. First thing, I don't think I take the pill. If I've got the choice, no.

Darren 4:16

I mean, if you take the pill, would it change your mind of you taking the pill if they knew you could see the number or they didn't know you could see the number?

Sam 4:24

See, I was assuming that they just wouldn't know unless I told them. Yeah. Because otherwise, I feel like you can't manually make yourself like someone. So what I think ends up happening is like if I don't like the person who's got the pill and they know that I don't like them, I'm not following a lot of the normal politeness rules because they know I don't like them. I don't need to pretend I cannot pretend. Yeah, good point. So it sort of gets to the point where I don't do any extra social niceties and smile and nod and listen.

Darren 4:55

So I do like the fact that you don't know. Because that's the way I kind of thought about it when I when I thought of the question, that you don't they don't know that you know. Um, so it is a complete like people have been really false with you, and you're like, yeah, you don't like me at all. You're in single digits.

Sam 5:09

What do you do, Pete, if you're forced into it? So the doctor is like, hey, uh, here's some like pay normal painkillers. You take the pill and they're like, ha ha, got you. You're part of this medical experiment now.

Pete 5:22

I would be very unhappy.

Sam 5:25

Wait, no, but would it change your mind if the number above the doctor's head was a hundred? Like they really liked you. And they really thought they were doing you a favour.

Pete 5:33

To be fair, no, it wouldn't. But I I think I'd prefer it if I just woke up with it, to be honest.

Sam 5:37

Okay, fair.

Pete 5:38

And I I I don't think I'd like it.

Sam 5:40

Are you changing how you act around other people to try and get their numbers going up? Or are you just accepting the numbers are what they are, I'm gonna keep being me. I don't know. Sometimes I I can be a little bit neurotic, so I'll be kind of like Oh, you'd call people out.

Pete 5:51

Maybe, yeah.

Darren 5:52

Ooh. Listen, you're being really nice to me, but I've got the sneaky suspicion that you actually hate me. Like if you were to rate me 100, let's just say you were rating me. I feel like we're around about five right now. Why is that? You'd be like that.

Pete 6:06

Also, as you say, it could turn into sort of somebody's figures are always like 40s. What's the point in even interacting with you? But what if they're at work and you have to, or yeah, yeah, stuff like that. And do they get to see what your number is as well? Or is it just purely one way?

Darren 6:20

I mean, actually, that'd be that'd be oh my god, this would be I'd pay for this to happen for for every customer you get to be able to see what you really think of them through a number.

Pete 6:31

Oh I love everybody. Um I think I think it would just be because as you say, you can't fake it, so you'd have that pleasant demeanour, you'd have that sort of smile. But what you really thought and decide is going to know what your number is. So it's a case of yeah, I I I that what would you consider as a good number?

Darren 6:52

Like if someone was a 50, would you be like, yeah, I can live with that? At what point do you go, I hate this person?

Sam 6:57

So I was about to ask the question about what this range means, because is a zero, they're immediately about to murder me. Like outright, they I disgust them and they want me gone from the face of the earth. Like, how bad is zero? And is a hundred like we will die for this person.

Darren 7:14

Yeah, zero is definitely nemesis territory. They hate you. I'm not gonna say they're gonna kill you because people not everyone is is gonna do that, but they could want you dead without actually killing you.

Sam 7:24

Yeah, this is kind of like zero is dark alley, no witnesses, they just need to hit a button. There's a good chance they would hit the button and just kill you, kind of thing. But they're not going to just go into a murderous rage whenever they see you.

Darren 7:36

No, no, no. They just they loathe you that much that they can't stand the sight of you, they don't want to be in the same room as you. Similar to our relationship, Sam. Um but then but then a hundred is absolutely devoted to you. So, you know, what not what score do you think I can live with that? It's it's it's low, but I accept it. And what point do you then start going, wow, you're a douche. That's really low.

Pete 8:01

I think it would depend on how well you know the person, right? Because if I meet a stranger, 50%. Yeah, or it depends on kind of like what the band, yeah, if there's is there a kind of like banding system, yeah, where you can categorize it and and put it in. But yeah, if if you've we're all really good mates, it's like, oh well, I I thought it'd be like 80s or 90s. Yeah, like 65, that's like, oh, but that could just be high as that it's gonna go unless you're like friendly and your your your family or whatever.

Sam 8:26

Yeah, I think I wholly agree that it's dependent on your relationship. Because if a stranger on a street is sitting at like 10 to 20 with me, I do not care at all. Like getting below 10 where they might actually hurt me, then I've got like I'm a little bit jumpy, it's a little bit problem, maybe I avoid them. But apart from that, yeah, I think like 50s is good for your average acquaintances, and then you'd hope to be somewhere to like 60 to 80 range for most of your friends.

Pete 8:51

Because that's how I'd say like beating a stranger, it should be 50 because they they don't know you either way, so it shouldn't necessarily be any.

Darren 8:58

But imagine meeting somebody new, that first impression. So you go on a date and you meet them, you sit down at the restaurant, and all you're doing is watching that number. And as you're talking for the first time and getting to know each other, all you're doing is looking at the number going up or down, judging how well this date's going. You know, how do you even operate in that environment?

Sam 9:17

Hey, my eyes are down here.

Pete 9:20

It'll become sort of like you'll become numb to it. So for weeks, months, maybe year or so, you'll be hyper focused on it, and then I think it'll just be it'll just blow into the background and you won't care because you've tried to you'll have tried to change the way that you treat people or talk to people and how you do it to experiment whether it goes up and down or to change it, and then sometimes it's just or you'll just not you'll just stop seeing it.

Sam 9:44

I would put forward that we actually have quite a similar thing that already exists in social media. In you put out a post and you count how many likes that you get, and then you try and get more and more likes. You start tweaking what you're putting out, what photos you're putting out, what captions you add in. Yeah. So we already have a system where you literally get to look at a number for how many strangers like you.

Darren 10:08

So in your friend group, at what point, what number would they need to be in your friend group for you to go, yeah, actually, you know, you're not I'm not gonna associate with you anymore that you clearly don't like me.

Sam 10:18

I think it does depend on how they're acting, because like you can have friends in a group who don't like each other, but as long as it doesn't affect the rest of the group and everyone else still likes each of the individuals, I think that's fine. I think you can function like that.

Darren 10:30

That's very mature.

Sam 10:31

Well, this is how me and you operate. Uh everyone else in our friendship group likes each other. I mean, he's got you there, to be honest. Yeah, true, true. How much changes if everyone can see everyone else's number?

Pete 10:48

I think that changes a lot. I think it does at first because then people might be devastated that they're not higher or or whatever else. You'll have some people that really don't care, but a lot of people I think would be like, I thought we were mates, why aren't why aren't we? And it'd lead to a lot of awkwardness, I think, to start off with. But then I think it would shift that you'd stop hanging around with those people or trying to please them because they don't like you. So move on and to find somebody that you might find your your tribe.

Darren 11:12

Friend circles are really reduced.

Sam 11:14

Yes, they would get a lot harder. Um, I feel like a lot of the service industry could go through some very, very rocky patches with customers complaining, going like that waiter gave me a 20 in like. How dare you? I want you to fire him and hire people who actually like serving customers.

Pete 11:32

Yeah. I know, but then it's sort of like if all the if if you're that that guy at the table where everybody hates you and everybody else is kind of getting good numbers, hopefully it'll force them to look into themselves, go, why am I that guy?

Darren 11:43

I could just imagine that you being in a restaurant with a group of people, and that one person who goes, Sorry, can I speak to the uh manager, please? And everyone who's with the number just plums at that second, you know, and everyone's put a fake smile on their face, but the numbers are all like five.

Sam 11:59

I wonder how much it helps some people's anxiety. So, for instance, there's a lot of people who get incredibly self-conscious where they're at like a cash machine or they're at the end of a queue and they think everyone behind them really hates them. And I don't know about everybody else, but I don't really tend to care too much. I don't really focus too much on the person in front. And I wonder if those instances their anxiety would go down when they look behind them and just see a bunch of 50s, like nobody cares one way or the other, that they're taking the time to do this.

Darren 12:24

That could really help people.

Pete 12:25

I think it can, but also it's like it depends on different emotions, right? Because you you can be in a real hurry. You need you you have got two minutes, and you for whatever reason you've got to post this this parcel, this letter or whatever. And the person in front, no fault of their own, who is posting, is taking forever. And you could just be like at that moment in time, dislike that person. And they'll look round and they'll be like, you'll see that you're in that 20s, 30s. It it's it's not you, it's it's me. I'm I I know that I'm feeling oh my god, harsh.

Darren 12:53

It's not you, it's me.

Sam 12:55

In relationships as part of the breakup, that would be although actually, how many more healthy relationships are there when people are calling it quits when they should rather than like holding out and it's gonna be holding out?

Darren 13:07

Well, imagine on that first date scenario, the date's gone really well. You know, you've got you've got them up to like an 80, a 90, and you're thinking, This is this is going well. Do you want to come back mine for a coffee? And then you slowly start to take a piece of clothing off. So, like you take your shirt off, she she looks you up and down, and then suddenly it drops to 70, and you're thinking, Do I carry on undressing? She still likes me a bit. Do I carry on? Or it's gone backwards because of my physical appearance. This feels bad. So you're like, I'll now take a sock off instead of anything that's going to show anything. Oh my god. Just to see how this goes, the sock comes off and it drops a little bit more, and you're thinking, Do I take the other sock off? Yeah, I mean, I feel like the problem is that you've gotten shirt to sock there. I like to keep my socks on. But but but you know, it's um that'd be really soul destroying. You get you could get really body conscious out of that.

Sam 13:55

So, because the other follow-up is so individuals who are like racist or sexist or like other problems such as that, but they treat everyone the same, their actions are fine, but everyone knows that they are, because everyone who comes in with an ethnicity that person doesn't like, you can they know that their number is low and they talk to each other and they get absolute hard proof that this person is racist, should like they be disciplined for that, because they're not acting on it, but everyone knows that they're thinking it unequivocally. Because at the minute, the only way that you truly know someone is acting like is doing that is because they will say something or they will act in a certain way, and then very reasonably they get repercussions for those actions.

Pete 14:34

The principle of it I don't like because it's like thought crimes. Yes, it's very thought police like. But if it becomes a social norm that this this this is happening and you can prove it, you already see that an opinion on social media or whatever that doesn't necessarily align with your the company's opinion or way you get disciplined or fired for it. So I think if this became a social social norm, it would start that would start happening. I reckon it would.

Darren 14:57

And that feels like a good point to move on. So let's go to let's go to you next, Sam.

Sam 15:03

Okay. You wake up one morning, mysterious entity has come to you in the night and gone. Tomorrow, when you wake up, every luck-based superstition will become real. So the idea you've got lucky horseshoes, you're carrying the four-leaf clover, that's lucky. You break a mirror, you're getting bad luck. All of these stack on top of each other. Like you cross a black cat in the street, you're getting unlucky. What are you doing that first day?

Darren 15:26

Farming rabbits for the feet.

Sam 15:27

Farming rabbits for the feet, like you're getting in on the rabbit deal.

Darren 15:30

Oh, 100%.

Sam 15:31

Is it sorry, is it just you? No, no, so this is global, but you are the only person being given a heads up for this. Like, how many people are you telling? Or are you just quietly buying up rabbit farms knowing that they're going to become huge and do some insider trading? Or do you try and get it out there as quickly as possible? Because how many people are going to accidentally break a mirror, accidentally walk under ladders? Like, before we realize what the problem is, a lot of people are getting a bad lot of bad luck if you hold off telling people.

Darren 16:02

Is a rabbit foot lucky if it's been farmed?

Sam 16:04

Yes. So this is like they don't care how it happens. You can mass manufacture horseshoes and it's still considered lucky.

Darren 16:11

See, I have a fundamental problem with your whole question. Once you get good luck, so you know, you have a rabbit's foot, or you know, you have a find a four-leaf clover or something like that, it would be unlucky to then get bad luck. Yes, it would. So you would forever have good luck.

Sam 16:28

Yeah, I mean, luck is still it puts a thumb on the scale. Bad things can still happen to you. It's just much, much, much less likely.

Darren 16:35

But but that'd be unlucky. So it wouldn't happen.

Sam 16:38

It's not unlucky in terms of you just increase your luck amount. It's like you get a look value assigned to you. So let's say you've got a 20%. Yes, it's like a 20% luck means that good things are 20 cent 20% more likely to happen to you, and bad things are 20% less likely to happen to you.

Darren 16:55

So I'm gonna get a lucky dip on the lottery at least.

Sam 16:58

So this is sort of where it comes from because yes, it's very lucky for you to like win the lottery, but everyone who owns the lottery is very unlucky if a load of people win the lottery.

Darren 17:08

Oh, I'm not winning the lottery, I'm just winning a lucky dip.

Sam 17:10

Like the just the little lucky dip. Yeah, yeah, wait. Which lets you a ticket onto the next week. Yes, yeah, yeah. Go on, Pete. What are you thinking?

Pete 17:16

I I I honestly think that I'm hoarding lotteries or clovers or something, and I'm gonna get a stack of cash. Where are you getting all the horseshoes from? No, I'm just gonna go out and I'll I'll I'll find them.

Sam 17:27

Yeah, they'll they'll be horseshoe salespeople. Yeah, I bet you can buy them online. Yeah, absolutely. Horses have four of them, so you know.

Pete 17:34

I've not advocated that people go and nick them.

Sam 17:36

But I was gonna say out of all the things that can give you good luck, horseshoes is probably one of the easiest, if not maybe the easiest, especially compared to like four-leaf clovers, those are more difficult to like buy online.

Darren 17:48

Yeah, but if you've already got a bit of luck, your chances of finding a another uh four-leaf clover at that point is.

Pete 17:53

Yeah, yeah. So I've yeah, I'm I'm doing that, and then I'm gonna get a stack of cash so that uh uh know that me, my family, my friends are all can be taken care of and good, and then let the world know.

Darren 18:03

You're gonna let the world know.

Sam 18:04

I reckon so how do you how do you let the world know? Is this just I you post on Facebook, you try and get on the news, social media, news, you know, radio, yeah.

Darren 18:12

And they would believe you.

Pete 18:13

Probably not, but it would take I would be quite lucky. It would be quite lucky for them to believe me, right? And I've now at this point got quite a lot of luck.

Darren 18:21

Would it be lucky for them to believe you? I reckon so. It wouldn't be lucky for you, because now they're getting in on your on your luck. Well, maybe.

Sam 18:27

This just raised the question of like, is luck achieving your goals, no matter what they are, or is luck simply good things happening to you and it doesn't affect things that are like net neutral. But I would put forward that if you become the first voice who figured out that luck just became real, yeah, you would go down in the history books. You would be alongside Neil Armstrong and Galileo in the history books, the discovering that look has become real.

Pete 18:54

I do feel that there'll be some, yeah, if if you've you've got that heads up, I feel that you need to do something to help the rest of the books. There will be evil people that have figure it out. Because if it's just manifest, but you've got the heads up.

Darren 19:05

They don't need to figure it out, you've told them all on social media.

Pete 19:07

Well, what I'd say they'll they'll figure it out and then they will try and do stuff for evil. So if you can make something you know good and be uh you know, become a philanthropist and whatever, so sort of get a some kind of whether it's wealth or a vehicle or something, and then do what you can to then give it out, give give the population the world.

Darren 19:24

No, I'd be far more evil.

Sam 19:27

I feel like you would run into a real risk of those in power trying to stop as many people as possible getting any amount of luck. Bearing in mind that luck becomes relative. So the idea is that if everyone has a horseshoe and a four-leaf clover and a rabbit's foot, then no one is really all that lucky.

Darren 19:45

It's just a 20% more likely to have something better happen to them.

Sam 19:48

By like pure random chance, but a lot of random chances, um, like you find 20 pounds on the street, someone else got unlucky to drop 20 pounds into the street.

Darren 19:58

But then that's where you kind of get in that cycle of once you've got bad luck, your bad luck will always keep you having bad luck. If you have good luck, your good luck will always keep you having good luck.

Sam 20:06

Yeah, it will.

Darren 20:07

100% true.

Sam 20:08

Until those with good luck desire those with bad luck to start getting good luck. And then, you know, their good luck can counteract a little bit. But of course, you've got the same problem of um like your average dictator loads up on every single lucky item there is and then works as hard as possible to start mandating that every year each citizen must break a mirror um so that they keep their citizens look quite low and they get to stay in power.

Darren 20:33

So this isn't the first time, Sam.

Sam 20:34

That I've switched to dictatorships.

Darren 20:36

Yeah, that that you've gone from taking some of which could be quite nice into the government just ruling with an iron fist.

Sam 20:41

Um, it's a real risk. Um, and I feel like too many times power can go to the few if it is not democratized quickly enough.

Darren 20:51

I am just going to be quite happy living on my new little rabbit farm, breeding and slaughtering rabbits for the feet.

Sam 20:57

Of course, the real question is does it need to be a um an amputated rabbit's foot for it to be lucky? Or is it very hard for you to get hold of rabbits' feet because every rabbit's got four rabbits' feet already worth of luck?

Darren 21:08

Well, not the ones I've keeping.

Pete 21:11

Does it just count for humans or does it count for animals as well?

Sam 21:14

I would say in the scenario, it's gonna count for like everyone.

Darren 21:18

I mean, the rabbit ain't that lucky, is it?

Sam 21:21

Well, you only benefit from each thing once. So rabbits don't get four lots of lucky rabbits' feet. Like if you pile up 50 rabbits' feet in every part of your body and in every pocket, you're only getting the benefit of one worth of rabbits' feet. Okay. So all you really need is to somehow make like a black cat cross the rabbit farm very regularly so that they are constantly crossing the path of a black cat.

Darren 21:43

What I'd do is at the shop, I'd employ a black cat to um, as people walk out with a rabbit foot, a black cat would be trained to go across them. So then they have to come back in and get a second one.

Sam 21:54

It doesn't counteract it, like the second one wouldn't help them. They've just got a permanent miasma of bad. Luck from the rabbit cat.

Darren 22:01

No, no, you just you just give them rabbit foot back. You just have a box, like you know, returns. Returns.

Sam 22:05

It's used up.

Darren 22:06

Yeah.

Sam 22:06

And then you sound another one. What's the superstition that would have the biggest impact day to day? Uh I think maybe magpies. Saluting magpies, whatever you are. That's a big problem while driving. Suddenly you've got to take a hand off the wheel, start looking at magpies to salute, which of course we never do. No, of course we we couldn't. Well, they'd have to change the law. But it's the idea of having to be forced to salute a magpie. You're driving down the M1. If you don't spot that magpie, suddenly you've got bad luck. If you spot him, it doesn't count. It 100% counts. It can't.

Pete 22:33

We're currently sitting. That's a good point though, right? Because I mean, what kind of rage are you are you looking at? Because you say you don't see it, but what if it's just over a little hillock?

Sam 22:41

Oh, I feel like you need at least direct line of sight. It needs to be possible for you to see it. Also, because when you're saying like not seeing it, I think your eyes will glance over it, but you won't notice that it's a magpie. Like a magpie sitting in a tree. You've technically looked at a magpie, you've not realized you've looked at a magpie.

Darren 22:57

Unless you acknowledge the fact you've seen a magpie, you've not seen a magpie.

Sam 23:00

Fair enough. But if you're driving down the road, you can still see birds while you're driving. So if you see a magpie while you're driving, you have to salute it or you get bad luck. Is it is there a certain number of magpies you've got to salute, or is it just every magpie?

Pete 23:11

Do you remember the rhyme as well?

Sam 23:12

Do we, as a government, not as a government, but the UK and every major government starts culling magpies to extinction because they are now an actual hazard to humans.

Pete 23:23

Well, no, because isn't it like one for sorrow, two for joy, three for a boy, four for a girl? Yeah, if we're just talking like luck-based, then you might need just to have permanent two. You know, like the there's permanently ravens at the Tower of London. Maybe there just needs to be permanent pairing of magpies everywhere.

Darren 23:38

All I'm gonna say is I'm doing my part, I'm farming all the rabbits.

Pete 23:40

Yeah.

Darren 23:41

Someone needs someone else needs to take on the magpies. I can't do all the heavy lifting. Someone's got to come to the party and call the magpies. Someone's gonna do it.

Pete 23:48

Yeah.

Darren 23:48

I was hoping one of you would be in that with me, but no.

Pete 23:50

No, I'd I'd rather say away from calling.

Darren 23:52

You've you've missed out on some good culling.

Sam 23:56

I'm trying to think of the other bad luck things like opening an umbrella indoors, that's not a big problem. New shoes on a table, never doing that. I don't think that's gonna affect anything when people stop doing it. This would be part of the research that I would hope universities would start deep diving into the research of how much luches you, how far can you push each thing? Like you're walking under a ladder, that's bad luck. If you're walking under a step stool, like you crawl under a step stool, is that bad? If I somersault under a ladder, I've not walked under a ladder, am I okay? Yeah.

Pete 24:26

If it's 20-runged ladder versus a 50-runged ladder, do you get more bad luck? Because these are the questions we need to. Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

Darren 24:32

So, are there any superstitions that you are absolutely religious about today?

Sam 24:39

Honestly, no, there's not a single one. As a family, we send each other white rabbits on the first of every month, which is meant to be good luck, but that's mostly just a fun way to check in with family rather than genuinely believing that it's going to give me good luck when I do it.

Darren 24:52

See, in my farm, I could send you a real white rabbit. It'll be dead because I've cut its feet off, but I'll send it you anyway.

Sam 24:57

That's God, that is horrific. I feel like that does not in the spirit of saying white rabbits on the first of the month for good luck.

Darren 25:05

So me and my sister have one which we are really bad with, and it's walking on um manow covers. So when you're walking down the street and you've got two, if you walk on two, that's lucky. If you walk on three, you have to say mushrooms, mushrooms, mushrooms, or it's bad luck. What about one? Uh one's fine. I don't think that's enough magic in it. No, no, you eat the magic builds, the more there is. So two's just the right, just enough magic, three's too much magic, and it turns bad. So I mean, there's no magic, it's just a grid. You've never heard of that? I've also never heard. This might just be my sister. My whole life has just been teasing me and it's not even a real thing. Because this is the immediate, obvious next question. What happens with four? With four. I think the magic's disappeared by four. I don't know. Four's never been a problem.

Pete 25:45

It's never never been a thing. Yeah, but it's always been because you've never stepped on three, because why would you?

Darren 25:50

If I so I do step on three if I've not been looking and I realise it, and then it's that's why you go mushrooms, mushrooms, mushrooms to counteract it. I don't like run across the pavement to step on a two or to avoid a three. Yeah, but I will walk around a three, but because I know I've got the magic words mushrooms, mushrooms, mushrooms, to deactivate it, and I'm okay. The more I say it, the more I think it's she's played a blinder. For 35 years, she's been drilling that into my head. She has played an absolute blinder.

Pete 26:17

I think we need to call the sister and find out what's going on.

Darren 26:20

Oh, yeah, if it's true.

Pete 26:21

Yeah.

Darren 26:21

It is not true, is it? And I've just been done my whole life.

Sam 26:24

Maybe it's a regional thing. Could be regional, could be that your sister is also a victim of the fallacy. If it is a fallacy. And she's doing that. Yeah, someone else is messing with her, and they've not realized how far this has spread.

Darren 26:37

Some families like pass down heirlooms and pass down nice stories. We've passed down a tradition which doesn't mean anything.

Sam 26:44

I like to think that like your great great great great grandparents found like a bar of gold behind two manhole covers and said that was luck. And then while they were carrying it, fell down a row of three manhole covers, dictated that was bad luck. Um, and they saw some mushrooms and started shouting, mushroom, mushroom, before they got rescued. And then they just had to pass that down as an absolute fact. This is gonna happen every single time. It's happened once, that's it. Never again. I need this to be an origin story.

Darren 27:10

It's all believable apart from the the mushrooms part, how you incorporate the mushrooms part.

Sam 27:14

Yeah, yeah, that one was trickier.

Darren 27:16

That's the bit that makes me think I've definitely been had.

Pete 27:18

Maybe they were tripping on mushrooms at the time, and then they realized it for whatever reason, standing on that third with manual cover.

Sam 27:25

Or your grandmother was the one that fell in the hole and your great-great-great-grandfather. It was your great-great-grandmother.

Darren 27:30

That was his nickname for it. That was his nickname.

Sam 27:33

It was just like mushrooms, mushrooms, down here, mushrooms.

Pete 27:38

We need to know, damn it.

Sam 27:40

We need this to be fat. It's gonna be added to the list. What if luck becomes real and we don't know about this? It's a huge blind spot.

Darren 27:46

Well, you don't know about it, but I do, and I've been serving that one my whole life, so I'm safe. So, final one, over to you, Pete.

Pete 27:53

Okay. Would you rather be able to stop time or be able to see into the future two minutes? You could do this anytime you want. Yeah, the stopping so you can do it anytime you want for uh as long as you want.

Sam 28:03

So is this I see exactly two minutes into the future or up to two minutes into the future?

Pete 28:09

Exactly two minutes. But it's something that you can be like, I wish that I could see into the future. And then you would see that, and then until you said no longer wish to see into the future, you could stop it. So I suppose you could be at the roulette wheel table or whatever, and then in sort of time yourself and you'd know what numbers were coming up and stuff like that.

Sam 28:23

Nice. Because then my next question is for time stops, everything you touch, time unstops for the things that you touch. How are you working with photons coming from the sun? Is everything super dark until I move forward?

Pete 28:35

Well, we'll go with like the traditional like sci-fi stuff where it's sort of stuff still works somehow.

Sam 28:41

The there is light, you can still see you can still breathe even though none of the air particles are moving into the vacuum when you breathe there.

Darren 28:48

So what you soon realise, Peters, when we have a fictitious hypothetical scenario, Sam looked for the science in it. You know, because the scenario itself clearly isn't the issue. It's the science around it which is the issue.

Sam 29:02

Do I still age in stopped time? Okay, so if I stop time for a decade, I'm a decade older and everyone else is fine.

Darren 29:08

How long can you stop it for?

Pete 29:10

Until you want to unstop it.

Darren 29:11

Oh I mean, I I'd go for stopping time. I think that'd be far more useful than seeing two. Because to see two minutes in the future, yes, you could make a lot of money on a roulette table, but you'd have to know that something's gonna happen. Or you're in a situation where you think, I'm not sure how this might turn out, so now I'm gonna do it. And two minutes, you don't have a lot of time to perhaps reverse it or to change the course. You can stop time, you could physically this situation, you know, I've just crashed my car, it's just about to roll. Stop time, get out of it, and let the car finish off rolling.

Sam 29:39

Ooh. When you stop time in your crashed car, do you keep your momentum or does your momentum stop? Because I'm in the like the car's rolling down the hill, I stop time and then suddenly I'm hitting the side at the force that I was rolling.

Darren 29:53

With no airbags now because you've stopped.

Pete 29:54

No airbags because you've stopped all the airbags I'm deploying. Oh, that's a very good question. Um, I would say your your momentum is stopped. Is it is it rated that? So you could be going down the motorway at eight miles an hour and you'd stop time. Yeah. You wouldn't then just slam into the front.

Sam 30:07

You're not slamming into the front, you like stop, you can get out, you can look around at the moving. Okay. And then if I'm like moving something that has momentum, so like I get out and then I start trying to push a car that's going 80 miles an hour, but it stops time.

Pete 30:22

Yes. So for instance, I've stopped time now, I'm thirsty, I pick up this glass of water, I'm still able to imbibe it, I'm still able to drink stuff like that.

Sam 30:29

Okay, fantastic.

Darren 30:30

It's incredibly powerful to be able to stop time compared to seeing two minutes in front.

Sam 30:34

Because the obvious track is you immediately go to how to make money with these powers, I feel. Is there a way to legally make money with these things? Because your mind can immediately go to it's very easy to rub bank, it's very easy to shoplift, but I'm struggling to think of legal moral ways to make money. What is the moral material difference between stopping time, going to the casino and taking their money, and seeing two minutes into the future so you know exactly what the roulette wheel or the blackjack's going to say on and taking the equal amount of money just that way instead?

Pete 31:06

That's a very good question. Um, and I'm just gonna choose to ignore it. Um to be fair, I'm gonna just pretend that that kind of doesn't exist.

Sam 31:15

Um I don't think that's an option. Well, moral question.

Pete 31:21

I suppose if we boil it down, then nothing, but it makes me feel better about it. Although the results are technically the same.

Darren 31:30

So is the way around the more the uh moral side of things, if you were to do a bit of a Robin Hood kind of scenario, so you know, steal from people who don't deserve it. How are you defining who doesn't deserve it? People who use their money for bad um and then give it to people who are deserving, you know, people who do a lot of volunteer work or sport a lot of charity work, you know, if you were giving it to those people, does that then move the morality bit of it?

Sam 31:54

I mean personally, absolutely, but I'm very pro-redistribution of wealth in general.

Pete 32:00

What's your thoughts, Darren?

Darren 32:02

Uh stopping time.

Sam 32:02

Yeah.

Darren 32:03

Yeah, for me, really easy one, stop in time. I like I said, I think for to see in the future, you've got to know when to see in the future. Yeah. Um, that I think is the problem because you may get to the point where you're constantly doing it.

Pete 32:13

Yeah.

Darren 32:14

Every interaction you have with somebody, you're like, I'm just gonna see what it's like. And I think you'd lose track on what's real and what's not because you're constantly living in that cycle of of the future.

Sam 32:22

I mean, how much could you control situations? So obviously, like two minutes isn't a very long time, but let's say I have the I want some information from someone, and I have the intention of asking this person, like, Pete, what's the PIN uh number to your credit card, for instance? Like I would never ask you that normally. 4195. Putting that straight on the podcast. No fear. But so I have the intention, like, yes, I'm gonna ask you this thing, and then like I see your response two minutes into the future, yeah, and then I choose just not to actually ask you that question.

Pete 32:55

Oh, then you go to like paradox and causality and stuff.

Sam 32:58

So it's not so much like paradox and causality, so much as like I just get to run a lot of like, oh, what if I did this? I do actually get to find out what the answer would be, and I just choose not to.

Darren 33:08

You're assuming Pete would tell you what his pin number is in that though.

Sam 33:11

So, and not to get too dark.

Pete 33:13

I think yeah, you've got it.

Sam 33:15

Yeah, but not to get too dark here. But I have every intention of stabbing Pete with a knife and threatening him to give me his pin number. I think he's gonna give me his pin number in that situation. He tells me it, and then I just don't do it. That's just what I've seen in my two minute in advance.

Darren 33:31

So, in that scenario, what you're saying is, you know, you have full intention to stab Pete unless he gives you the his pin code. You would have to put Pete's life that much of a risk that he would give it you. Otherwise, you're not seeing two months, minutes in the future of how that scenario would play out. Because the scenario isn't there. Unless he's feeling that, unless you've done that and you want to see the consequence of it, how would you how would you know?

Pete 33:52

So you're seeing like you're seeing what has happened, not what will happen, but what has happened.

Sam 33:57

Because here's the follow-up, if that is the situation. I see myself not win at roulette. I see what the number is, yeah, and then I put numbers, I put my money on what the number is, but I've already seen myself not put money on that number. Then is well, because like presumably I'm looking at the whole table, which means I'm looking at what chips you can do.

Pete 34:19

You would know on a certain time this number comes up.

Sam 34:22

Wait, I just know I don't see it.

Pete 34:24

It's not like it's not necessarily I suppose it depends where you you could look if you're not looking at the whole table, but you know at exactly 22 minutes and 30 seconds past 10 o'clock at night on table four, number 33 is coming up on the roulette wheel, because that's what you've been you you are looking at. So then you can decide what to do with that information at the at the time.

Darren 34:42

I reckon this is the exact reason why you can't buy lottery tickets for so many hours before the draw. Because it's to stop this real thing happening. Absolutely.

Sam 34:53

I was also, I think I've realized a very ethical way of using time stop powers as an ambulance service or a first responder. You know, someone phones 999, help, I've been in a car accident, stop time immediately. Travel to them, save them, redo time. How do you choose who to save? Well, you're stopping time, so you can theoretically save everyone if you're willing to age horrendously against everyone else.

Pete 35:16

But it's it it's it depends where they are and getting to them. Because if you think that all the cars and the road are going to be in the way you may not be able to travel, you're probably gonna have to go on foot or motorbike, I suppose, or possibly.

Darren 35:27

Yeah, it does bring its own moral question though, of who who do you save and who you who you don't save.

Sam 35:33

Because you have the capacity to save everyone for a short number of years until you age and then you're too old to be able to do it. How many people would you say is acceptable for you to spend your time saving?

Darren 35:44

I think you've you've almost got to carry on as normal. If you focused too much on that, you'd you'd you'd just it'd be a very lonely existence. Or you'd do it, all you'd be doing is constantly trying to save people.

Sam 35:56

But the number can't be zero. You can't walk around with the ability to save anyone. I mean, I didn't think about it that deep when I came with the question, to be fair. I do very much enjoy doing this. I need for extra hour to finish tiding up, I'll stop it and do it.

Pete 36:10

Or I I need to get this project done. I'll just do it for like little conveniences and stuff here and there.

Sam 36:16

If we're being real, is the shot being finished even if you can stop time? Yeah. Yeah. I'll not be the first thing that happens, but yeah, eventually. Yeah.

Pete 36:27

There'll definitely be leaps forward, which time will literally feel like it's skipped for people.

Sam 36:31

Do you think you lose a lot of your discipline if you could stop time? Because at the minute it's I've like I've got to do my taxes, I've got to fill out this report, I've just got to do it now. And suddenly it becomes, well, actually, I can just do it whenever I want. I can just stop time and go do something.

Pete 36:45

I think it requires more discipline because you've got to realise that every minute that you are, you've stopped time is a minute that drop the end that's been taken away. So whilst you can just sit on a sofa and in your pants reading the book or whatever, you're you you're you're taking you're taking that away.

Darren 37:01

So what happens, what happens if you stop time and die and die. Yeah.

Sam 37:06

It would as soon as you die, it would stop. Oh okay. You're not running the risk of just that's it, the universe is frozen. No, no, okay. That's good.

Darren 37:13

I'm not interested in the scenario now then.

Sam 37:14

Oh, now that there's not a universe destroying doomsday scenario.

Darren 37:18

Yeah, yeah, that's really disappointed me now, Pete. I was really hoping that'd be the case.

Pete 37:22

That's just sort of like your passage, sort of like it just remains the same.

Darren 37:25

I imagine if you spent your whole life doing that, at what point is it physically noticeable to other people that you've aged and they haven't? You know, if you're if you're with your wife, day in, day out, kind of thing, and you've been stopping time all your life, at what point does she go? You've now got the figure of a 50-year-old instead of a 35-year-old.

Sam 37:41

I reckon five subjective years becomes like noticeable to your wife. I think it'll depend on how young you are. Yes, that's true.

Pete 37:49

Because I feel like in five years' time, there'll be I think it'll be a couple of years different. Should be able to tell that I'm older. But if I was younger, it's like 22 to 27, yes, but it'd be a bit of a in between. Not as big. Not as big. And depending on how well you're looking after yourself as well.

Sam 38:05

I also think that most people would just assume that you've started doing drugs. If you're looking like older and more tired and a mill haggard, I don't think people are going, this guy can stop time. I think we're having an intervention about your obvious secret drug use.

Darren 38:19

You know, when you you're out and about and you know you you talk to people and they tell you your age, and in your head you're thinking, God, they've had a really tough paper and maybe they're actually able to stop time.

Pete 38:28

It could well be secret time stoppers. Yeah. Because we wouldn't know, right? If it was as far as we could, this could have lasted 10 years.

Sam 38:34

If they are, and I'm willing to go on the record for this, if that is true, they are wasting their gift. They could do so much more. Either that or there's like something that we don't even know how terrible it is. Like it turns out that earthquakes and tsunamis and all these natural events are like daily occurrences, and they are just stopping time, and everything that gets through is just when they're too tired. God, my sleep pattern would be even worse than it is already.

Darren 38:56

So, what would happen if you were having a nightmare? In your nightmare, you stop time. Do you wake up?

Sam 39:01

Yeah. Yeah, I would assume that like you stop time and then you just continue your dream as normal, and then you wake up as many minutes later as you normally would. Um, I think that seems fine. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's yeah, that's how it'd work.

Darren 39:13

So that's all our scenarios, and that's it for this episode. I've been Darren and I've been joined by Sam and Pete. And we've been No Good Options. If you've enjoyed this episode, then make sure you rate us on your podcast platform of choice and share it around. If you want to see your scenarios on a future episode or just want to get in touch, then you can reach us at nogoodoptions@ gmail.com. Thanks for listening. Until next time.

Band 39:35

Bye. What was your answer? No good options.