[Not So] Meta Shower Thoughts Pt.2

Shower Thoughts [Not] About Shower Thoughts

C. D. Michel

WHILE MY CREATIVITY IS DEFINITELY STRAINED to try to find new topics to write about in the SWR, fortunately I have been blessed by Callum Vujanovic who has allowed me to make a part 2 to his article “Meta-Shower thoughts”. While I lack the philosophical insights of Callum, and can’t provide astute and intelligent meta-thoughts, I do still have shower thoughts of my own, to entertain me while near boiling water is searing my face.

1. If rhinoceros horns, which are made from keratin, are crushed to form many traditional east-Asian medicines and then sold for millions on the black market, why can’t we just crush up our fingernails and toenails which are coincidentally also made from keratin, then sell them on the black market for millions? We clearly have an infinite supply of nails, so what’s the point of poaching rhinos when you could just use your own fingernails?  

2. Could I make it to the Olympics? If I dropped everything right now and trained my heart out, could I one day make it as a star in the Olympics? After deep thought, the answer is probably NO. I have the coordination of a blind dog trying to catch a ball, so I doubt I would make much progress. However, I have concluded that I would have the best chances at either cycling, archery, or diving. 

3. Mr Styles’ story about 52 factorial. While I could explain the analogy, it would probably take the whole SWR article. But it has something to do with walking around the equator, emptying the ocean while stacking pieces of paper between the earth and the sun, playing poker, buying lottery tickets, filling the Grand Canyon with sand, and finally deconstructing Mount Everest one rock at a time.

4. How long is all our hair? If we never cut it and presumed it never stopped growing or we combined all the hair we’ve ever had, how long would it be? Where is our hair now? Sure, it all gets put into the bin at the hairdressers. But where does human hair go? 7 billion of us it’s bound to be everywhere, right?

5. Why do all asteroids fall into craters?

6. What is consciousness? Why am I in a first-person perspective? Is everyone else also in their own first-person world? Plus, how are there so many people in the world? Every single person has a name. An identity. A personality. But most will just be “lost in time like tears in rain.”

7. Do animals have a stream of consciousness? We do, but do animals have this internal monologue? When you get home from work, does your dog think ‘my owner’s home’, or do they just subconsciously wag their tail and lick their owner?

8. What is so fascinating about chasing a ball for dogs? Even if they’re in deep sleep or hungry for dinner, when they hear a ball bounce it’s like their whole brain has been re-wired. Everything but the ball is out of focus. 

9. If atoms are supposedly 99% empty space, why are things solid? Why can’t I just put my hand into this 99% empty space?

10. How much cumulative time have I wasted doing the wordle?

11. Will we ever run out of different movies, novels, and music to make? If every day more literature is produced, surely one day it will all run out. Do we have an infinite amount of imagination, or will we eventually end up only creating remakes?