Small talk has its place — in the gutter.

Forget about social lubrication. Let’s penetrate the barriers of human communication directly, deeply, and unapologetically. Ignite the fires of the mind. Cultivate a garden of ideas. Shed our insecurities and tackle life’s conundrums head-on.

Enjoy this set of 100 random, fun, personal, controversial, existential questions meant to catalyze thought-provoking conversations (and internal monologues).

WARNING: Results may vary. Questions are known to generate outcomes ranging from enlightening and unifying to bewildering and hostile. Discussions may become meditations, works of art, freak shows, or war zones.

When indulging, consider 3 rules:
• You must answer each question presented.
• Your answer must be true to you.
• Elaborate as much as possible.

We are, therefore let us think.

Would you rather everyone be 30% dumber or smarter than you?
Spider-Man vs. Batman — who wins?
How much money would it take for you to spend 6 months in prison?
A train is headed towards a clone of Hitler tied to a track. The clone has all of Hitler’s memories and fully believes he is him, even though he was only created yesterday. There’s a button in front of you that can divert the train onto another track where it will instead kill a man who has been secretly cheating on his wife for years. Do you press the button?
What does it mean for something to “not exist”?
If you had the entire world’s attention for 60 seconds, what would you say?
Is catch-and-release fishing unnecessary torture?
Suppose God gets bored and selects 100 random people to be part of a talent show where only the winner will survive. You’re a contestant. What talent will you use?
A man pays for lunch at Chipotle multiple times per week. Every few lunches, he takes a stack of about 50 napkins with him. But he only takes a few napkins if someone is nearby to see. He tells himself he does this to avoid normalizing excessive behavior in others, even though he finds nothing wrong with anyone taking as many napkins as they need. Is he right?
Would you rather lose all of your favorite memories or never be able to make new favorite memories?
What would be the worst message to receive from space?
Is suffering necessary, or is that just something we tell ourselves?
Would you rather have one billion dollars or live healthily as long as you want?
How much of what we’re sexually attracted to is biologically driven and how much of it is societal influence?
If you could erase any one thing from existence without anyone but you remembering it, what would it be?
Would you stomp a random puppy to death in order to cure a terminally ill child?
Who or what is God?
Given the choice right now, how many years would you choose to live? Assume you’re given the guarantee of remaining in good physical health and won’t be able to die before the date you choose.
What’s the most important job on Earth? You can only pick one.
Would you rather be able to speak all animal languages or all human languages?
If any distance can be divided forever, is any distance actually infinite?
Serial Killer A has schizophrenia, was abused as a child, and has lived in poverty their whole life. Serial Killer B has always had good health, financial stability, and a great upbringing. Both murdered 10 people. Do they deserve the same sentencing?
If everyone and everything was paused in time for 8 hours except for you, what would you do?
How do you know if something is or isn’t art?
Burned alive or drowned alive?
If you were given 30 seconds to talk with your 10-years-from-now future self, what would you ask?
Is censorship ever good or necessary?
Would you rather permanently lose your sight or permanently lose your hearing, smell, and taste?
What do you think people will have nostalgia for 30 years from now?
A wizard has given you a remote that lets you rewind time back to this exact moment as many times as you’d like. Only you remember what happens. What would you do?
What is consciousness?
Would you support legal, regulated prostitution?
Is “faith” simply “belief without evidence”?
Would you rather enter an infinitely guaranteed utopian virtual reality right now and never be able to exit back into the real world, or live out the rest of your life in the real world and never be able to enter the utopian virtual reality?
There’s a button in front of you. If you press it, 1,000 random children will die. If you don’t press it within 30 seconds, all of your family and friends will develop lung cancer. Do you press the button?
What do you love most about yourself?
Where are we before we’re born?
You have 6 months to convince 500 people you’re the son of God. What’s your plan?
Would you rather have to spend 8 waking hours a day for the rest of your life in solitary confinement with nothing in the room but a lightbulb, or continue living as you’d like but have your remaining lifespan cut in half?
At what point is a parent no longer responsible for their child?
A wizard casts a spell over 99% of living humans, allowing the wizard to control their minds purely so he can eliminate as much suffering in the world as possible (greed, violence, division, poverty, etc.). The 1% of humans not under the wizard’s control want to free everyone else from the spell. Whose side are you on?
What concept do you think could have the most significant positive impact on humanity?
When does a life begin? When does a life end?
If you were given one million dollars tax-free right now, how would you use it?
What 3 words best summarize mankind?
Would you rather live the rest of your life 200 years in the past or 200 years in the future?
If machines can one day perfectly simulate anger and love, does it matter whether or not those emotions are “real”?
Mickey Mouse vs. Bugs Bunny — who wins?
Would you rather lose your sex organs or gain 200 pounds for the rest of your life?
Worms have no eyes and can’t perceive the concept of light. What do you suspect our current awareness might be incapable of perceiving?
If you had 10 seconds to say anything to your past self, what would you say? What if you could only say a total of 10 words?
Could a set of equations ever fully explain the universe?
Who are you? You have 60 seconds to tell your life story. Go.
If you were tasked with selecting 5 living human beings to represent humanity’s worth, who would you choose?
Why is there something rather than nothing?
Would you rather have near-limitless perception and awareness of the past or be able to perfectly predict up to 7 days into the future?
How do you know if the media you’re consuming is biased or not?
If we were put on trial by an advanced alien race, how would you defend humanity and argue for its continued existence?
What might people say about you at your funeral?
In a futuristic world where robotic parts can replace all biological body parts, how many or which body parts would need to be replaced until you consider someone to no longer be the same person?
What’s the earliest memory you can think of?
If you could have dinner with any one person from the past, who would you choose? What about any one person from the present?
Would you rather double the amount of emotional pain and pleasure you feel on a daily basis or cut both in half?
What’s the greatest current existential threat to humanity?
If you could ask the universe one question and get the truth, what would it be?
Would you rather know every detail of your future and never be able to change it, or not know your future but die in half the amount of time you have left to live?
How have your goals or priorities changed over the last decade?
If there was a way to painlessly and permanently alter the thoughts of a person you know, who and what would you change?
In the vast multiverse of possibility, what would be 3 variants of yourself that you’d be most interested in swapping lives with?
Would you rather lose all of your fingers or both of your legs?
What percentage of living humans do you suspect are better people than you?
Earth will explode in the next 10 seconds if you don’t press the button in front of you. This button will instantly kill someone you’ve seen in person and spoken to more than once. You have to choose this person. Who do you kill and why?
What’s the meaning of life?
If you could see one statistic over everyone’s head, what would you want it to be?
What’s a dilemma you’re currently facing that, if solved, would most change your life for the better?
Is every human being equal?
You’ve been transported to an alien planet. They have no concept of what “love” is. How would you describe it to them?
Is your effect on humanity a net positive or net negative?
Would you rather sleep on the floor for the rest of your life or never be able to ride inside a car?
If you were arrested with no explanation, what would your friends and family assume you did?
What would be your 3 wishes for the genie? Remember: you can’t make anyone fall in love with you, you can’t bring back the dead, and you can’t wish for more wishes.
If you had one month left to live, starting right now, what would you do?
1.3 million Earths could fit inside the Sun. 100 billion Suns could fit inside the largest known black hole. Do you matter?
What’s one example of a moment or circumstance in your past that could have taken your life in a drastically alternate direction if it played out differently?
Would you rather be twice your size or half your size?
If you became president tomorrow, what would be your number one priority?
Would a married man having sex with a lifelike sexbot without his wife’s permission be considered cheating?
If you woke up tomorrow and found yourself back in time as your 18-year-old self with all your current memories and knowledge, what would you do differently?
Would you jump in front of a speeding train to save someone’s life?
What’s something you strongly believe — and what would it take for you to change your mind about it?
God has ordered humanity to cut its population in half within the next 30 days or the Earth will be destroyed, and you’ve been put in charge for how to successfully accomplish this task. What’s your plan?
Was math invented or discovered?
If you died tomorrow, what would life be like for the people you leave behind? Consider the immediate aftermath of your death up until the point you’re completely forgotten by the last person who remembers you.
Which would be easier — fighting off 100 duck-sized horses or 1 horse-sized duck?
When did you last do something for the first time? What was it?
Do we have free will?
The mind of your partner and one of your parents have permanently switched bodies. If you’re a man, your partner is now in your mom’s body. If you’re a woman, your partner is now in your dad’s body. Would you rather live the rest of your life with your partner in your parent’s body or your parent in your partner’s body?
How do you know what’s right and wrong?
There are 4 magic pills that grant special abilities for a limited amount of time. You can only choose one type. Which do you want a bottle of?
- Pill 1: teleportation
- Pill 2: time travel forward or backward (once per pill)
- Pill 3: read minds
- Pill 4: immortality
A rock is just a bunch of particles, yet a rock knows nothing. You’re a bunch of the same kind of particles, yet you know many things. How? Why?