Would you plug into a machine that made you happy forever?
Notes from our group conversation class, where we tried to answer six questions that have no answers
Six big “what would you do?” questions.
Real debate.
And a lot of useful English along the way.
In our monthly group conversation class, we don’t do small talk. This month we sat with six famous thought experiments, the kind that have no right answer, and argued about them in English.
Here’s the idea behind some of them...
Imagine a machine that gives you a perfectly happy life forever, but you have to leave the real world behind. Would you plug in?
Imagine a magic ring that makes you invisible, with no consequences ever. Would you still behave well?
Imagine a teleporter that destroys your body and builds a perfect copy of you on Mars. Is that copy still you?
You can’t answer questions like these with one word. You have to explain, disagree politely, change your mind out loud, and reach for vocabulary you don’t use every day. That’s exactly why they’re so good for speaking practice.
A little grammar, the natural way
The whole class runs on one structure, and most people use it without even noticing: the second conditional.
We use it for imaginary situations. The form is:
If + past simple, ... would + verb.
If I had more time, I would learn to cook.
If I won the lottery, I would travel the world.
The situation isn’t real, but we’re talking about now or the future, not the past. That’s the part to remember.
There’s also a more elegant version with the verb to be. In careful English we often say were for every subject, not was:
If I were you, I wouldn’t do it.
If he were here, we could go together.
This is called the subjunctive. You don’t have to use it, but it makes your English sound more polished, the way a confident, educated speaker sounds.
Some useful expressions that came up
When you talk about imaginary choices, certain phrases do a lot of work. Three good ones from this month:
to plug in — to connect yourself to a machine. “Would you plug in forever?”
to leave (something) behind — to go away from something and not take it with you. “You leave the real world behind.”
to be worth it — to be good enough to be worth the cost. “Is permanent happiness worth it if it isn’t real?”
Try making one sentence with each. That’s how expressions actually stick: you use them in something you mean.
Want the rest?
Come to the next class!
That’s a small taste. In the room, six dilemmas turned into a fast, funny, sometimes surprisingly deep conversation, and a lot more useful English than fits in a free post.
The full language notes below are for paid members. They include all six dilemmas, the vocabulary and expressions for agreeing, disagreeing and reacting, a pronunciation point that tripped people up, and the discussion questions so you can keep practising on your own.
But the notes are the souvenir. The class is the real thing.
Once a month, a small group of learners meets to talk about exactly this kind of topic, live, with gentle correction and plenty of room to speak. It’s where the English stops being a list of rules and starts being something you can actually do.
If you’ve been a free subscriber for a while, this is your nudge.
Upgrade and join us in the room next time!
The next class is on Saturday 18th July at 9.30am,
and the topic is sport and the institutions around it.
We’d love to hear your opinion.
Full language notes (paid members)
This is everything useful from the class: the six dilemmas, the language for discussing them, a pronunciation note, and questions to keep practising.
