Do you always question stuff?

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I tend to question what everyone says and reasearch it and some ppl say im always trying to prove them wrong, when im just trying to show them stuff, id like to know the truth wouldnt you?

It amazes me how people do things or use things they dont understand, they can just move on and forget about it not me, I need to know how and why!

Yes and I've found that people tend to get really mad about it. I can't help it, I want to know the tiniest of details. Well, I do have to be very interested in it, otherwise I don't question anything. I'm like shut up already lol

I'll start thinking about something random and then start making theories on how it would work. I end up being right lots.

But if I ask about my theory, I get told that I might be right and brushed off.

I think when I bring stuff like that up it is usually the wrong time (like when my mom is making dinner). *Starts to wonder how a fan works*

The internet is your friend!

I question somethings maybe more than most people, and this was a major problem in jobs.
But there's lots of stuff i accept from certain sources, in certain situations, without hesitating even. Though i might reconsider afterwards.
Certain things i question a lot, and others hardly at all, or only in most superficial way.
I'm now trying to think what it is that makes me question, or not.

Last edited by ouinon on 25 Nov 2007, 5:42 am, edited 1 time in total.

I question all sorts of obscure things. For example...

Why are the wands in Harry Potter programed/calibrated in Latin? Why do Quittich brooms have bristles at the end? Wouldn't it make more sense to have FINS back there to stabilize it in flight?!?

How do the cars in the Pixar movie "Cars" stretch their faces? Do they have muscle tissue under there, or are there a bunch of actuators attached to a deformable tarp, or do they use "memory metal" technology? Does the mechanical energy it takes to move their face come from gas they burn, or do they have alternative reserves of chemical energy stored up? (Lightning McQueen could still move his face after he ran out of gas.) Why do the cars have doors, with handles, if nobody ever climbs in or out? How do they turn their "eyes" if they're built into the windshield? Does the lens just slide along the surface with the iris? How the hell do they hold things without hands? Why has nobody invented robotic arms for the cars?

In Star Wars, the Phantom Menace, Why do all of the army droids have speakers and language processors? It's not like EVERY SINGLE UNIT has to be adept at humanoid interaction. What kind of ret*d robotics engineer programmed them to twitch and shift from side to side and say "um" and "uh-oh!" ?
What are the physical engineering limitations of how far a lightsaber can extend. Why not have one that can extend to great distances, so you could use it to attack targets like you would with a blaster? Speaking of which, what the hell is a "blaster" anyway? It's not a laser because you can see the projectiles coming out.

In The Lord of the Rings: If the Eagles could immediately rescue Frodo and Sam from Mount Doom, why on middleEARTH couldn't the eagles have flow the ring there and dropped it in themselves?
Why are huge trebuchet catapults BOLTED onto the spires at the tower of Gondor? Don't they know that the fatigue stress will shake the foundation into a pile of rubble? The least they could do is put them on rolling tracks to absorb some of the horizontal recoil.

In X-men, where does Iceman deposit all of the excess heat given off by the refrigeration process? Does he even obey the 2nd law of thermodynamics at all!? It seems that Magnito breaks the first law of thermodynamics (conservation of energy). Worse still, he violates Newton's 2nd law of motion. He pushes on the metal, and the metal pushes back on him in the same direction! It's supposed to be equal and OPPOSITE reaction forces. (Morons!)

So: Yeah. I question A LOT!

I remember wondering that myself. I think AN acceptable explanation might be that couldn't be sure an eagle wouldn't be corrupted instantly by the power of Sauron in the ring, and fly straight to Sauron with it. ?? Or follow its own equivalent of Gollums trajectory. ??

Then the eagles could grab hold of a very very long string with the ring tied to the other end, and fly with it dangling below them, out of it's radius of influence. GEEZE! I guess there are no engineers in Middleearth.

I think I remember hearing some rationale about Sauron being able to use his power to shoot down eagles, or something like that, but this power being crippled once the ring is destroyed.

I question my mum a lot, like asking her what she's doing.

That's interesting; in fact only the "baddies" in LotR are described as having technology/engineering more powerful or complex than that of the early ( european) Middle Ages. mmm
I was thinking interesting how your questions are all about fictional universes. I do that too, but also ask questions about the "real" one. Do you, just the fictional ones seem more fun, or what?

Admittedly, it's much more practical and useful to ask questions about the real world. I just like to scrutinize fiction because that's where I see the most opportunities to ask questions and make observations that other's haven't thought of yet. Scientists and engineers spend sooo much time and effort analyzing the real world (which is a good thing). I don't understand why fiction writers and artists don't spend just a little time on research, and put a little common sense into their works. Some say, "It's fiction!", "It doesn't matter!!", but the more well thought out a fictional story is, the more satisfying it is! and the more meaningful it can be. Plus, some fictional stories rely on premises that defy logic (not just that they're impossible, but that they break the rules they establish), and I don't like to be told to refrain from logical thought, because that limits my ability to enjoy a story (when I have to keep forcing myself to NOT think).

I'm not sure that asking questions about "real life" is necessarily more practical or useful. Sometimes i think i might aswell be asking them about a fictional one, for the amount of usefulness or practicality involved!!
Questions can be just as driven, just as partial and skewed by an "agenda", just as divorced from reality as any piece of fiction. Questioning the "real" world doesn't necessarily bring about understanding/clarity. Sometimes questioning a work of fiction can lead to understanding something better about real life!! Oddly enough !

I totally agree with you about the importance of a book keeping to a consistent set of laws, not contradicting its own rules of reality.
In that sense i think the eagles etc issue isn't too crucial cos as you say LotR doesn't go in for engineering, there is no law of mechanics in the book! . In fact for a man ( Tolkien) so utterly ignorant of machinery etc, he gets a very long way by sticking consistently to the logic provided by his linguistic system.

I wonder whether Aspies in general tend to do more questioning of fiction than of fact? More than NTs do anyway.

Fatal-Noogie,

NOW I know why you picked that name! I wondered some of the same things, but hadn't really thought about them. It is like the famous time paradox. In back to the future, when they go to change their kids, WHY were their kids that way? I mean they WOULD have changed the outcome because they KNEW what it was, right?!? when the kids were changed, WHY didn't they change back when the parents left? I mean they DID go back to the past where it hasn't happened yet. And when BIFF did all that traveling, HOW did his step son(the kid he HATED) have the freedom to see the professor? Wouldn't that have prevented biff from ever going? Of course, if he never went, biff wouldn't have traveled in time, let alone gotten the almanac.

Of course, Emmet Brown explained ALL of that! ****SHIFTING TIMELINES****! Of course, if that is the case, the WHOLE THING was effectively a farse, and not time travel at all, but traveling between parallel universes like SLIDERS! They never changed anything, because that was the way it was always to be. ALSO, changing something in one universe would then change it in the others, but don't get me started on that!

As for Harry Potter, I thought the same things as you. And they couldn't create a shield of sorts? What about poison? I mean just yesterday, I was watching a show about a guy whose wife poisoned him with thalium! Why couldn't potter kill voldemort without the deathly hallows? Knowing what must happen, why didn't dumbledoor just TELL HIM?

I really try to limit those occasions to my job where it comes to job specific knowledge.

I did tend to do that in private as well, but it's usually not very appreciated

Somebody tells you something, you think a second about it and realize that this can't be right.
You say "Well, that does not sound right, because ..." and this is followed by a detailed explanation WHY this can't be right, backed up by facts you know by heart. Your intention is certainly not something meaningless like proving somebody wrong, you just wanted to correct an obvious mistake !
Your counterpart looks at you and after a short brake says "But XYZ told me and I don't think he/she is a liar" - and from there the "usual Aspie" has lost. Typical people do not think about your arguments or facts, possibly because the story was completely unimportant, they just wanted to start a conversation with a nice story, and you totally screwed it with your neverending struggle for knowledge, facts and truth
Oh well ...

yes. that way you can find out the truth

In order to have a better understanding,I question things - but not literally.That is,
I try not to fire off questions to people as it can make them wary.Instead,I study a
subject or look for clues in things people say or do in order to understand better.