If you were about to be reincarnated and could either pick your gender, time of existence or place of birth, the other two would be determined by some higher power, which would you choose and why?

Tough question. And one back to you @rojo: If I were reincarnated, do I retain memory and knowledge of my experiences from my first life? Or am I starting out with no memory at all?

I think I would probably want to be reincarnated as male, because that’s what I am familiar with.

Time of existence: Sometime after WW2.

Area: the Western World (meaning: North America, Australia, Europe. Not Asia, Africa, or South America).

I’d pick my time of existence because I’d guess that putting myself in the modern day will give me a higher probability at a decent quality of life than either of the other two.

Same time. I am not rolling the dice with Civil War dentistry.

Time of existence for the reason Mariah states. There are too many random factors which could adversely affect quality of life in the other two choices. A mill girl in 19th century New England? A water carrier in India? No thanks! (Although you could be a water carrier in India today, I suppose.)

@elbanditoroso Not as such. You may retain some partial memories or flashbacks during your early years but nothing substantial. And, you only get to choose one, gender, time or place.

@rojo Can’t I bargain with you and get two out of three?

@rojo – with those constraints, probably Place of Birth.

Wow.

Time of existence.

How specifically can we choose the place? Because answers like “the European Union” or “South Korea” would potentially allow us to limit how early we could be born. But assuming no gaming of the system, I would choose time of existence since the other two matter less and less as we go forward in time. I would make this choice even if—maybe even especially if—the other two factors were assigned randomly.

Canada or USA. Female and 2018.

You only get to chose one @RedDeerGuy1. Only one of the three.

Ok Canada or USA. Hopefully a dual citizen.

You do not want USA 2018!

I would go back and choose the 30s to be born in, like my parents. They came through the most prosperous decades I think this world has ever known. My generation is losing all that they had.

@Dutchess_III Thanks for the heads up.

Male for me. I like being my own gender. If the other two are a crap shoot I’ll take my chances. I’d prefer an earlier period of US history. I’d like to sail with Captain Kidd or Blackbeard, or explore the wilderness like Daniel Boone. I sometimes feel I’m out of place in the modern world anyway. And I’ve always had a fascination with the 18th Century. Go figure.

I guess time of existence, but it’s a really tough question actually. There are still all sorts of crap places even present day.

@NomoreY_A c’mon man! If you were a female you could get all the sex you want!

@Dutchess_III But you’re also much more likely to get more than you want.

@rojo It doesn’t change my answer, but I’ve been assuming that we can we pick dates in the future if we choose our time of existence. Other people, however, seem to think we’re limited to the present time or earlier. Which is correct?

Lol@ Dutchess_III. True I suppose but I still pass. No offense to the female gender, I’m just into being a man.

Hawaii

@SavoirFaire my original thought was that time is non-linear and variable so you can pick past, present or future if you wanted to choose a when as opposed to what or where.

@gorillapaws Hawaii , I thought, might not be the best place to live in the late 1700’s to mid 1800’s when the islanders were decimated by diseases brought by the Europeans coming to the islands and I would guess being the child of a Chinese immigrant brought over to raise and harvest sugar cane might not be pleasant, particularly after Dec 7, 1941 but then I suppose everywhere is a crappy place to live at some time, for some people. At least it is beautiful. Good a choice as any. There are no perfect answers.

@SavoirFaire More than I want indeed!

@Dutchess_III It’s a shame that you don’t seem to get much pleasure from what can be a very nice activity.

Oh, I’ve had my share of pleasure. But at this point, as Coloma said, “I’m all dicked out!”

poor rick.

Look, I was just responding Toe @SavoirFaire said, Here. And it’s none of your business so just get off that wagon. You don’t know our situation, you don’t know a damn thing about either of us, and it’s not your business.

You’re the one who raised it or I wouldn’t have but you’re right. I apologize. I’ll flag my last comment.

I did not raise it. @SavoirFaire did.

When the other person’s backed down, it’s a good time to end it.

@rojo That’s kind of where I was going with Hawaii. I don’t think there’d be a perfect answer and all would have their downsides. If you look at the total amount of time that Hawaii was inhabited, the likelihood that you would be reincarnated in one of the few bands of time when there was awful stuff going on is probably pretty small (especially relative to other options). If you came back in pre-contact-with-Europeans times (the statistically most likely possibility) I think you stood a decent chance of living a pretty decent life there as either a man or a woman. Although, I admit I’m not all that well versed in Hawaiian history and pre-European culture.