h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Hardly anyone can measure up to the actors and models that flood the airwaves and checkout counter magazine covers.

Not to mention what the AI is making up nowadays (though largely calibrated on what the humans seem to prefer).

I vote for equality, not based on labeling everyone (effectively causing new forms of segregation), which seems all the rage nowadays, but by considering everyone as a human being with the same rights and obligations, full stop.

That being said, I suppose I am not completely guiltless. When choosing which checkout line at a grocery store, I used to pick the one with the cutest checkout girl, which made it more worthwile if it didn't turn out to be the quickest line. That's all moot now, since got self-scanning checkout almost everywhere.

I must have told of my friend who used to theorise that there are only a limited number of archetypal persons, based on which he would react in a certain way. (I believe he said something like five or six types). Until he met me. I didn't fit in any of them.

It kind of depends on what country you're in, Caiman, as to how much variety there is. I can't remember faces, but I'm pretty good at recognising ethnicities, all of whom I like equally but am secretly proud to have noticed.

Unfortunately the area where I live now is less ethnically diverse than I would like, plus beards are in. I hate beards. They hide facial expressions and are liable to change shape or disappear without notice. Also, to me all men with no hair on their heads and a lot on their faces look exactly alike. It is disconcerting. They could at least grow their beards longer and braid them, or something. You know who I like? This weird cat guy on tv who cuts bizarre patterns into his beard.

http://www.youtube.com/shorts/FTplvy_xxdc

If I have to choose, I choose the Walmart checkout line with the oldest checkout person. They're usually less impatient and more fun to talk to. But then, I am old myself. We refuse to use self-checkout. I fear that the feature might eliminate jobs.

Yes, this is an excellent Deep Thought - at various times the internet has been criticised for allowing people to be 'not real' whereas I agree with you that people can be more real when "Nobody's judging us on anything but what we say to each other".

As a wheelchair user, I am often pre-judged, so communication can be challenging (eg the time I went into a tech store and was asking questions, but the member of staff answered the questions while looking at my companion rather than me). Another time I had e-mail and telephone correspondence with someone before meeting him - he was taken aback by the wheelchair, but was able to connect the dots in his head and realised I was still the person who had been helping him, so we had a proper conversation (the main thing he worried about was how I made coffee for my boss, but my boss confirmed I did more paperwork for him so he had time to make his own coffee the way he liked it!).

I'm fortunate in my local supermarkets that there are quite a few disabled people on the checkouts - they are good at maintaining a steady beep rate and passing the items to me so I can pack the shopping more easily

Exactly! To paraphrase Martin Luther King, we want people to be judged not by externals but by the content of their character!

And yes - finding people at the checkout who understand the kinds of workarounds you're using is a real perk of human interaction. Older clerks don't expect you to be fast - which can be good for customers with little kids, too. We can all learn from this.

It's true everywhere. At church, some of the younger folk seemed to look at me and my cane and think, 'Old. Nothing in common.' Until I played piano a few Sundays when Mrs Hoggett was otherwise occupied. Now they talk to me - they've heard me syncopate a few hymns.

It also works the other way. People's personalities and behaviour can be fluid depending on the situation / group they are in. Some people would argue that you are not yourself in certain situations. Personally I think it is just another facet of your self. Extreme situations can teach you about how far this fluidity goes for you and where you draw the line.

Good point.

Abraham Lincoln said prosperity, not adversity, was the true test of a person in his experience. He grew up on a frontier, so that statement made sense. The cooperation of pioneers sometimes gave way to competition when survival was no longer an immediate concern and there was money to be made and social advancement was a possibility.

Other people figured out what their European neighbours were really capable of when war broke out. I mean, who would have guessed that nice lady in the corner shop would turn you in to the Gestapo? Or that the sleazy, glad-handing businessman would prove to be a champion of refugees?