31 ms·

Ask HN: If you were God, which problem would you remove from the world?

12 points by kite_and_code 4y ago

If you were God, which problem would you remove from the world?

drKarl 4y ago
I would eradicate religion
- raxxorraxor 4y ago
  But there would have been right in that case.
  - v-erne 4y ago
    Not necessarly - most monotheistics religions sells very narrow version of personal God. Me as a God would not fit they world view at all. It would probably be sth like K&P imagined : https://youtu.be/asnQGz7BdfI https://youtu.be/asnQGz7BdfI
7373737373 4y ago
Scarcity of all kinds. Would prevent a whole lotta conflict
- incomingpain 4y ago
  >Scarcity of all kinds. Would prevent a whole lotta conflict This is coming. Boston dynamics or James Bruton will eventually produce a bot that does useful things. From that platform it will later do more useful things. Eventually we don't really have scarcity. Sure this will solve basic needs like food, water, warmth, rest, safety. Of which are generally solved in the west. But this will utterly destroy psychological needs. Where do you make friends? How do you have a feeling of accomplishment or the prestige of doing something that a robot now does? In some short term factor we might have less conflict but those psychological losses where accomplishments are achieved by robots will lead to far greater conflict.
  - true_religion 4y ago
    What’s the sense of accomplishment you get from doing what another human being can do too right now? Psychologically, if you treat robots as people (albeit permanent slow witted, naturally compliant servants) then it’s easy to image a post scarcity world. We will all simply live like the upper class lives today except our servants and employees are made of silicon instead of flesh. Normal people would compete in the same way CEOs compete, by comparing how well they actually manage their resources.
    - incomingpain 4y ago
      >What’s the sense of accomplishment you get from doing what another human being can do too right now? So that's interesting right. Yes a plumber coming over could be replaced by a bot. But ultimately that bot replaces you as well. >Psychologically, if you treat robots as people (albeit permanent slow witted, naturally compliant servants) then it’s easy to image a post scarcity world. We will all simply live like the upper class lives today except our servants and employees are made of silicon instead of flesh. Like the instant I can buy a robot butler who will keep my house clean and cook me dinner. I do it. They will likely be in the $30-50,000 range. I'm getting that asap. >Normal people would compete in the same way CEOs compete, by comparing how well they actually manage their resources. It'll actually shift the economy to creativity. Robots make building an iphone ultra cheap but some person still needs to engineer and design it.
      - true_religion 4y ago
        I guess the unanswered question is did we humans make a society because we like people or did we make it simply because we needed goods and services? If it’s the former, then society will still exist because we yearn for human interaction. I might buy a book written by a bot, but I’ll still discuss it with my friends. Could my friends be replaced by bots? Maybe, but in the same vein my friends could be replaced by strangers but I don’t do that because of human fixation on individuals (e.g. I care what Joe thinks because he is Joe, no substitutions are allowed). However, if the later applies then society collapses except for the very few people who can create bots better than the bots can create themselves and the monarchs who managed to seize ownership of all the armed drones first.
_bfhp 4y ago
Male violence. Most novels and other fictional media will immediately feel antiquated afterwards, unfortunately
- incomingpain 4y ago
  >Male violence. Most novels and other fictional media will immediately feel antiquated afterwards, unfortunately Female and non-binary violence would be allowed?
  - _bfhp 4y ago
    I wasn't aware those were documented world-wide issues. Please fill us in!
    - uberman 4y ago
      It would have been easy for you to do a little research yourself. While one in four women in the UK are victims of domestic abuse, I guess it will come as a surprise to you that one in six men are as well. https://www.mankind.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/55-Key-Facts-about-Male-Victims-of-Domestic-Abuse-and-Partner-Abuse-Final-Published-April-2021.pdf https://www.mankind.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/55-Key... I really don't want to get into a tit-for-tat argument and I universally condemn all forms of domestic abuse but to single out "male violence" and then double down on it makes you look ignorant.
      - _bfhp 4y ago
        Emotional abuse in relationships being a world-wide issue is kind of a separate thing to what I said
    - true_religion 4y ago
      Women serve in the military and police force too… I’m not sure that the army would simply collapse without men. It’s more likely that women will continue to fight the same wars, while men stay at home and raise the next generation.
incomingpain 4y ago
Lets say I find an infinity gauntlet. What would I change? Probably nothing.
phdelightful 4y ago
I'd remove the collective action problem. That would empower humans to solve their big problems as they see fit!
spapas82 4y ago
Cancer
bouncycastle 4y ago
nation states
- thanatos519 4y ago
  Hear, hear! Institutionalized tribalism sucks. I would go further and remove the idea of "self". This leads to the idea that other organisms are "not me" and ... well, that seems to have led to our failure to solve our shared problems.
  - true_religion 4y ago
    It would change human psychology too much I think. Genuinely today, other people are not you since if you die, you take with you your entire experiential existence and they continue unchanged. If your mind continues to live on after your body dies, then what is humanity? A hive mind?
LinuxBender 4y ago
If I were a god I would not solve any problems. I am a lazy god after all. Rather I might empower mortals to resolve their own issues. My first change would be to universally speed up the intellectual evolution so that they might see the errors in their ways sooner. At the same time I might improve their endocrine system so that the increased intelligence does not lead to significant spikes in depression. No, I am not making them into Dr. Spock. Just enough control so that the rational mind is more dominant. Oh and being a god with a sense of humor and given that you want me to work, I might turn things around in the food chain just a smidge and teach deer how to form a pack and hunt their predators.
rini17 4y ago
As a God I would be vastly more informed so as what to best remove.
rogerian 4y ago
white people?
green5 4y ago
true_religion 4y ago
Oh that’s easy. I would make it so that everything oil the solar system was edible and nontoxic to human beings, thus solving world hunger in a single swoop. Additionally, this would solve people’s worries about nuclear energy, allow all water to be potable, resolve many pollution problems and make exploration of Mars so much easier (we can breathe the air and eat dirt). As for everything else, I would leave it as it is… I’m not sure if you could still call us humanity if you change too much about human nature (e.g. forcibly ending wars, reducing conflict drive, etc.)
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
groffee 4y ago
'What really interests me is whether God had any choice in the creation of the world' - Albert Einstein
Shadonototra 4y ago
nice, hackernews is the new place to be for secularity
jacknews 4y ago
There are no problems, only challenges.
uberman 4y ago
I would keep things more or less as they are now. The two changes I would definitely make would be to: - Quietly eliminate childhood cancer and diabetes (probably most terminal childhood illnesses) - Very very publicly remove any question about my wrathful existence. Then I would give humanity a century to think about how they respond before deciding what my next step (if any) was.
recursivedoubts 4y ago
I am in no position to understand the ramifications of any choice I would make. “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord." “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts."
krapp 4y ago
Warp drives are possible now. You're welcome. Now get off of my lawn. I AM THE LORD.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
adyashakti 4y ago
God is perfect, and the world is perfect just the way it is. Suffering is an incentive for Self-realization. And anyway, most problems are human-created and self-created. We as a species don’t know how to live gracefully and gratefully in God’s perfect world. Fix yourself before asking for miracles, and you will see all the miracles are already done; you just can’t see them with your ego blinders on.
- godDLL 4y ago
  That describes how it is, wherein there is no place for the above question. QED\ But, what if you're not using your perceptory/sensory consciously and can't even read that answer in the way it's formulated. Then you still have a question, still think it's a question about a subject. Where is the subject though? Is there a subject?
godDLL 4y ago
The thing that goes "bad idea" when you're about to do a thing is a form of God. An expression of God. Future you knows anything you choose to know right now. Is ready for anything you wish to be ready for, anywhere. Has anything you require, given time enough. And so, is basically a form of God as well. If future you doesn't love you then you've solved the only problem in philosophy in a surprising and quite lethal manner. So, I will through alchemy transfigure your question into "what would you encounter that you rather avoid on your way to being God?" Hm. It seems that to really want to, desire to avoid something I have to had been traumatized by it to some extent, prior. I will posit that aversion and attraction are two parts of what Buddha called "attachement", though there are more to it. So if I wanted me to not have an experience, that (would) only happen if I had that experience, which means the experience has to have been had. English is very good at processes, relations maybe not so much. I don't know how to have the thought that breeds the question that you wrote down, OK. Or are you asking me to make a choice for you? If so, then, emphatically: "DO LIVE YOUR OWN LIFE", none of your problems for me, thank you..
Bancakes 4y ago
Assuming I'm the absolutely benevolent God, I would remove free will and instill a equally benevolent and constructive hivemind. We evolved, by chance and experiment, into emotions and social structures. We can evolve out of them when we get something more profitable. People are not that interesting or influential, and we would be more productive as ants.
morninglight 4y ago
Before playing God, a little basic training is in order: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2tp0UNcjzl8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2tp0UNcjzl8 .
gremlinsinc 4y ago
Religion, cults, billionaires, and corrupt politicians. I'd have an app that tracks all funds of wealthy and when it hits 1 billion: congratulations you win at life, now you get to go join the rest of the billionaires in hell. As for religion, I'd prove I exist and also tell people if you even try to worship me, you'll go join the billionaires. Anyone even seeming a bit tyrannical, oligarchical, or influenced by special interests and greed will also join billionaires. I might give a warning if they mean well, if they're like Putin or Kim Jong Yun, nah.
filoeleven 4y ago
Miscommunication. This probably has knock-on effects when it comes to lying and deception which I cannot figure out in my current non-divine state.
- akvadrako 4y ago
  And yet God brought down the tower of Babel because miscommunication is better than communicating about the wrong thing.
  - filoeleven 4y ago
    Eh, I’d be okay with the humans trying to become like me. (In the theoretical sense again; I ain’t a role model in this incarnation.)
lcordier 4y ago
It is so easy... God is Love, the opposite of Love is not Hate but Indifference. Remove Indifference. Everything else is just opportunities. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CI41MtiNsls https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CI41MtiNsls

12 points by kite_and_code 4y ago

If you were God, which problem would you remove from the world?

drKarl 4y ago

I would eradicate religion

raxxorraxor 4y ago
But there would have been right in that case.
- v-erne 4y ago
  Not necessarly - most monotheistics religions sells very narrow version of personal God. Me as a God would not fit they world view at all. It would probably be sth like K&P imagined : https://youtu.be/asnQGz7BdfI https://youtu.be/asnQGz7BdfI

7373737373 4y ago

Scarcity of all kinds. Would prevent a whole lotta conflict

incomingpain 4y ago
>Scarcity of all kinds. Would prevent a whole lotta conflict This is coming. Boston dynamics or James Bruton will eventually produce a bot that does useful things. From that platform it will later do more useful things. Eventually we don't really have scarcity. Sure this will solve basic needs like food, water, warmth, rest, safety. Of which are generally solved in the west. But this will utterly destroy psychological needs. Where do you make friends? How do you have a feeling of accomplishment or the prestige of doing something that a robot now does? In some short term factor we might have less conflict but those psychological losses where accomplishments are achieved by robots will lead to far greater conflict.
- true_religion 4y ago
  What’s the sense of accomplishment you get from doing what another human being can do too right now? Psychologically, if you treat robots as people (albeit permanent slow witted, naturally compliant servants) then it’s easy to image a post scarcity world. We will all simply live like the upper class lives today except our servants and employees are made of silicon instead of flesh. Normal people would compete in the same way CEOs compete, by comparing how well they actually manage their resources.
  - incomingpain 4y ago
    >What’s the sense of accomplishment you get from doing what another human being can do too right now? So that's interesting right. Yes a plumber coming over could be replaced by a bot. But ultimately that bot replaces you as well. >Psychologically, if you treat robots as people (albeit permanent slow witted, naturally compliant servants) then it’s easy to image a post scarcity world. We will all simply live like the upper class lives today except our servants and employees are made of silicon instead of flesh. Like the instant I can buy a robot butler who will keep my house clean and cook me dinner. I do it. They will likely be in the $30-50,000 range. I'm getting that asap. >Normal people would compete in the same way CEOs compete, by comparing how well they actually manage their resources. It'll actually shift the economy to creativity. Robots make building an iphone ultra cheap but some person still needs to engineer and design it.
    - true_religion 4y ago
      I guess the unanswered question is did we humans make a society because we like people or did we make it simply because we needed goods and services? If it’s the former, then society will still exist because we yearn for human interaction. I might buy a book written by a bot, but I’ll still discuss it with my friends. Could my friends be replaced by bots? Maybe, but in the same vein my friends could be replaced by strangers but I don’t do that because of human fixation on individuals (e.g. I care what Joe thinks because he is Joe, no substitutions are allowed). However, if the later applies then society collapses except for the very few people who can create bots better than the bots can create themselves and the monarchs who managed to seize ownership of all the armed drones first.

_bfhp 4y ago

Male violence. Most novels and other fictional media will immediately feel antiquated afterwards, unfortunately

incomingpain 4y ago
>Male violence. Most novels and other fictional media will immediately feel antiquated afterwards, unfortunately Female and non-binary violence would be allowed?
- _bfhp 4y ago
  I wasn't aware those were documented world-wide issues. Please fill us in!
  - uberman 4y ago
    It would have been easy for you to do a little research yourself. While one in four women in the UK are victims of domestic abuse, I guess it will come as a surprise to you that one in six men are as well. https://www.mankind.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/55-Key-Facts-about-Male-Victims-of-Domestic-Abuse-and-Partner-Abuse-Final-Published-April-2021.pdf https://www.mankind.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/55-Key... I really don't want to get into a tit-for-tat argument and I universally condemn all forms of domestic abuse but to single out "male violence" and then double down on it makes you look ignorant.
    - _bfhp 4y ago
      Emotional abuse in relationships being a world-wide issue is kind of a separate thing to what I said
  - true_religion 4y ago
    Women serve in the military and police force too… I’m not sure that the army would simply collapse without men. It’s more likely that women will continue to fight the same wars, while men stay at home and raise the next generation.

incomingpain 4y ago

Lets say I find an infinity gauntlet. What would I change? Probably nothing.

phdelightful 4y ago

I'd remove the collective action problem. That would empower humans to solve their big problems as they see fit!

spapas82 4y ago

Cancer

bouncycastle 4y ago

nation states

thanatos519 4y ago
Hear, hear! Institutionalized tribalism sucks. I would go further and remove the idea of "self". This leads to the idea that other organisms are "not me" and ... well, that seems to have led to our failure to solve our shared problems.
- true_religion 4y ago
  It would change human psychology too much I think. Genuinely today, other people are not you since if you die, you take with you your entire experiential existence and they continue unchanged. If your mind continues to live on after your body dies, then what is humanity? A hive mind?

LinuxBender 4y ago

If I were a god I would not solve any problems. I am a lazy god after all. Rather I might empower mortals to resolve their own issues. My first change would be to universally speed up the intellectual evolution so that they might see the errors in their ways sooner. At the same time I might improve their endocrine system so that the increased intelligence does not lead to significant spikes in depression. No, I am not making them into Dr. Spock. Just enough control so that the rational mind is more dominant. Oh and being a god with a sense of humor and given that you want me to work, I might turn things around in the food chain just a smidge and teach deer how to form a pack and hunt their predators.

rini17 4y ago

As a God I would be vastly more informed so as what to best remove.

rogerian 4y ago

white people?

green5 4y ago

true_religion 4y ago

Oh that’s easy. I would make it so that everything oil the solar system was edible and nontoxic to human beings, thus solving world hunger in a single swoop. Additionally, this would solve people’s worries about nuclear energy, allow all water to be potable, resolve many pollution problems and make exploration of Mars so much easier (we can breathe the air and eat dirt). As for everything else, I would leave it as it is… I’m not sure if you could still call us humanity if you change too much about human nature (e.g. forcibly ending wars, reducing conflict drive, etc.)

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]

groffee 4y ago

'What really interests me is whether God had any choice in the creation of the world' - Albert Einstein

Shadonototra 4y ago

nice, hackernews is the new place to be for secularity

jacknews 4y ago

There are no problems, only challenges.

uberman 4y ago

I would keep things more or less as they are now. The two changes I would definitely make would be to: - Quietly eliminate childhood cancer and diabetes (probably most terminal childhood illnesses) - Very very publicly remove any question about my wrathful existence. Then I would give humanity a century to think about how they respond before deciding what my next step (if any) was.

recursivedoubts 4y ago

I am in no position to understand the ramifications of any choice I would make. “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord." “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts."

krapp 4y ago

Warp drives are possible now. You're welcome. Now get off of my lawn. I AM THE LORD.

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

adyashakti 4y ago

God is perfect, and the world is perfect just the way it is. Suffering is an incentive for Self-realization. And anyway, most problems are human-created and self-created. We as a species don’t know how to live gracefully and gratefully in God’s perfect world. Fix yourself before asking for miracles, and you will see all the miracles are already done; you just can’t see them with your ego blinders on.

godDLL 4y ago
That describes how it is, wherein there is no place for the above question. QED\ But, what if you're not using your perceptory/sensory consciously and can't even read that answer in the way it's formulated. Then you still have a question, still think it's a question about a subject. Where is the subject though? Is there a subject?

godDLL 4y ago

The thing that goes "bad idea" when you're about to do a thing is a form of God. An expression of God. Future you knows anything you choose to know right now. Is ready for anything you wish to be ready for, anywhere. Has anything you require, given time enough. And so, is basically a form of God as well. If future you doesn't love you then you've solved the only problem in philosophy in a surprising and quite lethal manner. So, I will through alchemy transfigure your question into "what would you encounter that you rather avoid on your way to being God?" Hm. It seems that to really want to, desire to avoid something I have to had been traumatized by it to some extent, prior. I will posit that aversion and attraction are two parts of what Buddha called "attachement", though there are more to it. So if I wanted me to not have an experience, that (would) only happen if I had that experience, which means the experience has to have been had. English is very good at processes, relations maybe not so much. I don't know how to have the thought that breeds the question that you wrote down, OK. Or are you asking me to make a choice for you? If so, then, emphatically: "DO LIVE YOUR OWN LIFE", none of your problems for me, thank you..

Bancakes 4y ago

Assuming I'm the absolutely benevolent God, I would remove free will and instill a equally benevolent and constructive hivemind. We evolved, by chance and experiment, into emotions and social structures. We can evolve out of them when we get something more profitable. People are not that interesting or influential, and we would be more productive as ants.

morninglight 4y ago

Before playing God, a little basic training is in order: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2tp0UNcjzl8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2tp0UNcjzl8 .

gremlinsinc 4y ago

Religion, cults, billionaires, and corrupt politicians. I'd have an app that tracks all funds of wealthy and when it hits 1 billion: congratulations you win at life, now you get to go join the rest of the billionaires in hell. As for religion, I'd prove I exist and also tell people if you even try to worship me, you'll go join the billionaires. Anyone even seeming a bit tyrannical, oligarchical, or influenced by special interests and greed will also join billionaires. I might give a warning if they mean well, if they're like Putin or Kim Jong Yun, nah.

filoeleven 4y ago

Miscommunication. This probably has knock-on effects when it comes to lying and deception which I cannot figure out in my current non-divine state.

akvadrako 4y ago
And yet God brought down the tower of Babel because miscommunication is better than communicating about the wrong thing.
- filoeleven 4y ago
  Eh, I’d be okay with the humans trying to become like me. (In the theoretical sense again; I ain’t a role model in this incarnation.)

lcordier 4y ago

It is so easy... God is Love, the opposite of Love is not Hate but Indifference. Remove Indifference. Everything else is just opportunities. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CI41MtiNsls https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CI41MtiNsls