The magic genie has appeared to grant you your wish. What small thing do you wish for that would have the biggest positive impact on the world?
Simple. True empathy for everyone. Literally feeling what others feel
"If by allow you mean force..."
So every time someone stubs their toe, every other human would feel the pain? Everyone would be completely overwhelmed by all kinds of feelings all the time.
Apparently, the word empathy isn't as well understood as I thought.
Under typical usage, it refers to emotions, not full sensory input. Think Deanna Troi from star trek.
I've never actually heard/seen it used to refer to sensory input.
And, yes, even if it's "only" emotions that are picked up, it would be distracting. This would radically change human society. That's the entire point of the question in the post. It would be even more of a change with full sensory input though.
Imagine a world where that guy that's creeping along on the highway isn't just making people angry, because everyone that gets close knows that he's grieving so hard he can barely function. You feel that grief yourself. Or, if you prefer your interpretation of empathy, you can feel his bowels cramping and realize that he's going slow because he's looking for an exit.
Now, this doesn't automatically mean that everyone is going to act with kindness. But it does mean that none of us could ever again just dismiss someone else's state of being. We would know that the other person is a feeling being and that makes being cruel an entirely different proposition. Whe we would feel, just like it were our own pain, what our actions cause, it's gong to make people slow down and think before acting.
I’m trying to focus this answer on something that seems like a really small change:
I wish everyone is slightly more empathetic.
I feel like this could give us a lot of small nudges toward being better people and a better society. I wonder if a small nudge could end up having a profound effect.
With a baseline minimum empathy. Cause damn, some people really bottom out that needle.
Yes. But i was trying to make my change small… which is, of course, subjective. For me setting an empathy baseline feels like more than a small change.
It probably would, butterfly effect and all. That's part of the reason why I'm trying to evaluate why I do the things I do, trying to see how they impact other people more versus in my youth. It might be small, but enough small things do add up, compound even.
Everyone religious wakes up tomorrow realizing that it's just a social club and none of the god stuff is real.
So in this scenario where you have a magical Genie, you would use a supernatural being to stop others from believing in supernatural beings?
Whoa dude. I just woke up and was not prepared for philosophy!
fight fire with fire eh
Who said the genie was supernatural? If I can see the genie in front of me and sufficiently measure it's existence, then it is real and natural. "Super natural" literally means "outside of nature", i.e. stuff that doesn't have any evidence of ever existing.
They would still pretend. And, though it would solve a lot of problems, it would remove purpose for so many people.
Well, when their purpose is to detonate themselves and kill as many people around them so they can get some heaven virgins, I think it's a sacrifice we are willing to make.
Low back pain eliminated in all humans.
Wish granted! Humans are no longer born with spinal vertebrae
Ooh yeah, it's tunicate time!
Eradicate all mosquitoes
People can no longer share or post something on social media unless it is objectively true.
In my opinion, this i̴s̸ ̷n̴o̷t̷ ̷a̸ ̸g̸o̵o̷d̵ ̸i̴d̵e̷a̴,̷ ̵b̸̟̂e̸̯͠c̷̞̕à̷͖u̷̼͝s̷̜̀e̵͖̾ ̷̲͗t̸͖͊h̵͔̿ē̷͉r̴̲͆e̸̥̚'̵̠͊s̴̰̿ ̶͔̇p̶̰̍l̷͍͆e̵̗͊ǹ̷̻t̶̫̾y̷̞̍ ̸̗̑ȏ̶̻͓̯̇̆f̴̯͋ ̷̪̀͝t̷̢̡̐̂h̴̖͛̂i̴̮̱̳̓̀̾ņ̷͔̯͝g̸̗͂s̴̢̀̑͜ͅ ̴͍̝̀͑̾ṅ̶͇́ǫ̷̐̽t̴̥͙̋͂ ̷̲̥̕s̵͖̞͓̑͝͠ṭ̵̋̚r̸͖͆i̸̪̺͆͗c̵͓̼͛t̴̡̯̄͘l̶͕̏̈́̕y̴̤̣͈̅ ̷̛̜̗̻̈́v̶͔̺͐͑̍e̵̛͉̮r̷͖͓̉ỉ̷͈́f̸̟̓̕i̴̧̯͎͒̅͒a̶̖͑̈́b̴̡̧̈́̿͠l̴̜̿e̵̼̻͇͝ ̴͚̈́̅t̷̘͕̺͋͂̒h̸̳͔̑ȃ̶̹̗͔́t̴̡̰̺̋ ̸̫͜͝͝ ̶̖̀ ̷̣̬͑̂̐ ̴͇̄̔͝ ̴̟̃̀͜ ̶̽̿ͅ ̴̠̿s̵̼͚̖͆̎̉t̷̳̝̜̅̾ĩ̴̟̈̍l̵̫̗̼̈́́l̶̥̪̀ ̶̧̪̜̅̍n̸͖͊͆̕ė̴̹͔̭̇̚ḛ̷̊d̵̛̄͘ͅ ̶̡̘̱͝s̸̰͆̍̀a̶̩̻̐ẏ̵̳͉̦ḯ̸̞̻͒ṉ̷̏ͅg̵̩͓̈́ ̴͍͚̏ ̴̭̘͐̂ ̵͙̤̻͐̋̊ ̶͉͌ ̴̬̈ ̸̡̄ ̴̗̼̌ ̶͕̐ ̸̪̄ ̵̢̿̏ ̴͕͉̗̀ ̸̠͋́͝ ̴̺͈͛͐͐ ̷͓̙͑͋͒ä̸͖̝͇́n̴̛̹̰̏d̸͍̗̓͋ ̷̯̫́ ̸͚̀ ̶̱̽̃̔ ̷̖̣̈́͂ ̶̧̉̇̾ ̷̰̊̂͊ ̵̧̤̊ͅ ̶̞̮͂ ̴̨̑̿ ̴̜͛̋̐ ̵͉̆ ̶̼̫̌ ̶͍̥͊̎ ̷̭̃ ̵̙̪͎̔̍ ̸̢̧̇͜ ̷̲̰̃̐ ̶͙̐ ̴̞͊̉ͅ ̷̭̟͔̏̉̃ ̸̨̱͂͝ ̶̫͈̐̔͝ ̷̧̹̊̈̈́ ̶̥̠̜́ ̷̰͍͌͂͝ ̸̹̗̀ ̶͎̱͉͗ ̷̣̚ ̶̛̤̱̈́̃ ̷̰̪̗͂̐͌ ̷͓̝̬͗̎ ̴̨̦͈̆̊̃ ̷̡̓͐̕ ̸̰̍̕ ̵̗̞̥̓ ̸ ̸͕͆ ̴͒ͅ ̸͙͌ ̸̢͛ ̷̙͝ ̴̗̈́ ̵͚̿ ̵̯̓ ̶͎̐ ̵̘̇ ̵͂͜ ̷̧̃ ̵̫̿ ̵͔̌ ̵͔̌ ̷̟͗ ̸̣̆ ̴̖̾ ̶̤͠ ̷̲̒ ̷̱̑ ̸̟͗ ̸͇̐ ̴ ̴͎͋ ̸̪̍ ̶̜̽ ̶̪̂ ̸͇̋ ̵̹̎ ̶̡̊ ̴ ̴ ̸ ̶ ̷ ̶ ̴ ̴ ̴ ̴ ̴ ̸ ̵ ̷ ̷ ̸ ̴ ̵ ̴ ̵ ̷ ̵ ̶ ̸ ̷ ̸ ̷ ̴ ̵ ̸ ̵
So would this allow you to check if something is true?
Well, the foundations of reality might make that a bit difficult when it's a topic that's indeterminate, as truth could end up being relative.
But yes, in our fictional genie reality, you could just try posting everything and then what goes through is objectively true.
You will be assimilated. Resistance is futile.
Everyone is gifted with the ability to control their own fertility. You're only fertile if you want to be. The only chance for pregnancy to occur is if both partners want it to.
I imagine that would cause a severe population decline, and I'm fine with that. There's too many humans on this planet already.
This I like
Make everyone's interpretation of "small thing" slightly more similar.
A ubi funded by a hefty carbon tax on big polluters.
I'm always getting UBI and UTI mixed up.
Urinary Bract Infection
Both are small things with huge positive impact.
Every one gets a strong moral compass that they can't ignore.
Sure we won't all have the same morals but I believe that most bad things in the world happen because people ignore morals and act selfish and only a small part of our issues stem from actual moral differences.
Edit: Seems I am much more optimistic than I thought.
Rates of religiously based terrorism would go through the roof. The problem is that people that, e.g., bomb abortion clinics believe that they are doing the morally correct thing, because it's better to murder a few people than to allow those people to "murder" thousands of innocent "babies". Likewise, you'd suddenly have people that are casually racist now immediately turn to full-on race war shit, because if you believe that nonwhite people are causing harm to the "white race" simply by existing, and you have a moral compass that you can't ignore, then the moral thing to do is to prevent that harm by killing the people committing the harm, esp. when you believe that they're irredeemable by virtue of genetics.
You could argue that "moral compass" means more than just a strong sense of right/wrong. Presumably, most people have that, even if we don't describe it as such. I think OP intended something more like a "strong sense of harmony" wherein everyone has a shared common understanding of some greater good and therefore work towards it with common cause.
It's still a fairly naive notion, but for an entirely different reason. Rather than self-righteous chaos, such a wish would lead to a sort of moral tyranny imposed by one single person's preconceptions of what constitutes a moral life.
There’s a ton of really shitty people with strong moral compasses they can’t ignore. Most of them follow faiths ending in ity, ism, or lim
Depends what you mean by moral compass. I don't think anyone's conscious tells them "man, we really shouldn't be mixing these textiles". They might feel guilty for breaking rules they want to follow, but that's it.
Dude according to some people not straight cisgender people wouldn't have rights and would be killed
This is a horror movie I've pitched.
Pull a gazilion tons of carbon out of the atmosphere, crystallise it into gigantic diamond shards, and drop them from the stratosphere onto the 95th percentile by wealth in each country.
Wouldn't work. If there's so many diamonds, they'd just kind of lose their value. Also, who are you gonna sell them to, if everyone has them?
Although it could kind of be a new currency that excludes the rich, making their wealth at least a little useless.
I fully agree on the premise, but I think it needs refining.
Why not have it drop as graphite. Could be compressed as diamonds or used as base stock for carbon fibers or carbon nanotubes or carbon future-space-filaments. More useful, more stable, and could be a more versatile export.
Not nearly so stabby, nor does it send nearly such a fabulous message.
Normalise the phrase: "I don't agree with your opinion and that's fine"
Metacognition becomes routine for humans. We are able to better de-fuse from our thoughts, and recognize them not as reality but as thoughts about reality.
whats that
We all have thoughts in our head. They are the lenses through which we see reality.
Sometimes, we are aware of that. For example, we may realize we're being prejudiced or that we're being cranky because of our mood.
However, this uses up a lot of energy; our frontal lobe is very energy-hungry. So we spend most of the time thinking habitual thoughts and following habitual behaviors. We don't realize we're looking at reality through a lens. We assume we are simply looking at reality.
What I am wishing for is for people to constantly be aware that the way they are looking at reality depends on the lenses they have learned and habitually use.
The invention of a small easily producible power source that never runs out and has enough power to power vehicles/planes/vessels of all kinds.
maybe not easily producible, but RTGs almost fit the bill
RTG enters the chat.
Make everyone understand basic propositional and predicate logic.
Not a very small thing maybe, but: All people gain ability to instantly recognise bullshit (at work, in media, interpersonal relationships, etc)
I'm not sure this would be a positive. I think there are a lot of pleasantries we afford each other to deescalate a situation.
I mean, we kinda see it anyway when people are lying a bit just to be polite, and I wouldn't be mad about it. But that's not what I was talking about.
What I really meant is the ability to see malicious lies, the ones designed to take advantage of us. This would be really OP, i think xD. I apologize for the misunderstanding, english is not my 1st language.
Every figure leading every cult of personality is now seen as an imposter pretending to be themselves. For example, people think some orange-faced lunatic keeps trying to get on stage at a Trump rally, but Trump himself just disappeared.
OP asks for small thing, most replies ask for huge things.
I guess the opposites of small thing and biggest positive impact on the world makes it hard to answer.
And the vagueness. How small is small? Most of the replies I'm seeing aren't the biggest thing you could ask for, at least.
To remove the desire for power over others.
Not sure if it's a small thing but I think I would change it so good deeds make a bigger impression on people than the bad.
It's a bit of a rainbow sunshine kind of wish but it's human nature to remember bad things easier than the good, it's a survival instinct to protect ourselves. But with all these conflicts and discrimination, big or small, if people don't let fear dominate, everyone would cut each other more slack.
Of course this requires everyone to have the same mindset to work, that's why I think making that small change in human nature at its core is the only way, and only a genie could pull that off.
Advertising is illegal
Might as well take it a step further and criminalize capitalism.
Unless we're still getting free access to all the services which use advertising to offset the costs, this is a terrible idea as people rely on some of those services
Abolish share based profits instead, if not capitalism, might be a better solution towards that goal
Elimination of the tribal parts of the brain that want to go to war.
A black hole about 2cm across filled entirely with protons.
A deadly virus that kills assholes
I get your intent... I think, but taken literally that's going to cause some issues. A virus that causes necrotic butt holes... Hmmm.
Technically that's just making the hole bigger. It'd have to seal them shut.
Hahaha i forgot genies are tricky that would be a shitastrophe.
After decades of sci-fi/fantasy entertainment to prime us, the primal part of the human brain that reacts to in-group and out-group members suddenly changes in every human and we start reflexively and unintentionally classifying all earth life as friends and space/environmental threats as enemies.
Humanity immediately gets serious about climate change, CO2 reduction, and the like, but we also get way too zealous about deploying space lasers.
People regain the ability to agree to disagree, and stop hating each other over political issues.
What would that look like? I'm a trans woman. When someone is standing there trying to take my rights away, and actively working to remove my access to care and support, what does "agree to disagree" look like?
You could roll back the internet to pre 2.0, removing the ability for people to engage with each other outside of real life.
And religious beliefs
Bring back the concept of shame.
cries in has lots of it
Bring back? It never left me! Can you tell the shame-voice in my head that it's been left behind and all the other shame has left already?
You should tell the US Congress about it.
Initial thought:
Everyone is nudged slightly closer to what they need to live comfortable lives
For people with very low quality of life, their life gets slightly better For people with very high quality of life, their life gets imperceptibly worse (but then also slightly better as the world around them has improved, since they make up such a tiny fraction of people)
"more realistic" thought: The human brain is slightly less prone to addiction - however slight this adjustment needs to be to be considered a small thing.
Less social media addiction, less harmful substance addiction, less sugar addiction, less gambling addiction.
Hmm, is there any positive side to addiction? Most human emotions were at least adaptive once upon a time. I guess some very talented people are said to have an addiction-like focus on their trades.
I don't know if any positive effects of how addiction-prone our brains are remains - I can imagine it being good for survival when resources are scarce but we don't live in a world where that's really the case anymore
Habits can be adaptive, but addictions are more about external drugs hacking the brain. And highly refined and addictive drugs didn't really exist in the ancestral environment. (Alcohol was first refined ~9000 years ago, which isn't enough time to evolve an anti-addiction mechanism.)
I'm like my air addiction.
Compassion
"You are a human too" for all people.
Every child born has a flat increase of 0.0005% higher IQ, and is also 0.0003% more altruistic.
I really should have done the math ahead of time. That'd mean an increase of like 70k IQ per year.
Three more genies.
@Weirdbeardgame That hated should not be exiting if the grounds are because of someone's Disability, Sex, Sexuality, Gender Identity, Religion or Skin. It should only exist for how nice the person is.
no more hiccuping
Social media never happened. It will not happen.
That whole business of brainwashing, of lowest common denominator, of selling yourself for likes - scourge of our times.
That's such a myopic view, it's given everyone the chance to speak and learn from each other which has resulted in a lot of shared understanding and growth.
You just want to sweep all the social problems back under the rug simply because you don't like seeing them.
I wonder if you'd carve out an exception for yourself, like you're using social media now - are you banning this conversation too?
The conservative ideology to include a prevalence of rational discourse and a functional sense of cognitive dissonance. Am I allowed to wish for that? Let's make it permentant.
the extinction of mankind
Abolish politics from social media
Abolish social media, period.
Inherent self interest disappears. People work for the greater good.
would need to be more specific, plenty of evil organisations believe they are working for the greater good (ISIS, Nazis etc)
Psychologically that would be a desaster. People would wear themselves out in an instant, and in 6 months top we'd have a world population suffering from clinical depression.
As an American, one of the most positive things that could happen to the world is the abolishment of the United States as a government. We're directly or indirectly responsible for most of the ethnic cleansing that has gone on the last several decades.
Is this retroactive?
What would you replace it with?
Make sure whatever people do for work brings them enough money to live. So, have people work doing what they love.
Remove the UK
Maybe just England?
Ah yes, genocide. Lovely.
It's not really genocide because the UK is very multicultural. It's even better than genocide.
/s
Nono, i mean to just balkanize it so it stops existing, no genocide here.
Exactly, tho i'd give NI to Ireland
End speciesism
Good bye spam blocking
You've gotten a bad date for the last eighteen dates because you can't discriminate between people.
Kill all humans
One sophon we get to fly around the universe looking at stuff.
I’d say that’s the most benefit to mass ratio and therefore it’s a small thing that would really help the world out
People will just use it to perv on each other.
That’s what I’m talking about man. We can finally get some Washington DC nudes and make the world a better place.
Just think: Hillary Clinton, Mitch McConnell, even Nancy Pelosi and Ariel Sharon in the buff!
More wishes.
@Weirdbeardgame Make Moringa taste good.
Eliminate all monotheistic religions.
Oh, buddy... The only reason that Hindu nationalism isn't a bigger problem is because they're mostly in India. And it's not like the Romans weren't expansionist and quite efficient at murdering their neighbors without having a single god. Or, for that matter, the Vikings.
That's not a small thing.
Some ambiant temperature supraconductors
I wish red meat allergy was sexually communicable.
Whirled peas
Nobody likes today's leaders. No support at all.
Eplosions just... don't.
Guns cannot fire, bombs no longer boom, backfiring cars and fireworks don't make that noise.
People have to resort to hand-killing their enemies, not strafing children and saying their parents deserved it or something.
It won't solve world problems, but it is a start.
Could this backfire? Like, sure, no combustion engines, but that would be solved in the long run with electricity. But are there things I'm forgetting that would be critical? Like a chemical process for critical chemicals that requires explosions or something like that.
Resource mining, large structure demolitions, SFX pyrotechnics for film, television, and stage. Exploratory and scientific rocketry, rescue flares, backup generators, trains, industrial diamonds like the ones on diamond-tipped tools.
Essentially what this guy wished for was a full arrest on rapid exothermic reactions which are used in many manufacturing processes, scientific experiments, and life. Hell, I just checked and technically the process that causes things to explode is roughly the same one used by our cells to process ATP into energy for the persistence of our life (and most other non-fungal and non-plant life).
Also internal combustion engines won’t.
I actually never said that. I said backfiring cars. You are changing my words to fit physics, instead of looking at a genie wish being magical. But okay, if we change my request to fit that all, not just loud and explosive dangerous explosions, but all explosions including the internal combustion cars don't work, then I guess we go electric engines.
But I figure I just meant what I said, I guess you are in charge of monkey paws?
I don't think the world would be better off without the giant explosion we call the sun.
All cars are now have a perfect implementation of self driving.
All traffic is now gone. Road rage, gone. People everywhere are happier. Commutes suck less. People take more road trips to see more outside their comfort zone. Lyft and Uber really explode, no more driver needed, just summon a car and go.
Utopia would be achieved shortly after.
your cartopia sounds like hell. last time I checked Humans were the dominant species, not fucking cars.
Enormous unemployment from the transit sector spikes immediately and causes a depression.
30% of the work force is in transportation related jobs.
The Great Depression saw only 22% of unemployment at its peak.
Your well meaning wish would destroy millions of lives while tanking the developed world economies.
Yeah, maybe add a phase-in period.
Wish 2: all cars have perfectly efficient solar generation and power train.
No more car based pollution. Climate crisis fixed (not really but a good step forward). Save people everywhere money.
The minds of all living things on Earth are connected as one giant hivemind. The thoughts aren't an overwhelming barrage, but rather a collective experience.
People being fucking allergic to animal products, like at all. Or finding the taste naturally disgusting
I wish for one electron to disappear from every atom. The net result would be that all atoms would now have a positive charge.
True, it would not only end all life on earth, but also destroy the entire earth. But everything would be positive.
Mandatory XKCD, sort of.
I love that he never even touched proton earth, which would really release some energy. Not sure how bad the collapse of the strong force in that nucleus would be, but I can't imagine that a proton mass 6x more massive than the electron moon would have any less spectacular of a result.
Unfortunately, this is not the case. There are plenty of atoms/molecules that have greater negative ionization states than -1. This wouldn't even make everything neutral.
Captain Pedant... AWAAAAYYYY.
OTOH, if you shifted the ionization state of every single atom, then pretty much every molecule would end up flying apart. You can't form H2O if hydrogen has no electrons at all; hydrogen becomes a single proton.
This is interesting cause I wonder if relatively it'd be like shifting every element in the periodic table one to the left, cause who's to say neutral isn't our current measurement -1, but the orbitals will remain the same hence the shift
Nah, two atoms repelling is not relative. They will do that in every reference frame.