Philosophy Discussion Forums | A Humans-Only Club for Open-Minded Discussion & Debate

[UniversalAlien]

For one day I will give you the power to be almighty God - You will have every power you can possibly imagine

- You will be capable of changing the World to what you think it should be - Yes, you

Now what will you do with this superhuman power

Think about it and please respond - This may be a once in an eon chance for a Human to play God.

Tell me Human - What will you do with your new superpower

How will you change the World

The World is now yours Human - How will change it

Can you shed some light for the World

You are an intelligent being Human, true

[LuckyR]

I would imbue a majority of humans with the ability to appreciate delayed gratification, or farsightedness, perhaps some would use the term wisdom.

[UniversalAlien]

I would imbue a majority of humans with the ability to appreciate delayed gratification, or farsightedness, perhaps some would use the term wisdom.

Yes, quite nobel - But haven't many of the philosophies and philosophers of the past already tried this?

And again yes, some Humans have gone this way - Still the futility of all Human endeavor is what is at stake
here.

We would like to hear how intelligent Humans, such as you, might shift the paradigm to a positive model.

Remember the whole World is, at least for the moment yours - Your chance to change it

- Would you like to change it? - Tell us how you would change it so a 'hypothetical' God would be proud
of his creation {even if you don't believe in Creationism, even if you are an Atheist} -
For one moment in time - Let's pretend.......Let's play God.......

[Plaffelvohfen]

I'd probably do nothing... I mean, to have the powers of god would mean to be god, even if for an instant... This would imply recognizing the perfectness of things as they are now, omniscience would tend to explain much, right?

[UniversalAlien]

I'd probably do nothing... I mean, to have the powers of god would mean to be god, even if for an instant... This would imply recognizing the perfectness of things as they are now, omniscience would tend to explain much, right?

Not necessarily - It depends on how you might define God?

For this thread we are assuming God to be a work in progress - A Myth that may or not exist {as of yet]
- A potential state of possibilities - That which is still quite hypothetical.

But I make the assumption that you, as a Human, can consider the possibilities and potentials.......

Say, how would you deal with the Human warlike nature and the tendency for making war an integral part of
History

- Would you change Human nature in some ways - Turn us all in to 'peace and love' hippies of
the 1960s - Too far out you say - But if you are God, anything is possible, right

[Plaffelvohfen]

- Would you change Human nature in some ways - Turn us all in to 'peace and love' hippies of
the 1960s - Too far out you say - But if you are God, anything is possible, right

Well, omniscience opens a nice state of possibilities but ok, I'll restrain myself...

I'll go trekkie here and say I'd first give humans the mental discipline and capacity of vulcans and the empathic traits of betazoïdes,to prepare them for the next step, the ability to directly perceive the full light spectrum, then see how it goes from there, wouldn't want to be too drastic upfront...

[LuckyR]

I would imbue a majority of humans with the ability to appreciate delayed gratification, or farsightedness, perhaps some would use the term wisdom.

Yes, quite nobel - But haven't many of the philosophies and philosophers of the past already tried this?

And again yes, some Humans have gone this way - Still the futility of all Human endeavor is what is at stake
here.

We would like to hear how intelligent Humans, such as you, might shift the paradigm to a positive model.

Remember the whole World is, at least for the moment yours - Your chance to change it

- Would you like to change it? - Tell us how you would change it so a 'hypothetical' God would be proud
of his creation {even if you don't believe in Creationism, even if you are an Atheist} -
For one moment in time - Let's pretend.......Let's play God.......

Huh? Philosophers aren't omnipotent gods that can snap their fingers and completely and magically change a fundamental nature of vast numbers of individual humans, like I can (within the confines of your OP).

I believe your response underestimates the power of the human mind, if freed up from distractions like greed and survival.

[Sy Borg]

I would change the way creatures are configured to entirely eliminate all pain and suffering. There must be a way of transitioning from rocks to whatever we will become without the brutal troubles of this biological phase.

After all, the only usefulness of pain and suffering comes from in strengthening oneself so that one may better endure future torments or to help generate understanding and compassion for those who suffer. Take away suffering and then there's no need gain those attributes.

[LuckyR]

I would change the way creatures are configured to entirely eliminate all pain and suffering. There must be a way of transitioning from rocks to whatever we will become without the brutal troubles of this biological phase.

After all, the only usefulness of pain and suffering comes from in strengthening oneself so that one may better endure future torments or to help generate understanding and compassion for those who suffer. Take away suffering and then there's no need gain those attributes.

I know you know this but without painful stimuli organisms don't have a reason to change their situation from a detrimental one. Pain, though not necessarily suffering, is not only useful but is essential for survival.

[Sy Borg]

I would change the way creatures are configured to entirely eliminate all pain and suffering. There must be a way of transitioning from rocks to whatever we will become without the brutal troubles of this biological phase.

After all, the only usefulness of pain and suffering comes from in strengthening oneself so that one may better endure future torments or to help generate understanding and compassion for those who suffer. Take away suffering and then there's no need gain those attributes.

I know you know this but without painful stimuli organisms don't have a reason to change their situation from a detrimental one. Pain, though not necessarily suffering, is not only useful but is essential for survival.

What about shifting the goalposts, so that life is driven by the bliss of getting what they want rather than the pain of not managing to do it? Greater bliss for the good things and a baseline that is simply a lack of bliss.

Also, the system of having everything eat each other is pretty ghastly, to say the least. Here's the system, in summary: No pain, driven by bliss. Everything only ever eats cadavers and lives a life varying between neutral and bliss until unexpectedly and painlessly dropping dead. So, when a loved one suddenly falls off the perch, you don't feel grief but accept that you will not receive the kind of bliss they brought to your life.

[UniversalAlien]

I know you know this but without painful stimuli organisms don't have a reason to change their situation from a detrimental one. Pain, though not necessarily suffering, is not only useful but is essential for survival.

What about shifting the goalposts, so that life is driven by the bliss of getting what they want rather than the pain of not managing to do it? Greater bliss for the good things and a baseline that is simply a lack of bliss.

Also, the system of having everything eat each other is pretty ghastly, to say the least. Here's the system, in summary: No pain, driven by bliss. Everything only ever eats cadavers and lives a life varying between neutral and bliss until unexpectedly and painlessly dropping dead. So, when a loved one suddenly falls off the perch, you don't feel grief but accept that you will not receive the kind of bliss they brought to your life.

Sure this is possible - But let us not forget the basic problem is biology - the biological matrix
- Life ingesting, digesting and ultimately excreting organic matter.

I suppose you might guess what I'm now going to suggest, assuming it is possible
- We shift to 'Android' - The next logical step in Evolution.

Of course the naysayers will complain - No 'touch/feely' and therefore it is not 'real life'.

I disagree, I say sometime in the not so distant future AI will have advanced far enough so as to duplicate
sentient life, or at least the perception of sentient life inside of an android that will posses
the qualities of sentience.

Of course you would no longer need to ingest biological food or breed biologically - But it will be
possible to duplicate the sensations of the original biological Human - At least in the beginning
Later the intake of energy directly from the sun and breeding through mental processes may be
possible - sex in this new world may become a mental thing - Who knows maybe this new Humanoid
may enjoy it more than the biological paradigm of the biological Human.

With the hypothetical God of tomorrow anything is possible.

Still I think of the talk show host Barbara Simpson who used to say: "Be careful of what you wish for
as you may get it"!

Still as a sentient android suffering and pain would be quite minimal
- And death would only occur voluntarily when you reach a state where you saw and had enough
and wish to return to the Central Computer where your memories and experiences would be
downloaded for future use and reference - Digital Immortality

[Teralek]

If I had the power of God for one day I would reset humanity and myself.

Let's start.

I would make humans much more rational and intelligent than they really are now, and more able to focus and cope with stress. I would strip away their strong tribalism instincts and the tendency to believe in the supernatural. With this people would quickly start to become agnostic or atheist and start to see the world as a big US, not us vs. them. Nationalism would be bygone.

I would do these things by changing humans at the genetic level taking away these natural instincts. I would enhance the felling and instinct of empathy for those who suffer. People would feel great pain if they see someone homeless and alone and did nothing to help. I would remove all cognitive biases and tendency to irrationality people have. Basically everyone would start being much more like Vulcans from Star Trek but with emotions. But emotions and instincts wouldn't control people like they do now.

I would take away the tendency for men to be aggressive, again by changing humans at the genetic level. I would also greatly increase the efficiency of the human immune system making and metabolism instantly doubling life spans, make pathogenic diseases and cancer a rarity. I would also give people great medical knowledge to cure all known diseases.

I'd give them the knowledge to build interstellar spaceships and give humans the psychological stamina to endure long trips in space.

I would give a much stronger instinct to cooperate instead of compete with each other.

I would give all these things to myself as well, so I keep them after the God like powers expire. But I would make extra substantial changes to my physical being in order to virtually live sane and healthy for millions of years. I would make myself much more sturdy and strong. Capable of lifting hundreds of tons in weight and capable of withstanding direct missile hits. I would give myself a spaceship so powerful it could go into the cores of stars and inside black holes and come back. Could fold space and travel thousands of times the light speed. The ship would have all the commodities and comforts similar to the ship in the film Passengers. The ship would only answer to me unless I told it otherwise. It would have a super computer installed with artificial intelligence.

This is for starters. I would probably do more if it comes to mind.

[CSE]

I would use the power to extend this day (or organize follow-ups regularly) in order to have time to think about it and experiment (and revert when consequences are not good).

The problem is that my ideas of better may not be the idea of most other people, so it is not so easy to increase the global satisfaction.
Few items come to mind that should be mostly positive: I can fix the CO2 levels by binding it to carbonate stones again or organize a feedback loop from the conditions of earth to the sun conditions to avoid uncontrolled climate change, and silently disable all atomic weapons (without the armies seeing it) so that in case of deployment in the future, they just won't work. I'd like to rewrite some holy books to clarify that violence is never acceptable even for the so called greater good.

Then I would add some egoistical stuff, like curing my father's cancer or so, but this is just being too human, so may not happen if divine

[Lone Wolf]

I would do what I believe God is doing. That is He is just sitting back and watching to see how long it will take man to destroy himself. Not being either an atheist or pantheist, but believing He is contained in all creation, it could be that He is waiting to see if the earth will rebel against the damage man is doing to it.

[UniversalAlien]

I would do what I believe God is doing. That is He is just sitting back and watching to see how long it will take man to destroy himself. Not being either an atheist or pantheist, but believing He is contained in all creation, it could be that He is waiting to see if the earth will rebel against the damage man is doing to it.

Sort of like a conscious Universe or Panpsychism {the belief that everything is conscious} ?

That theory goes back to the Ancient Greeks - I've read it has come back - Some scientists believe
it is possible.



“I regard consciousness as fundamental. I regard matter as derivative from consciousness. We cannot get behind consciousness. Everything that we talk about, everything that we regard as existing, postulates consciousness.”
― Max Planck