HACKER Q&A
📣 kite_and_code

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


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


  👤 LinuxBender Accepted Answer ✓
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.


👤 drKarl
I would eradicate religion

👤 uberman
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.


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

👤 true_religion
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.)


👤 Bancakes
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.


👤 godDLL
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..


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

👤 lcordier
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


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

👤 7373737373
Scarcity of all kinds. Would prevent a whole lotta conflict

👤 filoeleven
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.

👤 bouncycastle
nation states

👤 gremlinsinc
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.


👤 adyashakti
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.

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

👤 recursivedoubts
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."


👤 morninglight
Before playing God, a little basic training is in order:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2tp0UNcjzl8

.


👤 rini17
As a God I would be vastly more informed so as what to best remove.

👤 jacknews
There are no problems, only challenges.

👤 spapas82
Cancer

👤 Shadonototra
nice, hackernews is the new place to be for secularity

👤 rogerian
white people?

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