/sci/ - Science & Math

That person would want to become a physicist.

/thread

Suicide bomber.

>>3115183
only if you actually induce any significant scientific advancement.

you could do medicine and volunteer in some war torn country i guess.

You would burn all your possessions and give all your money to the poor. Then you would roam the Earth, helping people from burning buildings or flooded rivers.

Medical research. Go cure some shit.

define "good"
define "lifetime"

This is more of a personality test than anything.

From different viewpoints one could answer:
"Kill as many rich first-worlders as possible."
"Kill as many third-worlders as possible."
"Become an evangelist."
"Become a biologist."

Personally I'd just give a general answer like "Try not to be a dickhead."

Live a spartan existence and act like a machiavellian sociopath with herculean willpower, only indulging in social activities and luxuries as part of a false persona to present to people so they think you're "one of them" and don't question your strange behavior. Dedicate yourself to obtaining wealth and power by any means necessary then set about creating research and development projects for life extension and various othe projects with the goal of surpassing humanity and creating a new form of super-intelligent sapient life.

Live as frugally as possible, instead of sucking up all the Earth's resources like a typical white leach.

After that, I guess spend all the money they save not buying iphones and other trash and team up with other enfranchised people to do research and then give the fruits of that research away for free.

Live a spartan existence aimed at ensuring your health, maintaining your concentration and increasing your life expectancy and become a machiavellian sociopath with herculean willpower, only indulging in social activities and luxuries as part of a false persona to present to people so they think you're "one of them" and don't question your strange behavior. Dedicate yourself to obtaining wealth and power by any means necessary then use your accumulated resources to conduct research and development projects for your own life extension and various other projects with the goal of surpassing humanity and creating a new form of super-intelligent sapient life with unimaginable power over the material world. Treading on other people is completely morally justified because their lives are nothing compared to the beings you will create.

>>3115188
>implying that to be a great person or a great physicist one must make a great discovery

>>3115195
>Try not to be a dickhead
Sentimentalism is for tools.

>>3115219
Um... nobody who fails to make any great discoveries is a "great physicist". That's fucking ridiculous.

>>3115215
>space enthusiast detected

>>3115225
>Sentimentalism is for tools.
That comment is also a personal opinion.

Firstly, "Don't be a dickhead" can mean several things.
Secondly, "Sentimentalism is for tools." is an opinion.

>>3115253
Hey dickhead, you sound like a sentimental tool.

>>3115204
>instead of sucking up all the Earth's resources like a typical white leach

Implying it matters what we do with this rock, were gonna need to leave this planet sooner or later.

>>3115264
Ah, /b/trolls. Will they ever get good.

Well first off dont become a scientist. Most scientific publications never get cited at all.

In my opinion, the greatest possible good would be to fundamentally change reality, making suffering of any kind - from simple boredom to profound existential despair - impossible, and removing all danger and lack.

Perfected nanotechnology can make this happen... or as close to it as possible.

Lets define "good" as whatever makes our genes and memes perpetuate their existances and configurate a society in which this perpetuation is the most efficient.

>>3115320
>wants you to baby proof his house from himself.

>>3115320

Suffering is a human mechnism telling you something is wrong....and sometimes this mechanism fails (in the same manner pleasure fails with some dangerous drugs).

I would go for this >>3115323 definition of good:

ice cream is good

>>3115352
>Suffering is a human mechnism telling you something is wrong....and sometimes this mechanism fails (in the same manner pleasure fails with some dangerous drugs).

Best description of how clinical depression in first-world countries works I've ever heard.

>>3115268

People go hungry and live in shacks so rich people can sell the middle class fancy shoes and cell phones.

If the middle class were to cease their consumerist lifestyle, billions of peoples' lifes would be much much better. It would destroy the riches of the elite and thus the system that perpetuates the dictators that make central America, Africa, and Asia so unlivable.

It's not the future that matters here, it's the horror that's going on now.

>>3115376
This is correct. If the world's money was split evenly between all people, not a single person would go hungry or homeless.

Not.

One.

>>3115376
And you are just as guilty as every other middle class person

>>3115352
>>3115367

How could suffering fail in the same way? Sounds like an extremely interesting idea. You mean we get over-stimulated with negative events which makes us over-sensitive? Wouldn't it be the other way round?

>>3115401
However, you would only get around $9,000 a year.

>>3115401
If the world's money was split evenly between all people today, about half of the people who were poor yesterday would be dead tomorrow.

For the most part, people who are poor are poor because they are under the power of people who can take their stuff or deny them economic freedoms at will.

>>3115411
Simply put, first-world man barely suffers AT ALL.

Small setbacks are the greatest obstacles most of them ever face. So to their brains, these are treated as the biggest, most pressing issues, and they react accordingly.

>>3115401
>doesnt understand economics
>thinks all the poor will spend their new money wisely and not squander it on stupid shit

>>3115401
>>3115413
Taking a wild shot in the dark, I guess we'd all have to live like Russians. Not good, man.

>>3115407

But I'm not middle class. I've never bought clothes anywhere other then a thrift shop, all my computers are several years old, and I live on about 800 dollars a month.

Not everyone on the internet is middle class.

You are all idiots. If money was distributed equally between all people, most of them would be dead. Real sensible.

>>3115427

They'd probably spend it on food and medicine to cure themselves of all the horrible illnesses they have.

That sort of sentiment is why most Americans no longer have health insurance or pensions.

>>3115433
You still have a shit ton of luxuries most of the world's population doesnt have. Why dont you sell that computer and buy starving people food? Do you really need all that heating? Put a few more jackets on and give the saved money to more starving people.

>>3115180
That's not a thought experiment.

Fucking hell, that phrase is becoming a buzz word. Misused in all the right places.

Invent something useful...like a cheap and effective means to purify water in drought ravaged 3rd world countries.

>>3115450
In many parts of the world people still burn witches and blame illness on evil spirits. Do you think they are going to spend that money on medicine? No, they are going to give it to the witch doctor which will take their money and not solve anything and you are back to where you started.

Solution: euthanize all third world countries. The parents clearly aren't responsible enough to stop breeding.

>>3115401
>>3115376

Please...as the wise internet elders say...L2economics.

Also, im curious about >>3115323 concept of good. Which economic system would back it up i wonder (it sorta reminds me of amartya sen cause of the emphasis he makes on life expectancy).

>>3115488
Are you nuts?! They are like free resources to us, industrialized countries.

They are the retarded kids we can manipulate.

>>3115451

>>Put a few more jackets on and give the saved money to more starving people.

I can't afford heating, I DO wear jackets in the winter.

And my two computers would probably fetch me $100 dollars if I were to sell them.

If anything I could give them the $3,000 dollars I have saved up. But if I do that, then when I get too old to work I'll have nothing to live on.

It's the rich and the middle class that have the excess money to help.

Also: Most Americans live even worse then I do, just some food for thought.

good is subjective

enjoy your semanticopolis

If money was distributed equally between all people, most of them would be dead. Hardly an economic improvement.

>>3115523

Good is subjective...but guess what, is subjective to only one thing, humans. We share biological traits that then configure the way we build culture (which makes place for a second configuration of our actions)

Thats why i think >>3115323 is right. It follows the original course of action of replicators and preserves our existence (something we never want to give up....not even suicided bombers since they are deluded into the belief of a meta-physical post-motem existance)

>>3115497

>>Please...as the wise internet elders say...L2economics.

No. You need to get rid of your brainwashing.

All your labor goes to enrich a few. If those few were to give up even half of their wealth, then there would be no one without food.

People get rich via taking out more then they give in, this is the basis of capitalism. By taking someone's labor and paying them nothing for it.

Ever wonder why the American economy is so shitty recently? It's because all the wealth produced is being concentrated into the hands of the few. With no money to give to the masses, they have no money to buy products. And when that happens, the whole system breaks down.

>>3115558
http://www.google.com/search?&q=zero+sum+game+fallacy

>>3115558
Apocalyptic thinking is apocalyptic.

Its not that they pay people nothing for their labour. The problem usually is that retards spend it in not really useful shit or simply the job they are prepared to do is something that requires little preparation (investment and risk) and/or there is a shit-ton of people that can do the same thing.

Let me give you an example of a THIRD WORLD country (ie people with less adquisitive power than any us citizen). People that work in gold mines in Peru earn aprox 2000 usd each month....thats a lot there, yet they stay poor. Why? Because they spend it all on alcohol and whores...while giving their wives that are in other department (something like a state) taking care of the farm nothing...i would explain more but gotta go. The point is simple, as long as you dont have debts and your balance isnt red, you can make your money and resources help you get more money.

>>3115587
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heuristic#Psychology

>>3115587

Yes, world wealth is going up.

But we don't exist in a free market. We exist in a system of monopolies. Cities in America aren't allowed to start their own internet services, because it competes with the big internet providers.

The government gives preferential treatment to many companies. It also gives huge tax breaks to the rich.

The end result isn't a free market, but a set up to make stealing look legitimate.

>>3115617
>>3115617
> We exist in a system of monopolies.

> The end result isn't a free market, but a set up to make stealing look legitimate

Can you count to potato?

Become an influential career diplomat for a major world power, start pointless genocidal wars in third world countries to make sure the western culture and civilisation retain their superiority.

>>3115617

Thats why citizens exist dude, if we dont like something, we change it creating a party with different proposals (not the joke usa has....light blue or blue with white).

A true free market is needed. Also, free in this case doesnt mean that lets you do stuff and not regulated, it means regulated in such a way it grants everyone the posibility to do the stuff they want (enterprises for example). Word lol.

>>3115602

>>People that work in gold mines in Peru earn aprox 2000 usd each month....thats a lot there, yet they stay poor. Why? Because they spend it all on alcohol and whores...

This sound like something out of a Johnny Rebel song. I just doubt that that really occurs, based on what I know about poor people in the United States.

Source?

>>3115621

Yes. Can you? I have the suspicion that you can't because you're taking my statements out of context and arguing semantics.

>>3115636

I absolutely agree.

>>3115641

Peruvian newspapers, and the fact that i lived in Peru for a couple of years administrating a gold mine....i saw the fucking fat checks. Really, mine towns in Peru are like the fucking old west mixed with modern capitalism.

>>3115253
lol

Everything you said is just an opinion as well. It just so happens that my opinion is the most accurate representation of reality, if not because of any particular merit on my part then because your shit just isn't logical.

Deal with it.

>>3115650
> can you count to potato

> potato

> answers "yes"

> mfw, even forgetting the derp I was pointing out in the first place

>>3115180
How in any way shape or form is this a thought experiment?

>>3115670
cogito ergo sum

>>3115666

I didn't even understand what your reply was supposed to mean. You seemed to take one of my statements and juxtapose it to another and suggest that there was a contradiction. There was none when the post was read in it's entirety.

I don't even see the "derp" you're talking about.

>>3115727
At least you can confidently count to potato, all is good. Seriously, reread the first part of your post and that of the one you cited in it.

I thus conclude derp.