You have unlimited wishes and your wishes will never be twisted against you original intent.

[ZombieHorde]

The only thing you can not magically alter is free will.

Would you use your wishes to end world hunger?

[applegrove]

1. I would end world hunger. I would also rid the world of psychopaths.

[MercutioATC]

2. And plaid pants?

Sorry, singling out "psychopaths" as the one other thing you'd rid the world of seemed a little odd.

[applegrove]

3. Stalin was a psychopath and he took communism around the world

which meant war in numerous places against the USA. Think of all the horrors of the 20th century. All those communist wars and of course what Hilter did in WWII. And their you have my rational. I also have personal experience with a few psychos. That likely was why I put it in there. But you have to admit...psychopaths cause alot of destruction and war.

[MercutioATC]

4. True. I'd just think "disease" or "homelessness" would have been more typical wishes.

"Ridding the world of psychopaths", while a little odd as a wish, is a worthy goal.

[applegrove]

5. Disease and homelessness are right up there I agree. I just have a different filter

than you because of my life experience.

[MercutioATC]

6. As I said, it's a worthy goal.

:toast:

To ridding the world of psychopaths :)

[Tuesday Afternoon]

7. I don't get what you are getting at....

of course I would wish to end world hunger....
unlimited wishes....
no free will....
what exactly is the point you are making?

[ZombieHorde]

9. My poll is about God. nt

[Tuesday Afternoon]

10. oh, got it now....

trying to define and understand the theory of god......

that free will thing is a little bugaboo idn'it :D

[napoleon_in_rags]

8. I would just make it so nobody has to eat anymore. That would be easier.

Or breathe. Hell, I would just amalgamate all humanity into a giant orgasmo-ball of infinite happiness.

edit: Hell, I wouldn't even do that, because that takes away freedom. I would give people freedom to create their own realities, that's what I would do. I would give them that power, so they could be miserable if they wanted, or happy.

edit edit: I wouldn't even do that, because giving them that much power takes away the power to be powerless. So they could exist in their infinitely free realm, but they could also descend to realms of powerlessness and limitation for pre-ordained sections of time. Yes, that would be it.

[rrneck]

11. The Matrix has you. nt

[napoleon_in_rags]

15. Hee hee! +1 nt

[timeforpeace]

12. If I have unlimited wishes, I would use one to feed the world. I would use another to keep them from

getting fat and dying prematurely (unintended consequences and all that).

[ChadwickHenryWard]

13. Why can't we mess with free will?

Any particular reason why we won't mess with free will, or is just an arbitrary choice?

[ZombieHorde]

14. Messing with free will negates many religions and my poll is about

all powerful Gods. An all powerful God should be able to mess with free will, but then the path to salvation would be messed with as well. Heaven, Hell, Nirvana, etc., are all based around the concept of free will.

[ChadwickHenryWard]

16. Okay, I see where this is going. n/t

[iris27]

26. And what's so great about chosen salvation as opposed to simply granted salvation?

Free will ain't so great when 70% of the world or more, depending on what religion you follow, is bound for hell. If I were an all-powerful God, I would skip the whole earth/trial phase and have just created people in Heaven/Paradise, full stop. Don't worry, be happy - eat, drink, and be merry and all that.

Fuck free will.

[Ready4Change]

17. Other: I'd wish to improve world education.

My thought is that:

1. A world of educated people would have a better chance of figuring out how to feed themselves.

2. But well fed, yet ignorant people = population explosion and resurgence of hunger.

[ZombieHorde]

19. Your wishes are unlimited. You don't have to chose. nt

[Ready4Change]

22. Then I'd wish many things before ending hunger.

For the reason that, if you only end hunger in todays world you'll get massive overpopulation, and most likely plagues and wars.

[JerseygirlCT]

18. Well

we could say that free will would negate the wish - as if one person could wish away a problem that we all ought to be concerned with fixing, it would take from the rest of us the free will and moral obligation to be part of that solution.

I think God puts that in our hands - with the hope that of our free will, we will respect one another in the biggest, broadest sense, feeding the hungry, housing the homeless, etc.

I couldn't begin to really see what the ramifications would be of one person waving a magic wand and fixing all that. Lovely as it is to think about, the potential is just bigger than I'm capable of foreseeing.

[laconicsax]

20. What if I want an end to hunger, but ending it outright isn't part of my plan?

My plan is more to let people starve to death and fight wars over resources until hunger just sort of ends itself.

Does that make me a bad person or am I just mysterious?

[ZombieHorde]

21. I lean towards "bad person" on that one. nt

[rd_kent]

23. No, because population is too high already

If we could magically feed everyone, we would just double the population and be in the same predicament as before. No, as distasteful as it seems, its part of natural population control.

[TreasonousBastard]

24. This is far too simplistic...

Hunger is only one of an almost infinite sufferings brought on by our own actions, outside forces including chance, and often by our reactions to those outside forces. Hunger would not be solved by some simple action, like doubling the food supply, and there would still be enough other societal ills to deal with.

I have no idea what I would do with this infinite wishpower, especially since there is no guarantee that infinite wisdom would come with it. The infinite wisdom thing, and some master plan we're not entirely privy to, is part of most understandings of God, and why God is God, and we are not. And why we best not try to be gods-- should we try too hard, we stand a good chance of screwing things up much worse than any self-respecting god would.

If I were somehow stuck with this awesome power, I might be tempted to restrict fertility to one child per woman until the population was reduced to some sensible level, but I suspect that, too, would run afoul of the Law of Unintended Consequences. Wishing for a means to colonize Mars would undoubtedly end as badly.

[Evoman]

29. if something goes horribly wrong, you can just wish things back to the way they were.

[TreasonousBastard]

30. So, after 10 years, millions born and more died, Mars is...

colonized and I realize it's all really, really fucked up, just wish it all away-- all those Martian colonies and people just gone? The dead reanimated?

That doesn't seem like it would work so well either.

[DeadEyeDyck]

25. I guess I saw it too technically

Whether we like it or not, the population of the planet is regulated by the quantity of resources. When food is more prevalent in the forrest, the population of deer skyrocket to the point where hunters are invided in to cull the heards.

This would not be different for the highest mammal. Limited food is a natural population regulator. Right now we have a world population that is growing at an exponential rate and in such a utopia, the world would be inundated with disease and pollution.

I voted "No" under the guise of "whatch what you wish for"

[Evoman]

28. Unlimitied wishes dude....make another planet, and limit everybodies bodies to make no more than one

kid.

[Evoman]

27. Yep, and right after I would install a universal translator in everybodies ear and

give them all non-polluting jetpacks.