You are given an opportunity to hard reset our universe (particularly, the Earth). You are also allowed to change one rule about the new universe. What rule would you change?

Marighost@lemm.ee to Ask Lemmy@lemmy.world – 35 points –

The rule could be anything, as funny or as serious as you want. The universe will progress in a similar way that it has up until this point, unless your changed rule prevented it from doing so.

Some examples might be:

  • The invention of currency is not allowed.
  • Iron is slightly less stable.
  • The Ancient Greeks are able to cultivate Silphium, which does not go extinct now.
64

Pi = 3.

A glimpse into what it may look like?

I'm going to keep this for when I have to explain non-Euclidean spaces during game night.

I always use Chess boards to describe non-Euclidean spaces when I "need" to (aka when I get even a narrow chance to)

By all means, explain it to me! My best way so far was siting the chase in call of Cthulhu and really it's not a great example.

Heck yeah, I'll try my best!

So on a euclidian chess board, moving your king one space left would be 1 space, one space up would be 1 space, and one space diagonally would be √2 spaces (some simple trig gets us there).

Chess however, does not obey the laws of Euclidian geometry nor does its physical representation show us things to scale. A king's move diagonally is the same amount of space as a move side to side, 1 space.

It's silly, because spaces weren't directly supposed to represent distance or anything, but it's funny that it works out this way

This is a problem I've always had with Square grids in D&D and it never occured to me that from character perspective a character is warping space to move slightly further for the same amount of movement.

Also non Euclidian! Hexagons (the bestagons) also tesselate and fix that problem nicely

I think this one might end up winning.

It would change the topographical nature of the universe. We would probably have to exist in like the 3.1415th dimension or something to make it work.

Instant karma. Weighted based on intent. E.g. If CEO cuts benefits to improve his stock value, then his balls explode. If a driver accidentally cuts someone off but feels bad about it, a full mosquito hits the windshield.

Cats speak french, except in any situation where they can be recorded or transcribed, or when a french speaker can hear them. They also aren't very good at speaking french, but it's impossible for anyone to know that.

A necessary requirement for higher intelligence is proper, functioning empathy. If you lack this, you're just... Incapable of intelligent thought beyond that of a particularly stupid dog

Humans do generally have proper functioning empathy

I feel like we would still have many of the same billionaires if not all

All sentient beings have photographic memories and, through DNA, they can store and recall all of their previous ancestors' memories. All the way back to their oldest sentient ancestor.

Sounding like Richard Rahl and The Sword of Truth now. (Please don't hate me the first 3-4 books were good...)

Or they upload to the resurrection ship

One free wish for any and every person who achieves something truly outstanding for mankind as whole (only positive achievements).

Maybe also for a free "weaker" wish for personal achievements, like completing one's dream hobby project.

Silphium was recently rediscovered so it's no longer considered extinct just highly endangered.

Aside from that, I would make it so that instead of having mental illness you would have magical powers.

Schizophrenic? Nope you just talk to the Dead. Adhd? Nope, you're an elemental wizard. Bipolar? Nope, you're either a healer or a necromancer. Depressed? Nope, you're just low on mana. (Major depression means that you're suffering from a curse) Psychotic? Nope, you're suffering a mana storm Narcissistic? Nope, you are an illusionist. Autistic? Nope, you're an enchanter.

Maybe instead of schizophrenics talking to the dead they would just fit into the class of spiritualists and diviners, oracles and the like.

I'm open to interpretation.

All physical constants are exact powers of ten; everything should be neat and organised.

"Let's see what scientists say about time if I remove entropy from the equation."

Also: Big Elden Ring vibes. This is basically what Marika does; alters reality and takes death out of it because she got access to the source code of the universe.

Religion is not "invented", does not exist

Set the electron g factor to exactly 2

let's get rid of the inverse square law. falloff is now linear.

Base 36 counting becomes predominant.

0 1 2 3 4 5

6 7 8 9 A B

C D E F G H

I J K L M N

O P Q R S T

U V W X Y Z

Also the point at which hundred changes over to thousand gets pushed back by a power, so 6KL2 is Sixty Kay Hundred Elty Two, while 8,A59G is Eight Thousand Ayty Five Hundred Ninety G. Same with the changeover to Millions, Billions, Trillions, etc.

Probably wouldn't change that much practically, but it'd make "Ten" a square that's also the product of two prime squares, and it's divisible by a lot more ways than the current number base, and it makes "One Thousand" the square of "One Hundred" the same way "One Hundred" is the square of "Ten" and that "One Million" is the square of "One Thousand."

New rule is that everyone has to be nice to me.

You both have to solve a new (to you) calculus problem to make a baby.

Our solar system would have a greatly reduced speed of light so as to avoid being attacked by other sentient life.

No more questions about “What would you do if you were suddenly given power over everybody else?”

All this what-if-you-were-god stuff is subconsciously programming us to lean in when given the opportunity to control others.

As AI, surveillance, and extended bureaucracy undermine the concept of “freedom” as an inherently good thing, there will be more and more opportunities to control other people.

Indulging in this kind of question — what would you force all people to do if you could? — is normalizing the actual usage of those systems as they come into existence.

No more Pauli exclusion principle. I'm not smart enough to describe what that world would look like... which is exactly why I would do it.

Water freezes from the bottom up instead of top down.

I... Uh... Hm... 🤔

What does this do?

maybe it would look like a reverse snowfall underwater if the ice is buoyant? I imagine if the ice stayed at the bottom it would be interesting evolution wise since most things survive the cold by being at the bottom.