If you could permanently change ONE thing about the world right now what would it be and why?

Moving to: m/AskMbin!@kbin.social – 11 points – 7 months ago

As asked

That humans are actually the rational beings many claim themselves to be, rather than animals that makes decisions based on emotion and then rationalise why they made the decision.

I feel it would solve all the problems other commenters have mentioned.

So, exclusively rational decision making?

Pretty much.

The co2 we are emitting into the atmosphere is leading to problems.

Rational response: reduce our co2 emissions as fast as possible.

Our constant population expansion and habitat destruction is causing a new mass extension event:

Rational response: Limit population growth. reduce environmental impact and regenerate damage already done.

Etc

etc

etc.

While I agree there are some problems that would be best solved through rational thinking, I wouldn't want to live in a purely "rational" world. The entirety of the human experience lies between the gaps of rationality.

Wanting to feel love and happiness is quite rational too. Irrational feelings are not “anti- rational” they are just orthogonal, like color to taste. But making decisions based pure on feelings IS anti-rational.

That's a popular trope that is spouted by anti-rationalists all the time, but it's a total red herring. It's one of those rhetorical tactics that is designed to disrupt judgment and put a stop to a conversation before the absurdity of the claim is made obvious. It's drilled into us as children through tv, movies, even books, but it's entirely false.

Rationalism has plenty of room for fantasy, emotion, and everything else that humans experience. It's not a choice between being rational and being a fully developed human. The choice is between being rational and being irrational. Everything else is its own separate thing.

Get rid of religion.

Organized religion? How do you define religion?

Free or not, religion is brainwashing

Get rid of greed

That no matter what scientists and engineers try, when combusting fossil fuel, the exhaust smells like a terrible latrine.

I think that would spur a quick response from everyday citizens as to what they heat their homes with, or how they get around their cities.

I like the direction of this thought. I’ve imagined the same, until I remembered that before fossil fuels, humans used whale oil for lamps, lubricants, soaps, etc, and cut down trees for heat.

This is one of those “be careful what you wish for” scenarios. 8 billion people burning trees for heat and killing whales for lighting creates a whole new hellscape.

Make it red too

That's a clever one.

Probanly erradicate akrasia. A lot of the world's problems are down to rampant akrasia on the part of most people.

Thanks for teaching me a new word!

Any time! I find being able to put a name to it makes it slightly easier to call ourself out for doing it.

Akrasia - A lack of self-control or acting against one's better judgment.

I'd change a single bag of Cape Cod party-sized sea salt potato chips so that it would be at my current location.

The part where the ecosystem is in collapse?

Would that be stopping global warming or all the extinctions?

Ideally, global warming, but it would be fair to view that as pointless when dissipating the extra CO2 doesn't necessarily return the trees and the problem would degrade again in a couple hundred years. You'd have to introduce a new fuel source that is sought after, clean, and eternal. Which would be two wishes.

So you have to define it as both of your options, since the loss of either worsens the other. Turn the whole environment back to where it was in the 1200s, overrun the streets with bears, see if I care. It'll give 'em something to do. Especially the Amazonian avocado farmers.