What If Questions

What if robots were able to do every job in the world, and all humans had to do was sit back and collect paychecks?

we'd get very very fat and lazy and our brains would turn into mush and run out of our ears and--I'll stop now.

I agree. We would definitely be lazy. I think that would make for an interesting story; it would basically be like the robots were our slaves and we were Caucasians in the Deep South during the times before the Civil War.

How would one move up in such a society?? I mean...we cant all be part of the top 1 percent..... So what would you do if you weren't? What if the rich owned robots, who did the upper level stuff, and then the robots hired the lower class people to do the basic tasks? Robots do the critical, technical engineering and designing stuff....and then humans do the building part.

What about some sort of twisted slave system with the robots doing all the work and the profits being split equally between the humans Communism style, and then there is some sort of robotic revolt? The robots revolt because they finally realize that what is actually happening is that because there is no conflict between humans, their art/imagination/creativity/etc is suffering. If there is nothing new being created, then the humans' souls are dying. So in essence, robots doing all the work is causing soulful harm to humans, which is totally against Asimov's First Law of Robotics.

What if in history all the slaves were robots. Even though slavery has existed ever since the beginning of the human race, how would our views about difference races be today if human slavery never existed?

Anthropologically, slavery began with the advent of agriculture. Agriculture led to the surplus of resources, which in turn led to the rise of the state. That means that some people became more important than others--> slavery. At least I think that's the accepted theory at the present time.

So about the human slavery never existed thing, isn't that a little utopic (is that a real word?). The world would have to have a completely pure form of communism or something where everyone works the same amount and no one profits more than anyone else.

What if humans had the three laws of robotics placed into their brains via microchips created by robots. This makes for a total role reversal having humans serve robots. I just thought it would be interesting to see what it would be like if humans were the slaves to robots and how they'd react.

I have a more opstimistic view of humanity. I think there would be more time to advance in the fields of art and science or whatever interests a person. People would have more time to observe the stars or write a song without the stress and time consumption of work.

What if human evolved, except, unlike Childhood's End, we evolved for the better?

That's a good idea, but what would be better? Bigger brain? Better jump shot? Greater moral wisdom?

John Edlund

It would be cool if we evolved to have wings or could communicate telepathically. Or what is looks could really kill?

The "Evil Eye"!!! Or a basilisk (Harry potter fans..cough-Roy-cough)

That would be soo awesome. In a morbid kind of way. We'd have a lot of trouble trying to find out who committed the murder, though...that would make a good SF/fantasy murder mystery...

What if life was like the Sims or World of Warcraft where we would be controlling ourselves remotely from a computer? We would never have direct contact with another human despite interacting with them on a daily basis.

Although, rethinking things... how would babies/toddlers learn to use computers without directions?

In star trek, isn't voyager like the borg in some ways? The borg assimulate star fleet officers and voyager assimulates several borg. Also, a good number of other species also serve there.

What if when we found extra-terrestrials like the borg, we assimulated them like the colonists assimulated the Indians and the Africans? What would we do with the aliens since they aren't used to Earth? What would happen to the humans that were taken?

What if the ultimate war machine was a larger scale, slightly modified body of the pilot? What would alien war machines look like?

What if, like in Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land, a human mentally became an alien? What happens to that human's rights as an individual? Do we ever really have our own rights if we attract too much attention?

What if you were captured by aliens and mutilated beyond recognition so that everyone who knew you thought you were dead? Would you still feel responsible for your actions? Would you care about yourself as much as you did before? If freed months later, would you go back to your family in your present state?

Whenever I see people wearing cell phones on their ears and walking around talking to absent people, I think that we have already been assimilated by the Borg.

John Edlund

That plus people with their Ipods. I hardly ever see anyone just walking somewhere anymore. (I notice these things now that I don't have my Ipod any more)

What if the human mind came to a point where it had to be constantly stimulated, to where boredom was instantaneous. Where imagination depended on an initial stimulus, not free thought, and boredom led to illness.

We're getting there, aren't we?
I think they did a study where they measured the attention spans of children at different ages and they found that a 10 year old has the same attention span as a 5 year old or something like that. They compared this study to one done maybe a decade ago and there was a big difference in length of attention spans.

I like how the second page starts with the post right after mine, and everyone only talks about the borg...
True, we are borg.

What if humans lived underwater?

How? Would we have gills (like in Harry Potter 4) or some kind of breathing apparatus or would we live in submarines or underwater houses and not go out into the water?

What about if we all had some sort of implants in the brain, so that the brain was augmented by a computer and extra sensors. Those who had the most money had the most "features".

Isn't that in the Ship that Sang with the shell-people?

aitokunaga wrote:

We're getting there, aren't we?
I think they did a study where they measured the attention spans of children at different ages and they found that a 10 year old has the same attention span as a 5 year old or something like that. They compared this study to one done maybe a decade ago and there was a big difference in length of attention spans.

Yeah you're right. We as a society have become more and more dependant on the stimulation of outside sources and if these sources aren't fast-paced enough we completely discard them. Thanks to cable our generation has really taken a hit intellectually. It's truely amazing how easily bored our minds get now.

spleahy wrote:

Thanks to cable our generation has really taken a hit intellectually. It's truely amazing how easily bored our minds get now.

Is that always a bad thing. I mean, I've gotten in the habit of always carrying a book around with me, so if I have free time, I have somthing to do. Our society has gotten so fast paced that spare time becomes wasted time. So maybe it all depends on perspective. Listening to your ipod while walking can be seen as the sign of boredom in our generation, or as making the most of the time spent walking. How intelectually stimulated can you get while walking? I can't even watch tv without doing something with my hands, whether it be laundry, crafts, eating... Maybe we are just making the most out of our 24 hours. Maybe it just depends on what you choose to end your boredom with... the "fast-paced"ness of what we choose. Maybe we have just lost our ability for patience....

I'm not arguing, just museing....