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Ask HN: What problem would you solve with unlimited resources?

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Re: Ask HN: What problem would you solve with unlimited resources?

#21

Post by alok-g »

If I had the Infinity Stones [1], I'll redefine human legal, political, cultural practices and beliefs so that we set right fitness function as it relates to 'survival of the fittest'. Nature evolved its own criteria for what is fit and unfit. We humans have twisted those around with our beliefs and systems, often for good, but often incorrectly and often inconsistently.

'Fit' cannot be meaningful unless 'unfit' too is, and the unfit are set to some real disadvantage. Trying to attain equality over both fit and unfit is detrimental when taken collectively. Having ethics defined in a way that in practice, those who follow ethics suffer more while those who don't follow have higher chances of success, is not good.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infinity_Stones

Re: Ask HN: What problem would you solve with unlimited resources?

#22

Post by joshlk »

alok-g wrote: post #21

If I had the Infinity Stones [1], I'll redefine human legal, political, cultural practices and beliefs so that we set right fitness function as it relates to 'survival of the fittest'. Nature evolved its own criteria for what is fit and unfit. We humans have twisted those around with our beliefs and systems, often for good, but often incorrectly and often inconsistently. 'Fit' cannot be meaningful unless 'unfit' too…

What your describing is social Darwinism, an argument used by fascist.

Re: Ask HN: What problem would you solve with unlimited resources?

#24

Post by alok-g »

joshlk wrote: post #22
alok-g wrote: post #21

If I had the Infinity Stones [1], I'll redefine human legal, political, cultural practices and beliefs so that we set right fitness function as it relates to 'survival of the fittest'. Nature evolved its own criteria for what is fit and unfit. We humans have twisted those around with our beliefs and systems, often for good, but often incorrectly and often inconsistently. 'Fit' cannot be meaningful unless 'unfit' too…

What your describing is social Darwinism, an argument used by fascist.

Thanks! Will read up about it.

Edit: Reading up on Social Darwinism on Wikipedia, Britannica and History.com, I guess not. Social Darwinism seems either not well-defined and/or assumes that the fitness functions that natural evolution worked out need to be taken nearly as it is. I am not saying the latter.

I am saying there needs to be more clearly defined fitness functions (call them performance criteria, KPIs, etc.), defined for the modern times, which then need to be more consistently followed. This isn't much different than using gradient descent algorithm where some weights are changed in accordance to their impact on the chosen loss function.

Re: Ask HN: What problem would you solve with unlimited resources?

#25

Post by aetherspawn »

Peacefulz wrote: post #5

A global rail network. Homestly, I just think it'd be kinda awesome. If you asked your local politicians if it would take unlimited funds to get started they'd likely say yes. Haha.

Yeah this would be awesome. I hate planes and would happily take a 3 day bullet train to America.

Re: Ask HN: What problem would you solve with unlimited resources?

#27

Post by inferiordev »

silisili wrote: post #13

Years ago I watched a video of a young woman foreign worker from I think Philippines kill herself because of abuse. It really haunted me. And more research showed it's pretty common, as well as unsafe labor to the point of death, mostly all in middle eastern countries. So, since then, my answer is modern day slavery. Wherever and however it exists. Don't need unlimited resources to start, just to make a living. Would…

In the meantime, you can free bonded labourers for a fairly modest sum.

This is one I have personally donated to, but there are others: https://www.barnabasaid.org/gb/latest-needs/free-christian-f...

If you wanted more hands-on, I'm guessing there is room for expansion in ending inter-generational debt bondage.

Re: Ask HN: What problem would you solve with unlimited resources?

#28

Post by austin-cheney »

* Social intelligence testing. I would create a testing scheme robust enough to serve as a form of employment credential. Typically people of extremely low social intelligence present catastrophic performance failures that directly impact career performance and working relationships at dire costs to their businesses and the people around them.

* I would create software licensing. This would identify persons capable of writing original software and assuming business ethics and liability for the products they create. This a massive gap in software. You can’t do any other professional job without a license.

Re: Ask HN: What problem would you solve with unlimited resources?

#29

Post by dkobia »

With unlimited resources, I’d solve the fundamental bottleneck holding back our species: getting off this single planet and establishing a true space-based civilization - colonizing our solar system.

Along the way we’ll be solving for energy, jobs, resources, environment and existential risk.

Re: Ask HN: What problem would you solve with unlimited resources?

#30

Post by antfarm »

Reading some of the answers in this thread, I think I would put all my resources into a global education program.

In my eyes the greatest challenge is to find a way to enable humanity to live in a way that does no longer destroy the ecosystem it relies on.

Unfortunately, the solution won't be just technological but rather social, educational and political.

We must find ways to stop overconsumption, overpopulation and to teach children (and people in general) the value of our natural environment.

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