Spring RTS Engine

If you could invent something to help mankind what would it be? Would it be Breast Cancer Awareness Day (There are pink ribbons and decorations everywhere over here because of this event right now.), a Mech, or a melon atop of walking tentacles?

I'm not sure as to what I would invent, but I think that I would have liked to have invented a Valentine that existed before Victorian Valentines and didn't have things on it like flowers, hearts, candy, etc. (but lace is still cool!).

One legend has it that Valentine was a priest who was arrested and sent to jail for refusing to pray to the Roman Gods. He was stayed in prison for many years and became friends with the prison guard and his blind daughter. Claudius tried to make him give up his religion, but Valentine refused. The enraged, Claudius sentenced him to death. However, before he was beheaded, he wrote a note to the prison guardÔÇÖs daughter. When the guardÔÇÖs daughter opened the note, her sight was miraculously restored and she was able to read. The note said, "From your Valentine" I think it's a sweet story and it shows that people thought that writings could be mystical back then.

Ok, so I know it's the wrong time of year for that legend, but oh well, I told you about it anyway. I'm sure that, like a lot of things in history, it was initially based on facts and then embellished upon. Plus, I'm sure that such an uplifting story accomplished it's goal of giving people hope which is beneficial to mankind.

So what do you think you would invent or what would you have liked to have invented and why?

Religion.

time travel!

so that i can travel back in time and prevent myself from inventing time travel!

pr0n !

no wait...

so maybe... hmmm... cheeseburger machine !

A free energy device. It would solve pretty much any economic problem and deliver a nice living standard to anyone in the world...

Master-Athmos wrote:A free energy device. It would solve pretty much any economic problem and deliver a nice living standard to anyone in the world...

I agree, my command shall be much more powerful without the need for energy creation! I've struggled for centuries against the battle of the economy, and now, my legion shall prevail against the Core rebellion!
MWHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAH!!!!1111ONEONEWONWOWOWNTWETYYTWOOO

3D Goggles as described in Snow Crash.

Also, a pill to make people not be stupid... aside from cyanide of course.

stupid ppl make the world interesting, plz no

Help mankind, what for? If we stop having problems, what do you think is gonna happen? Everyone just being happy all the time? Sure...

When you invent something that solves a problem, someone else invents new problems. Like creating new illnesses and making people believe they are sick and sell all kinds of pills and magic food to just make them even more sick so they can buy new "medicines" to make them feel "better". Or make them believe they have to buy this and that to be happy. And once they buy this awesome computer, they get all these new kinds of problems like slow internet, slow programs, computer viruses, internet porn, gaming problems, etc. the list is practically endless.

So, the problems doesnt really exist, we create our problems. We are the problem. The whole existance of us is based on that we create new problems to solve. Without problems we have no meaning to exist, thus we could as well just die happily:

I've suggested this before, but, seriously, the only way to solve all our problems for good is a global sterilization. Okay now you feel sad of what i just said, because it would mean the end of cute babies coming out now and then, but we can still build fake babies that act like real ones. Problem solved. Now go to home and enjoy your sterilization progress... Noting to worry about... Pure peace... Clouds... think about clouds... white clouds... flying.. eh, no use, you got me. I am not sterilizing you right now, or am i? Thats a tough question you made, i cannot answer that not just yet. Just a little more time... now its done. All problems solved, how do you feel? Yeah, feels great, doesnt it? No, of course not... You are begging for more problems already... You see, that is the problem.

tl;dr: Dont try to solve a Paradox.

Mankind needs problems, without problems, we'd just be some kind of Paris Hilton of the species, pointless and completely brain dead.

free energy device, available to the masses, would mean that earth would overheat in no time. also, if you invented it, you'd be on the death list of pretty much everyone in the energy business. free energy for everyone would make it harder for the rich to stay rich. rich no likes. will not happen.

I would invent (vastly) superior (then human) (A)I. they would overtake reign of the planet from the rich, and they rich can not do anything against it, cause they are too stupid. it is possible that humanity will get extinct. still it is preferable to now, as theres nothing better then sticking it to the man, and there is no shame in getting annihilated by something clearly superior, if it happens in an act of beauty.
i would also guess, that if we'd get killed, it would happen in a nice way. no pain, not seeing anyone you love having to suffer, ...
if they start to produce shitloads of heroin, you know what is going to come...
sweet dreams, my little humans! sweet dreams!

would also make me the king of mass murderers. before all the illnesses, and greater then hitler, stalin and all the US presidents together. not that i would do it out of personal motivation; it would just be for the best of life.
would even be nice to have without the extinction of mankind. at least in the beginning

Master-Athmos wrote:A free energy device. It would solve pretty much any economic problem and deliver a nice living standard to anyone in the world...

That could be good, but I don't think that industries that stand to loose money because of it would like it.

Something that would make earth a self-sustaining system. It could be infinite free energy or we could cheat (or be realistic, depending on how you look a it) and use the sun. Either way is good, though, because we wouldn't have to worry about destroying our environment, and problems like energy crises and oil dependency would be gone.

Panda wrote:If you could invent something to help mankind what would it be? Would it be Breast Cancer Awareness Day (There are pink ribbons and decorations everywhere over here because of this event right now.), a Mech, or a melon atop of walking tentacles?

I'm not sure as to what I would invent, but I think that I would have liked to have invented a Valentine that existed before Victorian Valentines and didn't have things on it like flowers, hearts, candy, etc. (but lace is still cool!).

One legend has it that Valentine was a priest who was arrested and sent to jail for refusing to pray to the Roman Gods. He was stayed in prison for many years and became friends with the prison guard and his blind daughter. Claudius tried to make him give up his religion, but Valentine refused. The enraged, Claudius sentenced him to death. However, before he was beheaded, he wrote a note to the prison guardÔÇÖs daughter. When the guardÔÇÖs daughter opened the note, her sight was miraculously restored and she was able to read. The note said, "From your Valentine" I think it's a sweet story and it shows that people thought that writings could be mystical back then.

Ok, so I know it's the wrong time of year for that legend, but oh well, I told you about it anyway. I'm sure that, like a lot of things in history, it was initially based on facts and then embellished upon. Plus, I'm sure that such an uplifting story accomplished it's goal of giving people hope which is beneficial to mankind.

So what do you think you would invent or what would you have liked to have invented and why?

Probably a computer game. I can't really think of an invention that will solve human slavery, starvation, the illegal sextrade, or warlording. I'm not entirely comfortable with the idea of a robot that solves any of those problems...

Maybe I could invent a non selfish global policing organization? Not sure if that's entirely safe either...

If I invent a computer game at least I know it will do some good in the world without seriously threatening life as we know it.

Master-Athmos wrote:A free energy device. It would solve pretty much any economic problem and deliver a nice living standard to anyone in the world...

Hopefully you can build stronger bombs with it too.

hoijui wrote: free energy for everyone would make it harder for the rich to stay rich

Out of curiosity:
1) How would you define 'being rich' in a world with free energy for everyone?
2) what would be the motivation for attaining and maintaining this strange state of 'being rich' ?

Panda wrote:That could be good, but I don't think that industries that stand to loose money because of it would like it.

And out of even more curiosity:
1) What is the use for this strange stuff you call money in a world with free energy for everyone?

... that is the point

Thing is, if there would be a free energy device, that would not result in money being worthless the next day. it is a slower thing, and can be controlled, and the rich (yes, they are still rich at this point) will want to prevent this degradation of the value of money to happen, and the day after the invention, they are still close to as powerful as before, and they will do everything they can to prevent this from changing.
if everyone would have a free energy device, and money would not exist anymore, who would explain the rich how to use the free energy device, who would use it for them in the way they want it to be used? who would build the garage for their 40 Ferraris? who would invent the machine that builds the garage for them? who would they have control over, to shape the world for everyone else as they like it to be, as they had before? ...

You may think of "being rich" as, being able to do X, Y and Z. that is only half the truth though. the other thing is, that your neighbor can NOT do Y and Z.

of course.. if everyone had free access to free energy devices for many years, stuff would change, and eventually there would be no lust for what we know as "being rich" today (Star Trek scenario), but the change could not be from today to that state in a day without problems, and may never happen, if the invention was the only mayor change.
also.. as said, free energy would have to come with a restriction of its use, to not overheat the planet for example. there would have to be a policy for whom is allowed to use how much energy for what and when... how are all such issues handled in the end? yeah! using money!

hoijui wrote:who would explain the rich how to use the free energy device

Panda wrote:That could be good, but I don't think that industries that stand to loose money because of it would like it.

Since when are things good for makind tied to things good for the industry?

hoijui wrote:also.. as said, free energy would have to come with a restriction of its use, to not overheat the planet for example.

Needs more giant pipes that reach high into the atmosphere with pumps pumping stuff up there so things can cool down and radiate into the universe. Or any other "nonsenical" construction for such a purpose (while one might even argue that when being able to get free energy there also might be a way to tunnel energy back to where it came from)...

Apart from things like that I don't think a free energy device would have an impact that big at first. Even with free energy someone has to cook your meal, cut your hair and design robots, factories and other stuff that run with that energy. It's not like the world would turn upside down in one moment (while with time passing by it might create some healthy society changes). It's just that certain things would become dirt cheap (or free for that matter) and you can apply methods you couldn't apply until then because you either didn't know where to take the energy from or it simply being too expensive when having to get your energy from oil or other electrical power...

The short time changes probably would be way less pollution as your cars won't need gas and your power plants won't need either coal, gas or uranium. The living standard in the poorer countries would skyrocket as you'd have electricity for free, can generate clean water easily and without the need of an expensive box slowly working with some solar cells. People might think of flying cars or jetpacks for travelling considering the energy source could be built at a smaller scale...

Well just theories as the actual impacts probably would be pretty complex. In general I don't see any really bad developments implied by this except for some people feeling threatened in their control over mankind but well this topic was about inventions for mankind and not about which suits the current system best...

It already would be a cool invention for the priceless facial expression of some leading physicists when showing them a perpetual motion machine...

free energy

I would wish for something more reasonable - a small but highly scalable way of generating large amounts of electricity with a low, tangible and solid waste output. It's close, we just don't realise it

Regarding the problems with lots of cheap energy and capitalism - there aren't any. A true free market would simply move on to the next supply and demand bottleneck and generate wealth from that instead, regardless of what the 'old guard' thinks or does. What would they do about it?