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?
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.
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.
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.
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
Being bad or evil is literally bad for your health.
The better you act, the better your health - great teeth, good muscle, low fat, high fitness, good looks, and longevity (to a point), no addiction or mental health issues, selfless with no crazy ego. Ie Mother Teresa looks like a supermodel!
Health can fluctuate based on behavior but it always drops 3x faster than it improves. So if you fuck around on your wife, your teeth go bad, or you start balding etc. cheat on your taxes, or lie maliciously (excl. good lies like Santa) you start to get fat n ugly.
If you're a miserable prick who fires staff, scams people, bribes, hires children for sweatshops or harms people just to increase profit or boost share price you get cancer. But if you help those people then you may be cured provided you handle it really well and undo all the damage.
You attack someone, pedal harmful drugs or hoard unnecessary wealth, you go blind/deaf until you earn it back, more than once and it becomes permanent, each time after that you lose a limb for good.
You intentionally harm or kill someone via murder, drink driving, rape etc then it's game over via a slow, long, painful debilitating disease that's contagious to anyone you like or care about, ensuring you die alone.
To help identify the good/bad, your gut instincts are 10,000x more powerful and obvious to warn you of the dangers or benefits of each choice.
No quantum mechanics. Things have concrete properties even when no one's watching, and they can all be observed at the same time. The universe is complex but understandable.
Also, P=NP and π is 3.33 repeating, just for the lols.
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."
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.
If you eat a piece of cheese, you get to levitate for 10 seconds no more, no less. Doesn't matter the size of the cheese or the type (this includes lactose free).
Around the time the pyramid of Giza is built, actual Aliens build a slightly smaller pyramid in modern day Tunisia. No one cares and all conspiracies still center on the ancient egyptian ones.
Honestly, i may be the most hardcore atheist, but it would be sweet if there was a God. You could know good and evil for sure, everyone gets what they deserve even if it's only in the afterlife, everything has a purpose...
I think it is objectively true that nature is chaos, we emerge from nature, and everything we believe in (currency, nations, laws, good and evil) are just social convention; all of that is the truth, and adapting to the truth helps me live a better life and make better decisions. But it's hard. It takes mental effort to accept that you're not the center of the universe and it's a disappointing thing to learn. I'm tired and i want someone to hand me meaning and purpose on a silver platter.
"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.
If you don't intend to cheat anyone, the party you're interacting with gains in a similar "amount" as you
If you achieve personal gain at the cost of someone else, their net gain will be even greater than yours
In case there's no direct party you're interacting with while gaining (such as you running a red light when no one's around to be inconvenienced), society as a whole gains
Making the speed of light infinite one hundred times larger and the speed of sound the current speed of light. No more blue/redshifting! Faster communication!
No suffering, no dis-pleasurable state, no undesirable reality exists. Everything that is, is deemed good by all beings that can judge it (if any). This has, as a consequence, no moral dilemmas, no conflict of wills and interests, no tragedies, etc.
Fell asleep thinking of a question similar last night.
No colonialism. Colonizing other lands outside of your own established borders would be forbidden.
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.
Animal life no longer seeks to multiply as much as possible all the time.
In our world, animals are always trying to have as many children as the food supply will allow; this means they're constantly rubbing up against their area's carrying capacity. I think animals could spare themselves a lot of suffering if they kept their numbers comfortably below carrying capacity, which of course they don't for a number of reasons.
I don't actually want that to translate to the human race because being satisfied with our circumstances would have us stagnate in the stone age, but you know, there's still something to the humility and chill of not wanting to try hard anymore.
I'd create an actual god with morals of absolute good that rules over humans with an iron fist. Political debates? There's an objective answer and the god knows it. Do something wrong? Get warned. Do something very wrong? It's brainwash time.