The 10% stacks additively, each time you do the deal, this status is applied to a different 10%. If you sacrifice 10 fingers, the entire world is guaranteed basic human needs (food, water, shelter, clothing, healthcate, etc…)
Nobody knows you saved them. Would you do it?
If everyone knows about the fact that you can do this deal, would that change your mind?
Wait wait, by saying 10% stacks each time, do you mean 10% of the original number, or 10% of the remaining number of people?
Like, for the sake of simplicity, 10 billion to start with, 10%, so 1 billion for the first finger. Then does it become 10% of the remaining 9 billion, so around 900 million, or another 10% of 10 billion?
I would likely still do it, even if all 10 fingers wouldn’t save humanity together, but if I could also pass this deal, it would be interesting to get 10 random people off the street and present the choice to them. If the collective has the solidarity necessary to want to save others, it shows just how justified it is for them to be saved.
Of course I’d do it. Lack of fingers would be an inconvience, sure, but there’s cool technology like 3d printing that I could use to get by okay. The inconvience is more than worth it for people to have basic human needs. Plus, with everyone having basic needs they’d be able to spend their time doing things that they enjoy and are passionate about. In all the population of the earth there are definitely gonna be people whose mission is to get people functioning bionic fingers that work like the real deal. I don’t care about people knowing. It would be more annoying if they did because then people would constantly be thanking me and receiving compliments is awkward.
If I have the chance to do something helpful or even remotely worthwhile with my life I’m gonna take it. All ten, let’s go.
If everybody has their basic needs met, the odds of getting prosthetic fingers dramatically increases. I’d be OK with that swap. Bonus: Robot Fingers.
You could have more than 10 fingers, and with updates, they will get better every year.
Yeah, I feel like that’s a good deal. Especially if I get credit. I mean, I’d still do it if it was anonymous, but can you imagine the popularity of being the guy who cut off his fingers for world peace? Frankly you’d be kind of a monster not to do it. So many people lose hands for nothing at all. But being the guy with the robot fingers who gave the world peace and joy? Sure, sign me up. Sounds rad af.
As long as I’m not losing fingers for a “Monkey’s Paw” or genie-style “You get your wish but with a twist” kinda thing, take 'em all.
More thought would need to be invested if there was a twist.
It seems like the twist is you lose fingers
Can I get 8 fingers removed and leave the top 20% wealth people out in the cold. I would rather give them the remaining fingers(middle).
Well they wouldn’t be middle fingers anymore but we understand the sentiment
All 10 even if they have to be taken off with a hacksaw. I would be concerned about the being who could so easily do this, but has a sick desire to maim me first though.
Maybe it’s not a being, maybe you have some generic abnormality that can be exploited somehow. Bonus points if the abnormality is regeneration.
Falls in line with the ethics of basically all known gods.
Yup.
You mean, human created stories. It’s not like these beings are likely to exist.
That’s kind’ve the point. Very few of these imagined deities are even worthy of worship despite being fabricated as the “ultimate” being.
kind’ve
Ok not to be nitpicky but this is the first time I’ve ever seen the opposite (complementary?) mistake to “could of”. That’s actually kinda fun :D
If I help 100% of people that means that science will advance super fast and I can get those gnarly hands from Ghost in the Shell that split into even smaller fingers and allows me to type at 7,000WPM.
Boss
The maximum expected value is about 61.3% of the population covered by this deal. That’s probably off by a few tenths, since I ran the numbers in my phone calculator and messed up my entry at about 7 fingers in.
How many % actually lack the above needs?
I’ll be honest: none. I’m not making shady deals like that. Besides, shortcuts always come with giant caveats that you don’t know in advance. Like: how long is this guaranteed for? Will it magically prevent people from depriving others of their needs (murder, arson, imprisonment, torture, etc.)? How will it be sustained, and how would it affect the rest of life on Earth?
No no no, count me out. I’m not taking that deal just to find out it only applies for 1 month or some crap like that and people can still kill each other.
Plus, I like my fingers. I use them every day!
This is what I think when characters in fiction want achieve inmortality. Yeah dude, inmortality is one thing, but good health is other thing. You can get disabled, unable to walk, even worse, been in a vegetal state, but hey, you are inmortal.
how long is this guaranteed for?
I left the question ambiguous for a reason. I’m glad someone pointed that out. 😉
1 month of universal basic needs met for every human alive could easily be world-reshaping
FML, I’d have to learn how to type with my toes.
I wouldn’t mind losing all my fingers if it would make the world better. It’s a small price to pay for so much.
So how does the 10% get chosen? Like if the first 10% were all the people desperately in need of it, that’s an easy finger. But if there is a potential that only wealthy people could be effected by that, then the loss of the finger would be meaningless. If it’s totally random each time, it’s a harder choice since you really aren’t helping 10% of the population each time, given that many will already have basic needs met.
Completely random. A quantum-dice roll, impossible to predict. If they were already rich, it just means that if they go bankrupt, they still have their safety-net, they just lose all their luxury stuff. But they don’t notice any change if their basic needs are already met.
Losing 10 fingers would guarantee the status effect applied to everyone.
Then it’s not completely random though. Random would mean there’s a non-zero chance the same 10% get picked for every finger sacrificed.
Depends: for how long? 1 finger = 10% of humanity has all of their basic survival needs met forever? Done and done, take all 10. Seems like an extremely tiny price to pay to alleviate a colossal amount of suffering in the world forever, and without all those people being distracted by meeting their basic needs odds are technology is going to advance even more rapidly, along with the quality of things like medical prosthetics and neural interfaces and shit. So, yes please bring on the cyberpunk without the dystopia.
