So imagine the year is 2337, 1000 years after l337. We shall call this time period...the future. The world has not changed in a long time, since the world entered a big depression after 2008; the same year students around the world stopped studying, instead wondering how Northwestern's football team was 6-1. John McCain is still alive and is president.
Now, in this perfect world, it turns out that everybody who is pregnant gets to choose one trait that they believe will serve their baby the best. This can be anything, creativity, physical strength, good-looks. In everything else, they are like a normal person, mediocre, but in this trait, they are super-duper. What trait would you choose for your baby and why?
(What I chose and why is on the bottom along with why this is interesting...please think first though!)
Intelligence because it is the one that best complements other traits and is the most adaptable. With intelligence, one learns and mimics the strengths of others more easily, thus probably giving this person the best chance at being well-rounded. It also means that they can analyze what they will need to succeed in any environment the best. Say that the person looks around and sees that the land is rural and an agricultural society that requires strength. If he concludes that the most successful path (and this person's analysis should be the best out of anyone's) is to gain strength, then he will work out and hone his body. If it is a place of high-culture and arts, this person can learn to enhance his creativity by analyzing himself and comparing it to the way others think. In this way, the best traits in any situation can be almost traded for by his intelligence.
Please write what you think before continuing.
Why is this interesting? Because it shows you what characteristic you care about the most. Oftentimes it's the quality you value most in yourself.
Posted in
Idea,
Popular Posts,
Question
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
10 comments:
From what I see, you have two options. 1) Give your baby physical 1337ness or intellectual 1337ness. Intelligence gives your child creativity, the ability to reason, learn and to solve problems (paraphrasing from wiki). Thus intelligence pretty much encompasses everything of the minds. On the other hand, physical 1337ness will give your offspring good looks or strength, while still maintaining medium intelligence.
So the future does not look so different from nowadays does it? Today we have the smart people running our engineering projects and directing our finances, while those with superior physical elements are the football stars. It is true that if you are intelligent you can learn everything else with ease, however you can learn all the knowledge of the universe, but nevertheless you only have 24 hour a day to use that brain of yours. So what I am saying is that by giving your child intelligence he is still, at most, likely to contribute to the advancement of one field. Again, much like the world we live in today. Sure choosing what trait your kids have will satisfy your desire, but it will not contribute much to the advancement of our society. Plus, this procedure would be expensive, would it not be?
Without question, I would choose the Death-Note power. In other words, the ability to kill anyone, anonymously and with impunity.
I would teach my child to be moral and just. I would teach him to sympathize with the little guy, and I would teach him to always think critically.
Here's why.
The world is unjust and filled with crime that goes unpunished. That's just the way it is. Blue-collar criminals use brute force as their primary weapon, to hurt other people physically, but they're not the only criminals. White-collar criminals use bribery, secret backroom deals, and they use their vast wealth to control media and thus control public opinion. They're not gun-shy, either, actually. Force is never completely off the table, white-collar criminals are just more "finessed." It's surprisingly not that difficult to call a "hit" on someone who's a thorn in your side. The heist in Ocean's 11 is tiny compared to whats pulled off every day by powerful corporations and corrupt politicians worldwide.
With the Death-Note power, he would "clean up" the trash of society, both blue-collar criminals and white-collar criminals. He would cause a revolution and create a new world, which would be just, honorable and decent.
I disagree with Joey giving super-intelligence to the child, because most likely, he's only going to end up as a cog in the machine. Sure, he'll live a comfortable and peaceful life, and be well-liked all around, but that's pretty unsatisfying. In my opinion, peace without justice is not really peace at all.
dang, hotlikeatoaster. that's bold. this thing doesn't only show what we admire most in ourselves, but also what we want the most.
i won't get into a debate about the ethics of having a Deathnote ability. that'll be a long, protracted, convoluted, and ultimately painful "discussion". it'd be nice though right? a world filled with peace and justice without a criminal in sight, all because the "bad" people are too scared they'll be killed with impunity.
i'll have my own response to this later joey, but you already know my answer.
lol KTao, I don't know if Death Note power is a trait :P
Anyway I still say creativity, because intelligence does not always lead to that. I believe they are two separate traits because you can be smart yet unable to think outside the box. So with creative genius, even with mediocre intelligence, new innovations can be formed in any area of life: science, math, the arts, etc.
ROFLMAO @ Ktao. I wish I'd gotten there first. Just Kidding!!!
If this 1337ness transformation was a reality I'd want my child to have the uncanny ability to influence those around them. Kind of like the zerg overmind. You know, those people who everyone cant stand to like. I think with this ability you can really take hold of all the strengths out there because with such strong influence you can utilize the strengths of those around you to carry out the objectives necessary.
of course i don't want my kid to be manipulative or possessive. i want him to be able to influence those around him so strongly that the people who meet him would be willing to carry out the task even though it would originally against there will. it sound utilitarian, but i think with close moral instruction one could make a tremendously powerful positive impact. for example, with this ability, it'd be kind of like the Dark Archon mind controlling the zerg drone to become one of the protoss. i.e. influencing a corrupt polititian to bring down all the other corrupt polititians. sorry for the nerdy metaphor.
sorry, in one of the statements i meant can't stand to not like (i know dble negs.)
Okay, I understand it's possible that in the future, the Death-Note Power still won't be a "real" trait. In case the Death Note power doesn't exist in the future, I would give my child the trait of ultimate courage.
I would still teach him to empathize with the little guy, and to uphold justice and morals. Since he won't have the benefit of anonymity (and thus impunity), he will have to fight evil head-on. It's basically the difference between Batman (an anonymous hero) and Harvey Dent (a known and targettable hero). To fight the scum of the earth face to face, he will need lots of courage. There will be many threats to his life, and those of his loved ones. Ultimately, he will probably die a martyr. Unfortunately, that will be the price he must pay. Hopefully, his courage will inspire many, and his legacy will lead others to carry on his fight.
krnchoe:
I think the ability you're thinking of is known as charisma and/or owning the press/media.
Charisma enables you to sway those immediately around you, and owning mass media enables you to sway a whole nation (and others too).
going off of john's: does anyone think that creativity just equals possibly stumbling upon something intelligent or...discovering something that is less efficient/good than the method a "perfectly" intelligent person would find?
but yes, creativity beats slightly greater intelligence and work ethic all day.
I would give my baby perception. The ability to understand a problem and deal with it. Perception does not always come with intelligence, or even creativity. Take this example: we have IMSA kid A, with an IQ of 220. He is given a problem dealing with integrals. He is intelligent, and so sees the meat of the integral, and using the methods he has learned, solves it. He even remembers the +C. The problem is, the process was kind of long. I mean, sure, he got the right answer, but there was a much easier way to do it. A creative person is given the same integral. Sure, he has creativity, so he grasps a creative way of doing the integral and comes to the right answer. But is this way necessarily faster? Enter perceptive person. The perceptive person recognizes the problem, analyzes his possibilities, and understands that there is a way he can approach the problem that saves time and energy. Might the intelligent and the creative person find this method? Of course. But that takes perception.
Plus, perceptive people have the uncanny ability to guess what you are thinking, almost like a telepath. Wouldn't that be cool?
Post a Comment