When I was young, I imagined that upon death if get a database of statistics that contained all the numbers of my life, from how many times I smiled or picked my nose, to how many times I caused someone to feel good or bad. And even then, while I knew that not everything can be told through the numbers, having that objective view would create an interesting reflection. And also at the time, I recognised this as a thought experiment, since I was quite young when I stopped believing in an afterlife. Still, considering our actions being recorded, can affect the way we behave, which is why many of us behave differently between when we think we are being observed, and when we are alone.
You are not alone.
For the sake of this thought experiment, let's assume that everything we do is recorded, but what we think is not. Because at least in my opinion, there is no such thing as a bad thought. Thought crime is not a thing, because if it were, all those crime novelists and screen writers would be imprisoned. Bad thoughts are a feature, not a flaw of humanity, as they allow us to compare and evaluate our potential actions.
But what we do matters.
So, everything we do is recorded, goes into a database and is evaluated by an assumed infallible intelligence that gives it a ranking on a bad to good spectrum. It doesn't matter what the actual parameters are for this, other than positive or negative impact on humanity is at the core. Remembering that the evaluation tool is infallible, it is able to accurately evaluate impact and apply a weighting in comparison to all other participants.
So someone who does twice the positive of someone else, gets given a score that is double that of that of the other. But everyone is evaluated, so there are about 8 billion scores. Let's leave children out of it though, and make a assumption that all are responsible adults, filtered by the infallible intelligence.
Now, the intelligence has access and distribution powers for all resources and chooses to distribute resources monthly based on the goodness quotient. So for instance, if the pool was 100 and and had the two people mentioned above with one time as good as the other, the better would get 2/3rds of the pool. But again, billions are drawing from the resource pool.
Let's say that this distribution mechanism is a black box, so that we don't know what specific actions led to the distribution, other than what is observable physically. But, we do know the output each month. This means that we know how each of us rank by allocation, but not by action.
Where would you rank?
I think it would be interesting to see where the distribution goes ad to what kinds of people. Would the billionaires of today get as much of the pool as they do? Would a nurse get more or less than a doctor? Would politicians on average be paid more or less than someone working on a soup kitchen?
And of course, it wouldn't just be based on profession, as it would also include all of the personal actions within the family and community also, so those who are not working will also draw on the pool. Good parents would be allocated more than bad parents.
What kind of impact would this have on society?
It'd be interesting to see whether those who get allocated more initially would be able to keep their position, or would their behaviours change based on being highly ranked. Or would their position be affected by those who compete with them, as people look to up their positive impact score to draw on more of the pool. How would it affect actions amongst people, and would it make interactions more positive, but less authentic? What would happen to the people who consistently score poorly? Is it race to the top, or a race to the bottom?
The implications would obviously be immense, as distribution of global resources would almost certainly shift enormously. However, I think there would also be a lot of disappointment, as many of us overestimate how good we are, and how much positive impact we make. And whole there is going to be huge disagreement on what is positive and negative, I think what we can agree on is that the current distribution of global resources is very poorly managed and has led to massive amounts of inequality and inequity, which is having a large detrimental impact on humanity.
Humans are comparative by nature, which makes us also competitive by nature. This is a feature trait that keeps us innovating and evolving, but also what has led us into the current conditions where manipulation and impression can secure more resources than deserved. And the more resources someone has, the more influence they can exert to capture even more. This ultimately leads to massive imbalance in resources, where many do not have enough, and a few have far, far more than they need.
Would your behaviours change?
The way we behave whether with others or alone, is the impact we have on the world. It is our ability to affect the environment and those who inhabit it. The way we treat and speak to people matters, as does what we do for work, with the community, with the family, because all of these actions create interactions and have implications for the future. Yet, much of what we do is driven by the incentive to capture resources, and the best way to capture isn't necessarily what has the most positive impact on society. The incentives are misaligned for improved human outcomes, but we justify our actions by comparing ourselves to others, who are also similarly following misaligned incentives.
Hold myself to account.
As said, I don't believe in an afterlife, but this means that all the impact, all the meaning, all the value I have, has to be enacted now, while I am alive. The implications of what I do might reach beyond my life, just as the ripples outlive the drop of a pebble in water, but I only have so many opportunities to make a splash. Reflecting on my days and weeks presents an opportunity to evaluate the impacts I have made and inform my future behaviours. I don't know if I am a net positive or a net negative overall, but I hope that I offer more value, than I cost.
Even if the mechanics of resource distribution are fundamentally broken.
I wonder what will be the tone of my life ledger.
Taraz
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