If you could "delete" one person...

[ItsAChiaotzu]

As in completely erase this persons mark on the world as if he/she'd never been born. Who would you choose?

I'd choose the person that created "Rule 34"

So many childhood memories de-sanctified...

EDIT: I see a lot of people worrying about messing up the timeline, so lets say this... You can delete them, if only to see how it affects the world

But it's a hypothetical question anyway? Why should anyone really care about about hypothetical ramifications?

Rule 34 is merely a description of a law that exists naturally. Newton didn't invent Gravity, he just named it.

And one person? Uh, I don't know anyone I'd want to do that to. 'Cept you Steve.

 

[Tdc2182]

Eh, I know it will encite a flamewar, but, Jesus, or whoever was responsible for the idea of him. A thousand or so years of dark ages, erased? I'd like to see how that would have turned out.

Funny. First off, it was proven that he was a real person.

And how is that?

There have been many documents about his life that seem to have added up.

I'd link you to a website, but I don't exactly trust the ones I am finding (what with saying that he changed water, yada yada) and the ones that are actually quoting decent answers are all from wikianswers

There is a good deal of proof that he was real. Whether you want to believe he did all the things that have been claimed for the past century? Thats for you to decide, I guess.

I've heard the same thing in defense of Scientology. "There's proof out there, but I couldn't tell you what any of it is". Oddly enough, that's not enough for me, because I can't find the proof either.

I'm not defending anything being said about the actual religion of Christianity, or the things that Jesus allegedly did.

I'm merely saying that he was a real person, and that some of the events correspond to actual documents found.

If you really can't type it in yourself, here ya go.

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Is_there_real_proof_that_Jesus_Christ_really_existed

 

[Kevonovitch]

Hitler I guess.
He is probably one of the most evil human beings to ever live, so I guess getting rid of him would be a good thing.

what? de-create the guy that brought the world out of the great depression, when nothing was working, and nobody had any functional plans? skipping the evil, there's quite alot of good that he did that still reflects in the world today, even his evil had results that changed the world for the better, that, probably woulden't have, if not then, but much much later.

but back to being on topic....just one? dude, c'mon, i need ATLEAST 20 here :/ (ps: what's with all the hate on hitler? jeeze :/ slow night for trolling or what? >_>)

I'm not trolling here.
Both the Great Depression and WW2 were awful events in the world's history, I'll admit.
But as bad as the depression was, you can't overlook the huge amount of deaths that occurred-
Oh wait.
Nothing bad I say about Hitler will matter to you; he's your avatar.

yeah...well, if ya only looking at the negatives, ya can't gauge properly and the trolling comment was cuz that day there was alot of hitler hate and i was like "damn, all at once? wtf? "

but realistically: a war from all that was going to happen, hitler or no hitler, there already was one in italy, and russia was have troubles internally aswell, same w/ asia, the whole genocide bit? well, what did we learn from it all? how did things change because of that? what did we learn? quite alot on all fronts. horrible? extremely, tragic? more like horrificly insane. yeah true inhumane ect ect, but seriously, europe was a powder keg after the versile treaties, hitler or no, was was inevitable. death was inevitable, always is, the genocide, could have been preventable, but OHWELL, good job britian >_> letting that one slip, and not caring, GG NOOBZ.

 

[Naheal]

This is going to sound to be angst filled...

Spoiler: Spoiled to contain the angst. It's still ambiguous, but only mildly

The person that I would have deleted would end up deleting me by default. I'm strangely fine with this.

 

[David_G]

Goodbye Chris-chan.

If you don't know who i'm talking about...keep it that way.

Wouldn't that be a waste? Do you really hate that guy so much? (And no, I didn't find out about him by googling him)
He really is annoying, but wasting your only delete on him?

For me, I don't know, it would probably be some less important person, because I'm concerned about what would happen if I deleted someone really important to the world's history.

 

[Idiotastic]

Goodbye Chris-chan.

If you don't know who i'm talking about...keep it that way.

Wouldn't that be a waste? Do you really hate that guy so much? (And no, I didn't find out about him by googling him)
He really is annoying, but wasting your only delete on him?

Well,then i have no idea,someone want my delete?

Please don't delete me.

 

[Empireth]

"As in completely erase this persons mark on the world as if he/she'd never been born."

...How was it that George Orwell so described it?

It was always at night -- the arrests invariably happened at night. The sudden jerk out of sleep, the rough hand shaking your shoulder, the lights glaring in your eyes, the ring of hard faces round the bed. In the vast majority of cases, there was no trial, no report of arrest. People simply disappeared, always during the night. Your name was removed from the registers, every record of everything you had ever done was wiped out, your one-time existence was denied and then forgotten. You were abolished, annihilated: vaporized was the usual word.

So, essentially, what you're suggesting, is that we be the Thought Police (thinkpol in Newspeak and henceforth referred to as such), and our victims be those committed of thoughtcrime (crimethink).

You want me to vaporize someone.

Who would I chose? I wouldn't. No, I would not convict anyone of crimethink, though many are guilty. And no, I would not even "delete" myself, as you so called it. Why? Well, because you didn't say I would have to use my chance to delete people. I could very well not delete anyone, though I hold the power to. Although, my refusal to convict anyone of crimethink were I a part of the thinkpol myself would, in itself, be an action of crimethink. I would be, as some might call it, a crimethink sympathizer. I would also be running from the law, though I was the law.

But it's a hypothetical question anyway? Why should anyone really care about about hypothetical ramifications?

But the hypothetical ramifications are the fun part to consider!

For example, to further lay out why I wouldn't vaporize anyone:
What if, the one person I delete from records is the only reason why a couple decided to move to Canada from England? And if this couple doesn't have a child, then they don't move, then the man's job is never replaced by a younger, brighter person, and the newer person never helps solve a major crisis. And since they don't move to Canada, they won't meet their neighbours and the woman will never get incentive to experiment with different ways to make pie, thus never creating the amazing pie she is known for. And by deleting that one person, I would rid the world of [a type of] pie. Yeah, how about that?

But if I decided to vaporize the child after they have moved to Canada, then I would not be taking away the solution to the major crisis or the pie, but I would be taking away from any possible thing that the child influence. He may have influenced anything just by picking up a man's hat that had fallen off on the bus, helping a drunken woman realize what she needs to do to get by in life, or by working on an important business project. If he was someone's first love, he might have taught them how to deal with pain, how to deal with trust, etc.
We end up in a loop of unknown what if?s.

We have no knowledge of what deleting one person might keep from happening.

I don't think this is a power that we should trust ourselves with. The ability to vaporize whomever we like, for whatever reason, even if it is just one person.

One person can change the world. We saw what happened with Hitler. Yes, he was bad and killed thousands of people -- irreplaceable lives -- but even that tragedy has brought us knowledge and with that knowledge we shall keep from letting that happen again. Delete the man, and the knowledge that that terrible event brought is deleted as well.

On that same note, I have no idea how I will influence people, or have influence people over the course of my life. I don't think I should delete myself (somewhat selfishly) merely because "I do not have enough power to delete all the bad people from history." No, I'm not going to hide from those problems, just as I'm not going to hide from the knowledge that is brought by the problems initiated by the bad people. We must learn from our mistakes and prevent future incidents. Prevent future bad people from creating catastrophes.

By simply living, we have the power to change the world. How do you know you won't be the one to tip off the person to solve world hunger?

One person can change the world.