What if you could erase one aspect of mankind?

[Danny Ocean]

I don't know what the emotion is called but the one that makes people care.

I think you're thinking of a combination of empathy and self-interest?

 

[jFr[e]ak93]

I'd erase Jersey Shore. We all know we'd be better off without it. And war would end without it.
Basically humanity is screwed because of Jersey Shore.

 

[AMMO Kid]

I would erase the boring, very depressing people. More fun without them making sure we're all in line, I tell you!

The problem with that is that then there is a new standard of boring, and then those would eventually have to be erased too. Plus, no one considers themselves boring, so it would be harder to judge than you'd think.

OT: Probably this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reward_pathway

The reward pathway basically make us all do the same things over and over again because it feels good to us. For example, I came back on the escapist today because I remember that I enjoy it on here. This would make life a whole lot less, "Let's do that again" and a lot more "Let's go on an adventure!" Plus no addictions would ever ruin anyone's life.

 

[C F]

Hmm... A couple options are available to me. The first would be the "erase corruption" answer. Seems easy and relatively free of negative consequences.

Or I could get rid of the ability for mankind to underhandedly cheat, decieve, or defraud one another, inspired by an Assassin's Creed quote:
"There will come a day in which men no longer cheat each other. And on that day we will see what mankind is truly capable of!"
-Giovanni Auditore

Or I could get rid of free will. Muahahah! What now?
Yeah, I do evil as a side hobby.
It's fun.

The ignorance thing?
Hmm, nah.
It would probably be for the best, but I shudder to think of the ramifications of being unable to not know things. They say ignorance is bliss, even though ignorance is still also, well, ignorance. I choose to leave potential omniscience alone, and just learn things at my own pace.

Stupidity? Oh so tempting...

But, I think I'd rather leave humanity as a whole alone. Sure, there are a lot of things we could do without, but things seem to be working for the most part. Let's not go about 'fixing' something so fragile.

 

[Lord Kloo]

Remove perspective and therefore give all humans the innate ability to view every situation objectivly..

I will in one swift move remove selfishness, misunderstanding, intolerance and a bunch of other things that rely on our perspective of life twisting the truth..

Once we've done that we can combine into one synonymous, understanding and compassionate hive mind and liberate the stars from the tyranny of evil..

Or just be enslaved forever in the service of each others needs..

 

[Talshere]

Even most conservative estimates believe that we will have stable fusion in the next 100 year. I expect it within my lifetime.

Still too late...

Not really. Even if we take the assumption that all the icecaps DO melt, and thats a BIG if, we are looking at 1000+ years for them to go.

 

[Naeo]

The lack of self-awareness. People seem to generally lack the ability to step back and honestly view their own actions from an outsiders' perspective, or from anyone's but their own. And many people who can do that simply do not. If more people would do that more often, I think the world would be a less frustrating and immature place. Extend this to people's thoughts and, I imagine, it would get even better. If people would only think about the things they do and the things they think--and not in the same way a high schooler "thinks about the moral quandries of mankind in a mankind-created world" (or whatever), but in an honest way--I think we'd see the level of maturity in the general population absolutely skyrocket.

That, or get rid of this "bound by the laws of physics" thing, since that would just be awesome, ball-tripping fun all the time.

 

[Malgorath]

Looking at this from a (cold, heartless) scientific standpoint, I would want to erase our desire to keep others alive. Natural selection is kind of important. It gets rid of negative birth defects and those of low intelligence, while reinforcing positive evolutionary changes and higher intelligence. Since we can't bear to see someone else die, we invent new ways to keep people alive. But this also keeps people alive who do stupid, life-risking things. I realize this seems like a terrible thing to say, but in order for humanity as a whole to thrive, some must die (or at least be made sterile). You can't get something for nothing.

For something less heartless, I would say nations and borders. If we were one global community, working together, we could accomplish so much more than we do now, with so many pointless wars over lines on maps throughout history.

 

[German Borbon]

stupidity, it will fix it all. there will be more persons working curing deseases, sooner or later we will reach peace and every conflic will be solved

 

[TheTurtleMan]

I would erase mankind's inability to turn invisible. Yea, I'm the guy on the thread that hunts for stupid loopholes.

If not that, then how about the feeling that people get from being heartbroken. I think that it would make more people confident because there wouldn't be as much downside to being rejected and would therefore lead to more happiness.

 

[Kiju]

Greed.

....yep, that's it.

 

[droop99]

justin beiber

 

[Mau95]

Disease/disorders. I don't wanna wait for science, I have hives and a cold now <_<
also, anger is an emotion we need to drive us to confront threats, without it we might turn into these guys [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SuicidalPacifism]. It's actually worrying to think what humans would be like without anger, there would probably still be cold and calculated reasons that lead to war, but the idea of wars being fought with no anger seems kinda unsettling.

There's still all the other emotions, remember? Lots of people seem to think that without anger there would be no other emotions, but I don't see why that would be true.

I don't know what the emotion is called but the one that makes people care. I guess that is very broad, because you can care about achieving a goal but not care about someone else's opinion. I guess you can say greed, lets get rid of peoples creed. We've already evolved past the need to fend only for ourselves so might as well start helping each other.

I believe it's called empathy.(srry if mentioned before)

Should I erase disease? Or shorten people's lifespans to prevent overpopulation?
Wait, I've got it! I would erase the fact that women only have 2 breasts and give them four.

 

[HiWayXingFrog]

Greed. We'd definitely start seeing a change in how society works.

My thoughts precisely. We could achieve so much more for ourselves as a species if we weren't so motivated by the ultimately pointless desire for wealth, power, and things.

 

[SD-Fiend]

Looking at this from a (cold, heartless) scientific standpoint, I would want to erase our desire to keep others alive. Natural selection is kind of important. It gets rid of negative birth defects and those of low intelligence, while reinforcing positive evolutionary changes and higher intelligence. Since we can't bear to see someone else die, we invent new ways to keep people alive. But this also keeps people alive who do stupid, life-risking things. I realize this seems like a terrible thing to say, but in order for humanity as a whole to thrive, some must die (or at least be made sterile). You can't get something for nothing.

For something less heartless, I would say nations and borders. If we were one global community, working together, we could accomplish so much more than we do now, with so many pointless wars over lines on maps throughout history.

Sorry but I don't think that that is how it would work at all. death doesn't claim only the stupid or sickly it goes for anyone at anytime you could be the smartest person in the world but be hit by a runaway cart one day and die slowly with no one caring to help you. also dna doesn't work that way

 

[Kuroneko97]

Can we erase a person from mankind? Because I have a LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONG list of people that I'd just love to wipe off of the face of the Earth *coughparishiltoncough*

 

[Guitar Gamer]

Let whatever malice or rancor that makes some rise to the top by stepping on others, and continue after they're there.