Inspired by a Utilitarian question in another post, it occurred to me that if you found a magic lamp, and the genie offered you a wish, and you wanted to better humanity, your best move is to wish for happiness and contentment for all of the people you hate the most.
It’s fear, anger, or outrage that drives discontent, and motivates people to try to change the world around them. If you wish for happiness and contentment for the people you like, e.g. the ones fighting for human rights, for peace, for justice, then that deprives them of their best motivation, and they’ll stop fighting.
But if you wish contentment on the evil people—you know who they are—they will also stop striving to change the world, to tear down society, and to arrogate it all for themselves. Like that famous quote, if you wish to grant Musk and Bezos feeling of “enough,” they would no longer need to hoard a pile of gold beyond the imaging of the greediest dragon.
I dunno. They don’t deserve it, buy the outcome would make the world better for everybody. Could you do it?
If it’s a whole-ass genie, and I can do anything, probably I’d wish for some sort of reality sharding. All the conservatives can go to their own private server. Every ten years someone can ask for a server transfer.