Apparently my brain is too rotten, so let’s do a pure-hearted poll instead! A Celestial Being kidnapped you from Earth and tells you that she wants you to become the savior of her world. However, there are no dragons, demons, or monsters to slay. That isn’t the kind of hero she wants you to be. Rather, her isekai world has a complete lack of religion, ethics, and morals. Humans openly steal from each other, kill each other, hurt each other, and the only thing stopping them is the possibility of violence/retaliation. However, the Celestial is adamant in saying that the humans of her world have exactly the same kind of souls in humans in your world, and human nature is the same. The only difference is that her humans were raised in the absence of being taught morals/ethics. She chose you because you come from a world where things are better — and you know that it is possible for humans to work together in a functioning and better hearted society. Many people in her world scoff at lofty ideals, saying things like democracy or human rights or charity are impossible. The celestial will give you immortality for a 1000-year lifespan to achieve the objective of improving the world in a significant fashion. You receive no other cheats. After a thousand years, you will meet with the Celestial and she will review/judge whether you made her world a better place. If you succeed, you will be rewarded. If you fail, she will throw you into a fiery pit of doom. Could you make the world a better place in 1000 years? 1. What would your approach be? What if making long-lasting peace after your death is also one of your objectives? 2. Do you think human nature is fundamentally good or bad? 3. What kind of divine reward would it take for you to “become a saint” instead of selfishly living your own life?
Of course I can. But the real question is, would I do it? I'd decline if that's allowed, but if that's not possible...meh, I'll try a little bit to make it a better place.
So I’m really curious why. Why would you decline? Is there any kind of reward she could offer you so you become a saint?
Well if I'm immortal I would overthrow the nearest King since I could literally bathe the halls with their blood and not die. Problem is if they trap me rather then try to stab me. And this is the easy part. Phase 2 involves implementing good education, hygiene, farming military and of course religion practices before my neighbors try to conquer me. This would probably take about 50 years to iron out. Mainly to wait for all the previous generation population to die out. Phase 3 involves a mix of Crusades and trade. Successful campaigns would lead to quick wealth since I would probably have scouted out my neighbors and prepared accordingly. Trade would spread my religion and core tenants. Would take a good century to spread comfortably. The next 9 hundred years would involve the formation of a planetary government. Since by then people would accept that I am pretty much unkillable, am making the world more stable, and would pledge my immortal body to science, I would rate even odds of being successful. In short I'm gonna kill a bunch of people, play a really long CIV campaign, get rich, probably try out every drug and stuff that would normally kill me, screw around with both sexes (It's a thousand years to stay Heterosexual) and meditate on life a lot. Honestly the journey is literally it's own reward.
I will try to achieve true peace. There will be no more conflict once every sentient life have been eradicated, therefore the disease that is humanity need to be purged. Majority are bad. The rest are either delusional or pragmatic. I always wonder how does a celestial being taste like
How long do you think your reign of peace can last after you die? For instance, if you get glorified as a religious icon, wouldn’t you expect that people will try to mimic you in the future and try to undergo bloodbaths and crusades to implement their ideology (which will likely have drifted from your original ideals over time)?
I mean it doesn't sound like it be hard to merely improve the world. The bar is set very low. Now making significant improvement and making them stick could be hard. But making anything more than small improvement could prove difficult.
To your first question, the peace would shatter near instantly. The world even with a planetary government would tear itself apart into seperate factions upon my demise without a realistic crisis to bind them together. To your second question, I certainly didn't invent murder and violence, there would be people doing it regardless. My chance in making the world a better place would be to set a unified codex similar to the Geneva Conventions. Unlike the current world state, I would probably have enough time to claim a large stake in global culture and most aspects of society. This means I would have a greater probability on convincing the world to actually abide by it for a period after I die. It would be eventually rendered obsolete but I am confident it would work out. I agreed I stood a good chance on improving the world, not to eliminate all its problems.
1. What would your approach be? Watch the world burn and make it burn even more for years, if the world don't have ethics then the best thing to do, is to destroy it and form a new one with the minority that survives 2. Do you think human nature is fundamentally good or bad? Human nature is bad but not fundamentally, however, the bad side is the most dominant in lots of people 3. What kind of divine reward would it take for you to “become a saint” instead of selfishly living your own life? Powers equal or better and greater than those of the celestial
What does immortality mean here? Is it merely the not dying of old age type of immortality, where one can still die of any other cause, at any point? or is there some invulnerability as a part of the package? And is it age without youth? Would I live a "normal" human life span, living like a human and then spend the rest of the 1000 years as a senile fool, too decrepit to move a muscle? Could I endup in thousands of pieces and yet "live on" for the rest of the 1000 years in that state? How does this work? 1. Heaven or Hell... Is it the promise of heaven (Love) or the threat of hell (Fear) that gives church and religion its power... I've never read it but, I think the Niccolò Machiavelli's The Prince, puts forth the opinion that a combination is the best, but if one can't have both, then Fear is better... One just needs to guard against Hate... So... I would try to push, the idea of "Hell" into the minds of the people, and some type of better afterlife for the "good" people, one that even if they didn't Love it, they at least didn't Hate it... 2. Human nature is fundamentally the nature of life... And the nature of life is to continue, at any cost... 3. Sure if she promises something, I might ask for something, but I doubt I would have much faith in her hollow promises... Its more the power she displayed in putting me in that situation, that would motivate me. As it would give some serious credence to her threat of the "Fiery pit of doom".
Well, first thing is that I'm quite satisfied so I don't want anything extra. Secondly, thousand years sound too much when the thought of living till at least 70 already sounds like a pain...and yea, I don't want to leave loved ones behind. Anyway, the main thing is I'm not interested in that...whatever you mentioned. If the isekai conditions were different, something more to my fancy, the type of stories I like to read...maybe I'd be hesitating on whether I'd wanna go or not. But even the best possible condition I can think up that you can give me would only have a 50% chance of being accepted by me. So something like that would be a definite no from me cause it's not something I'm into. I don't like thinking too much when the answer is only out of two possibilities or such, so I'm quite decisive most of the time. So my balance of choice usually only consists of 100% and 0%. Only if this situation had zero negative points I could think of, only then I'd be in a dilemma whether I wanna go or not. Also, I like a lifestyle that I'm familiar with and my home the most. So...in a way, if I'm forced to go there and end up creating a lifestyle and home for myself...I'd probably not want to leave that place either.
Another question! How would you feel if you were idolized and a cult arose to worship you? For example, they secretly record and observed every single thing that you said and did, and interpreted this as a teaching of how they should behave themselves. For example, you mentioned stuff like trying out every drug and screwing around with both sexes. Would you behave differently if you knew that people were trying to record you into history and take you as a role model? You are welcome to experiment on yourself! That said, it's not like you got a choice in the matter. If I were the Celestial, I would make it so that you can't die and you'll regenerate if something is chopped off. It would be troublesome if you weren't functional due to old age, so I would probably remove a bunch of those debuffs. However, a different Celestial might do it differently! So what if I made it genderbender and you reincarnate as a duke's daughter who is also a villainess? Am I remembering the things that you like correctly? Although, it would still be an immoral world and you would be expected to be a saint.
Also... Somehow this sounds like this world we are currently living on... (well... except the "openly" part) The only thing that stops anyone from killing, hurting, stealing, etc... here in our own real world IS the fear of "retaliation". People mistake some of it as "goodness", because they are unaware of the subconscious processes that underlies all that so called "goodness"... all of which is... self interest based... life... And what is this... Saint... anyway?
Is it? I had the impression that the society that I live in is based on the golden rule. Do unto others what you wish done to you. I wouldn't say it is a fear of retaliation. Like I would say that my neighborhood is generally safe and if I left a bike sitting outside, nobody would steal it. And it's not like we have a crazy punitive legal code like Hamurabi's where we cut off the hand of a thief. If it is truly the case that we behave out of fear of retaliation, having a very harsh legal/punishment law should work very well, and a loose law won't work at all.
Golden rule... Yea... Do what you wish done... In order to avoid the undesirable that might be coming your way otherwise... So... Its a "retaliation" avoidance code? Ps. Golden Rule is... Flawed... As it expects, Everyone to be the same as You, and to want what you want... Don't do to others, what you don't want done to your self, would be better... but still... imperfect...
Is it? I mean, when you hold the door open for pregnant lady, I wouldn't say it's out of "retaliation" avoidance. It's just nice and it would be nice to live in a society where people are considerate for pregnant ladies, so I would do it because it's the kind of society/world I would want to live in.