What are the likely results, good or bad, of en-mass and absolute sudden invulnerability?

[TheFirstLucidian79]

I am working on an idea, and want help trying to shoot it down to see how "realistic" it is. I cannot hope to foresee all possible up-sides or down-sides to my ideas so I am looking for feed back.

Imagine someone creates a new technology, they call the LightBringer. It takes the form of a glowing, and fully customisable sphere (customisable in terms of sphere style and what a viewer might see within it) that floats near its owners head.

The main thing that this sphere can do is generate some unknown kind of force-field - absolutely impregnable by any known means - that surrounds the user completely, either as a colored transparent sphere surrounding them or as a field that exactly matches their physical form, moving and adjusting as they do to always give them complete protection.

This LightBringer object is gifted, by some unknown agency, to all human beings simultaneously, after which event it becomes absolutely impossible for any person or group to physically harm any other person or group.

This object also grants the user the power of flight, even into deep space, and the field is so strong that a person could happily sit in the centre of a star while it went supernova, and just take in the view with a smile.

It works on a sub-atomic level, too - but somehow does not prevent the human body from doing all the usual things, like eating, ****, etc It does, however, act somehow to maintain the human body indefinitely for as long as the field is active and even if the user does not consume any food or liquid normally. Thus Humanity is also now immortal for as long as they desire - and if thehaveny get bored they just choose to deactivate the field and so can die normally.

My initial feeling is that this is an event that seems to be ideal for all involved, but I am sure that there are ways in which this could be a Very Bad Thing, that I just haven't foreseen yet.

Thoughts and questions very much appreciated!

[h_k_s]

I am working on an idea, and want help trying to shoot it down to see how "realistic" it is. I cannot hope to foresee all possible up-sides or down-sides to my ideas so I am looking for feed back.

Imagine someone creates a new technology, they call the LightBringer. It takes the form of a glowing, and fully customisable sphere (customisable in terms of sphere style and what a viewer might see within it) that floats near its owners head.

The main thing that this sphere can do is generate some unknown kind of force-field - absolutely impregnable by any known means - that surrounds the user completely, either as a colored transparent sphere surrounding them or as a field that exactly matches their physical form, moving and adjusting as they do to always give them complete protection.

This LightBringer object is gifted, by some unknown agency, to all human beings simultaneously, after which event it becomes absolutely impossible for any person or group to physically harm any other person or group.

This object also grants the user the power of flight, even into deep space, and the field is so strong that a person could happily sit in the centre of a star while it went supernova, and just take in the view with a smile.

It works on a sub-atomic level, too - but somehow does not prevent the human body from doing all the usual things, like eating, ****, etc It does, however, act somehow to maintain the human body indefinitely for as long as the field is active and even if the user does not consume any food or liquid normally. Thus Humanity is also now immortal for as long as they desire - and if thehaveny get bored they just choose to deactivate the field and so can die normally.

My initial feeling is that this is an event that seems to be ideal for all involved, but I am sure that there are ways in which this could be a Very Bad Thing, that I just haven't foreseen yet.

Thoughts and questions very much appreciated!

Sound like Star Trek (science fiction) to me.

But welcome to the Forum anyway !!

[MAYA EL]

Sounds like a spin off of the concept of the human imagination

[LuckyR]

I am working on an idea, and want help trying to shoot it down to see how "realistic" it is. I cannot hope to foresee all possible up-sides or down-sides to my ideas so I am looking for feed back.

Imagine someone creates a new technology, they call the LightBringer. It takes the form of a glowing, and fully customisable sphere (customisable in terms of sphere style and what a viewer might see within it) that floats near its owners head.

The main thing that this sphere can do is generate some unknown kind of force-field - absolutely impregnable by any known means - that surrounds the user completely, either as a colored transparent sphere surrounding them or as a field that exactly matches their physical form, moving and adjusting as they do to always give them complete protection.

This LightBringer object is gifted, by some unknown agency, to all human beings simultaneously, after which event it becomes absolutely impossible for any person or group to physically harm any other person or group.

This object also grants the user the power of flight, even into deep space, and the field is so strong that a person could happily sit in the centre of a star while it went supernova, and just take in the view with a smile.

It works on a sub-atomic level, too - but somehow does not prevent the human body from doing all the usual things, like eating, ****, etc It does, however, act somehow to maintain the human body indefinitely for as long as the field is active and even if the user does not consume any food or liquid normally. Thus Humanity is also now immortal for as long as they desire - and if thehaveny get bored they just choose to deactivate the field and so can die normally.

My initial feeling is that this is an event that seems to be ideal for all involved, but I am sure that there are ways in which this could be a Very Bad Thing, that I just haven't foreseen yet.

Thoughts and questions very much appreciated!

So does it cure disease? Does it halt aging?

[Mark1955]

Well the first obvious problem long term is that immortal humans need to exercise strict birth control or end up starving themselves to death.

Then there's the more prosaic day to day issue of how the police control people who are doing illegal things that don't constitute hurting another person, burglars, drug dealers, arsonists, people illegally obstructing something, the list is pretty big.

If we're going for 'wishful thinking' ideas I'm more in favour of Red Dwarf's "justice" system. Series 4 Epi 3 for the uninitiated

[TheFirstLucidian79]

Thanks one and all!
I guess the nature of the mcguffin isn't as important as the possible results thereof.
Let us assume that it is a "something" that makes an individual absolutely invulnerable, immortal for as long as they desire, and able to fly.
What if it also had the ability to act like a sci-fi 3d printer or star trek replicator? So running out of supplies is a non-issue, fighting over same presumably wouldn't happen.
It cures disease too, yes, but would that ultimately be a good thing?

If Humanity doesn't need to fear disease, death or predation by any means; if all our basic needs are met without hurt or damage to anyone or anything else......
I guess I'm trying to imagine if it would be Utopia....... or just hellishly dull.
As for the point about other non-lethal crime - what if the mcguffin could be applied to our possessions too? So that breaking into a house to steal becomes impossible too.
Drug dealers? If the mcguffin can act as a replicator it can also be put to use making a lifetimes supply of the happy-juice of your personal choice.
Crime generally - in my opinion - occurs because there is a perceived lack of something that can only be obtained through theft. But if we all have the mcguffin, there is no lack of anything and even the kleptomaniac couldn't break thru the mcguffin to feed their habit.

I am essentially describing a Paradise.......but some have argued that Adam and Eve had to leave the Garden out of choice, not force, that to stay in Paradise means to be unable to grow in any psychologically meaningful way.

Could we still figure out ways to develop and grow in such a Paradise, or would we all commit mass suicide out of sheer boredom?

[LuckyR]

You've got to experience bad to appreciate good. Pain to fully understand ecstasy, etc. Besides if you are going to live to be 10,000 years old, you're going to spend the same amount of time between the ages of 17 and 42 as everyone else, you are just going to tack on a huge amount of time in years > 80 years old. Not super interested in being elderly for 99.6% of my life instead of the typical 25%

Let me put it to you this way: would it be fun to play golf with the holes six feet in diameter, instead of 4.25 inches? You'll always have a very low score playing on the 6 foot wide hole course... but do you want to play on it?

[TheFirstLucidian79]

We wouldn't be elderly though......I would think that if the mcguffin can make us immortal it could also keep us at the biological age we preferred.
But would that make much difference if we still aged mentally, even if that aging didn't include Alzeimers and the like?

I want to think that we could always discover more about the universe around us, go star-diving when we get fed up with studying the latest language we decided to master........turn off the mcguffin inside a star when we really got tired......

Or could we actually find ways to amuse ourselves into serious epochal time-spans? Could a human mind survive one million years of experience, much less the supposed trillions until the heat death of the universe?

Lol what if those of us who did make it to epochal lengths, did so by meditating for a thousand years at a time? Just because we wanted to see if we could?

[Greenbone]

I feel like this world would be closer to good then bad. Sure, perhaps we need "bad to appreciate good" but there would still be plenty of "bad" that the McGuffin doesn't remove (e.g. Boredom, lack of fulfillment, relationships). I think people would focus more on doing work they enjoy and are passionate for, and there would be less antisocial behavior since people would not be on direct competition. But in the end, the hypothetical is so far removed from reality that it's impossible to say anything meaningful about it.

[Mark1955]

I am essentially describing a Paradise.......but some have argued that Adam and Eve had to leave the Garden out of choice, not force, that to stay in Paradise means to be unable to grow in any psychologically meaningful way.

Could we still figure out ways to develop and grow in such a Paradise, or would we all commit mass suicide out of sheer boredom?

Sounds to me like you're questioning the definition of paradise as no external pressures. If we look at things from the perspective of Maslow's hierarchy of needs, you are removing the need to put effort into the lower survival levels and asking can we be happy trying to achieve only the higher things in life.

Turning Maslow's principle that you have to be able to solve the basic issues to be able to progress to the higher ones on it's head I'd argue that it is inevitable that if the higher goals are the only goals then you will spend your energy on those if you can.

The problem then is acclimating to change for those of the population for whom simple survival is still a struggle. The simplest analogy would be the problem some people find when they retire. In principle they are freed from the need to work and life should get better, but if you cannot adapt and find alternative challenges/interests life gets worse as they find they have no purpose left.