Questions And Answers

[Fallbreeze]

As I sit here, thinking because there's not much else to do, I feel a question rising to the surface.

What would happen, if on some morning, you wake up knowing every single answer to every single question anyone could ever put together, and you were the only one this happened to? What would you do with that knowledge? Would you share it freely with everyone, for mankind's benefit? Would you try to make a profit from the answers? Or would you keep silent, especially if those answers lead to the distruction of humanity?

[DoubleM]

I would only let people know some of this and purposely make only b's in school so they won't know i was this smart.

[Rota]

I would use the knowledge to invent things and better humanity while making a bit of profit for myself. Just enough to be comfortable, I don't need a MTV "crib" or anything extravagant. Any money I make beyond that, I will use for philanthropic interests to benefit humankind even more. With any fame I might gain, i would start spreading more of my acquired knowledge, now that I have a voice people would actually listen to.

[Fallbreeze]

I'd be tempted to do a bit of what you'd do as well, Rota. At the same time, I think DoubleM has a point. Once word spread, you'd have a lot of people show up at your door. Could someone in that 'All Knowing' circumstance keep a low profile? Or would it be better to embrace the fact that you would have no privacy at all?

[Rota]

People tend to not listen to answers they don't like, even when the answer is correct. I think most people would think you were just a nutcase, rather than a genius. You're not giving the answers they want to hear, therefore you are wrong in their eyes.

That's why I would start with inventions to gain notoriety, before I started talking in any public forum. If you just started by going out into the world and spreading truths, you would be deemed a bit of a headcase.

[Skirata]

Only two obvious answers.

One, take control of the world and rule as a god.

Two, kill myself.

[John Adams]

As I sit here, thinking because there's not much else to do, I feel a question rising to the surface.

What would happen, if on some morning, you wake up knowing every single answer to every single question anyone could ever put together, and you were the only one this happened to? What would you do with that knowledge? Would you share it freely with everyone, for mankind's benefit? Would you try to make a profit from the answers? Or would you keep silent, especially if those answers lead to the distruction of humanity?

Sharing the knowledge freely would be a detriment to humanity.

I would employ a "share with bounderies" policy, where I share knowledge with those I trust (as I do now).

Knowledge is power, in the wrong hands it would be devistating... To those that use it for good though, it is a tool to benefit humanity.

~John

[Gnerphk]

I would do precisely as I'm doing, of course. Why postulate a fact as a conditional?

With regard to the destruction of humanity: That depends on the specific truth, and which truth one ought to be serving. Ought humanity rightly be destroyed? is the question, and I would know the answer, now wouldn't I? (PS - Don't ask what it is; my own truth forbids me from answering.)

[Hussein]

I would only let people know some of this and purposely make only b's in school so they won't know i was this smart.

amen to that brother amen

[Rodri]

As I sit here, thinking because there's not much else to do, I feel a question rising to the surface.

What would happen, if on some morning, you wake up knowing every single answer to every single question anyone could ever put together, and you were the only one this happened to? What would you do with that knowledge? Would you share it freely with everyone, for mankind's benefit? Would you try to make a profit from the answers? Or would you keep silent, especially if those answers lead to the destruction of humanity?

I'm not sure I understand the questions. What would I do?
Go and live in a cave or something I guess.

I wouldn't want other people to know that I have omniscience because they would just pester me with an endless stream of questions on every mundane decision that they ever needed to make and that would just get boring after a while. Even worse would be if everyone came to rely on my answers to solve every difficult problem and mystery that came up as that would mean that the whole human race has stopped learning new things for themselves and that is bad.

"I don't know" is one of the most powerful phrases we have, as it leads on to all the research, discoveries and developments of our species.
"I don't know what is on the other side of that ocean" might seem like a frightening prospect but might also lead to the discovery of a new continent. "I don't know how to travel to another star system" might eventually lead to either a viable method of inter-stellar travel or an awareness that this planet is all we have and all we ever will have and we start to take a little better care of it.

So I would head off to my cave, never bathe or brush my teeth and just say the same thing to every question anyone ever asked me; "I don't know."

But then again, this is what I think I would do if this happened to me but on that morning when I wake up with all the answers to all the questions, I will also know the answer to this question and so I would know exactly what to do and that might be something entirely different from what I think I would do now because I don't know.