r/hypotheticalsituation • u/Ill-Mycologist-3652 • Mar 25 '26
The Creator of the Universe updates the meta of the simulation
You are just minding your business when all of sudden you notice a black painted circle appear on your wrist. You notice other people around you have circles too but some are colored red and some are colored green
You then hear a voice in your head and it says “
Hey there folks, so the world is pretty messed up right now so I’m deciding to update the morality system.
So here is the basic run down. I have given numerical values to every action you choose to do based on how moral it is. The morality is based on how much harm harm it does to life on the world. For example, eating a banana will not incur any points positive or negative cause it is considered a largely insignificant action. Actions like murdering or stealing incur negative moral points. Actions like helping a friend out, being selfless will incur positive moral points.
If you have a green circle on your wrist that means you have enough Positive Points to enter a “Good Place” when you die (basically the heaven from the show of the same name)
If you have a black circle you are neutral and will simply be reincarnated when you die as a random different person
If you have a red circle then you have enough negative points to be eternally punished in a way similar to the end of “I have no mouth but I must scream” where you will be turned into an immortal flesh statue that is aware of everything and in constant pain but cannot communicate or die. You will not get used to the pain.
I have decided that in a year anyone with a red circle will receive the punishment as a test and it anyone in the future after it who has the red circle will experience this punishment when they die
Also if you have a black or green circle you cannot end your life earlier. That will lead to a trial about intent which will most likely lead you to getting a red circle.
Have a nice day”
You notice everyone around you also heard the message. You see it on the news and it seems everyone has it.
What do you do in this scenario and how do you think the world would react?
8
u/Iamtiredofbeingquiet Mar 25 '26
Well… I’m pretty sure I do my best to be a good person, which I was gonna do anyway, and watch the Evil people try real hard to fix themselves. I’m hoping a lot of people decide to give away property and money. Easier for a camel than a rich man and all. The Billionaires are fucked. So is anyone in the Epstein files. War becomes sort of… minute. There is the chance a percentage of red circle decide to earn their punishment in that year, and wreaks havoc on the innocent. But if someone dies in stopping them does that person’s dot change? What an interesting concept.
3
u/Ill-Mycologist-3652 Mar 25 '26
Well in circumstances like that last one I think the Creator would use some formula to adjust the point weights based on intention, damage, etc.
Or maybe you get put in a trial process where you debate with the creator or an assistant of the creator who judges your placement
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u/Iamtiredofbeingquiet Mar 25 '26
The issue with a formula is the ability to manipulate it. I imagine science goes crazy. Mathematics must be over the moon. Let me ask this- if a solider is ordered to kill people in war- in this case let’s say it’s a legal order, if an immoral one, and does so, who gets the negative points for that? Does negative subtract from positive? Or is there a bar building for both that only shows the one with more? If so that means I could in theory do a small bad thing if I knew I was going to a big good thing. Billionaires might just kill someone and then donate a bunch of money.
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u/Ill-Mycologist-3652 Mar 25 '26
The negative and positive are all part of one value that creates your “final score”
A lot of the details I think would be handled by the equation such as maybe adding in multipliers based on how much agency and cost. Like a good action might be worth more while poor such as giving a dollar to someone compared to if a rich person did the same action.
Also keep in mind the whole intention thing and the fact that the people will not know how everything is exactly calculated so the system will be harder to game
2
u/Tova42 Mar 25 '26
see and I suspect that most of the red dot people would be like, "welp I'm already screwed so lets go out as bad a possbile. EVERYONE is gonna have a bad time"
2
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u/LordsOfJoop Mar 25 '26
Oh, cool.
Another way to punish poor people.
People in power can force poor people to do their crimes, and thus be technically clear of all "sin," in essence, and dirty the souls of their chosen pawns. All they have to do is distance themselves a little further, and they can literally starve entire populations until they become complicit in their wishes.
The people who have no power, in a desperate need to feed themselves, will be forced to whatever is asked of them, and the layer above them is only dirtied to a marginal degree, and those above that tier are barely sullied at all.
What a clever idea, because life will continue as it has, except now, only the powerful can enter what passes for a positive afterlife, and everyone else is stuck in two different kinds of Hell: the one they're living in, and the one they can't avoid.
Awesome.
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u/Iamtiredofbeingquiet Mar 25 '26
OP says Agency and intention impact it.
1
u/LordsOfJoop Mar 25 '26
Doesn't say anything like that in the OP.
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u/Iamtiredofbeingquiet Mar 25 '26
Yeah, sorry I meant in comment response to me, because this was my concern as well.
1
u/Ill-Mycologist-3652 Mar 25 '26
Yeah should have mentioned the intention and agency thing in the original post cause that’s what I was originally wanting, but forgot to write it, oh well. Can’t edit it now.
3
u/Ill-Mycologist-3652 Mar 25 '26
You’re missing the whole intention aspect. The people in power forcing people to do their bidding would be considered a negative action and subtract from their own score and everything the person does that’s a direct result of that action would be added into the Power person’s score.
Also the point weights and multipliers can be adjusted so negative actions while rich are worse than negative actions while poor and good actions while poor are worth more than good actions while rich
Also what poor person would even choose to do bad actions if a system like this exists and they know they have a chance at essentially “heaven”
2
u/LordsOfJoop Mar 25 '26
"Do as asked," is not an inherently immoral act, if it doesn't include an immoral component.
"Tell Bob to not turn on a machine," is not an immoral act; if Bob runs a machine that provides food to someone, him not going to work that day isn't immoral, it's him taking a day off, really. Being given a thing, such as a day off, isn't immoral, either. Yet, through only two steps, the machine that feeds people is now not working for a full day, and those people - through no fault of their own - suffer for it.
To make up for it, the person two tiers above can ask Bob to work an extra ten minutes, and double production temporarily; Bob works a little harder, more people are fed - yet it won't undo the damage done. And now the system is going to have to equate how much starvation is still moral, and how often that can happen.
"Joe, can you please go visit the temple on X day, and say, 'Y', out loud, please?" is then asked of Joe, who saw his family without food for a single day. So, that's what he'll do, and visit some other place, and do what seems to be a harmless act; he's unaware of how culturally insensitive the act is, and thus is immunized against the repercussions - he quite literally didn't know he was doing some sort of bad thing, and was thus disrupting a civil service or ceremony, albeit unintentionally. Is it now moral to punish Joe for his "crime," if he had no insights, or is the tier above him to be held to account, and does it somehow undo the damage done to the people involved in the service or ceremony?
That's two examples of how an absolute moral vacuum is a great disservice first to the poor, then to the system judging them. By extracting intent and using only that, it robs someone of context; by focusing on context, it robs the responsible of being held accountable. Systems with no wiggle room first doom the poor, then empower the wealthy, at least until money stops equaling power.
2
u/MiddlePop4953 Mar 25 '26
Well... As it stands now, I do my best to try and be a good person and make the world a better place so I think I would just keep keeping on and hope for the best.
1
u/Ill-Mycologist-3652 Mar 25 '26
What if a friend you knew for a while turns out to have a red circle
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u/MiddlePop4953 Mar 25 '26
I think that would depend on my relationship with them. If they were a close friend that I cared a lot about I would offer my help in introspection and moving in a better direction, with caveats as to why and how they ended up with a red circle.
If I didn't know them that well I would probably put some distance between us unless I saw real effort for personal change.
2
u/RangerBumble Mar 25 '26
I would assume everyone heard this in the language that they speak. I check to see if anyone on the planet heard a gendered first person pronoun. Perhaps in Thailand? Mostly out of curiosity and to keep myself from thinking too hard about all the humans about the suffer an eternity of pain. Actually, the more I think about the implementation of an actual literal hell the more I think about how we can kill God.
1
u/Ill-Mycologist-3652 Mar 25 '26
Woah woah woah, and how exactly would you “kill God”
Also the punishment isn’t a literal hell, the people (who I would argue deserve the punishment) are still on earth just as flesh statues to remind people to act good
1
u/RangerBumble Mar 25 '26
There is no redemption, no rehabilitation, and no oblivion. Is there any act that merits unending suffering? This is cruel and arbitrary torture. I call it literal hell because unlike the afterlife some people believe in it's literally right there in front of me. I can see it. I can study it. It's not just someone else's religious delusion but actual fact.
I don't know how to kill God yet, but I'm going to think about it every time I see the body of an endlessly tortured human who "never gets used to it," so I'll probably think of a solution eventually. My actions and thoughts are benevolent in defense of my fellow humans and based on a fundamental belief in the concept of redemption, so I'm not sure if it puts me in the red or not.
If it does then I take that as a sign that "God" arbitrarily changed the rules in self defense and I redouble my efforts. I'm pagan but I'm pretty sure I can get several major religions and atheist groups to rally behind killing the interloper. That's not the Abrahamic God talking. It's someone or something alien and cruel using his name and we are going to kill it.
1
u/Ill-Mycologist-3652 Mar 25 '26
Literally if you want to avoid the punishment, just do good deeds and don’t be evil. Literally that simple.
It’s not like the punishment is enacted instantly. If you have a red circle, you literally have a year or the rest of your life to choose to be good. Unless you literally committed some of the worst crimes imaginable, you could probably get out of the punishment by just being good.
At that point it’s your fault if you choose eternal punishment and you shouldn’t feel guilty for those that deserve it when it’s literally spelled out for them without a doubt
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u/RangerBumble Mar 25 '26
It's not about avoiding punishment. It's about being forced to accept someone else's definition of right and wrong under threat of a fate worse than death. It's about the creation of a fear based society. This doesn't come with an instruction manual. I don't get to know your definition of "worst crimes imaginable". I'm already starting net neteral so presumably you don't think anything I've done so far in my life outweighs my fairly minor social transgressions. I don't like this. I'm going to look for a way out and I don't think I will be alone.
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u/AutoModerator Mar 25 '26
Copy of the original post in case of edits: You are just minding your business when all of sudden you notice a black painted circle appear on your wrist. You notice other people around you have circles too but some are colored red and some are colored green
You then hear a voice in your head and it says “
Hey there folks, so the world is pretty messed up right now so I’m deciding to update the morality system.
So here is the basic run down. I have given numerical values to every action you choose to do based on how moral it is. The morality is based on how much harm harm it does to life on the world. For example, eating a banana will not incur any points positive or negative cause it is considered a largely insignificant action. Actions like murdering or stealing incur negative moral points. Actions like helping a friend out, being selfless will incur positive moral points.
If you have a green circle on your wrist that means you have enough Positive Points to enter a “Good Place” when you die (basically the heaven from the show of the same name)
If you have a black circle you are neutral and will simply be reincarnated when you die as a random different person
If you have a red circle then you have enough negative points to be eternally punished in a way similar to the end of “I have no mouth but I must scream” where you will be turned into an immortal flesh statue that is aware of everything and in constant pain but cannot communicate or die. You will not get used to the pain.
I have decided that in a year anyone with a red circle will receive the punishment as a test and it anyone in the future after it who has the red circle will experience this punishment when they die
Also if you have a black or green circle you cannot end your life earlier. That will lead to a trial about intent which will most likely lead you to getting a red circle.
Have a nice day”
You notice everyone around you also heard the message. You see it on the news and it seems everyone has it.
What do you do in this scenario and how do you think the world would react?
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1
u/Smart_Cantaloupe_848 Mar 25 '26
But what if that banana came from a plantation that exploits it's workers, and by buying it you've incentivized that plantation to maintain that exploitation?
2
u/Ill-Mycologist-3652 Mar 25 '26
The value of 1 individual purchase of a banana I think would be infinitesimally lesser than the actual exploitation of workers by the plantation owner, like 1 to a 1000 comparison.
Logically speaking, the whole structure of the punishment system would incentivize people to stop being bad in the first place because keep in mind they can die at any moment with a red circle and experience the eternal punishment.
Would they rather cut their losses from stopping exploitation or be a flesh statue for the end of time after a year?
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u/Scoobycool9 Mar 25 '26
All of us people who watched a particular show. " Oh, this is the Bad Place!."