r/ThoughtExperiment

i’ve been thinking about how completely broken our society is. at our baseline, almost everything we do is just glorified survival. animals hunt for food, we work 9 to 5 to pay a mortgage. the only unique thing humans have ever actually created is the arts, sciences, and pure creativity. but we waste our lives just grinding to survive.

what if we deleted money from our zeitgeist completely and let an ai handle the logistics? here is my blueprint:

say we make land completely equal among everyone on earth to start on a level playing field. then, everyone lists 3 options of what they can give (skills, items, labor) and 3 things they want to receive. with ai’s rapid processing speed, it could calculate a massive route of direct barters across 8 billion people. if i want a laptop, i build a table, it goes to person b, their item goes to person c, and i get my laptop. no money needed.

to stop it from being a dystopian machine that forces you into a job, the ai looks at your dna, interests, and talents, and gives you your top 10 results in alternative areas, along with your percentage of success based on what the world needs right now. you have total freedom of choice. if you want to take a gamble on a 12% success rate to be a musician, you can.

plus, all education is 100% free and open to everyone. if you want a path but your success rate is low because you lack a skill, you just download the free training modules to build yourself up and boost your percentage.

if the ai automates the "glorified survival" part, humans can finally focus entirely on utilizing their interests and creating things.

i know humans are greedy and prideful, but that actually makes the system self-correct. if someone offers minor but wants major (like offering 2 rotten potatoes for a tesla), they won't get anything. eventually their own greed forces them to offer things of actual value until they build themselves up.

but i see a few flaws:

1. if the ai tells you you only have a 1% success rate at something, it might stop people from taking the risks that lead to actual genius or art.

2. if survival is guaranteed, the people working 12 hours a day on medical research might get resentful of people who just want to lie on their land and look at clouds.

3. humans favor friends, so what stops people from trading favors off the grid and accidentally reinventing money?

obviously it will never come to be, which is depressing, but mathematically, couldn't a predictive resource network like this work? i want to know all its potential flaws and how humans would actually respond to it.

Imagine you are walking down the street and suddenly encounter your future self, exactly 10 years older. You look into each other's eyes. Here is the question: Would the two of you need words to communicate?

Depending on your intuition, there are only two paths, and your choice places you into one of two fundamental philosophical camps:

1. If you answered "NO" (The Panpsychism / Idealism Camp)You instinctively feel that because you are the exact same conscious entity, words are completely redundant. Your connection is immediate, holistic, and multidimensional. A single gaze allows a direct, non-material transfer of 10 years of experiences, emotions, and memories. You see consciousness as a fundamental fabric of reality that transcends physical space and time constraints.

2. If you answered "YES" (The Materialism / Physicalism Camp)You realize that over those 10 years, your future self’s brain has physically changed. Billions of new neural pathways were formed, and the biochemistry is different. Physically, you are now two separate biological objects trapped inside isolated skulls. Since there is no physical wire connecting your brains, the only way to bridge the gap is through a material medium — sound waves (spoken words), facial expressions, or gestures.

I’m curious to know which camp your mind instantly chose. What do you think?