Society
12 questions in the society category.
| Question | Answer | Confidence |
|---|---|---|
| What would happen if everyone stopped having children? | Schools would empty within a decade, the workforce would begin shrinking in about twenty years, and the last human would die in roughly a century. | Reasoned extrapolation |
| What would happen if everyone stopped eating meat? | A large drop in agricultural emissions and land use, offset by disruption to a billion livelihoods and some regions with no alternative. | Reasoned extrapolation |
| What would happen if antibiotics stopped working? | Routine surgery, chemotherapy and childbirth would all become far more dangerous — this is already happening slowly. | Reasoned extrapolation |
| What would happen if all jobs were automated? | The production problem would be solved and the distribution problem would not — nobody has demonstrated the second half. | Speculative |
| What would happen if half the world's population disappeared? | Not abundance — the collapse of specialised supply chains, because modern systems need specific people rather than a certain number of them. | Speculative |
| What would happen if the world's population doubled overnight? | Food is the binding constraint — global production feeds around 8 billion, and doubling demand cannot be met from existing stocks. | Reasoned extrapolation |
| What would happen if everyone lived to 150? | It depends entirely on whether those are healthy years — extended lifespan without extended healthspan makes almost everything worse. | Speculative |
| What would happen if everyone worked a four-day week? | Trials generally show output holding steady with better wellbeing — but the results come from office work, not from hospitals or factories. | Reasoned extrapolation |
| What would happen if everyone drove an electric car? | Urban air quality would improve immediately; the grid would need roughly a quarter more electricity, and mining demand would rise sharply. | Reasoned extrapolation |
| What would happen if everyone spoke the same language? | Trade and science would get modestly easier, and roughly seven thousand languages worth of knowledge would be lost. | Speculative |
| What would happen if nobody paid taxes? | Everything funded collectively stops — roads, courts, defence, schools, health systems and pensions — within weeks to months. | Reasoned extrapolation |
| What would happen if all borders opened? | Economic models suggest a very large rise in global output, and nobody can model the political response, which is the part that would decide it. | Speculative |
- What would happen if everyone stopped having children? Schools would empty within a decade, the workforce would begin shrinking in about twenty years, and the last human would die in roughly a century.
- What would happen if everyone stopped eating meat? A large drop in agricultural emissions and land use, offset by disruption to a billion livelihoods and some regions with no alternative.
- What would happen if antibiotics stopped working? Routine surgery, chemotherapy and childbirth would all become far more dangerous — this is already happening slowly.
- What would happen if all jobs were automated? The production problem would be solved and the distribution problem would not — nobody has demonstrated the second half.
- What would happen if half the world's population disappeared? Not abundance — the collapse of specialised supply chains, because modern systems need specific people rather than a certain number of them.
- What would happen if the world's population doubled overnight? Food is the binding constraint — global production feeds around 8 billion, and doubling demand cannot be met from existing stocks.
- What would happen if everyone lived to 150? It depends entirely on whether those are healthy years — extended lifespan without extended healthspan makes almost everything worse.
- What would happen if everyone worked a four-day week? Trials generally show output holding steady with better wellbeing — but the results come from office work, not from hospitals or factories.
- What would happen if everyone drove an electric car? Urban air quality would improve immediately; the grid would need roughly a quarter more electricity, and mining demand would rise sharply.
- What would happen if everyone spoke the same language? Trade and science would get modestly easier, and roughly seven thousand languages worth of knowledge would be lost.
- What would happen if nobody paid taxes? Everything funded collectively stops — roads, courts, defence, schools, health systems and pensions — within weeks to months.
- What would happen if all borders opened? Economic models suggest a very large rise in global output, and nobody can model the political response, which is the part that would decide it.