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Author Topic: The 1 percent per day superpower  (Read 23833 times)

LordBucket

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The 1 percent per day superpower
« on: December 10, 2014, 12:16:45 pm »

So this is a thing I think about occasionally.

Imagine that you had the ability to increase or decrease any single existing quantity/property/probability by 1% per day. These adjustments change the base state of the world on a day to day basis, so compounding is possible, but they can only be applied multiplicatively to quantities that are already "present," and they don't eliminate  For example:

"Increase my chances of winning the lottery by 1%"

This wouldn't mean that you'd have a 1% chance to win. Rather, if one ticket is drawn out of 100 million tickets, your base chance of being chosen is .00001%. So increasing this by 1% would mean you'd have a .0000101% chance of winning. And then the same cation the following day would increase it to .000010201%. Increasing your chances of winning to 1% would take a long time.

"Make 1% of all the money in the world belong to me"

Wouldn't work, because you're not modifying an existing quantity. Whereas if you have $1000, then $1000 is the "quantity of money that you have" and you could increase that by 1% to have $1010 instead.

"Make me 1% more like superman"

...wouldn't work because you're (mostly) not modifying existing quantities. You might have personal qualities like "honesty" and "appreciation of justice" that a character like superman might also have, but these are not "single" properties and "amount that you are like superman" isn't really a measurable quality.

But you could do, for example:

"Increase the strength of all muscles in my body by 1%"

Which would compound very well. For example, if you could do 100 pound benchpress, the above would allow you to do 101 pounds. And then reapplying it the next day would allow you to do 102.01. After ten days of applying it, you'd end up with a 110.46 pound benchpress.

And you can modify quantities downward. For example:

"Reduce my age by 1%"

If you're 20 years old, this would make you 19.8 years old. 10.4 weeks younger in a day. Of course, compounding would be working against you in this case, as the next day you'd only 19.8 years old plus the day that had passed, so decreasing that by another 1% would only decrease yoru age by .198 years rather than .2 years. Still plenty effective, but it would also have the curious implication that you would never be able to use the above to become less than 100 days old, because you'd be aging at the rate of one day per day.Enough to keep pace with the above.

Which brings up another interesting point. The above reduces your age, but it doesn't eliminate the regular process of aging. So, consider somebody attempting to be altruistic:

"Reduce the number of harmful bacteria in the world by 1%"

This would work fine. But it wouldn't stop them from reproducing, and it's altogether likely that the temporarily reduced bacteria would simply replenish themselves, eliminating the effective benefit of the command. Where you could do something like:

"Decrease the total number of different species of harmful bacteria in the world by 1%"

Which, if there were 2000 different species of harmful bacteria, would result in the genocide of 20 of them. Though you wouldn't have any control over which 20.

So clearly some daily commands are more effective than others. And this power doesn't give you any special patience. So yes, while theoretically you could start with $10,000 in a bank account and use it every single day for 463 days to become a millionaire, but it's probably not realistic to think that someone would sit around with for 15 months diligently not benefiting from their superpower while the money accrues.

Whereas other uses more immediately see results. Using it to brute force getting rich might be difficult, but a single use every few years would keep you forever young, and the occasional carefully worded command to free 1% of all women enslaved by human traffickers, or eliminate 1% of genetic defects in the world could see tremendous effect.


How would you use this power?

Sergarr

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Re: The 1 percent per day superpower
« Reply #1 on: December 10, 2014, 12:21:03 pm »

Can I increase the humanity's average IQ?
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Frumple

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Re: The 1 percent per day superpower
« Reply #2 on: December 10, 2014, 12:25:59 pm »

... beyond Isp's one, could you, say, transfer 1% of the world's economy into STEM research funding? Because that sounds like a good idea to me. Do that enough and you might not even have to worry about eternal youth or whatnot after someone properly cracks the aging process.

E2: Though I guess the technical wording would be something like "increase overall global allocations of funds into STEM research by 1%". Whatever works.

E: And what about, like, nested stuff. First you shift 1% of, say, Florida's military spending somewhere else. Then the tri-state area. Then the south east US, then the east coast, then the south, then [...] and so on.
« Last Edit: December 10, 2014, 12:34:15 pm by Frumple »
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Radio Controlled

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Re: The 1 percent per day superpower
« Reply #3 on: December 10, 2014, 12:26:23 pm »

"Increase the percentage of this power's ability to alter percentages by 1%"

"This power can now increase percentages by 1.01%"

Seems underwhelming. Then again, given some time, it'd win out.
« Last Edit: December 10, 2014, 12:53:40 pm by Radio Controlled »
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LordBucket

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Re: The 1 percent per day superpower
« Reply #4 on: December 10, 2014, 12:27:17 pm »

"Increase the percentage of this power's ability to alter percentages by 1%"

Yes, this works, but it has the same basic problem as the getting rich problem. On day one it increases your percentage altering power from 1% to 1.01%. The following day, to 1.021% Even getting to 2% would take seventy days. Are you really going to sit around not benefitting from anything for seventy days? Yes, it compounds very nicely once you start using it every day for years, but personally I would have a very difficult time with so much power not using it for anything for years. I think most of us would.

Yes, probably as the years rolled by it would be a good default to fall back on on those days you didn't have anything else in particular you wanted to use it on. But I really don't think dedicating yourself to this for years, while you live your life is a realistic expectation for most people.



Can I increase the humanity's average IQ?

Sure. Yes. I think this would generate good results. Even just using it once or twice a week would have vast consequence in a short time.

miauw62

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Re: The 1 percent per day superpower
« Reply #5 on: December 10, 2014, 12:31:33 pm »

Would "Increase half of the percentage of this power's ability to alter percentages by 1%" work? (thus increasing it by the same amount you would get if you did it two days in a row, i think, im too lazy to do the math atm)
Trying to find the loopholes here :P

But yeah, what Ispil said. Theres 355 days in a year, and most of us probably still have plenty of years to live.
ESPECIALLY if you take some days "off" to reduce your age.
The only issue I see is that at a certain point, your power would probably be too powerful for more mundane uses.
« Last Edit: December 10, 2014, 12:33:18 pm by miauw62 »
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Sergarr

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Re: The 1 percent per day superpower
« Reply #6 on: December 10, 2014, 12:34:25 pm »

Can I increase the humanity's average IQ?

Sure. Yes.
Then I abuse that power every day.
30 days => 135% the intelligence.
365 days of using that power => 3778% the intelligence.

Nothing can go wrong with more intelligence for everyone! Just after one month, there already should be a pretty noticeable effect. After three months, average people exceed Hawking level. After one year, the science will be going at the speed of light.

For bonus points, it should also affect myself. I could use some extra brain-muscle.
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Flying Dice

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Re: The 1 percent per day superpower
« Reply #7 on: December 10, 2014, 12:35:56 pm »

LB, you mentioned it yourself. It's a bad idea to just pump that increase constantly, but if you did it one out of every five days, you'd have it up to 2% in a year while also gaining a range of other benefits. If you use the wealth-scaling increases for another ~20% of the time, that still leaves you with ~219 days per year for whatever changes you want to make. Just based on my initial impression this power appears to be most effective if used with a mixture of narrow and broad focus rather than one or the other.

"Increase the percentage of this power's ability to alter percentages by 1%"
The first response and we're already into "wish for more wishes" territory. Why am I not surprised. :P

I'd probably include things like "Purify 1% of the Earth's fresh water," "Increase the shelf life of healthful foods by 1%," and "Cure 1% of human genetic defects with no evolutionary benefit," in a rotation alongside the immortality and make-me-rich bits.
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miauw62

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Re: The 1 percent per day superpower
« Reply #8 on: December 10, 2014, 12:38:15 pm »

I'd probably include things like "Purify 1% of the Earth's fresh water,"
that'd probably just purify five microliters in a bucket filled with dirty water though.

How about "Turn 1% of the world's population into Elvis Presley"?
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Quote from: NW_Kohaku
they wouldn't be able to tell the difference between the raving confessions of a mass murdering cannibal from a recipe to bake a pie.
Knowing Belgium, everyone will vote for themselves out of mistrust for anyone else, and some kind of weird direct democracy coalition will need to be formed from 11 million or so individuals.

Neonivek

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Re: The 1 percent per day superpower
« Reply #9 on: December 10, 2014, 12:38:50 pm »

Quote
"Reduce the number of harmful bacteria in the world by 1%"

This would work fine. But it wouldn't stop them from reproducing, and it's altogether likely that the temporarily reduced bacteria would simply replenish themselves, eliminating the effective benefit of the command. Where you could do something like:

"Decrease the total number of different species of harmful bacteria in the world by 1%"

Which, if there were 2000 different species of harmful bacteria, would result in the genocide of 20 of them. Though you wouldn't have any control over which 20

I just love how unintentionally dooming that is. Seriously people don't affect the ecosystem.

By the way want money?

I want 1% of the USA's Wealth

Want Power?

I want the ability to control 1% of the world's interests.
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Sirus

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Re: The 1 percent per day superpower
« Reply #10 on: December 10, 2014, 12:39:13 pm »

"Increase the percentage of this power's ability to alter percentages by 1%"
Thread's over, folks. This is the clear winner.
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Caz

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Re: The 1 percent per day superpower
« Reply #11 on: December 10, 2014, 12:39:26 pm »

Decrease entropy by 1%.
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Neonivek

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Re: The 1 percent per day superpower
« Reply #12 on: December 10, 2014, 12:40:28 pm »

Decrease entropy by 1%.

Seriously is this thread secretly the doom the universe thread?
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scrdest

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Re: The 1 percent per day superpower
« Reply #13 on: December 10, 2014, 12:42:54 pm »

Decrease entropy by 1%.

Seriously is this thread secretly the doom the universe thread?

How so?
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We are doomed. It's just that whatever is going to kill us all just happens to be, from a scientific standpoint, pretty frickin' awesome.

Neonivek

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Re: The 1 percent per day superpower
« Reply #14 on: December 10, 2014, 12:44:22 pm »

Decrease entropy by 1%.

Seriously is this thread secretly the doom the universe thread?

How so?

Well Entropy is a stabilizing force of the universe in some respects.
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