New Hypothetical Situation.
You, and only you have access to a specific machine.
The machine will permanently remove major obstacles to human civilization, but for a price.
The options are
1. - permanently remove the ability for diseases to develop antibiotic resistances (and remove all current medical resistances)
2. - humanity is provided with an infrastructure system and detailed schematics for the building and operation of fusion power generation plants.
3. - Remove all national distinctions and cultural tensions (unite the world)
Each option you choose will result in the spontaneous death of 1/3 of the world's population. (you are excluded)
You may substitute your life in payment for one of the options.
No one will ever know about your access to the machine and the decisions you make.
1. Gods no, if the implication is that evolution ceases to be
2. While this is objectively the best option, I am concerned that the spontaneous death of 1/3rd the world's population would actually do more damage than fusion power would do in benefit. Humanity can deal with 1/3 of the population dying, but 1/3rd the world population dying at random all across the world? There's a fair chance of everything going completely tits up with world leaders, scientists and vital infrastructure personnel just up and dropping in what the doom prophets would be jumping to call rapture as the third world war begins amidst the chaos.
3. I would not sacrifice national distinctions just to alleviate cultural tension, I would certainly not do so at the cost of billions of human souls. Substituting my life in payment for option 2 would be the logical decision, however I am concerned that the machine may not be sincere in delivering its promise. How would I know for example, that the machine will not simply kill me and deliver none of its promises?
Here's a new hypothetical:
You have a briefcase. It appeared on your bed(or equivalent) this morning, out of nowhere. In the briefcase are 5 vials, a million dollars, and a note.
The note explains that you've been chosen to prepare humanity for the impending apocalypse. In 5 years, an alien invasion will begin. You're expected to mobilize and unite humanity to be as ready as possible for this threat, the nature of which is currently unknown to you.
The note also explains that the vials grant psionic powers to anybody that drinks one, drinking a second will temporarily supercharge one's powers to the point of being a one-man army, but a third will be lethal.
What do?
The first thing I would do is collect four companions, together we five would form the illuminati, with a combined warchest of one million dollars with each individual drinking one of the vials. In this manner we would maximize the psionic output per vial, assuming of course whatever is in the vial cannot be replicated (because otherwise this may turn into "I wish for unlimited wishes"). Between the five of us, maintaining communication through regular psionic meetups with our Grand Illuminator/Commander (I imagine selecting who our GI would be would be a rather simple case of electing the individual with the best communication and psionic potential). The four delegated Illuminators would thereupon be tasked with recruiting members to their factions in North America, Europe, East Asia and Southern Asia, which would allow the four delegated Illuminators to concentrate their efforts on dominating in the shortest time the largest population of the most influential Earthlings. Within five years, domination of majority of the public is unlikely, but domination of the elite is far more achievable. The Prime Illuminator themself would not look for any specific geographical locale, but would instead begin construction of
an evil lair the most fortified and concealed position on planet Earth, wherein they would place themselves as the future nexus of human resistance. Designation: Queen's Nest
Thereafter we shall unleash the news through the media, through the world's leaders and astronomers all concluding the dire truth: We are not alone in the Universe, and we are all the more imperiled for it. Push for the United Nations to declare world martial law (we would have to set a few precedents without regard to sovereignty or international law) and mobilize doomsday paramilitary groups to begin fortifying all of their abodes whilst moving from the cities into the mountains, hills, innwds, with guns, ammunition, water and food to last. Millions would die in the chaos, this would be a useful time to weed out all opponents to the Illuminati, thereupon ensuring the alien invasion is met with a unified Earthling command. Also at this point focus all the world's economies available to us into total war economies, unifying all military secrets, technologies and production lines to create the largest human war machine mankind has ever made. The foundations for this would all have to be done within 6-12 months, giving us at least 3-4 years to give time for the massive reorganization of mankind towards war.
Leaving much of the macro and micro scale preparations to the best talented generals and ministers we have available, all efforts would be focused upon three grand strategic principles:
*Rendering all of human civilization battle-ready for the destruction that is to ensue. Being invaded by an extragalactic enemy force, it is unlikely humankind has many weapons capable of damaging the aliens. That is irrelevant, as we do not know what the capabilities of the aliens are or what their objective is. If they have come to conquer, exterminate or harvest, humans hunkered down and spread all over the world will inevitably be harder to destroy than unprepared humans residing in urban clusters. This will buy humankind more time for specialists to learn of the aliens and develop countermeasures, cyber, biological, radiological, psychological, kinetic, strategic - and so on, all doctrines from all mankind if given enough time will be able to discern how the aliens work, why they are invading and how to combat them. The initial assault whereupon it is unlikely that humankind will be able to inflict any damage upon the invader whilst they in turn are assaulted by orbital aliens will be the most devastating period, where human morale may be shattered. If we can get humankind to survive this phase, our chances of reaching parity and victory with the aliens increases drastically.
*Militiarizing outer space for the first time. It is unlikely that humankind's first warships will be anything quality compared to the aliens, but their sacrifices in orbit will provide us with valuable information regarding the aliens' capabilities in preparation for their first planetary assault. Moreover, the development of international military aeronautical infrastructure will be of paramount importance to bringing the fight to the aliens if we are capable of reverse engineering their warships.
*Formulating doomsday devices. Relativistic weapons that can destroy the aliens' homeworlds, in addition to doomsday devices that can destroy all of planet Earth. The briefcase has informed us the aliens are invading, when it stands to reason that if they wanted to exterminate us they could just destroy our planet. Evidently they want something on the planet or they want possession of the planet itself, thus if we can threaten to destroy it it can buy us valuable time or force the aliens to the negotiating table.
After the preparatory years are over, I would have our Prime World Leader representative send a message to the aliens declaring that we have expected them for a long time and thus have made adequate preparations. Thereupon we would invite their leader to come and see planet Earth. If they accept, with communications done in psionics to account for differing biologies and communication forms, begin discerning why they are here and what they want, to accelerate our preparations. If they decline and launch the initial assault, they will wipe out much of mankind's communication infrastructure, at which point the Illuminati will direct all of Earth's resistance through their psionic network. Grand Illuminator to the Council of Four, Council of Four to their regional delegates, regional delegates to their Generals and so on down the chain of command. This will take up all the time of the Illuminati, and the risk of losing the psionic communication network will mean all the psionics would be hunkered down in their respective fortified HQs.
Thereafter it will simply be a question of time.
If we are victorious, we shall psionically interrogate the aliens remaining until we discover their homeland, reverse engineer their technology and begin colonizing the stars - the psionics then extending their communication network through the stars, transforming humanity into one unified galactic species. If we are defeated, threaten the aliens with destroying planet Earth unless they leave.
The most significant variable besides the aliens' initial unknowable nature is that we also do not know who provided us with the briefcase. Are they allies, are they human, are they a different kind of alien to the ones invading etc.? What are their plans? It is for example, entirely possible that the pretence of alien invasion is all a ruse, and mankind is being prepared for the stars by some unknown 3rd party. Thus in the event of the 6th year approaching and there being no alien invasion, at once set about with the spacefleet to the goal of colonizing the solar system and the galaxy as a whole. Spread out the pionics as far and wide as possible. There is a danger if the aliens do not arrive that the Illuminati commence infighting, this situation would be fatal for mankind, carved between five psionic warlords, thus the Illuminati would have to commit suicide or spread out into the stars to ensure this never happened. This of course would also maximize the chance of humanity surviving, ensuring that even if Earth was wiped out, others would survive unseen to carry the torch forwards.
My biggest concern in the aftermath, whether or not there is an invasion, whether or not mankind is victorious is what happens when the psionics die. Will their descendants form dynasties of psionics, or does the psionic power die with them? Would future psionics be able to maintain a centralized galactic state, or would it collapse like Alexander's Empire, going to the strongest? I suppose the alternative would be to attempt to create an Immortal Man Emperor of Mankind, thus ensuring no succession crises like that