Research Questions
Society
The rules you would choose to live under.
Opening your questions…
Research Questions
Society
The rules you would choose to live under.
15 questions
Where to begin
Are people basically good?Mencius said anyone who saw a child about to fall into a well would feel a jolt of alarm. Xunzi answered that people are born selfish and only learn to be good. Answer from what you've seen people do when nobody was making them.Pick one of 4
- Born on the other sideWhat gives you a stronger claim to a safe, prosperous country than someone born just across its border?
- Do you deserve what you have?You worked hard. You were also handed talents, parents and luck you never chose.
- Does anyone deserve to suffer?Imagine that punishing someone guilty would deter nobody, protect nobody and change nothing. Many people still feel it should happen.
- Is it ever right to break the law?Rosa Parks broke a law and is remembered as a hero. Plenty of people who break laws believe they are right too.Pick one of 3
- Is technological change inevitable?Calling a change inevitable can describe a force or surrender a choice.
- Should any speech be banned?Free speech is easy to defend for words you like. Any line you draw will one day be enforced by people who disagree with you.Pick one of 3
- Should children learn without AI first?Some skills only grow when you do the work yourself, and a tool can do the work and skip the growing.Pick one of 2
- Should everyone's vote count the same?Some philosophers propose a basic knowledge test before anyone can vote. Democracy gives an equal voice to people whose judgment you may not trust.
- Should the majority always get its way?If nearly everyone votes to take away one person's basic freedom, the vote was fair and the result may not be.Pick one of 4
- Should the world slow down AI?Deciding to slow a race raises the question of who can bind whom, and toward what end.Pick one of 4
- What true thing is nobody around you allowed to say?Silence can protect vulnerable people, established power, or a story everyone needs to keep believing.
- Whether to answerA signal arrives from another star. Should we answer?
- Would you fight for your country?Socrates refused to escape his own execution because he believed he owed the city's laws his whole life. Others have held that the first duty is to refuse the war.Pick one of 3
- Write the rules, then be bornYou must design society before finding out whether you will be rich or poor, healthy or ill, powerful or ignored. Which rules would you refuse to leave to luck?
