Ask Lemmy

How are they taking the fingers. Do they just disappear or is it something gruesome like having them chopped off? Blood is icky.

Every single finger. I'd give my arms and legs too if it would help. Once the world was fixed I might want to take part in it again too, if nobody knew it was me. If it was public knowledge that I did it though, I'd probably keep being a hermit. I do not like attention or people knowing who I am.

OP, are you a billionaire trying to reframe global poverty as me being unwilling to chop my fingers off rather than you being unwilling to share your enormous wealth?

If "basic human needs" includes a full working set of fingers, all ten, because then I get them back.

And my toes too, just to be sure

Who would answer anything but "chop em all off"? Lol. You can singlehandedly stop world hunger, and you don't even have to give your life for it, just your fingers? A lot of praiseworthy people have given way more for way less. It's a small sacrifice for the betterment of the world, I wouldn't trust any man whose immediate instinct isn't to sacrifice their fingers...

If everybody has their basic needs met, the odds of getting prosthetic fingers dramatically increases. I'd be OK with that swap. Bonus: Robot Fingers.

id do it in a heart beat. and then get robot hands. spend the rest of my life being adored, with robot hands that can have like darts or lighters in the fingers or something.

plus, all my needs would be taken care of as a result. and the poor would be better equipped to tackle inequality further without worry of starvation or loss of healthcare and various other listed issues that currently hold us back.

All 10 even if they have to be taken off with a hacksaw. I would be concerned about the being who could so easily do this, but has a sick desire to maim me first though.

Ten right away, and then another as often as there's a 10% turnover in world population.

Hey, you never said they had to be my fingers.

Hey—so uh—you didn’t say whose fingers were have to sacrifice. This is a no brainier.

Of course I'd do it. Lack of fingers would be an inconvience, sure, but there's cool technology like 3d printing that I could use to get by okay. The inconvience is more than worth it for people to have basic human needs. Plus, with everyone having basic needs they'd be able to spend their time doing things that they enjoy and are passionate about. In all the population of the earth there are definitely gonna be people whose mission is to get people functioning bionic fingers that work like the real deal. I don't care about people knowing. It would be more annoying if they did because then people would constantly be thanking me and receiving compliments is awkward.

Do the needs stay satisfied, or is it going to be like 2 years later we have billionaires and starvation again?

All 10 of course. Rather keep it discreet though, don't want anybody asking awkward questions about why I carry around bags of fingers, whose fingers they are, that sort of thing.

I would need more specificity around "basic human needs". It could be that only 1-30% of the world's population don't currently meet that threshold, so sure, easy call to lop off pinky thru middle finger on my non-dominant hand to help them. I mean, ask "would you cut off your pinky finger to stop the genocide in Gaza?" and that would be a hard, fast yes and that's way less than 10% of the world affected.

If we're talking past basic survival to full universal healthcare and universal basic income... I'd consider all ten fingers with more details. I'm super sus of any monkey paw curls, so I want to understand the ins and outs before I say all ten fingers.

If I help 100% of people that means that science will advance super fast and I can get those gnarly hands from Ghost in the Shell that split into even smaller fingers and allows me to type at 7,000WPM.

Can I get 8 fingers removed and leave the top 20% wealth people out in the cold. I would rather give them the remaining fingers(middle).

I wouldn't mind losing all my fingers if it would make the world better. It's a small price to pay for so much.

Fuck yes dude, chop my hands off. I'm in one of those 10%

I'll be honest: none. I'm not making shady deals like that. Besides, shortcuts always come with giant caveats that you don't know in advance. Like: how long is this guaranteed for? Will it magically prevent people from depriving others of their needs (murder, arson, imprisonment, torture, etc.)? How will it be sustained, and how would it affect the rest of life on Earth?

No no no, count me out. I'm not taking that deal just to find out it only applies for 1 month or some crap like that and people can still kill each other.

Plus, I like my fingers. I use them every day!

As long as I'm not losing fingers for a "Monkey's Paw" or genie-style "You get your wish but with a twist" kinda thing, take 'em all.

More thought would need to be invested if there was a twist.

yes because there would be billions of people who would be willing to lift my drink to my lips for a sip and and help me dress etc

If I have the chance to do something helpful or even remotely worthwhile with my life I'm gonna take it. All ten, let's go.

the fuck am i gonna do with 1 finger or 2 fingers? going all 10 guarantees my needs are provided for so obviously I'm doing that

If those 10% were picked completely at random, then it’s not obvious to me that this would be a good thing. It would effectively increase wealth inequality in the world, where 10% of any population is given something the rest don’t have. That kind of disparity builds resentment and could, in the long run, end up causing more harm than good. If there’s a poor village where nearly everyone is struggling, and suddenly 10% of the population has their basic needs guaranteed, they’d instantly become the “rich guys” of that village. You’d need to do it for the whole village - but then the same issue arises when people in the next village start resenting yours, and so on.

Either way, I’d give 0–2 fingers. I could probably live a perfectly normal life without my pinkies, but I’m not going to pretend I’d definitely go through with it - even if, from a strictly rational perspective, it’s kind of a no-brainer.

My only regret is only being born with 7 fingers to give...

Wait wait, by saying 10% stacks each time, do you mean 10% of the original number, or 10% of the remaining number of people?

Like, for the sake of simplicity, 10 billion to start with, 10%, so 1 billion for the first finger. Then does it become 10% of the remaining 9 billion, so around 900 million, or another 10% of 10 billion?

I would likely still do it, even if all 10 fingers wouldn't save humanity together, but if I could also pass this deal, it would be interesting to get 10 random people off the street and present the choice to them. If the collective has the solidarity necessary to want to save others, it shows just how justified it is for them to be saved.

I will sacrifice 10 of my premium fishfingers and 10 of my precious ladyfingers. You are welcome.

So how does the 10% get chosen? Like if the first 10% were all the people desperately in need of it, that's an easy finger. But if there is a potential that only wealthy people could be effected by that, then the loss of the finger would be meaningless. If it's totally random each time, it's a harder choice since you really aren't helping 10% of the population each time, given that many will already have basic needs met.