Crowdsourcing Utopia

The Problem: Suffering

Human suffering manifests in countless forms—physical illness, mental anguish, loneliness, conflict, hunger, disease, and poverty affect all populations regardless of wealth or education. Thousands of children face starvation daily, and hundreds of millions of animals perish in industrial farming systems annually.

Why Suffering Persists

Despite technological advancement creating abundance, resources remain irrationally allocated using archaic, emotion-based neural structures. Governments control approximately half of global resources but direct funding primarily toward special interests rather than maximizing societal welfare.

Human evolutionary history—shaped by scarce savanna resources and tribal competition—created genetic predispositions toward conflict rather than utilitarian cooperation.

Modern military spending exemplifies this misallocation: governments spend roughly one trillion dollars on counter-terrorism, which kills fewer people than lightning strikes.

The Three-Step Solution

Step 1: Learn

Citizens must study public policy through data-driven analysis rather than partisan rhetoric. The Think by Numbers platform aims to create a crowdsourced repository of policy information, employing gamification and democratic voting to surface quality content.

Step 2: Decide

Using crowdsourcing methods, communities can quantify suffering and calculate cost-effectiveness of potential solutions. A Felicific Calculus framework would rank interventions by suffering reduction per dollar invested.

Step 3: Act

A charitable foundation would direct resources toward proven, high-impact solutions—potentially replacing ineffective government programs.

Implementation Framework

The proposal includes databases for cataloging suffering types and proposed remedies, measuring impact through monetary valuations, pain scales, and prevalence data to guide rational resource allocation.