If you could erase an event, invention or institution from history / the world, what would it be?

[Junglistmass]

I’m still pondering, but probably for me it would be to rid us of social media.

I’d also love for there to be no ‘beauty industry’ and corporations making money out of our perceived (invented!) imperfections.

Yes it's very worrying. Not everyone has the practical "bent" to be a tradesperson.

I'll go AI, I worry for the future.

I also think it would be interesting if fossil fuels had been avoided and cleaner energies were used worldwide from the off. The planet would be in a better place now for sure.

I don't know ... I thought perhaps the atom bomb, but then there's the argument that it's kept the peace since 1945.

The Holocaust for sure. But that would mean eliminating prejudice I guess.

(All) religion? Tribalism? Violence?

Laughing a bit at all the people saying the internet.

On the internet.

AI. I would encourage everyone to read 'If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies', if you want to feel shit scared about things.

I’m aware of that

Slaughter houses. The horrific abuse and fear animals suffer is immeasurable.

Definitely the internet for me. Whilst it undeniably has revolutionised our lives and makes many task so much quicker and easier, but I believe the payoff is too great.

I think it is responsible for destroying our mental health. It has moulded young people’s neural pathways so that they can only concentrate on something as long as a TikTok reel. They are unable to problem-solve because who needs to figure anything out when google has the answer to everything. I do wonder if epigenetics are at play in us passing these traits onto the next generation, and that could be a factor in the sky high rates of neurodiversity that are emerging.

We are constantly hit with bad news, round the clock, often on repeat. There’s no respite. We can’t wait for anything anymore. We want everything immediately, delivered to our doors. Not only that, but we want to see where exactly that takeaway/taxi/parcel is right this second on its journey to us, and become stressed if we don’t know.

Our teens are exposed to porn, and many of them are using porn so young that they are destroying their chances of ever having a healthy sexual relationship. They can source drugs instantly on Snapchat and Instagram. Our daughters are being pressured to uphold impossible beauty standards in a way which just didn’t happen when your only source of inspiration was Just 17 or Jackie magazine. Online bullying wouldn’t exist.

People with deviant behaviours are now able to form communities online, giving them strength in numbers. Not only that but they have access to our children and are able to groom them.

Scamming would be massively reduced and phishing would be a thing of the past.

Even 20 years ago, we’d have been safe from cyber-warfare. Now lives are at risk from attacks on our supply chains, transport, defence and hospitals. It puts us in a vulnerable position.

I could be here all day listing the negatives. I’d get rid of it all, even if that means we have to go to a shop to buy food, or a library to find information from a book, or write and send a letter. It would be a small price to pay and we’d be so much happier for it.

The transatlantic slave trade

Would you like having to write a letter to MN @R0ckandHardPlace?

Another for trump

I think I’d survive without MN. We could all start going old school and sending chain letters! 😂

Sadiq Khan. I know he’s a person and not an event or object but still. Can’t stand him

I think it would make workplaces easier too. You wouldn't have to reply to an email the second you received it.

And there'd be no chatbots, people would have to actually have staff on their phone lines!

The population explosion. Until the 20th-century, there had never been more than a billion human beings. By 1960 the world’s population had trebled to three billion. Today it’s eight billion and we’re going to hit 10 billion mid-century, just as climate change is wrecking everything. Africa’s birth rate is so high the African population is going to double.

I have had the bad luck to be an introvert who hates noise born at a time when the world’s population is about to peak. Everywhere I go is crowded. Sometimes I want to f-ing scream. A while ago I went to Venice in the summer. Big mistake. The sheer number of people utterly ruined it.

Whilst Covid was awful for many there are far more devastating and cruel things that have happened. I also lost someone to Covid, it was a heartbreaking time but I know in the grand scheme of things Covid wasn’t the worst thing to happen in the world.

Getting rid of power hungry men would solve pretty much everything that’s bad in the world.

internet

Colonialism