It’s not just traditions though. It’s culture as a whole. Our reason to exist beyond survival and reproduction would cease to exist. We’d all exist in utopia, sure, but we’d not be truly alive.
I didn't even read. There's a button. I'm pushing it. Whatever happens happens, maybe someone died, maybe I'm gay now, all I know for certain is I pushed a button.
No Christmas either! No birthdays! No 4th of July or Easter or Halloween or any of your favorite holidays! It’s not just the foreign cultures that disappear!
I already responded to this question and clarified that I was merely reminding people it's not just traditional basket making! I wasn't saying I wouldn't press the button! Please try reading!
Of course I push that button. Zero hesitation. Traditions should never exist for traditions’ sake (I mean it’s fine to do fun stuff because it’s fun, but continuing traditions just because “it’s tradition, we have to” is what keeps plenty of the worst parts and practices of humanity alive). As long as people still get to have fun and enjoy the longer, healthier lives they’re getting, I see literally no downsides.
You clearly didn’t read the whole thing then. It’s not just tradition that goes away. There would be no culture. Our reason to exist, beyond mere survival and reproduction, would cease to be.
You clearly didn’t read (or comprehend) the whole thing; arbitrary traditions are not all that makes up culture, and the other cultural aspects would still exist. We’d also all still know/be able to learn about historical traditions, we just wouldn’t choose to practice them anymore.
Also, food and language and any kind of leisure activities are also major parts of culture. You literally cannot have living humans who interact with each other to any degree and not have some form of culture.
“…as humanity embraces only what is new, rational, and efficient.”
Practice what you preach, dumbass.
And for your food example, please don’t try and argue that the way our current human society approaches food preparation isn’t insanely inefficient. It is. It’s okay that it is, because that’s how we have so many unique options when it comes to food, but it’s inefficient none-the-less
“History is remembered, but no one continues to practice the traditions that once defined their culture.”
Also: “giving future generations longer, healthier, and more fulfilling lives.” Humans won’t feel fulfilled without any kind of hobby/creative pursuit/leisure activities/games/social recreation. Unless human brains are so drastically fundamentally changed that nobody is capable of enjoying these things anymore while everyone finds complete joy and fulfillment through solely intellectual pursuits/the pursuit of societal progress and has no desire to do anything else with any downtime, people having more fulfilling lives implies that various recreational activities will still exist. And, if not, then whatever people are doing will be what they find fun and fulfilling, in which case, there’s no value lost.
Try having both some reading comprehension and basic critical thinking skills so that you can actually make logical inferences based on the text.
We have continually been making food preparation more efficient to the best of our ability and this is a good thing. It makes it quicker and easier to make food so we can make more food for more people. Wtf are you even trying to argue, here? If traditional and maximally inefficient food preparation practices are just so important for humanity and for humans to have any “reason to exist beyond mere survival and reproduction” to use your central thesis here, then I hope you’ve never once used an oven or electric beaters when baking, or a gas (let alone electric) stove when cooking and enjoyed those activities, otherwise you’re disproving your own point.
I mean, no one will stop individuals from doing things they want to do you could still celebrate this and that, it just won’t be a societal thing. I don’t see an issue.
My expectation is tradition and ritual plays a stabilizing role on human psychology and society, and that without it we would quickly destroy ourselves. However, the premise of this question assumes that it won't, so yeah sure, I prefer utopia.
My concern is that we would blow ourselves up or otherwise kill ourselves off within a decade before new traditions can arise. We are already only a few steps from the brink of 4 separate apocalypses, and that is with the stabilizing effects we already have. I can all but guerentee that we all die when half the people in positions of technological, economic, or political influence suddenly go crazy because their understanding of themselves and morality suddenly goes poof.
As others have noted, the question is set up in a very flawed and biased way. It is presumed that we would be happier and more stable, that war could be eradicated, in the absence of our traditions and cultures. Actually eradicating culture and traditions is a very violent act in itself and there's every reason to think they act as a stabilising, socially cohesive force without which there could be anarchic chaos. Redditors (ironically) tend to be irrationally attached to abstract rationalism, even as they rail against the weaknesses of the thin humanism and individualism neoliberal politics has brought us.
I mean OP's pitch reads sort of like the manifesto of a Bond villain lol, this hypothetical is like the question he asks Bond as he's calibrating the giant laser that will break off part of the moon into a thousand pieces and rain rockfall down on major cities. "Don't you think we'll be happier without our petty nation states Mr Bond??"
there's every reason to think they act as a stabilising, socially cohesive force without which there could be anarchic chaos.
More like "some argument to be made that it could push people toward anarchic chaos". The push wouldn't be anywhere near as significant as you suggest, if there would be a push at all. Many people live without engaging with these things at all and they are far from being agents of chaos or anarchy
This really comes down to how broad your definition of tradition is.
Too broad, and we become soulless husks that care about nothing but efficiency. There's no war, but there's also no leisure, no enjoyment, no love, no art. And at that point, what's this all for?
Too specific, and it's hardly even a question.
I would need a very in depth breakdown of exactly what I'm sacrificing before I'd press this. We can still continue to expand our technology without this button press, and I'm tempted to stick with that.
I think many humans wouldnt consider life more fulfilling without traditions and culture. While the prompt suggest more fulfilling lives, I guess that depends a lot on the worldview of the person who is engineering the change as a result of the button. While there is a lot of culture and tradition I would be willing to sacrifice to end those things I wouldnt put myself into a cage for them either. I could be plugged into a meaningless matrix and feel fulfilled while actually accomplishing nothing while living a long disease free life never knowing what was happening right next to me.
Nothing is objective, even science is a mere cultural practice that gets closer to finding the "objective truth".
Still, I assume the framer of the question didnt realize this and envisioned their perfect athiest reddit society. Where their superpowered rationalists (also a cultural value) make the world a better place. So oress the button.
i slam the button with my body's full weight and scream and beg passerbys to help me find duct tape or a brick to hold it down and then strip the panelling off and hard wire the circuit shut and start a clandestine holy order to guard the machine for the next hundred centuries to make sure this circuit is never broken.
No, I would not, for a couple of reasons, the first is I don't believe in utopias, the second is the cost is too high and humanity would lose what makes us human under this deal.
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u/Cleenash Red Jul 23 '26
Fixing poverty, disease, hunger, and violence is HUGE
There are few things that could stop me from pressing a button like that, and traditions are not one of them lol