With $10 000 000 000 000, the first thing I would do was commission a $4 million study of effective philanthropy. At the same time, I’d have to establish some foundation to monitor corruption related to any further spending. (As soon as you’re tossing money around, you have to watch out for people trying to siphon it off. Note: you have to monitor corruption in the foundation.)
I would donate $20 000 to the Krugman-Murphy debate fund over at The Point (http://krugmandebate.com/). And I’d like to assist similar ventures, such as pledging three million dollars to feed hungry children if Facebook would install a downvote button.
I’d hire a top-notch advertising agency to create some advertisements about rationality. (Debunking the stereotypical view of rationality could make for some pretty entertaining ads.)
My dad suggested offering to pay off half of the national debt if an amendment would be passed requiring a balanced budget, but I don’t really feel like paying 7 trillion to the government. Competitive grants to countries based on their ability to clean up corruption would be pretty cool, however.
Purchasing the copyright to my favorite books, movies, and music and releasing them all under a creative commons licence is a cool idea (spreading my memeotype, in the process). It imaginably could spurn on some sort of creative work related to the works I like, but it’s no guarantee. At least people could log on to a site of stuff I recommend and download everything I think is worthwhile. Buying out patents of drugs and inventions that aren’t being fully employed because people are waiting for the patents to expire and releasing them in the same way would be another good use. I would also create a database of scientific journals that anyone can access for free, releasing them through Google Scholar or something.
I would create a number of prizes similar to the X-prize, first and foremost for the development of carbon nanotubes long enough to be useful in making a space elevator. The second prize might be to develop terraforming technology for making Mars habitable.
I’d also put out a standing call for acres of wilderness, with the ultimate goal of expanding nature preserves. For instance, nailing down 30% of the Amazon would be pretty cool.
Personally, I’d purchase every Frank Lloyd Wright building still standing, have them all fixed up to as good as new, and commission the construction of all of his unbuilt designs. (With the possible exception of the Illinois, pending a cost-analysis. I’ll not be spending half of the ten trillion on one building… or at least not immediately.) I’d set up a trust fund for my family and my descendants. Further, I would have a lot of kids, clones, and perhaps wives. I would purchase Uncut, a fantastic magazine I’m a huge fan of(not to install myself as chief editor or anything, I’d just be glad to have it.) I’d frequently purchase all the rooms on a cruise ship and fill it with my friends, family, and any number of interesting people I’d like to meet. Further than meeting people, I’d like to facilitate the people I admire meeting one another in serendipitous ways, perhaps leading to interesting collaborations.
I’d create a university with a $50 000 000 000 endowment and cherrypick my favorite faculty from their present universities (I’m a big fan of GMU’s econ faculty). I’d also found a music festival and try to book all my favorite bands. I’d have my hometown wired with high-speed wireless Internet.
Beyond that, I’d spend as the ideas came to me (I think there would be a great deal to work on beyond what I’ve listed here, like perhaps founding a charter city a la Paul Romer). I’d get to work on my entrepreneurial ideas, likely filling the rest of my life tinkering on projects with interesting people.
With $10 000 000 000 000, the first thing I would do was commission a $4 million study of effective philanthropy. At the same time, I’d have to establish some foundation to monitor corruption related to any further spending. (As soon as you’re tossing money around, you have to watch out for people trying to siphon it off. Note: you have to monitor corruption in the foundation.)
I would donate $20 000 to the Krugman-Murphy debate fund over at The Point (http://krugmandebate.com/). And I’d like to assist similar ventures, such as pledging three million dollars to feed hungry children if Facebook would install a downvote button.
I’d fire off $1 000 000 salvos at the Ludwig von Mises Institute(http://mises.org/), the Singularity Institute(http://singinst.org/), the Seasteading Institute(http://seasteading.org/), Open Source Ecology(http://opensourceecology.org/), TOR(https://www.torproject.org/), The Electronic Frontier Foundation(http://www.eff.org/), Wikipedia(http://www.wikipedia.org/, as if you didn’t know that already), and genius grants at Hans Rosling, Elizer Yudkowsky, Robin Hanson, Aubrey De Gray, Matt Ridley, and a number of others.
I’d hire a top-notch advertising agency to create some advertisements about rationality. (Debunking the stereotypical view of rationality could make for some pretty entertaining ads.)
My dad suggested offering to pay off half of the national debt if an amendment would be passed requiring a balanced budget, but I don’t really feel like paying 7 trillion to the government. Competitive grants to countries based on their ability to clean up corruption would be pretty cool, however.
Purchasing the copyright to my favorite books, movies, and music and releasing them all under a creative commons licence is a cool idea (spreading my memeotype, in the process). It imaginably could spurn on some sort of creative work related to the works I like, but it’s no guarantee. At least people could log on to a site of stuff I recommend and download everything I think is worthwhile. Buying out patents of drugs and inventions that aren’t being fully employed because people are waiting for the patents to expire and releasing them in the same way would be another good use. I would also create a database of scientific journals that anyone can access for free, releasing them through Google Scholar or something.
I would create a number of prizes similar to the X-prize, first and foremost for the development of carbon nanotubes long enough to be useful in making a space elevator. The second prize might be to develop terraforming technology for making Mars habitable.
I’d also put out a standing call for acres of wilderness, with the ultimate goal of expanding nature preserves. For instance, nailing down 30% of the Amazon would be pretty cool.
Personally, I’d purchase every Frank Lloyd Wright building still standing, have them all fixed up to as good as new, and commission the construction of all of his unbuilt designs. (With the possible exception of the Illinois, pending a cost-analysis. I’ll not be spending half of the ten trillion on one building… or at least not immediately.) I’d set up a trust fund for my family and my descendants. Further, I would have a lot of kids, clones, and perhaps wives. I would purchase Uncut, a fantastic magazine I’m a huge fan of(not to install myself as chief editor or anything, I’d just be glad to have it.) I’d frequently purchase all the rooms on a cruise ship and fill it with my friends, family, and any number of interesting people I’d like to meet. Further than meeting people, I’d like to facilitate the people I admire meeting one another in serendipitous ways, perhaps leading to interesting collaborations.
I’d create a university with a $50 000 000 000 endowment and cherrypick my favorite faculty from their present universities (I’m a big fan of GMU’s econ faculty). I’d also found a music festival and try to book all my favorite bands. I’d have my hometown wired with high-speed wireless Internet.
Beyond that, I’d spend as the ideas came to me (I think there would be a great deal to work on beyond what I’ve listed here, like perhaps founding a charter city a la Paul Romer). I’d get to work on my entrepreneurial ideas, likely filling the rest of my life tinkering on projects with interesting people.