If you had to invest a trillion dollars

[AlexanderPeregrine]

This is similar to this thread [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/18.829983-What-Would-You-Do-If-Money-Were-No-Object], but quite a bit more specific. That thread is mostly about personal fulfillment and never working again; this is about grandiose plans.

Let's say an alien entrepreneur came to Earth, exchanged all manner of extraterrestrial minerals for a total of a trillion U.S. dollars, and told you to invest it into a project of your choosing. The only stipulations are you cannot directly receive any of the money and it must be something available to the public (so no buying glowing statues of enriched plutonium for your secret enemies). Ignoring the questions of where did the alien come from, why is it here on Earth, why does it care about our puny economy, and why it is approaching you, Mr. or Ms. Nobody, to put that money towards something, what would you invest in?

Here's what I would do: I would spend 900 billion dollars in nanotechnology research. It will first go towards creating a self-sustaining nanite that has about a hundred failsafes against not just the grey goo scenario [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grey_goo], but its assimilation of anything but approved materials. After that hurdle is passed, its first form will be an asphalt-like substance. Something that is high-traction, relatively smooth, non-reflective, and extremely durable. It will be able to reform and replenish itself in real time with a reservoir of a very cheap raw material connected by small pipelines, hopefully robust enough to require no more than one tank per square mile that only has to be refilled on no shorter than a weekly basis. Whatever money is left over will go towards fabrication facilities.

After perfecting that, I would split 90 billion dollars in lobbying (bribing) politicians to legalize this substance, pay for the testing the various health and safety departments would demand, and hire every road construction contractor and civil engineer within as far a radius from my house as possible to rebuild all the roads with this substance. 9 billion dollars will be put in a trust for the limited upkeep of all these new roads, with the last billion going towards public service announcements, press materials, and scientific community outreach.

That way, I would never, ever, ever, ever be delayed by road construction ever again.

 

[tippy2k2]

I would buy you a monkey....haven't you always wanted a monkey?

Oh wait...a TRILLION dollars, my mistake.

Teleportation technology

If we had the ability to teleport, a large number of problems we are facing (road maintenance, pollution from all these cars, accidents killing people for a few examples) would be taken care of.

I'm sure there are a few kinks to work out

Spoiler: as seen in this documentary

but once they have figured out how to keep us from teleporting into walls and whatnot, it'd be awesome. Well worth my trillion dollar investment.

 

[Cazza]

I would get rid of poverty and raise the whole worlds poor to a level they could live a nice life. The rest I would sink into terraforming to fix this planet and space travel to make extra livable worlds.

 

[Thaluikhain]

Yeah, a mere trillion isn't really that much in the scheme of things. For example, Mexico's GDP is more than that, and they haven't solved the world's problems with it. Having said that, an extra trillion would make quite a difference to them.

I'd go for lots of smaller things, rather than one really big thing. My nation could use an improved infrastructure network, we could finally get the NBN going, hospitals can always use an upgrade and so on. More social services. something could be finally done about the plight of the Aboriginal community (having said that, a lot of previous measures involved throwing money at the problem without understanding it, actually talking to those affected seems beyond policy makers).

 

[lacktheknack]

That way, I would never, ever, ever, ever be delayed by road construction ever again.

Because of this line, this should be classified as a Fun Revival thread.

OT: I'd invest it all in a random Kickstarter, just to see what they do with it.

Because I'm internally an insane anarchist.

I would get rid of poverty and raise the whole worlds poor to a level they could live a nice life. The rest I would sink into terraforming to fix this planet and space travel to make extra livable worlds.

He said a "trillion" dollars, not a "quintillion".

A trillion dollars would feed all of China's impoverished citizens for... a few months. Maybe less.

 

[Esotera]

I'd put it straight back into scientific research, focusing on renewable energy. This would be in the way of grants and investments, meaning I would be likely to make at least some of the money back to invest again, and we'd hopefully be closer to a low-carbon economy, which is our biggest challenge. I'd probably fund genomics in healthcare, and also provide a few grants/competitions for private sector spaceflight.

The best use of the money would be how you got it, though. If an extraterrestrial deemed me the best person to spend it, I'd use that influence to lobby governments across the world on policy, and attempt to get people to change their bad habits individually.

 

[2012 Wont Happen]

I would invest the money in various Communist rebel groups around the world.

 

[yamy]

Invest it all into making Nuclear Fusion a viable form of energy. As to whether it'll be cold fusion or some other new method of fusion production I'll need to consult an expert.

Yeah, a mere trillion isn't really that much in the scheme of things. For example, Mexico's GDP is more than that, and they haven't solved the world's problems with it. Having said that, an extra trillion would make quite a difference to them.

I'd go for lots of smaller things, rather than one really big thing. My nation could use an improved infrastructure network, we could finally get the NBN going, hospitals can always use an upgrade and so on. More social services. something could be finally done about the plight of the Aboriginal community (having said that, a lot of previous measures involved throwing money at the problem without understanding it, actually talking to those affected seems beyond policy makers).

A country's GDP may be in the trillions but only a small percentage of that money actually goes into scientific research, for example. A big sum of money equivalent to a decade's worth of what they would've got would make a big difference.

 

[AntiChrist]

I'd buy Telltale Games and have them make a Blade Runner point and click adventure game. ^^

 

[Sigmund Av Volsung]

I suppose scientific research, and whatnot.

I would buy you a monkey....haven't you always wanted a monkey?

Oh wait...a TRILLION dollars, my mistake.

Teleportation technology

If we had the ability to teleport, a large number of problems we are facing (road maintenance, pollution from all these cars, accidents killing people for a few examples) would be taken care of.

I'm sure there are a few kinks to work out

Spoiler: as seen in this documentary

but once they have figured out how to keep us from teleporting into walls and whatnot, it'd be awesome. Well worth my trillion dollar investment.

I would probably invest into space colonisation, teleportation is a bit too far away for us and there are some issues with (the metaphysics of) it:

I would invest the money in various Communist rebel groups around the world.

There's a joke there, somewhere...

Right?

I'm thinking something along the lines of Communism as a big business

 

[wulfy42]

Resources.

Money by itself wouldn't do much...except give you the ability to play with alot of the resources we currently have available. Those resources are finite though and by purchasing a ton...you would just quickly increase the cost of them.

You certainly wouldn't be able to do huge things, but you could possibly try and fund an improved/upgraded space station for instance...which would be the next step to eventually having a manned station on the moon....that could eventually mine for metals/minerals and perhaps build and transport items into space much easier/cheaper then from earth.

A trillion would probably not be enough for that...but it could be a good start, especially if you used your trillion to set up shuttles that go up to space and back on a regular basis....but also can carry passangers, and you sell trips to space for a few million a passenger (20 max per trip.....so about 50mill a trip). That could eventually mostly pay for the trips back and forth...allowing you to drastically cut the cost of building the space station and expanding it.

Why bother with it at all? Well in theory if your doing all this with private funding....the space station is yours, the colony on the moon would be yours, and who knows...it's possible you might even live long enough to get a station on mars in your lifetime. You could be the ruler of mars all from an initial 1 trillion dollar investment!! That's alot of land to sell eventually

 

[MeChaNiZ3D]

I have a few ideas. One would be a not-for-profit bank. Basically everything it makes is split among the customers. Not to make money, naturally, but just to piss off the larger banks.

Or, a proper NBN seeing as I'm in Australia, our current PM doesn't mind shitty internet, and it has to be done at some point. A private citizen funding it I'm sure wouldn't go amiss.

And many other things, but far more likely, I would buy FROMSoftware and have them create the biggest and best Armored Core game that ever was, with unlimited Garage space, over 100 unique parts in each category, no region lock whatsoever, global online services with emblem contests, proper voice acting, customisable AI backup, no defence railroading, and any number of the multitude of small things I have personally managed to think of (being none too bright) that would make the game a million times better than it already is. And whatever remained would go towards the next Souls game.

 

[Sigmund Av Volsung]

I have a few ideas. One would be a not-for-profit bank. Basically everything it makes is split among the customers. Not to make money, naturally, but just to piss off the larger banks.

Or, a proper NBN seeing as I'm in Australia, our current PM doesn't mind shitty internet, and it has to be done at some point. A private citizen funding it I'm sure wouldn't go amiss.

And many other things, but far more likely, I would buy FROMSoftware and have them create the biggest and best Armored Core game that ever was, with unlimited Garage space, over 100 unique parts in each category, no region lock whatsoever, global online services with emblem contests, proper voice acting, customisable AI backup, no defence railroading, and any number of the multitude of small things I have personally managed to think of (being none too bright) that would make the game a million times better than it already is. And whatever remained would go towards the next Souls game.

Would there be a PC version of that Armoured Core game?

:3

 

[MeChaNiZ3D]

I have a few ideas. One would be a not-for-profit bank. Basically everything it makes is split among the customers. Not to make money, naturally, but just to piss off the larger banks.

Or, a proper NBN seeing as I'm in Australia, our current PM doesn't mind shitty internet, and it has to be done at some point. A private citizen funding it I'm sure wouldn't go amiss.

And many other things, but far more likely, I would buy FROMSoftware and have them create the biggest and best Armored Core game that ever was, with unlimited Garage space, over 100 unique parts in each category, no region lock whatsoever, global online services with emblem contests, proper voice acting, customisable AI backup, no defence railroading, and any number of the multitude of small things I have personally managed to think of (being none too bright) that would make the game a million times better than it already is. And whatever remained would go towards the next Souls game.

Would there be a PC version of that Armoured Core game?

:3

...

...yes.

 

[Evil Smurf]

I'd buy out a pie company, just so I can eat all the pie I wanted.
<youtube=2EWWL3niBWY>

 

[Hexenwolf]

I have a few ideas. One would be a not-for-profit bank. Basically everything it makes is split among the customers. Not to make money, naturally, but just to piss off the larger banks.

Or, a proper NBN seeing as I'm in Australia, our current PM doesn't mind shitty internet, and it has to be done at some point. A private citizen funding it I'm sure wouldn't go amiss.

And many other things, but far more likely, I would buy FROMSoftware and have them create the biggest and best Armored Core game that ever was, with unlimited Garage space, over 100 unique parts in each category, no region lock whatsoever, global online services with emblem contests, proper voice acting, customisable AI backup, no defence railroading, and any number of the multitude of small things I have personally managed to think of (being none too bright) that would make the game a million times better than it already is. And whatever remained would go towards the next Souls game.

"Not-for-profit banks" exist. They're called credit unions <.<

 

[Gizmo1990]

I would buy the Escapist and then make all of you dance for my amusement!


OT: honestly I have no idea. Kind of hard to picture having that much money. I guess I would buy my favorite game makers and then let them do what they want without publishers getting in the wEAy.

 

[MeChaNiZ3D]

I have a few ideas. One would be a not-for-profit bank. Basically everything it makes is split among the customers. Not to make money, naturally, but just to piss off the larger banks.

"Not-for-profit banks" exist. They're called credit unions <.<

Do I look like someone who knows about banks? You may not be able to see me, so I assure you that I do not. Excuse me my discrepancy.

 

[Nouw]

Invest it into space exploration/colonization but distribute the money to different companies and organizations to create a competitive environment in which innovation can thrive.