What would you do with $1,000,000,000?

[Patine]

@Patine Cell phones and their future descendants are our access point for all things except: food, sleep, touch, love, exercise, fresh air, healing and sunshine. Ready or not, they are here.

That was exactly what the Revelation of Saint John the Divine said about the Mark of the Beast. "That no one will able to buy or sell without them, and Caesar will use them to hold the masses to account, and the Righteous will suffer great hardship for eschewing them." (That's, admittedly, a close paraphrasing, not the exact verses).

 

[amadeus]

@Patine, what are you spending the money on?

Speaking of which, I'd also get a new phone.

 

[Patine]

@Patine, what are you spending the money on?

Speaking of which, I'd also get a new phone.

I'd give it all to charities that help the poor and downtrodden, regardless of demographic (the people I work with as a social worker). I have no desire for a mass influx of material goods or a sudden and drastic change of lifestyle - in fact, I'd like to avoid it at all costs. I already an austere life (by 21st Century First World standards, admittedly) even though I could afford to live higher on the hog, and I have no desire to suddenly change that.

My laptop and landline are sufficient for my needs.

 

[amadeus]

I'd be open to a little hedonism.

There's a Japanese expression, 十人十色, juu-nin to-iro, "ten people, ten colors." Meaning, to each their own.

 

[Birdjaguar]

That was exactly what the Revelation of Saint John the Divine said about the Mark of the Beast. "That no one will able to buy or sell without them, and Caesar will use them to hold the masses to account, and the Righteous will suffer great hardship for eschewing them." (That's, admittedly, a close paraphrasing, not the exact verses).

Prior to the advent of cell phones, the mark of the beast was seen differently. Each generation of biblical literalists finds a new identifier. And if having the mark of the beast condemns one to hell, most Christians are well on their way. Maybe the JWs are correct and there are only 144,000 to be saved.

 

[Hygro]

Although I very much believe cell phones may very well be "the Mark of the Beast," from Christian eschatology (they certainly live up to all the requirements in prophecy if one considers), and they are an evil tool of societal breakdown, personal interactional barrier creation, psychological impediment, awareness inhibition, and growing a whole generation of virtual sociopaths - capital punishment is an overreach and gross violation of the authority, mandate, and right of any just government having such laws in their judicial code, regardless of how high the threshold for execution may be, makes that government just as criminal, at least, as any executed under the auspices of their regime.

Although I too find cell phones evil, capital punishment for cell phones is too great a punishment.
-Patine abridged.

 

[Patine]

Although I too find cell phones evil, capital punishment for cell phones is too great a punishment.
-Patine abridged.

I think the concept of a government that enacts capital punishment being just as criminal, at least, as those they execute is also an essential implicit part of my message.

 

[amadeus]

@Patiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiine!

You have to read that in a David Seville voice from Alvin and the Chipmunks.

You need to spend fictional money frivolously, not soapbox on the ethics of capital punishment.

And I just hadn’t thought of Alvin and the Chipmunks for a while. So that gave me something to do.

 

[Hygro]

I think the concept of a government that enacts capital punishment being just as criminal, at least, as those they execute is also an essential implicit part of my message.

Ok, my mistake. In that case

“While I feel you that cell phones are bad, capital punishment is itself immoral”
Patine abridged, edited.

 

[amadeus]

@Hygro, spend some more money.

In my countryside house, besides the retro furniture and appliances, I would also like an old mainframe style computer with the spinning magnetic tapes and neato amber terminals.

Like that room Peter Sellers (as the British military attache) was in in Dr. Strangelove. New mainframe computers are just sleek, ugly black boxes that look like Captain Pickard’s refrigerator. Yuck!

I want whirring and whizzing. It doesn’t matter if it performs a useful function, I’m a billionaire!

 

[Hygro]

Fasho. Ok I would definitely build the dopest recording studio off the Central American pacific coast. It would have sick views of the ocean from inside, sized and with sound treatment for monster sized super top level speakers. There would be an attached discotheque on the ceiling with funktion 1s, not because they are the best (though great) but because they are the most common good ones. There I would test my music. Attached would be mi casa, a modest mansion with room for many guests, and a pool, and an easy pathway down to a clutch and surfable beach.

This would leave me over $999,250,000 left to work with.

 

[El_Machinae]

$100,000,000 devoted to wealth accumulation, making it easier for me to afford my starship someday. Lifestyle comes out of this to make sure my Marginal Propensity to Spend is shamefully low.

$100,000,000 to research in schizophrenia, doing the studies that don't get done

$50,000,000 to Machinae Energy Investments Inc. Step one is to hire a guy who's a mix between George Costanza and Martin Shkreli. We'll conduct a series of investments that are profitable and environmentally destructive. Cyanide-based fishing or substandard tailing pond sluice gates or whatever. Everything that gets media attention on the dripbag with a punchable demeanor. And then maybe laws will get changed.

$100,000,000 in regular grants for Parkinson's, Huntington's, and Cystic Fibrosis breakthroughs

The remainder would be used to buy a mountain and convert it into a fortress. Plus a standby helicopter service.

 

[okatom]

make a gaming company

 

[amadeus]

make a gaming company

Don’t just bump my month-old thread and leave us hanging! What kind of games would it make?

 

[amadeus]

Still waiting!

Anyway, I had idea for a TV station that covered the packaging and cardboard manufacturing industries.

I’d call it the Box News Channel!

 

[Hygro]

I spent it all

 

[amadeus]

Oops! I calculated based off one hundred, not one billion, dollars. Disregard this post.

I spent it all

That means you spent $173,913,043.48 per day since this thread was first posted.

A Learjet is $20,800,000. You bought the equivalent of 8.3 jets per day, or one approximately every three hours.

 

[Hygro]

Naw I yolo’d into wish

 

[amadeus]

Naw I yolo’d into wish

Are you trying out for BTTF ‘92 because I’m in the present and still don’t get it.

 

[warpus]

I would create my own troll farm that would infiltrate right-wing message forums and confuse and divide them, as well as a Cobra strike team made up of the toughest ex-Navy Seals and special ops, who would go around pulling down the pants of Nazis and megachurch pastors when they least expect it.