What small change would you make to the Universe?

Here’s one example I might use: The speed of light would become scale very small in outer space so we could easily seek out new planets and new civilisations. To boldly go …

I’d alter the atmosphere of Uranus.
Maybe change that particular planet’s name also, so as to avoid any childish gags.

I would use my power to negate the Black Tuesday coup in 2003 in which a consortium of US oil executives, Zurich bankers, and Russian billionaire arms traders seized Congress, the Senate, and the Supreme Court in a single day, setting Dick Cheney up as dictator-for-life, ultimately resulting in the carnage of the Los Angeles Firestorm and the annexation of Kanada after the attempted secession of Maine and Connecticut.

Then I would remove all memories from everyone that it happened, save as a what-if scenario on a small Q&A site as a small subconscious reminder never to allow such a horror to occur again.

Change the lifetime curve of stars in a way, that for example a mainline star with a life expectancy of 10 billion years would have a constant intensity from 2 to 8 billion years, and not, as it is now, a constantly increasing intensity, to give life more time to develop and persist before it is consumed by the star at the end of its life.
Except for Earth’s sun. That one goes red giant the instant humans evolve.

Humans use less emotion, and we can fly.

make the invention of the “leaf blower” an impossibility

Three quarters, two dimes and five pennies for a dollar.

Disinvent the motor car.

I would make the ownership of handguns illegal so things like this couldn’t happen.

I would create another Earth-like planet in the same orbit as ours. Commute time, 10 hours. That planet would be inhabited by Facebook users and ours by Fluther jellies.

Ratchet down the obsession with monogamy about 25%. (Also get rid of STDs, if I had enough power).

No flies or mosquitoes.
No religion.
French fries and Ice Cream have zero calories
No freeway traffic
Peter Gabriel stayed with Genesis
Women went from being 0.0001% as horny as men to 0.1% as horny as men.
Social security numbers were in hexadecimal instead of decimal
Water contracted instead of expanded when frozen (contrary to just about every other substance)
The Lakers coach kept Wilt in the entire fourth quarter of game 7 1969 NBA finals.
Donnie Moore doesn’t throw a home run pitch to Dave Henderson in the 1986 ALCS.
The timekeeper of the 1972 Olympic Gold Medal basketball game misses his train to the arena.

I would give mankind the ability to fold space (like they did in the movie “Dune”) so that we could travel all over the universe much more quickly and explore it in much more depth.

Option 1. I saw on a documentary… something about seeds that I didn’t understand. What I did gather, was that the world would greatly benefit from some kind of crop that could grow in traditionally non-arable land.

Option 2. I would make every single person dedicate, say, just one hour every week, to the reading of fictional literature.

I would make designated areas on Earth where gravity didn’t exist, just because it would be so damn fun.

I immediately thought of altering the speed of light, but @ro_in_motion already mentioned that.

I would change the laws of thermodynamics to invent a perpetual motion machine and use it to power space flight to explore the solar system and beyond.

@Hawaii_Jake Love it!

The three laws of thermodynamics, in lay terms, are:
1. You can’t win.
2. You can’t break even.
3. You can’t get of the game.

Way back, when I was in University, we used that as a mnemonic so we wouldn’t use the wrong law at the wrong time.

Imagine my shock/laughter when I heard this song from the movie ‘The Wiz’ featuring Michael Jackson and Diana Ross: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RkLXLSEvMLw

This is probably a stupid question but how does changing the speed of light make it easier for us to explore the universe? Would cutting the speed that light travels in half mean the universe would be smaller? Someone should ask Fluther this :p.

@ragingloli I love that answer!

@mazingerz88 Great idea – but you know that Facebook would just buy out Planet Fluther. We jellies need to develop an ‘anti-Zimmerman’ toxin.

@Charles I am not sure there’s a difference between the sexual needs of men and women. The two sexes just get there on different paths.

@SmashTheState Absolutely perfect. Would make a great Doctor Who story.

I’d modify men and women so they are sexually aroused by intelligence instead of looks, posturing, and brawn.

@LuckyGuy My instant reaction was, ‘but that’s how it already is!’

I’m sure people will think that’s naive, but I think that underneath all that other stuff, it’s intelligence that really seems to matter. It’s more than looks and brawn, anyway.

@wundayatta Look how many women and men here go for the bad boys and girls. And Fluther is hardly a cross section of the population since everyone here is literate and at least half way computer savvy. Imagine what it is like out there. Yikes!

The well dressed loudmouth at the bar will bring home (and mate with) more girls than the quiet Nobel laureate in the corner. The football jocks in high school get more girls than the president of the science club. Without knowing anything else about this woman I’ll bet 90+ of the guys (and a fair number of women) would jump at the chance to frolic with her.
I’d modify that part of our brains to require at least a day’s worth of conversation before we even considered her attractive.
If @Hawaii_Jake can change the rules of Thermodynamics, I can modify the rules of sexual attraction.

But what about the pretty people with no personalities, you just gonna leave them out @LuckyGuy? They need love too! lmao

Pedophiles that are convicted with hard evidence are immediately taken behind the courthouse and shot.

Health insurance is affordable, even for single income families.

I will not attempt to change perfection…else….

I would make human beings less fertile.

Eating ice cream causes one to lose weight.

Vegetables are now bad for you and sugar actually makes you lose weight.

Thinking about exercise is as good as doing it.

@6rant6 Wish granted. Turns out that thinking about exercise actually burns a small but significant number of calories, less than actually exercising, but more than just thinking about other random subjects. I recall reading an article about it years ago in a science journal.

We would no longer need to shit or piss.

Our bodies would filter toxins by converting them to fumes that smell like it does when one of your neighbors down the street is cooking out.

@ ro_in_motion
The way I hear it is:
You can’t win
You can’t lose
You can’t quit

Sorry I was thinking about walking on my treadmill…

We would all have chameleon like skin so we changed colour depending upon where we are.

Socks find their own mates.

Can I just make a little (weight-bearing, pain-relieving) structural improvement to human feet and lower backs? Our species still isn’t fully adapted to walking upright on two legs.

I would grant the ability of every woman who wanted an orgasm the ability to have one.

too many unfulfilled women out there

I would make men put women’s need for sexual gratification before their own

The remote worked on people around me. Switch channels, adjust volume, check what’s coming up, record for when I’m in a mood to hear this, picture in picture, mute.

I would make a device that finds your remote control and your phone even if it Is turned off.