IIRC the means of death has to be something they would conceivable do, and in a very short time span of a few minutes.

So you can't have the targets say messages with information they didn't know, or have them take actions that would be too out of character, or long in duration.

And the process of having a billionaire give away all their wealth is a long process. At best it would take days, if not weeks for all their stocks, art, assets, money to be donated/sold/etc. It would get even worse with round two, because there would be far less willingness to take ownership of those wealth vehicles, knowing that there may be a risk of your own head being on the chopping block.

The closest would be having war criminals recant their actions, but that just takes up more space on the page, and more carpel tunnel.

No, that is quite a narrow view to take.

Since you begun the extremism by calling another commenter insane for their views, I will say it is an interesting view coming from somebody who is obviously hopelessly lost in the smell of their own farts.

Why does our ability to create a civilisation (which largely has only been to the benefit of our species compared to all others) makes the value of a human individual worth more compared to other living beings?

Your own explanation is hopelessly confused, since you are obviously trying to argue your self-admitted subjective opinion as objective fact.

No, finding a death note would mean that there is an afterlife, and there's no point in spending eternity suffering, because even if you killed all the bad people alive right now, more would come along.

yeah but he stays strangely silent on sauron.

The existence of the death note proves the existence of the afterlife, and as the one who found it I am clearly the predestined divine ruler of earth.

Using the death note causes ones soul to be irreparably marked and when you die your soul is obliterated (iirc the Shinigami eat it but it's been a while so idk specifics end result is obliteration)

My death note would be used as a tool of power. First to create the ultimate prisoner's dilemma. Simply write down the names of your accomplices, and they will be absolved of all crimes (go to heaven) while you will be given a title of nobility in the kingdom (might as well make your life worthwhile since you won't get the afterlife).

I would even allow the justice system to use it as punishment. Have criminals sentenced to obliteration use it on criminals sentenced to mere death.

Scientists of course would be given a copy. Since it kills the heart, what about pacemakers? There's a small delay in effect implying that it must travel at some speed, so does relatively matter and in principle could you outrun the effect? Can we draw power from soul obliteration? Can we draw power from the afterlife? Can we bridge into the afterlife and turn souls into power gems??? How does the paper know what language to use? Many tests to run, many sadistic villains with damned souls which I'll have to run them.

Also since it would inevitably be used on me in some way, or I would inevitably be forced or tricked into using it, I'll just have to die knowing the memory of tyranny will persist and make it into the afterlife.

I thought God was pretty against murder.

I seem to recall that you think drinking a beer fully corrupts an individual, so seeing that murder isn't a problem for you it kinda confirms my theory that you're a troll.

I thought God was pretty against murder.

Depending on the religion god has commanded quite a fuck load of murder.

I'm not talking about religion contradicting itself. That's obvious. I'm talking about this troll doing so. They claim to be super religious which means they are forbidden from murdering.

no conclusion as of yet

The answer is yes:

A person can shorten his/her own life by using the note.

https://deathnote.fandom.com/wiki/Rules_of_the_Death_Note/Manga_Chapter_Rules

(Chapter 5)

We love you Miisha, please stick around

Fair enough

No, you were quite clear. And I very much relate to your take.

killing the top 1% wealthiest would solve like 99% of issues

If I take a hit on Netanyahu or a random mass murdering maniac, what would the problem be? Do you think they'd be convinced to stop with pretty words? Do you think having the capacity to empower the victims to fight back against their oppressors (which is not the premise of the post even) wouldn't just create more unnecessary deaths? Or do you think passively accepting the status quo when you actually have the power to make things better is somehow the righteous option? 🤔

Think for two seconds, remembering that God is the Wise, and tell me in earnest that passivity in a world of horrors is what God would want, especially if you were given supernatural powers!

It's not me you have to convince, it's the God you pretend to believe in.

I'm not trying to convince you, I'm explaining things to you, lol. And, much like at least a quarter of the world, I'm not pretending, you just don't have the capacity to understand belief in God... God willing that'll change, though.

I know the basic facts about your religion. It's pretty clear that murder is forbidden. You love to distract from inconvenient truths, but it never works. You just admitted you'd wholeheartedly commit the cardinal sin of sins. So, cool?

You really know nothing, Jon Snow, and you stand by nothing either else you would've replied with what you think is right in this scenario. And you don't wanna think either. Why must you pester me, when you could just block me? If you wanna have a chat, just DM me.

I did read that, but shortening their life is different than ending it, I figure.🤔

lol I won't be told by a hypocrite to turn my head. I don't owe you my opinion either, even if I thought you actually care. Which you definitely don't.

I have no idea what I would do, but I know it would destroy me, either from guilt due to inaction or guilt due to action.

Just out of curiosity, do you believe self defense can warrant killing? And what's your take on social murder?

I'd say more would come along if you don't use the death note to effect long term change.

Bad people become bad people usually through lack of sufficient medical care, systemic pathways that give corrupting levels of power to individuals, or poverty.

Effect enough change that puts the world on the right track to solve these problems, and the amount of bad people down the line will decrease.

It would definitely be a self sacrifice with the whole purgatory thing.

We created civilization for ourselves. It was a selfish construct that many could argue has had a damaging impact on the world and other life on this planet. The only way I see that as evidence for human superiority over all other life is if you already believe that human life is superior, which gets us to a circular argument.

I’d do the eye deal so that I could take out bad drivers. Just have sheets and sheets of “___ pulls over safely, parks, and turns off the car, then has a heart attack.” with a mount so that I could fill in the names as I go.

From a strict utilitarian perspective, it's easy to look at this as a trolley problem. I can easily think of a few monsters at the very top whose deaths would definitely save far more lives in exchange.

But the harder question I'd struggle with is, where to stop? I can start with the most obvious targets and feel no remorse, but how long do I keep going down the list for? What would really keep me up at night is wondering what's worse: using it too much or not using it enough?

I oppose the death penalty because once someone has been caught and sentenced by the justice system, killing them should not be necessary. If they're a violent threat, they can be safely imprisoned. Or if they're only dangerous because of the power they wield, strip them of that power.

But the real question being asked here is about the kinds of people who seem to be above the law and may never be brought to justice through any other means, and are continuing to do active harm for as long as they are free. I would prefer to imprison them or strip them of power nonviolently, but if that's not going to happen...

The existence of the death note proves the existence of the afterlife, and as the one who found it I am clearly the predestined divine ruler of earth.

Using the death note causes ones soul to be irreparably marked and when you die your soul is obliterated (iirc the Shinigami eat it but it's been a while so idk specifics end result is obliteration)

That's 1-in-100 people worldwide, likely including you.

First I would rip out like 50 pages and give them to one of my closest friends to use as he sees fit. I trust him entirely.

Second I would write my own name in the deathnote, that I will die a peaceful death of natural causes at 100 years old. This will prevent anyone from writing my name in a deathnote since I don't know how many others could be out there, and once someone's name is written it cannot be written again.

But how would I use it? Tough question. You kill one dictator and an even worse one takes their place. There will always be wealthy people. Killing the top 1% just means there's new people who are considered the top 1%. It would have to be some type of behavioral conditioning. Where everyone in the world is aware of some kind of super natural killer, but they only kill those who cause consistent and deliberate harm to others. I guess kind of like what Light wanted to do. Except I'd ignore the police entirely. Some dude named "Lind L. Taylor" is talking shit about me on TV? Cool.

Light's biggest weakness was his ego. Too easily goaded into making mistakes. I'm fully aware I would be "giving up my humanity". But instead of thinking about myself as a "God" I'd treat myself more as a "steward". Someone doing out of some kind of obligation. I have the power to affect real change in the world, I'd be remissed if I didn't at least TRY to do something.

Killing is the morally correct thing to do in acts of self defense

Billionaires, just by hoarding the wealth that they have and using it to run this system, are an everyday threat to the lives of the most vulnerable people in society

They are above the law. Nothing will happen to them if I don't do something. That's who I would go for without hesitation

None of that ego bullshit, no Kira nonsense. Just do what has to be done in whatever accidental or coincidental method

No. I know its probably a minority opinion, but killing people doesn't really solve anything. If anything, killing often makes things worse. Eye for an eye and the whole world goes blind type thing.

It can be justifiable in certain cases. Defending oneself, their family or even country can make it the lesser of two bads. It's still not good in any manner and the threat needs to be acute.

Yes.

However, in the long run the DeathNote would make me a corrupt PoS. I genuinely believe no one should have such power (DeathNote, Geass, Makima’s Control etc).

Damn. Well that's why we have a science division, their job is to figure it out. We'll just have to use some made up religion to quell the masses until they've mastered death note theory...

Have at it

I feel like I would kind of have to, the potential upside is just way too big

I would 100% go mad with power. Fully convince myself that I knew what was best for humanity and try to sculpt the world through deletion.

Being a maia, Sauron cannot be killed, so Gandalf was categorically not talking about Sauron.

the threat needs to be acute.

Why? Why is an immediate, obvious threat worse than a slower, veiled one? Assuming both are equally dangerous and inevitable.

All humans become nothingness when they die.

The Buddhist idea of karma is that it is the accumulation of your cravings and choices over your lifetime(s) and isn't "you" per se. What we think of as our self ceases to exist at death, and our karma is the condition/cause for another birth. So in that view of rebirth you are defining the conditions for another life by your choices and actions, but that life isn't you. Sounds like karma could still apply in the Death Note universe.

EDIT: Disregard most all of this as I got my numbers mixed up. I no longer stand by the point I was trying to make.

If they make less than $450k USD annually, then they're not in the top 1% of just the US. In order to be part of the global top 1% then they'd need even more than that, likely quite a bit more.

Not to make assumptions about someone I don't know but I'd put it at about 1% odds that they make that much.

wait! so what happened after the ring was destroyed??? Is sauron still alive! Will he kill me for not capitilizing his name!!!

https://youtu.be/kjrUOlK2714?is=A1Z1Yf7eUJ6NrAnI

I feel compelled to leave this here

Feel like I could just get away with killing people who are like clinically brain dead and can't be allowed to die due to religious or legal reasons.

I can barely be trusted with that, but I feel like that's a limit I could stick to and spend the rest of my time just making sure the book doesn't get into the wrong hands.

There's still moral implications to being an angel of death and it could go wrong really easily but it feels much less tricky than deciding some dude fits my personal criteria of evil and thus deserves death.

i wont use that death note in the first place and i would likely burn it

These were my numbers last time I took the test. Adding my wife's income, and my zero income, we're in the 8%. It take very little to land in the 1%.

You have it exactly backwards. Compare yourself against worldwide, as I said.

https://www.givingwhatwecan.org/how-rich-am-i

I have thought about if I had a Death Note and the one thing that I would be deeply fascinated by is if it could cause things like people suddenly having Song of Saya style meat vision. If it could do things like that, then I'd probably be a little sadistic by making a few billionaires become "cursed" as a warning from "God" to get rid of their greed by getting rid of their wealth. That's also presuming I would be also allowed to basically plant voices in their heads as well.