So, say you wake up one day and everybody is like you. They have your personality, your likes, dislikes, beliefs, morals, values, ethics, etc…
How would you feel about this? Would you think it was great? Do you not get along with people with similar personalities? Or would you not care one way or another?
As for me, I think it would be great.
How BORING!
The world would be boring if everybody was like you? 
Ack! The human race would die out completely.
Because you have a hard time getting along with people with similar personalities?
Because I won’t ever be having kids. If everyone felt the same way, the race dies out
Yeah! The only way we’d have anybody to argue with would be by taking turns at playing Devil’s Advocate.
I would get along just fine with me. Some aspects of this scenario would work out really, really well – for example, a lot of creative, interesting shit would get done, people would be really nice to one another and wealth would be shared equally. There also would be no more violence or intentional meanness.
On the other hand, certain parts of our infrastructure would fall apart. I’m pretty confident that some of me would be willing to learn about technology and applied science to keep certain industries growing, and some of me would be okay with becoming doctors, but we wouldn’t be the best engineers and doctors and we’d probably lose our rate of progress. NASA would definitely be defunct, and there would be nobody in law enforcement; nobody would work in dangerous fields. Nobody could dance or paint, which would disappoint all of us. We would be really sad at the lack of diversity and there would almost certainly be some intellectual stagnation.
So I guess a world with me would be very peaceful and loving and full of good conversation, but in some ways quite mediocre and stagnant. We would lose some key industries and probably have to figure out new ways to structure society.
Well, CNN would report the latest on Pride and Prejudice and knitting. So that would be a bonus, but I suspect I would really get bored looking at myself after awhile.
Fucking sweet!
It would be peaceful, but boring. Imagine, no arguments at all (no fights would be OK, but think of it…). If I made a suggestion, 6.5 billion people would agree happily, and nobody there with a different approach. No, I wouldn’t feel happy.
If everyone were like me, there would be no NASCAR, no churches, very little murder, absolutely no rape, no hard drug use, fewer crappy movies by far . . . so that’s good. But I suppose it would be a fairly boring world. Most of us would be inside reading most of the time, and we wouldn’t spend as much time cleaning as we probably should, and lots of people would lose their jobs because we weren’t supporting their industries (pig farms, for example, and Wal-Mart-type stores would be out of business in a jiffy). On the other hand, there would be live music all over the place, fantastic reading material, quiet children, lots of people out running and riding bikes, and many humane, thoughtful people around.
I agree.
No, wait… I disagree!
Society would collapse. The streets would look like my dining room table. On the flipside, every woman in the world would want to give me a handjob.
Yeah, but so would I. While that would be awesome for you, I really wouldn’t enjoy it. So neither would you. Wait…
Yeah, that’s what I’m thinking would happen with me. I don’t have the aptitude to make sure that all of the important jobs in the world get done so the gaps in my ability would start to show pretty early. Not to mention the fact that most of the jobs you see on “Dirty Jobs” would never get done!
Speaking in purely selfish terms, it would probably best for the human race if you breed one day.
ETA: I just realized how that sounds. I don’t mean with me - I just mean you are obviously more intelligent than the mean, and that means your genes should be propagated.
Another vote for disaster. I’m good at some things, bad at others like everyone else; and those things I’m bad at wouldn’t get done well if at all. And then there’s the fact that while intelligent I’m no genius, so the cutting edge of science just got blunted. Plus; everyone has blind spots, mistakes and errors of perception they tend to make; in a world where everyone is different many of those errors cancel each other out. In a world where everyone is the same, everyone will tend to make the same mistakes at once.
I’d think it was awesome for about 3 days. Then after that when there was nothing different about anyone and everyone was perpetually lost due to a piss poor sense of direction it would probably start to get really old.
Same here. I’m not sure who would do all the housework and yard work, since everybody would really want to pay someone else to do it.
The economy collapses further, as people start shopping only when they know they need something (and replace things only when they break, not when they need a newer or cooler one). People would rather stay home and play computer games or read a book than go out.
The credit card companies really hurt, as everybody starts paying off their bills every month. When they can’t do that, people feel a deep sense of shame, and don’t want to admit even to their closest friends that they can’t pay off their credit cards. Everybody lives below their means so they don’t have to keep track of their spending.
People stop taking out car loans. Small cars become popular, as everybody wants a car that they can write a check for and that is easy to fit into parking spaces.
Gas prices go down, partly because of the unpopularity of large vehicles, partly because everybody now tries to avoid driving when they can. Transit use goes way up, as it is now preferred over driving. Those suburban communities where you need a car to get to shops and restaurants become ghost towns, as nobody wants to live there.
Everybody starts keeping kosher. I’m sure the food industry would eventually adjust, but it would probably be interesting while it did.
The fashion industry goes heavy into comfortable clothes, polo shirts, and T-shirts. And into shades of blue.
Population growth goes way down, as people are reluctant to have kids (I do want kids one day, but I’m scared that I couldn’t cope with everything). People stop having unprotected sex except when they want kids (I have never had sex without birth control, since I’m not ready for kids yet).
Tolerance for risk in general goes way down. Nobody participates in risky activities any more. Nobody wants the jobs where you can make a lot of money but have no job security.