Dementia & Such

Not sure how you're going to approach degenerative brain disorders in 2.0. If you feel strongly about them, may I make a suggestion? Allow the person to retain only good memories and forget the bad ones. That way, you would win and we would win.

To use myself as an example, I'd like to remember all of my birthday parties, children, island vacations and terrific bargains on consumer goods. At the same time, I'd like to completely forget about the day in second grade when I (expletive deleted) in my pants because I was too embarrassed to ask to be excused from class so I could take a proper dump. Or the times that my "humor" was mistaken for "criticism" or "sarcasm." See where I'm "going" with this?

Hair

I have no problems with the gradual decay of the human body. It's right in line with the gradual growth and development of a person -- from "Mama, Dada" through K-12 education through career twists/turns through relationship ups/down all the way to the moment one ceases to be. If you look on the bright side, old age has its benefits. Younger people are often quite pleasant around them, and show them a great deal of respect. One reason, I'm sure, is because they realize that old people will soon cease to be.

For Earth 2.0, may I ask that you keep an aging person's hair youthful and dynamic right to the end? Give them a little victory each day. Let me offer you an example. In the song, "Why I Sing the Blues," B.B. King belts out these lines:
Now Father Time is catching up with me
Gone is my youth
I look in the morning every day
And Lord it tells me the truth

Let mirrors of the future balance aging facial features with a full head of hair, styled as desired by the decaying person.

Human Digestive System

This is a master stroke! It certainly helps the cause of religious fundamentalists who think evolution is a bunch of rubbish. "How can such a complex organism as a human being have come from fish who learned how to crawl out of the gosh darn ocean?" they have been known to ask. Now, I'm sure all creatures have a digestive system, but ours is in a class by itself. Since we're on top of the food chain -- and therefore able to eat anything below us -- you knew that the human digestive system would have to be extremely complex to get the job done. I wanted to point out one of your strengths to balance my many critiques.

Speaking of which, may I offer a suggestion to make our digestive system even more awesome than it is? Less gas, please. It ruins many car trips and courtships.

Too Courteous

As a followup to my last entry (Simple Courtesies), I find it equally disconcerting when a driver is too courteous. One day later, at the very same four-way stop where I was subjected to a non-blinking motorist, I pulled up to the intersection in order to turn left and begin my day. Another vehicle, to my left, pulled up a few moments before I did, thus entitling him to proceed first. The driver did not advance. I waited another few seconds, in case he was distracted or still waking up. Nothing. So I took my turn (his turn, actually) because I really wanted my day to begin. If I recall correctly, I used your name in vain. Sorry about that.

I realize that inconsistent behavior, of the kind I have just documented, makes the human race fascinating. And it's probably responsible for many scientific and cultural achievements. That's great. But I wish human inconsistencies would not also be annoying to the point where names are taken in vain.  Can you look into that?

Simple Courtesies

There are any number of reasons why a person making a right turn at a four-way stop sign would not signal, thereby causing me -- who pulled up at the same time to the driver's right and wishing to turn right -- to wait a few extra seconds because I expected the person to proceed across the intersection in front of me. Had the person activated the vehicle's blinker, I could have turned right sooner. Although this is not "the end of the world," I find this sort of arbitrary approach to society's laws and simple courtesies a little troubling, to be honest. If this type of behavior goes unchecked, the person could well become a cold, heartless killer and be totally surprised when arrested, convicted and violated in prison by a same-sex inmate.

I would like to see the new world populated exclusively by respectful people -- the kind who might have performed on, attended or routinely watched "The Lawrence Welk Show" on public television (see photo below). I'm not expecting everyone to be conservative robots. These same respectful people could have raucous jamborees in their basements or vomit from overeating. As long as they don't cause delays or uncertainty for people at the Earth 2.0 equivalent of a four-way stop.

Waiting 2.0

In the future, will people have to wait a long time for things? These are some of the major events in life that often take too long:
(a)  Waiting for Santa Claus
(b)  Waiting for the bus
(c)  Waiting for your name to be called by the Department of Motor Vehicles
(d)  Waiting for your luggage in baggage claim
(e)  Waiting for the right person to come along so you can find love or marriage
(f)  Waiting for your career to take off
(g)  Waiting to die when you're in extremely poor health

My suggestion would be to assess each person's capacity to wait without going bonkers, and then keep their waiting times under that threshold. If this works, you could do the same for pain. Or even disappointment, if you don't mind a somewhat broader category.

High School Clubs

Will high schools in your newly designed world have clubs for Photography, Art, Chess, Math and all the usual interests of youths who are on the precipice on adulthood? Or will you jazz it up with topics like Homework Avoidance Strategies, Unique Ways to Start a Conversation, Mating Rituals and Future Wine Critics? Prepare them for the real word, I say.

While I'm on the subject, I wonder if high school will even be necessary. If you design a perfect world, everyone would be born with just the right amount of education they need. Why force kids to sit in a classroom for seven hours a day when they could be making valuable contributions to society?

Instead of formal instruction from ages 5 to 18, consider making all knowledge accessible by pressing firmly on a body part, such as the collarbone. Whatever you wish when you press will instantly come to life. A Dome of Knowledge would envelop you and three-dimensional information would appear. You would never have to ask your dad how a garage door opener works!

Sports Teams

I've given you many serious suggestions to incorporate into Earth 2.0, so here's an entirely optional idea that you may want to kick around after you've fixed a particularly big problem. Virtually all sports teams are geographic-based. New York Yankees. Manchester United. Green Bay Packers. South Africa Springboks. Los Angeles Clippers. That's all fine and well, but as long as you're starting from scratch, why not base sports teams on the interests of the athletes?

I'll use Spanish professional soccer as an example. There are 20 teams in La Liga, each centered around a fixed longitude and latitude coordinate. As an experiment, I would like to see one team comprised entirely of skilled soccer players who also enjoy hiking, one team of motorcycle enthusiasts, one of wood-carvers, one of Type AB blood donors, etc. There would be 20 stadiums spread across the country, but no team would have a home stadium. They would rotate every week so that wood-carvers throughout Spain could see their favorite team without extensive traveling. Hardly worth your time, but you could do it as a favor to me. I promise I'll be nice to 20 people tomorrow.