[Nilwort]

I�m going to go out on a limb and ask everyone this because I�m curious and bored.

What would you do with a billion dollars (or currency of choice)?

There are stories throughout history that are about that poor, hopeless person who suddenly stumbles across a huge source of wealth. It is like the ultimate indicator of character. Do you use it in a noble and altruistic way, are you pragmatic about it, or do you end up loosing everything?

The first thing I would do is get an army of Elvis impersonators to reenact famous battles like Gettysburg and the Battle of the Bulge (one side would wear sunglasses, the other side would shave their sideburns) while I observed from an overly-extravagant blimp. This, of course, would be televised around the world, and perhaps it would become a new sport.

But that is my idea, what would you do with a billion dollars (or currency of choice)?

[balistic]

I would invest 20 million for personal use and live off the interest. I'd spend another 80 to produce an animated film and start a music label. I would finance my sister's college education at whatever school she wanted to go to.

Then I would use the rest to try to make the world better and more interesting. I'd start a biotech firm that would patent as many human genes as possible, and then release the rights to the public domain, to keep other companies from claiming patents on the genome. I'd fund medical researchers who were doing important work. I would throw as much money as I could at developing sustainable energy sources. I'd start an art scholarship program. I would fund the Detroit Electronic Music Festival until the end of time. I would start a refuge and school for women and girls who have escaped from misogynistic theocracies. I would launch multiple television satellites that would broadcast objective, uncensored news and educational information to the entire world.

And I would build robots.

Sexy robots.
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brian.prince|light.comp.paint

[Jimmyjimjim]

I would have it converted to 11 Billion Pesos. Just because it SOUNDS like so much more.

Then, I would hire a really good special effects company and a ton of a-list actors to produce a trailer for a film. Not just any film- a film to end all films. The trailer would look absolutely INCREDIBLE, with anything anyone could ask for in a movie. I'd market the hell out of it for a year. Finally, after millions of people line up to see it opening day, they would sit down and the lights would dim in the theater. The actual movie would be three hours of me sitting on a couch watching the trailer on TV over and over.

Then I'd live out the rest of my days like Howard Hughes.

[Ranath]

I really have no idea.. a greedy relative would probably kill me to get the money before I could even think of what I could do with it


really, it's so much money that I would probably give most of it away, just keep as much for myself so that I can take risks in my career as an artist, like move from Finland to America..

I really would loath the idea of having so much money. I prefer having less I have earned than having too much out of luck. I'm thinking all the stuff I want, even if I bought everything I have ever wanted, home, car etc. that would cost less than a million. The things I really want cannot be bought, so any more money than that would be just a huge problem for me

[[Shizo]]

Yeah man, we're all so sweet and pure
I wouldn't mind getting 1 billion dollars all of a sudden. But i really can't think of anything that i can't buy right now. I think that most people would hide the fact that they became rich. Fame usually attracts negativity (jealousy, loathing, fake love and friendship).

More money - more problems.

[Ranath]

no honestly, I would buy a nice house, a car and save a bit incase of trouble. But you don't realize how much a billion is.. 1000 millions. My shopping cart would be under one million, would I buy 999 sets of house and cars more? No, I would really have nothing to buy with it. I could burn it to keep me warm... that'd be at least something

[Max]

I'd give all the money to balistic because it seems to be of good use there.
Just because of the sexy robots of course

[Giant Hamster]

I would destroy the government. I'd flatten all organized religions by any means possible.

I'd make lots of stupidly illegal things legal. I'd uncensor everything.

I'd fix up schools and put better educational programming on TV.

Our justice system would have a few new "Instant-Punishments" for people such as the idiots that hacked off that saxaphone players fingers when they broke into his house. They'd have their skin sanded off and be pooped on rather than be jailed. televised, ofcourse on channel 466 EXTREME JUSTICE at 8:00.

I'd buy various resturaunts and increase the quality and healthiness of their food. fast food especially.

I'd make "sport hunting" illegal. Anyone other than law enforcement seen in a forest with a gun would be shot on sight and turned into fertilizer. Leave the deer alone.

I'd fund all the research projects I think are really cool so that they actually happen.

[[Shizo]]

[Tzan]

- 100 million for personal stuff, living off interest etc...

- I have about 10 immediate family members, brothers, cousins, so 20 million each = 200 million

- buy a largish area of land and build houses on it and invite all my newly made millionaire friends to move there. Since I am an architectural designer I would design Hobbit houses. So we would all be out on a saturday afternoon mowing our roofs. Pehaps build a small volcano so we can drop sexy robot Golums into it. Hmm... after further thought perhaps on this land I would build a scale model of middle earth. Each house would be where a major town was and would be designed in that style, 1 Hobbit, 1 Breeland, 1 Elf, 1 Mines of Moria etc... . I would have to create the mountains and rivers.
Estimated price 100 million

- Maybe start a MOG game company 60 million.

- I have too many hobbies, game design, art, java, architecture, game playing. Research into a Time Machine would be useless but I can put 200 million on it now. Or just say I am and make a lot of 3D graphics but really spend that money in Vegas (with my precious urine, I could draw faces on the jars and give them names).

- Fusion power research, Anti gravity vehicle, asteriod mining, 200 million

- 100m left to various friends, people I like.

[Domino Harvey]

No amount of money could fix the things I've messed up.
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Heads you live
Tails you die

[The Insane Lemur]

i would buy alot of guns,cars, and a mansion made of fish tanks, then i would give the rest for the sexy robots fund

[Naeem]

priorities;
leave a decent portion for college for my sister and 2 lil brothers and survival. invest some. and with the remaining big chunk, try to do something about pollution (not like it'll count), or start up my own charity association and do what i can for those starving around the world.
if not that, start off an orphanage that's decent. It might sound sappy, but I think about it alot, and I want to make a difference in this world for the better.

my view on life;
it's only worth living if you have something to live for. i want to become one of the best digital artists of our time, so that i live a good life with my own hard work and see the improvement in my work... and see how it inspires people. If I stumbled across the billion dollars, a big factor that causes me to paint every day will be eliminated (my worry for my future financially). After that, I would still paint everyday , but wanting to be a great artist wouldn't be AS important as it was before.

In the end, you'll never really know what you'll do until it actually happens. Money does wonders to people.
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http://www.annisnaeem.blogspot.com/

[lysander]

pretty so so, keep a substantial chunk for myself, say 100 million, incase anything pops up in the future, then probably give the rest to my closest family, friends and charity.. then, id probably just continue to improve as an artist, i dont think id do very much diferent with my life, id stil like to work in the industry. Self improvement and all that. Id also train and enter the tour de france, always thought about racing bicycles.
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Earth under attack by paper mache aliens; world leaders plead - 'Save us! Doctor Who!'

[Jimmyjimjim]

The ultimate way to spend a big hunk of money-

http://www.privateislandsonline.com

[[Shizo]]

Yo, people.. Why would your sister want to go to any college if she had 20 mils? Why would you want to work at all? Other people would look at you funny, like: "Yeah, we're struggling over here.. and what does this guy do? Is he here just to laugh at us?"
You wouldn't be able to go where standard people go to.. only VIP places. Your children couldn't go to regular schools or kindergartens (think Michael Jackson). And if they did, they would be treated VERY differently (think Prince Charles' sons)

Everyone would treat you and your family very differently if you had 1 billion dollars. And you would act very differently as well. This is the real world, baby!

[balistic]

That's why I'd set up companies and organizations instead of spending the money myself. I wouldn't even buy a mansion or anything, just a nice downtown loft somewhere, with a lot of windows.

And just a reminder, contributions to the Sexy Robot Fund are tax deductable, and sponsors of $10,000,000 or more will be allowed to participate in beta testing.
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brian.prince|light.comp.paint

[Tzan]

[lysander]

this sexy robot fund sounds appealing, we should definetly think about marketing. i might start a poster campaign around my college
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Earth under attack by paper mache aliens; world leaders plead - 'Save us! Doctor Who!'

[gLitterbug]

Finally found a game company.

[Drunken Monkey]

i'd like to say that i would spend the money to better humanity... but in reality i would probably just live like a decadent prince... mansions, servants, sport cars and a harem... or just lots and lots of mistresses.
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"A fear of weapons is a sign of retarded sexual and emotional maturity" - Sigmund Freud

[Nag]

I�d stick to my childhood dream, purchase a fully fledged battleship and invade Greenland.

[Misc]

Yes, Childhood Dream is the shit. I'd become a ninja of course. I would get cryptic missions via a small gadget with a surprisingly large screen (for such a small gadget).

[Gort]

[Mikko K]

I'd just add one 'F' to your Art Center and push all the Finnish hippie students there.

[Yarik]

I'd purchase a couple of houses.

I'd purchase one in Hawaii, Alaska, Florida, New Zealand, Paris, Japan.
I'd buy a private island in the carribean. This one for 25 mill



I'd invest the rest of it.

Space travel:
I want to develop Space Hotels, cheap and fast space travel. I would like to develop cities on mars, and other planets. I want travel far.

Space Medicine.
Hmm, maybe we can develop certain medicines in space? In zero Gravity?

Cloning technology
Why not? I wouldn't mind having a couple of Yarik clones.

Stem Cell Technology
No more desease.

DNA splicing i.e. Better muscles, different hair color, better vision. Extra arms-legs, increases tolerence to pain, increased tolerance to natural stuff like fire, acid, virusses, etc.
(Yes, I would modify my body to become a super human).
(I would need to, to travel beyond the planets in our solar system.)



After all of that, I would create a research foundation to determine why a human dies. Pinpoint the DNA molecule that starts making you old and destroy it. I want to live forever.


(My post is in good fun, but if the reality hit. And I was given or somehow came across a billion dollars which I could keep, I would do what I said above).

[Domino Harvey]

[Nilwort]

It has to do with being a vegetarian. Without meat, you've got to get protein from beans.

Ba-dum *CHHh*


(At least, according to the hippie/vegetarian stereotype)

[B0b]

i'd have a billion pounds cos our billon is more than the US billion and own the world

[Lunatique]

This is too easy. You guys are overcomplicating or oversimplifying it.

Just get the amount in the most valuable currency in the world ATM, then either buy out some giant corporations of your choice, or invest it all in every avenue that has the potential to earn money. Before you know it, you'll have more money than you could ever know what to do with--dwarfing the amount you started with. By then, you're pretty much a mortal God on this planet and can do just about anything you want--be it good or evil.