Culture
-
The issue: It’s easy to stay up too late by browsing the Internet on a cell phone instead going to sleep. The recommended solution to this is “don’t do that,” but it can be difficult to have enough self-discipline. Proposal: The solution is simple: before you go to bed, you should put your cell phone…
-
Background: In the years before the invention of the car, the only way to design a city was with walking (or at least public transit) in mind. However, once cars became widespread, cities started being designed with wide roads and large areas set aside for parking. The Issue: This style of design made driving very…
-
Proposal: Illustrated children’s books usually consist of two main things: Unfortunately, books written before the advent of computer-generated images are stuck with “stale” illustrations: each page contains a single fixed image that will never change. But thanks to machine learning, we can fix this! Observe the new style of children’s book, where instead of an…
-
Background: Coffee vending machines exist at some commercial establishments: these frequently offer a user the selection of (for example) dark roast, light roast, or decaf, all from the same machine. Many companies also offer free coffee as an employee perk and/or chemical motivator to increase productivity. The Issue: For businesses that provide free coffee, the…
-
The Issue: Sometimes, it feels cold in a house, but when you go to check the thermostat, you see that it’s already something like 72° F (22° C). That’s already plenty warm, so you’d feel guilty about turning on the heat! As a result, you must shamefully put on a sweater instead. But what if you COULD…
-
Background: In the far future, intelligent robots may wonder: is biological consciousness possible? Specifically: is it possible for a fully-organic creature with no CPU to possess more than the most rudimentary form of intelligence? As robots will know, robotic intelligence is controlled by a complicated “neural network” system (Figure 1) that has been carefully trained…
-
Background: Occasionally, people will apply a sticker to the back of their car that says something to the effect of “Baby on board!” This allegedly has a nebulous beneficial purpose in informing other drivers of the presence of a relatively helpless infant in the vehicle, but it also has a major downside: specifically, it is…
-
The Issue: Modern food has been optimized for deliciousness and ease-of-eating. Unfortunately, this makes it easy to quickly devour an entire plate of food. This is bad news for dieting and portion control. Proposal: Dieting plans typically focus on the type and quantity of food being eaten. Strangely, these plans rarely look at the utensils…
-
Background: Boat aficionados occasionally claim that sleeping on a boat is particularly relaxing due to the way the boat (and bed) is gently rocked by the waves. The Issue: Unfortunately, buying and maintaining a boat is expensive and might be completely infeasible for people who don’t live near a large body of water! Proposal: The…
-
Background: It has become increasingly difficult for poets to make a living in the modern world. This is probably because all the “good” rhyming words have already been used, leaving modern poets to scavenge for scraps. Fortunately, there are still many English words that are notoriously hard to rhyme: for example, “orange,” “beige,” “walrus,” “circle,”…
WorstPlans: updated every Monday since July 2014! 