What would happen if responsibility didn't exist?

i dont know that responsibility does exist. its just a word. people have different understandings of the word and judging responsibility is subjective. so im not sure "it" exists as one thing or another. if the word did not exist i dont think the world would fall apart. we just wouldnt have a word to describe some things that our nature compels us to do. if what you mean by responsibility not existing is that we would follow our desires regardless of our awareness of and/or concern for consequence, then i still dont think the world would simply fall apart. this is because consequence would interfere with our desires, so if we were to pursue these desires with gusto, then we would have to avoid negative consequences that would stand in the way of our desires. i think individual words were created to sort of pick apart human nature and attribute definitions to certain inclinations we have. but i dont think that it can be picked apart, the whole exists as a whole and if one part were to change i think the entirety would also change. maybe if you were to provide a definition of responsibility, not from the dictionary but rather from your own interpretation, i would understand the question better.

We would live in a state of anarchy- not the type of anarchy that many commonly think of, like when everyone is in all-out war and chaos and destruction. Anarchy, in that there would be no governing source and we would be reduced to a state of nature in which everyone would be out for their own best interests, at least in the immediate sense. No one would trust the other person, and we would run into issues as in the Prisoner's Dilemma (as explained in political science discussions).

Personally, I believe that responsibility would come into existence as an inevitability. Human beings are social creatures. We need others ultimately in order to survive (at least for the survival of our species). As such, we are given such warning devices as a conscience to warn us when we do wrong to others. Eventually, our conscience would drive us to be responsible. I think another provocative question would be: What would the world be like if we did not possess a conscience?

If responsibility didn't exist then there is no cause and effect, nothing would happen, nothing would change.

However if responsibility did exist but no one took responsibility, then the world would fall apart, much like whats happening right now with global warming.

- yes responsibility is defined differently by different people? so if you were to rob someone, this would not be your responsibilty as responsibilty did not exist. That's a good philosophy, except when you get robbed by someone else who feels the exact same way... is that urine in your coffee? sorry, not my resposibility because I don't believe in that "man made" concept.

Well, we would stop being social animals and civilization would not be possible.

But the possibility of that happening is virtually impossible.

Since we are social animals we have evolved social skills that are innate in us, such as our sense of fairness, that allow us to create a fairly complex society and accumulate a fairly enormous civilization.

why would gravity stop functioning b/c of a human concept like responsibility?

My guess is that we would be more of a solitary species instead of a social one.

no not really because there wouldn't be a world left anymore