We have very different beliefs about P != NP. I would be willing to make the following wager, if it could be suitably enforced with sufficiently low overhead. If a proof that P != NP reaches general acceptance, you will pay me $10000 with probability 1/1000000 (expectation $.01). If an algorithm provably solves 3SAT on n variables in time O(n^4) or less, I will pay you $1000000.

This bet is particularly attractive to me, because if such a fast algorithm for SAT appears I will probably cease to care about the million dollars. My actual probability estimate is somewhere in the ballpark of 10^-6, though its hard to be precise about probabilities so small.

Perhaps it was not clear what I meant by an individual going FOOM, which is fair since it was a bit of a misuse. I mean just that an individual with access to such an algorithm could quickly amplify their own power and then exert a dominant influence on human society. I don't imagine a human will physically alter themselves. It might be entertaining to develop and write up a plan of attack for this contingency. I think the step I assume is possible that you don't is the use of a SAT solver to search for a compact program whose behavior satisfies some desired property, which can be used to better leverage your SAT solver.

A similar thought experiment my friends and I have occasionally contemplated is: given a machine which can run any C program in exactly 1 second (or report an infinite loop), how many seconds would it take you to <ridiculous goal here>?