Let’s assume we’re talking about the Superman-type: you can see through ordinarily opaque objects, in full color, even if there is no illumination behind the barrier you are piercing with your magic eyes.
Let’s further assume this x-ray vision comes in two types. One is short-range: you can see no further than you can ordinarily. The other has a telescopic option: you can “see” anywhere on Earth at will.
In either case you have absolute control of the focus. Also in either case there’s no actual radiation involved, and thus no fear of giving any Godiva radiation sickness no matter how often you emulate Peeping Tom. And, of course, you know this.
Could you be trusted with this power? Could anybody? Why or why not?
Depends on what you mean by trusted. I’m engaged, so the peeping tom thing is not a concern–my Druidess is more than sufficient for those needs.
I wouldn’t be using my powers to Oak-leaks matters of national security or anything.
I would likely retire after my third consecutive victory in the World Series of Poker. I’m not greedy, and 30 million give or take a few million is plenty for my needs.
If I could use this to truly see anywhere on Earth, I would certainly use my “x-ray” vision to amass a truly staggering array of intelligence on every major power. In fact, I assume that I could go beyond that - with a bit of luck and effort, I could ascertain the actual location of anyone I wished at will, in real-time. I would use this power to, first, amass a massive fortune, and then to become a powerful and terrifying puppet-master, working from the shadows to seduce, persuade, or bludgeon world leaders into enacting my preferred policy decisions. How do you say “No” to a man who knows all your nuclear launch codes? The weaknesses of your most sophisticated weapons platforms? The precise instant that your bodyguard steps away from his post to urinate, and you are vulnerable to assassination?
This ability could be built into a power the likes of which the world has never known, and I wouldn’t shrink from it. That being said, I would use that power to accomplish worthy things - the removal of tyrants, promotion of democratic rule, and so on. The irony of a glorified strongman using his power to promote democracy isn’t lost on me, but so be it. Given my policy goals, I think that, yes, I could be trusted. For suitable values of “trust”.
Trusted? Sure. You can rely on the fact that I would absolutely, positively look through women’s clothing.
As for the second part of the vision…I’d hole up somewhere safe and make Wikileaks look like a molehill. I’d take down so many fatcats, plutocrats and associated other bad guys that there wouldn’t be room on the net to list them all.
I look upon your secrets, and you will tremble! Bwahahahaha!
What do you mean by “be trusted”? I don’t believe there is anything inherently wrong with looking at naked bodies. I wouldn’t use it for material gain or tell people I had it or make them feel bad, or anything like that. But I wouldn’t refrain from using it just because you don’t think I “should.”
If I may be more literal, I would prefer actual x-ray vision though. The ability to see broken bones without an x-ray machine would be a very powerful tool to making me richer than King Midas. And I’d feel more philanthropic than by using my powers in a militaristic fashion. Still… it might be nice to smoke out the Osama bin Ladens of the world, too.
I wouldn’t use *the ability to see naked people for material gain *or tell people I had it or make them feel bad, or anything like that. But I wouldn’t have a problem using the ability for material gain, as long as it wasn’t because of the nudity.
because Ms. Portman obviously posed for it with the understanding that a poster or whatnot would be made of it. She consented to the making of the picture and presumably had a great deal of say on what she would or would not show. (Hence the lack of nipples of genitalia). But are you saying that looking through her clothes, or in the shower, without her consent is the same thing? Because I don’t think it is the same thing at all, and I don’t understand how you could think so.
I think it’d be harder to find an single, far-distant person is going to be harder than you and Mr. Excellent seem to think, but that doesn’t really matter for this thread.
I’d like to think I could be trusted. Even now, without super powers, I make a conscious effort to curb my curiousity and wandering eye in general, and particularly with things I know that others want to be private. For instance, when people are changing or entering passwords, I have no difficulty at all not looking. With such powers, I think the only real difference would be that that sort of temptation would be constant rather than intermittent and brief. That is, it’s easy to not look at even a very attractive woman who is changing behind me for all of 2 minutes, but if I essentially have that ability all the time, it would inevitably be as difficult to avoid as the random glances are even now.
Honestly, though, I think such a power would be as much of cursing as it is a blessing. I think a large part of what makes society work is our ability/desire to have our privacy and respect the privacy of others. Sure, one could use that power to bin Laden, but it would probably work just as much to damage a number of one’s personal relationships as well.
Slight hijack, but I think that some people will be much easier to find than others. I might not be able to use X-Ray Vision to find Bin Laden - I’ve no idea where to look, and the world is a big place. But I’ve got a good idea of where to find, for example, Belarus’ Lukashenko, or Equatorial Guinea’s Obiang, and so on. That gives me a heck of a lot of power, in addition to the whole leafing-through-distant-documents thing. (I might not be able to read them myself, but I can transcribe them and have them translated).
I could not initially be trusted with this power. I would surely abuse the power until I felt I had seen all I needed, if there is such a level.
This brings up a good question. While Superman had this power, nobody ever suggested that he had the mental power to multi-task and see everything that was going on. He had to focus first or be alerted to something before he used his power. In short, criminals were getting away with murder behind his back. I can foresee my getting to the point where the best looking woman in the world passed by and I would not use my powers-possibly do to burnout.
I would misuse this power considerably but I could be trusted in my misuse of it.
I would check out attractive women on the street, check suspicious people for weapons and I would be the greatest drilling engineer in the history of the world, rich beyond my wildest fantasies.
