# Godlike Powers, Human Mind: What Would You Do? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [April 25, 2014, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/godlike-powers-human-mind-what-would-you-do/686963 "2014-04-25T16:10:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2014, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/godlike-powers-human-mind-what-would-you-do/686963/21 "2014-04-25T18:24:55Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > Eliminate alcohol and tobacco addiction. > Eliminate all sexually transmitted diseases. > Sex only creates babbys when both participants want that outcome. Not bad, it all generates good outcomes. My only problem: if you eliminate alcohol and tobacco addiction, does that eliminating the addiction element of human psychology? And how can you be sure, having done so, that people are still human? I mean, you can change the human race psychologically any way you like with your advance super science powers … but at what point do they simply become your finger puppets, and not the dear little thinking monkeys you started out with? ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2014, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/godlike-powers-human-mind-what-would-you-do/686963/22 "2014-04-25T18:26:36Z")
> [@SirGalahad](#): > > Valuing “Free Will” doesn’t equal using “Free Will” as a benchmark for every decision and every action. Children die. Lots of them. Better get used to it. Yeah, but you COULDA saved those kids … and all other kids in similar situations … but you didn’t. That’s gotta, um … burn. ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2014, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/godlike-powers-human-mind-what-would-you-do/686963/23 "2014-04-25T18:29:18Z")
> [@Mr.Kobayashi](#): > > Work ‘behind the scenes’ so people don’t waste their time worshipping, I think. > > Test Ozymandias’ theory from _Watchmen_, that with infinite free energy war would become obsolete. Manipulate the sun so it emits rays that can be harnessed for energy easier than light or heat, have some scientist discover them, have another find a way to make harnessing them dirt-cheap and easy. Sounds like a good plan, though I dont think infinite free energy would make war obsolete, there will still be monkey rulers obsessed with knocking over the lands of other monkey rulers. > [@](#): > > If thinks end up more screwed, hit the reset button (or if Godlike powers include omniscience, I’d know how it would turn out anyway). You still have a human mind, which I think implies no omniscience. > [@](#): > > Maybe for shits and giggles enable a ‘richochet’ field on all humans, like how online games stop teamkilling. If you shoot someone, the bullet goes into you. Stab someone and the knife pierces your flesh, and so on. Could put an end to most violence and rape right there. ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2014, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/godlike-powers-human-mind-what-would-you-do/686963/24 "2014-04-25T18:32:28Z")
> [@iiandyiiii](#): > > All of the following assumes the universe is materialistic in nature; i.e. no god or other supernatural stuff beyond Me (as stated in the OP). > > Subtly boost various technical and medical research, perhaps with Inception-style implanting ideas in dreams, to hasten cures for cancer, diabetes, AIDS, etc., and achieve useful fusion technology, breakthroughs in intra-solar system space travel, ecological protection and maintenance, agricultural production in the desert, etc. The hungry and sick hang on through non-miraculous-seeming circumstances (begging family finds a bag of rice, very sick person barely hangs on, etc.) until such scientific breakthroughs previously mentioned take hold in society. Hmmm … it’s said that Watson of Watson and Crick dreamed the structure of the DNA molecule, that was his breakthrough. I wonder if someone isn’t already doing what you have proposed. ---
**Author:** ![SirGalahad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/71c47a/32.png) [@SirGalahad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SirGalahad)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2014, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/godlike-powers-human-mind-what-would-you-do/686963/25 "2014-04-25T18:53:28Z")
> [@Evil\_Captor](#): > > Yeah, but you COULDA saved those kids … and all other kids in similar situations … but you didn’t. That’s gotta, um … burn. Burns them, not me. Best illustrations of God-like powers in the hands of ungodly beings: Twilight Zone, “It’s a Good Life”, season 3, episode 8 Star Trek, “Charlie X”, season 1 episode 2 Star Trek, “Where No Man Has Gone Before”, season 1 episode 3 Futurama, “Godfellas”, season 3 episode 20 ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2014, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/godlike-powers-human-mind-what-would-you-do/686963/26 "2014-04-25T18:57:01Z")
> [@SirGalahad](#): > > Burns them, not me. > > Best illustrations of God-like powers in the hands of ungodly beings: > > Twilight Zone, “It’s a Good Life”, season 3, episode 8 > > Star Trek, “Charlie X”, season 1 episode 2 > > Star Trek, “Where No Man Has Gone Before”, season 1 episode 3 > > Futurama, “Godfellas”, season 3 episode 20 Whereas it takes a _real_ god to commit planet-wide genocide. ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2014, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/godlike-powers-human-mind-what-would-you-do/686963/27 "2014-04-25T18:57:17Z")
My idea would be to make the world a better place by stopping the worst excesses of human being against one another, using the least intrusive means possible. I’d start with instutionalized murder and torture of the innocent and the not-so-very guilty. My theory is that much of the evil that goes on in the world is due to the fact that the people at the top of any institution are ultimately not held to account for what those institutions do. I would change that. I’d start by going to North Korea and forcing all the television networks to watch me beat Kim Joung Un to death while forcing him to confess to all the murders and atrocities he had committed, and also to his indifference to the suffering of his people, while his ruling cabal watched. Then I’d tell the next in line to be his successor that he has 24 hours to issue orders to shut down the North Korean torture camps and start opening up the economy so their people would be able to eat, or he’d wind up a greasy spot like the Dear Leader. Then I’d go to Russia and have a little talk with Vladimir Putin about what will happen if his soldiers cross the borders into Ukraine (see: Kim Juong Um). And also that he needs to get rid of whatever torture facilities still exist within the current Russian secret service or spend the rest of his life experiencing the implanted memories of people who have been torture and killed there, with maybe a 20-minute preview to get him all motivated and stuff. Then on to Communist China (re-education camps) and the United States (CIA black prisons, drone strikes) and so forth, and of course, meticulously following through with my threats, until I had all the world’s governments and also private organizations that deal in murder and torture (Boko Harum, Al Qaeda … looking at you!) until I basically had all the world’s governments out of the torture/murder business. That would do, for starters. ---
**Author:** ![SirGalahad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/71c47a/32.png) [@SirGalahad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SirGalahad)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2014, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/godlike-powers-human-mind-what-would-you-do/686963/28 "2014-04-25T19:03:02Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > Whereas it takes a _real_ god to commit planet-wide genocide. Not necessarily. Presumably, technologically advanced aliens could pull it off, and we may not be too far away from the destruction of Humanity ourselves, whether intentional or not. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Kobayashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4af34b/32.png) [@Mr.Kobayashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Kobayashi)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2014, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/godlike-powers-human-mind-what-would-you-do/686963/29 "2014-04-25T19:06:24Z")
> [@Evil\_Captor](#): > > Sounds like a good plan, though I dont think infinite free energy would make war obsolete, there will still be monkey rulers obsessed with knocking over the lands of other monkey rulers. Aye, ideology would still play a part too even if you had access to all the energy you could want. Although I think the energy issue would help people help themselves without me having to lift a finger. > [@](#): > > You still have a human mind, which I think implies no omniscience. Darn! Although would the powers assume I could ‘save’ and ‘reload’ if I messed up? > [@](#): > > Could put an end to most violence and rape right there. The idea comes from an episode of _Red Dwarf_, Justice, where a prison doesn’t have bars or guards but has an area with a ‘justice field’, where you cannot commit an act of injustice. Although it goes further than violence; if you steal something, an item of yours goes missing. Commit arson and your house burns down, etc. That would make war obsolete, if you cannot secure anything by force why even attempt it? ETA; It would also forever break the backs of dictatorships, based on might makes right. Guards can’t beat you up, leaders can’t have you shot and so on. ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2014, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/godlike-powers-human-mind-what-would-you-do/686963/30 "2014-04-25T19:12:23Z")
> [@Mr.Kobayashi](#): > > Aye, ideology would still play a part too even if you had access to all the energy you could want. Although I think the energy issue would help people help themselves without me having to lift a finger. > Darn! Although would the powers assume I could ‘save’ and ‘reload’ if I messed up? Given that it’s a thought experiment, sure. > [@](#): > > The idea comes from an episode of _Red Dwarf_, Justice, where a prison doesn’t have bars or guards but has an area with a ‘justice field’, where you cannot commit an act of injustice. Although it goes further than violence; if you steal something, an item of yours goes missing. Commit arson and your house burns down, etc. That would make war obsolete, if you cannot secure anything by force why even attempt it? > > ETA; It would also forever break the backs of dictatorships, based on might makes right. Guards can’t beat you up, leaders can’t have you shot and so on. Yep. ---
**Author:** ![SirGalahad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/71c47a/32.png) [@SirGalahad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SirGalahad)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2014, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/godlike-powers-human-mind-what-would-you-do/686963/31 "2014-04-25T19:22:35Z")
> [@Mr.Kobayashi](#): > > The idea comes from an episode of _Red Dwarf_, Justice, where a prison doesn’t have bars or guards but has an area with a ‘justice field’, where you cannot commit an act of injustice. Although it goes further than violence; if you steal something, an item of yours goes missing. Commit arson and your house burns down, etc. That would make war obsolete, if you cannot secure anything by force why even attempt it? > > ETA; It would also forever break the backs of dictatorships, based on might makes right. Guards can’t beat you up, leaders can’t have you shot and so on. Until a genius-nerd hacked the system and handed the keys over to Hydra, or some other Authoritarian threat. Or until some Libertarian commandos broke into the the secret bunker and destroyed the “Perfect Machine”. Anything people can build, people can sabotage. Human mind/ Godlike power … until a seductive manipulator brainwashes you. Hey, where’s Black Widow? ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Kobayashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4af34b/32.png) [@Mr.Kobayashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Kobayashi)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2014, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/godlike-powers-human-mind-what-would-you-do/686963/32 "2014-04-25T19:27:58Z")
> [@SirGalahad](#): > > Until a genius-nerd hacked the system and handed the keys over to Hydra, or some other Authoritarian threat. Or until some Libertarian commandos broke into the the secret bunker and destroyed the “Perfect Machine”. Anything people can build, people can sabotage. Human mind/ Godlike power … until a seductive manipulator brainwashes you. Hey, where’s Black Widow? What machine? If you have godlike powers you can alter the fabric of reality by your will. A genius nerd could no more thwart you than they could hack strong nuclear force. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2014, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/godlike-powers-human-mind-what-would-you-do/686963/33 "2014-04-25T19:33:22Z")
> [@Evil\_Captor](#): > > Not bad, it all generates good outcomes. My only problem: if you eliminate alcohol and tobacco addiction, does that eliminating the addiction element of human psychology? And how can you be sure, having done so, that people are still human? I mean, you can change the human race psychologically any way you like with your advance super science powers … but at what point do they simply become your finger puppets, and not the dear little thinking monkeys you started out with? I wouldn’t change human psychology-you would just have to work a lot harder to get addicted. I would also eliminate this “Sun gives you cancer” bullshit, maybe switching it to “Non-defensive violence gives you cancer” or “Believing Sean Hannity gives you cancer”. ---
**Author:** ![SirGalahad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/71c47a/32.png) [@SirGalahad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SirGalahad)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2014, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/godlike-powers-human-mind-what-would-you-do/686963/34 "2014-04-25T19:38:18Z")
> [@Mr.Kobayashi](#): > > **What machine?** If you have godlike powers you can alter the fabric of reality by your will. A genius nerd could no more thwart you than they could hack strong nuclear force. “,a prison doesn’t have bars or guards but has an area with a **‘justice field’** , where you cannot commit an act of injustice. Although it goes further than violence; if you steal something, an item of yours goes missing. Commit arson and your house burns down, etc. That would make war obsolete, if you cannot secure anything by force why even attempt it?” The one that generates the justice field in Red Dwarf. \*\*Human mind/ Godlike power? \*\*… until a seductive manipulator brainwashes you. Hey, where’s Black Widow? ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Kobayashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4af34b/32.png) [@Mr.Kobayashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Kobayashi)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2014, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/godlike-powers-human-mind-what-would-you-do/686963/35 "2014-04-25T19:45:47Z")
> [@SirGalahad](#): > > The one that generates the justice field in Red Dwarf. Oh right, in the show you mean. But if you have godlike powers you wouldn’t need to worry about that. > [@](#): > > \*\*Human mind/ Godlike power? \*\*… until a seductive manipulator brainwashes you. Hey, where’s Black Widow? Good point, you know what they say about absolute power. I’d probably give someone I trusted intimately a silver bullet they could use to put me down and reverse my changes if they thought I was abusing my powers. ---
**Author:** ![SirGalahad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/71c47a/32.png) [@SirGalahad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SirGalahad)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2014, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/godlike-powers-human-mind-what-would-you-do/686963/36 "2014-04-25T19:50:31Z")
> [@Mr.Kobayashi](#): > > Oh right, in the show you mean. But if you have godlike powers you wouldn’t need to worry about that. > Good point, you know what they say about absolute power. I’d probably give someone I trusted intimately a silver bullet they could use to put me down and reverse my changes if they thought I was abusing my powers. I’m glad we got that sorted out. ---
**Author:** ![Measure\_for\_Measure](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/measure_for_measure/32/557_2.png) [@Measure\_for\_Measure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Measure_for_Measure)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2014, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/godlike-powers-human-mind-what-would-you-do/686963/37 "2014-04-25T20:27:16Z")
Newly empowered with near omnipotence I would recognize that while I was formerly _somewhat_ human, I am now infinitely superior and that humans are pawns that exist for my amusement at most. > [@Czarcasm](#): > > Eliminate alcohol and tobacco addiction. > Eliminate all sexually transmitted diseases. > Sex only creates babbys when both participants want that outcome. Diverting, but I’d be concerned about unintended consequences. So I would randomly endow people with traits like this and observe the results for 100 years. Unless I also secured omniscience but I think the OP disallows that. Also, a third of the world would spontaneously worship me, 1/3 would be forced to and 1/3 wouldn’t care. Then I would ascertain (after 100 years) which group is most entertaining. Science! ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2014, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/godlike-powers-human-mind-what-would-you-do/686963/38 "2014-04-25T20:35:54Z")
Step One: make myself infinitely wise. (you didn’t say I couldn’t!)\ Now, then… ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2014, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/godlike-powers-human-mind-what-would-you-do/686963/39 "2014-04-25T20:41:19Z")
Honestly? Relinquish the power if possible, destroy myself if not, remove myself to another universe if THAT isn’t possible. I know myself well enough to say that I couldn’t be trusted even with Superman’s powers, much less Dr. Manhattan’s. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2014, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/godlike-powers-human-mind-what-would-you-do/686963/40 "2014-04-25T20:45:06Z")
I don’t know what I’d do on day two, but day one would almost certainly consist of deleting bras from the spacetime continuum, then enjoying a nice walk around town. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/godlike-powers-human-mind-what-would-you-do/686963.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/godlike-powers-human-mind-what-would-you-do/686963.md?page=3)