Let’s say you had the ability to move crap with your mind.
Let’s also say your ability has come out in a very public way and the masses are convinced your power is genuine.
Now, what happens next WRT the government? Do they hunt you down? Detain you? If so, under what grounds could they hold you? You’re still a citizen with all the protections the constitution affords.
How does the public react to you? Do they welcome you with open arms? Or burn you at the stake?
If you could “move crap with your mind” are there any limits to this? If not, how in the world would anyone be able to detain you against your will?
Handcuff you? Break the handcuffs off with your mind, push everyone away, rip doors off of hinges and walk out.
Now, if you’re talking about being able to move a paperclip off the edge of a table or something, maybe they could get away with it.
But unlimited telekinesis? Unless they knocked you out and kept you in a medical coma, good luck!
Uh, not the last time I looked. From what I understand the U.S. Gov’t now has the right (no constitutional basis) to imprison you without a warrant. They can do this without informing your next of kin or anyone else.
And, this has been condoned/approved/put in place by both Bush AND Obama.
Which leads me to another question: Presidents swear to “protect and defend the Constitution Of The United States Of America.” If this is so, then when they inact a policy that goes against the Constitution, isn’t it an impeachable offense?
Obama has no respect for the Constitution, so I see no reason to believe he’d start caring about it now.
Yeah, you still gotta sleep. Also a sniper could take you out from several hundred feet away.
Then you have to ask yourself (if you are being detained) “Do I really want to break out of here?” That act alone would “legitimize” anything the government did to you.
If the government takes down an innocent man, they would have to answer to the public. This assumes the public sees you in a good light.
It might be your city government that you’d have to watch out for. Think of all the pumping costs they’d save down at the sewage treatment plant.
The goverment in my opinion would likely intervene if they thought you could kill with your power (lik owning a weapon). The public doesn’t react, but individuals do depending on what they think about your power and how dangerous it is and how it fits with their spiritual/religious/tribal views. Some react positively, negatively and possibly neutral.
You’re asking different questions. Would they do it? Yep. Is that legal? Nope.
In the novel Jumper, the kid who discovers he can teleport is pursued by the NSA, under the doctrine that capability implies intent. If you can teleport into the Oval Office and kill the President, they have to act as if you intend to and take steps. Hijinks ensue.
Political jabs are not appropriate for this forum. If you wish to complain/rant about Obama, please do so in the Pit. Other, more substantial political threads probably belong in GD or Elections.
I don’t believe for one second that the government would kidnap me, isolate me, or experiment on me without my permission, simply because I had demonstrated telekinesis. (Well, in a peaceful, non-violent, non-criminal way.)
The local university would probably contact me and ask if I’d do some controlled experiments. Eventually, I might become a TV celebrity, juggling glasses of water without spilling any. But that isn’t really that impressive in a world with computer-graphics.
I’d end up using my power in a way that helps people, by doing things that can’t be done any other way. I’d be a good beach lifeguard, for instance, if I could pull people out of heavy surf or raging rivers without having to go dive in myself. Maybe I’d get a job as a construction specialist, able to thread cables through high blocks.
I still have faith in the Constitution, and in the basic decency of even elected officials and bureaucrats.
You would “disappear”. Like someone said, you have to sleep some time, and then they pump you full of drugs to keep you asleep until they get you to their “safe” house. Then they figure out what to do next - use your abilities for their own purposes if they can make that happen, or kill you if they can’t.
They will also want to do research to figure out how you do it and to see if they can replicate it. This will probably be more important to them than any specific task of moving stuff that you might be able to do. If they have to kill you because you resist everything they do, they will do it in a way not to damage your brain or nervous system, which they will assiduously research with after your death.
In the meantime, they will be clucking in public about your disappearance, suggesting that you were kidnapped by terrorists, or maybe even you are a terrorist yourself. They will expend tremendous resources to “search” for you, which will of course fail whether you are alive or not.
I mean really, constitutional protections? That only works if someone can prove to a judge that you have been taken by the government. I have every faith that an operation such as I have outlined above would be a cakewalk for any one of our lovely black ops organizations, and would be completely untraceable unless someone on the inside develops a conscience (pause for laughter).
Roddy
eta: Oh, Trinopus, I wish that were all true. It might have been true once (for 20 seconds) but today?
Assuming you hadn’t used your powers for criminal intent why wouldn’t they just offer you a job at DARPA as a research subject. Why risk the negative PR when you could just pay the person to cooperate.
I think most people would take the job considering the alternatives.
In my experience, the SCP foundation would swoop in and assign you a number, and then experiment on you for a while but if you were found to be relatively harmless you would just live the rest of your life in a foundation facility.
I’d quickly contact the government in Japan; I think they would be happy for me to help out.
Assuming we’re talking an IRL scenario for a US citizen, not movies the government would not do a damned thing unless you appeared to pose an actual threat. Assuming evidence of your “power” came out publicly most intelligent people in power would (with very good reason) assume it was just a scam of some kind. The actual ability to do this would have to contradict so many physical laws it would upend entire scientific paradigms. The fact that you had this power would almost be secondary in many scientists minds vs how they would have to adjust their models of the physical world to account for it. That you are a scam artist would be the operating assumption.
Assuming you were able to establish this was as a no-BS ability you would just be a manifestation of the effect for researchers, the real fascination and concern would be in the physical laws underpinning how it was able to occur.
In real life you would have to WORK to establish and prove that this was not some bullshit trick. If you were coy at all about it most powerful people would just assume you were a Kris Angel type performer/magician and ignore you. If you used this ability to make a living with shows and such or even practical stuff like moving ships and barges around the government would not touch you unless you agreed to be investigated. At some point it’s likely you could reach a deal with giant genomics company to get enough money to retire very comfortably in exchange for access your sperm or your eggs. If you decline this and want to live a hermit’s life people will assume you were just a clever bullshitter.
The point you really need to understand in this is that although telekinesis is such a sci-fi trope it seems on the edge of being plausible, it’s not. It’s pure unadulterated unicorn magic and intelligent people in power would treat it as such. You might as well claim you were a fairy princess.
Well, the OP only used that one example.
So, what if it was something different like flying like a slow superman? Hard to claim that is fake.
Hold you breath under water as long as a whale can? Easy to check for a trick.
If it can’t be used as a weapon, then there is not much incentive to make you disappear. But you would be poked & prodded a lot.
If you are not unique, photographic memory, faster than a calculator at basic math, super fast Rubik cube puzzle solver, etc.?
Lot of Super powers out there to work with.
Me, I would keep it secret unless it would cure world hunger & make all governments into honest & for the people entities.
Secrets are way more fun…
YMMV
I was thinking CANADAAAAAAA!
Well, it is an issue that needs to be tested empirically. I volunteer to acquire super-powers to put the matter before the government.
I’d like the have a little control over the circumstances! For instance, I don’t want to acquire powers via a hazardous chemical spill combined with a lightning strike – while aboard a crowded 747 in flight! That would call too much of the wrong kind of attention! Maybe I could, instead, make my debut by rescuing someone from a burning building. Much better first impression!
All I can do is say what I believe, and, alas, without real evidence, it’s just one man’s armpit…uh, opinion.
(Really, really weak evidence: you have the “World’s Strongest Man” TV competition, and the government never makes those “supermen” disappear.)
A person who can lift perhaps 1/5 as much as a cheap forklift is not superhuman.
I think the idea that the government would automatically kidnap you is pretty bizarre.
I believe I read (somebody correct me if I am wrong) that Randi is no longer doing his million-dollar challenge for genuine supernatural demonstrations, but no matter. I would go to them anyway, and set up the challenge. Then I pass it, and (as mentioned above) let the universities bid on my salary as a full-time research subject.
Firestarter and the X-Men movies were fun and everything, but nobody in the government will want to shut off the chance at the greatest advance in science since the discovery of X-rays.
Regards,
Shodan