Here’s a possibly interesting mental exercise. The premise: a certain person (male or female, of any nationality or ethnicity) suddenly gains an unusual ability. This event can happen at any point in this person’s life, but does not happen upon birth. Also for the purposes of this discussion, the event (for the rest of the world) happens the moment you finish reading this sentence.
What happens? Simultaneously, every single person living on this planet (only humans, no other species) becomes aware of the “gifted” person’s (hereafter referred to as Known Person) existence and location, no matter where Known Person may be or may travel to. This phenomenon continues until the end of Known Person’s life, however that may come about. Further, this knowledge is not exact: while any person, when asked, can point in the more-or-less exact direction of Known Person, distance is only vague - from “Not too far away” to “Thousands of miles away.” If Known Person is on the opposite side of the planet from the person being asked, the person will point at the ground in an “as-the-crow-flies” indication of Known Person’s location (in effect, pointing straight at Known Person, as opposed to pointing in a compass direction). Of course, no one will ask anyone else where Known Person is, as everyone already knows, and will continue to know, again, for the rest of Known Person’s life.
Initially, most of the world will know nothing about Known Person, save for the people already in his or her life. Even after any investigation by any type of organization, no one will know anything more than existence, direction, and a general sense of distance, and what is publicly reported by those organizations or other persons. No one will know, for instance, what Known Person is doing or saying, exactly where Known Person is (on the third floor of a hotel or in a 1950s-style bomb shelter), Known Person’s emotional state or health conditions, who Known Person is with, what may be or is happening to Known Person, or any other specific details of Known Person’s existence (other than that Known Person exists and is in that direction, roughly X distance away).
Hopefully that sets up the conditions such that all of you Dopers understand what I’m trying to convey. If not, please ask for clarification, and I’ll try not to “cheat” by adding wrinkles that change the fundamental nature of the original premise.
Now to the discussion. What happens next? How does the world react to this sudden and permanent knowledge? How do governments react? Religions? Scientists? General populations of any and every nation? How would you react?
I of course have my own ideas and notions, but I’m quite curious to hear what all of you will have to say. Begin!