Those low thoughts of mine were solved with therapy many years ago. I was just considering the fact that this power could easily turn against a depressed person.
Yeah, as horrible as it sounds, suicide is the best option–but only after intentionally using the power to get rid of some horrible people.
Maybe I try drugs first. And cutting myself completely off from the world. And I guess I’d try killing whatever part of my brain gives me these powers–though I suspect it would fail.
I strongly suspect nothing would work, and I’d have to end my own life.
I know in my case that I’d not like to have this power if for no other reason than it would be very difficult for me to hold down a job. People would look at my employment history and wonder why so many of my former places of employment were destroyed by mysterious fires, blown into neighboring states by rogue tornadoes or blasted into radioactive pits by stray nukes. Think about it. How many of your coworkers would you like to see composted so that they might finally do something useful?
There would be a lot more twisted, burning wreckage strewn along the interstate.
I know it’s fun to think that The Government would figure it out…but I don’t see it. Nobody has documented a supernatural power like this since the beginnings of the Industrial Revolution. It’s going to be the last thing anyone considers.
Depends on the power level, as well. If a brief bit of annoyance causes the victim to fall to the ground dead instantly, sure, they’d figure it out, but if that level of harm requires prolonged concentration, so you wouldn’t do it by accident, just cause minor mishaps, they’d probably never figure it out.
I would attempt to use the power for good. Shame I can’t somehow accumulate positive karma from each mishap that I can apply to worthy causes. Still, there are a lot of clearly, unequivocally bad people and institutions to unload your power on.
Wishing for random failures for the world’s nuclear arsenal? Probably good. Wishing for Kim Jong or ISIS to have a series of unexplained catastrophes? Sounds good. And so on.
…that you know of.
/conspiracy theory off
I think you’d find that by the time you’ve worked your way through your personal short list and the big baddies in the world, that you had a fairly decent grip on your temper. It’s easy to lose your temper now because there are no consequences, but if every time you lost your temper someone died you’d either start to control it, remove yourself from the irritants that trigger it, or you’ve just discovered that you always were a psychopath.
I haven’t seen the movie, and it doesn’t specify on IMDB that the accidents are always fatal, so I’m going to believe that the range of outcomes can go from making the snotty bitch in the parking lot scratch her BMW to Kim Jung Un choking to death on a cracker crumb.
Seems like airliner should be easiest thing to bring down. Of course distance might make it harder…
Does distance make it harder? Am I only going to bring woe to those near me?
Per the OP, I doubt it does, or the distance factor is very low. I would guess it isn’t much harder to make Kim Jong Un choke on a cracker than it is to harm your neighbor, but you might have trouble harming aliens across the universe.
One issue is targeting. Do you have to actually known what Kim Jong looks like right now? Can you harm someone you have never met?
Not really. If you stopped concentrating, you’d stop affecting the plane and give the pilot the opportunity to rescue the plane.
So the coke he spilled into the control panel would dry up and the flaming engine would go out?
All it takes to bring down a space shuttle is:
a) butterfly flaps its wings funny in Malaysia and brings a very cold day to Florida
or
b) a piece of foam falls wrong on takeoff.
I’m guessing jetliners are more durable, but still…
Worth a try, I suppose…
[QUOTE=Tony Stark]
You really have got a lid on it, haven’t you? What’s your secret? Mellow jazz? Bongo drums? Huge bag of weed?
[/QUOTE]
The question that occurs to me is “just how specific a disaster can you invoke (if you’re deliberately focusing the effect)”. Could I (for example) arrange to have Ted Cruz take a hit to the throat that doesn’t do real damage but makes him talk like Donald Duck for a few months so that he becomes a laughingstock even to people dumb enough to take him seriously now?
Could I cause wardrobe malfunctions at the Oscars?