Say, in real life, in this day and age, someone was discovered who truly had superpowers. It could be super strength, the ability to fly, the ability to become invisible, whatever. But it would be absolutely provable, not aided by any technology, and something that could be easily demonstrated.
What would the government do when this person was discovered? Would they recruit them to perform some kind of tasks? That could mean anything from fighting against terrorists, to rescuing people in danger, to moving a bunch of steel around in order to build a building faster than machines could go it. Would the super-hero be paid for this somehow? If not, would he be held as a virtual slave?
Would they immediately spirit him away to some far-off research lab and do a bunch of tests on him?
How would other people (besides the government) treat him?
I’m sure if people can near-worship a person, just for their ability to kick or throw a ball, someone with a real ‘superpower’ would achieve near god-like appreciation from the hoi polloi. That’s if the authorities would let them out of their research lab.
The OP makes me think of a documentary I once saw, about a guy from the states, who when during his medical treatment, it was discovered he had some special property in his blood, the scientists tried to develop this substance without telling him.
I think it would depend a lot on the circumstances.
IMO, the prefered response would be to spirit him off to a lab somewhere to try to figure out how the power worked so that it could be duplicated. This would only really work if the person wasn’t widely know or hadn’t been demonstrated in a way that couldn’t be explained away as Chris Angel type illusion.
If the cat were out of the bag, the result would probably be about the same, just “for his own protection and national security.”
Never mind the government, Science as an institution would be pretty screwed. Someone flying a la superman would pretty much show that we are wrong about a LOT of things.
Lincoln, Nebraska. An ordinary suburban home. An ordinary suburban housewife reaches into the fridge for a jug of milk. About to pour it into her coffee, she stops. Sniffs the milk. Frowns. Sniffs again and ponders. “Hmm, I think this milk might be past its best, but it’s hard to tell,” she says.
Then…
KAZZAAM
Wearing an elegant dinner suit, SuperTaster bursts through the kitchen wall. “Allow me, ma’am,” quoth he, suave as you like. “My finely honed gustato-olfactory prowess will tell you whether that milk’s safe in an instant!”
Cut to adoring housewife: “My heeerrrooo…”
Perhaps not.
If the person had Superman-like powers, the government would be powerless to do anything against his will. If he wanted to, he could *become *the government. Better start looking for the Kryptonite.
Even if he was willing to let the civilian authorities retain power, there would be no question of him being held in slavery - he’s Superman! So it really boils down to - what would the *superhero *want to do?
That seems an unreasonable assumption. It would be an extraordinary phenomenon that we’d want to understand. Even if we couldn’t quite figure out the mechanism involved, the indisputable fact of its occurrence would suggest all sorts of possibilities.
Governments and individuals are both more likely to act out of fear or greed than anything nobler. If I had some kind of superpower, I’d try and avoid governmental involvement.
Well, if he was smart, our superhero would first perform a few heroic deeds – just enough to get a buzz started but not enough to attract the notice of the Men in Black. Then, he would expose himself nationally through James Randi’s million-dollar challenge, and when his powers are confirmed beyond all shadow of doubt, he could refuse the prize money, which would cause its own stir. Thus publicly exposed and with a few acts of heroism under his belt, he could not easily be removed from the public eye to have nefarious tests performed on him and he should continue making as much of a public figure out of himself as possible, just to keep it that way.
Although if the government wanted him bad enough I suppose they could capture him somehow and then come up with some cockamamie story like “I guess he flew back to Krypton or wherever the hell he’s from” that would make it impossible for the public to prove or disprove the reason behind his disappearance.
Though I suppose in answer to the OP’s actual question, the public’s reaction would be a mixture of fear, hatred, awe and worship, while the government’s reaction – after it got over the initial WTF – would be to want to find out what makes him tick, and then find a way to control him and/or replicate his abilities. Failing that, they’d want to destroy him in the interest of national security.
Someone flying like superman would throw away centuries of understanding of some of the fundamental forces of the universe. I’m pretty sure that would be devastating to the scientific community. That’s not to say they would all go hide under a rock, I’m sure they would want to study the phenomenon, but there would be no question about it: Einstein, Newton, et al were all wrong. Not only that but the millions of experiments carried out through out the past few centuries re-enforcing these ideas are also wrong.
As for what would happen? Governments would try to kill him/her. No one government would want the super-human to ally with another, if it was at all possible to kill the person despite his/her super powers, it would be done.
Unless he can do that Superman fly-round-the-world-backwards-and-reverse-time thing, he’d better get his skates on. Randi announced he’s discontinuing that challenge, IIRC.
I’ll respectfully disagree–just because something new works for one super-dude, everything else still works for us regular schmoes. Great, he can fly by flinging himself via some magical power. I can still fly by climbing into the cockpit of a P-51.
I don’t think it would turn the scientific community on it’s ear, invalidating all of its previous work. I think it would give the scientists a new direction in things, giving them an addition to the existing, centuries-old body of work.
Tripler
I am not a scientist, but I play one on TV.
Is the worship of any deity or person? Worship is irrational, an emotional response. Whether it’s merited is dependent upon what the object of worship means to the worshiper.