Mindreading.
Realistically, what good does it do me to be as strong, fast, and tough as a hundred men? Why beat the crap out of a company of Marines when I can simply have them do my bidding?
Definitely stronger and faster. Facebook already tells me what everyone is thinking.
I would rather be stronger, faster, tougher. But presented with the choice I would choose the mind control because of all the good that could be achieved with it.
:pout:
Mind control. A 20 mile radius is more than large enough to blanket DC. I’d get a hotel room there for about a week during a time when most of the leadership would be expected to be there and just impose a general compulsion to ‘work in the best interests of humanity’ on any and all that came within range. Follow that up with a whirlwind tour of the country spreading that message or something along the lines of ‘behave ethically’ when influencing business leaders and police departments.
And then it’s time for the save the world tour.
No specific instructions, just directing the herd into more beneficial behavior.
Whose definition is in play here? You might want to be more specific.
So, in essence, would I rather be Professor Xavier or Juggernaut sans the speed factor? I’ll take Professor Xavier hands down.
I did consider that when I was deciding how best to impose my influence. While not everyone will agree on the best path to betterment, almost all of them will know it won’t be making decisions based on accumulating profit or influence or power. But with everyone pulling in the same general direction, we’ll get there.
So answer the question, it’s the definition of the gestalt of humanity rather than any one person based on incomplete information and the comprehension thereof. Certainly not mine.
And if I somehow turn out to be completely incorrect, I never said I wouldn’t take another swing at it.
Why on Earth are people so convinced they’re going to be murdered for being open their powers?
Oh, and clarification request from @Cmyers1980 - does 100x power show up on doping tests?
It doesn’t show up on doping tests.
Of course that doesn’t mean other thorough examinations wouldn’t detect something strange.
Scene 1: “Turn your head and cough.”
Scene 2: [Doctor flying across room.]
Clenching during a prostate exam would also be a problem.
I’m all about the “not initiating force” protocol; but if someone is enacting policies that are resulting in other folks’ deaths, then a mind-control to get them to relinquish power is in my ethical understanding far less unethical than their actions. It’s also far less unethical than standing by and letting them maintain the power they’re using so terribly.
If I wanted to be fully ethical, though, I’d use mind control as a hostage negotiator. Sure, there’d be terrorists who’d want to kill me. But I’d have some pretty serious muscle on my side. And I could set my own terms of employment, because any attempt to pressure me wouldn’t go well for the pressurer.
Man of Steel, Woman Of Kleenex-Larry Niven.
Obviously, in this case, it could work both ways.
I know myself well enough to know that I can’t be trusted with using telepathy ethically, so I’ll take the other choice so that I don’t have to live my life in constant regret for doing the wrong thing.
Oh, I don’t disagree at all. But I was specifically responding to @mbh 's response about
Certainly, your response is, as you say, far lower down the scale of ethical concerns than the crimes/actions you are opposing, but it still isn’t ‘ethical’ from a straight sense. You are, as an unelected and untrained individual, using your personal ethics to violate someone else’s privacy or freedom. So, from an ethical POV, you’re still in the wrong. From the perspective of the ‘greater good’, heck yes, you’re almost certainly in the clear - but if the same was applied to you right here, right now, would you agree?
For example, let’s say my wife’s cousin-in-law, who works for Focus on the Family (shudder) was granted this power. She believes (wrongly in my opinion) that abortion is evil, but other than her wedge issues, she is one of the kindest, nicest people I know. One of those ‘traditional’ Christians who all about being known by their deeds - so she volunteers at the local soup kitchen, and arranges clothing drives before the winter here in Colorado, etc.
I am positive that if she got the mind control powers, she would largely use them for what we would consider good, in being kinder to your neighbor, and perhaps getting rid of local corruption she has mentioned. I am also almost positive she would change attitudes to match her own on the abortion issue. Which from her POV is absolutely ethical, in the same way you stated -
Again, I don’t agree with her POV, but her action against abortion, by her ethical standards, would exactly match yours above. Thus I don’t see any way to use such powers ethically in an absolute sense, and when we get into relative judgements, well, I hope whatever MindLord gets them is 90%+ congruent with my POV.
This seems similar to saying that it’s unethical to fly in a plane because of the actions of Mohammad Atta on 9/11. Yes, her end goals are unethical. Actions taken to further unethical goals are rendered unethical. But that doesn’t render the same action, taken to further ethical goals, unethical.
So it wouldn’t violate any sports organizations’ rules?
Good to know, should I need the money. I’m sure I can get by on using The Incredibles’ strategy of consistently coming second. Only hopefully less obviously…
Peeing in a cup and blood samples is all they’ll get from me. I see no reason to submit to anything more invasive (and current rules don’t mandate it, AFAIK)
Wait, can they get blood samples if I’m 100x tougher? That might make it impossible to pass the doping tests, by forfeiting.
The only real uses I can see for being 100x stronger, faster and tougher would be for self-defense, getting some tasks done, and also a sports career. The sports career would be the most useful - no defensive back could ever keep up with a wide receiver who runs at even just a mere 30 miles per hour - but even then you would have to tone it down to avoid suspicion (after all, even Usain Bolt can’t reach 28 miles per hour.) And you could win every single Olympic medal in the track races.
A lot of that “100x” would then go to waste in such a sports career. You can’t really rev things up to beyond, say, 5x before it just gets too weird and fans cry foul. People don’t actually want a wide receiver who can run at the speed of sound (if taking the 100x literally), that makes the game flat-out bizarre.
And you can’t be an Olympian who wins all the race medals, all the weightlifting medals, all the boxing medals…again, people would scream foul play and not enjoy it.
“Tom Brady can throw a football 70 yards.”
“So what? I can throw Tom Brady 70 yards.”
Being 100 times stronger than normal strikes me as being a way to be regarded as an alien threat. You can’t use that in any way that you will not be regarded as a scary freak.
The ability to control minds is vastly more powerful and you can fly under the radar and live your life.