Note these questions are derived from The Book of Questions by Gregory Stock, PH.D (New York: Workman), 1988.
You are given the power to kill people simply by thinking of their deaths and twice repeating the word “good-bye.” People would die a natural death and no one would suspect you. Are there any situations in which you would use this power?
For criminals and dictators yes. For instance I could end the War on Terrorism by simultenously killing all the members of Al-Qaeda.
Wouldn’t you at least have to know their names? Or could I just wish to death, say, everyone who wears eyeglasses with plastic frames?
How simple. Heres a list of terrorist organizations to keep you busy.
Only if I also got the power to bring the dead back to life. I do not believe that anyone without that power ever has the right to choose to cause the death of another person.
Yes. I would use that power. No question in my mind. People who are a direct threat to my life and freedom seem like a good place to start.
There are plenty of people who are a danger to myself and the people I care about, and a power like this could help me defend them. I believe it would be immoral of me not to use it. Great power/great responsibility and all that.
I seriously doubt this would end it. We have this constant need to define ourselves in opposition to someone else. We’ll always find someone to hate and who we think poses a threat to us.
Let me change the question a bit: suppose you couldn’t have this power yourself, but you could give it to someone else. Whom would you trust with this power?
Like the One Ring, I don’t think anyone could wield this power, even for “good,” without being warped or at least heavily burdened by it.
Use it? ME? Never! Well, not often.
That does make it a lot harder. I trust me implicitly, as I am quite certain anything I would do with that power would fit in perfectly with my moral and ethical standards (because they’re my standards). Putting this power into someone else’s hands makes it an unknown. You need to operate on faith because it’s impossible to know someone well enough for it to reach the point of surety about who they are at their deepest core.
But then, I don’t trust easily.
Not only would I use this power, I actually have this power, and I use it all the time. Especially with people who cut me off on the freeway.
The only problem is that it takes years, even decades, before the spell has any effect. For Ted Kennedy, it took over 38 years.
This guy would.
Sure, I’d use the power. My first step would be to kill the person who gave me the power so he can’t give it to anyone else, allowing to corner the market. After that, it’s selective assassinations left and right.
How quickly does this “natural death” occur? Do people just keel over of strokes or something, or will they boringly die years later of apparent cancer?
I might, yes. It’s too good an opportunity to pass up- there’s a real chance to do good in the world. However, it definitely seems like a good thing to keep quiet- becoming the captive tool of a government could be a pretty lousy way to spend the rest of my life.
As an incidental note, Kurt Vonnegut’s first short story, called “Report on The Barnhouse Effect”, ran along these lines, though the power was telekinesis and the possessor destroyed weapons systems worldwide, essentially disarming humanity.
No, I wouldn’t use it, it is in complete opposition to my pacifism.
You only get to say that because people who have the power aren’t afraid to use it to protect the society you live in.
Just kidding.
There are very few problems in the world which I would want to solve, or could even solve, by killing people.
In all honesty I wouldn’t be able to resist using it . . . very judiciously at first (terrorists, dictators, etc.) . . . then move on to people I think are basically causing the world a lot of grief . . . then people I can’t stand, in general . . .
Before long I’d have the entire world to myself.
Hell no. I don’t trust myself to drive, let alone with an unspecified and untraceable manner of killing people. Plus, if anyone figured it out, then I suspect I could be easily tricked into offing people they might want. The result being death, if I later find out i’m wrong, I can’t do anything to reverse my decision.
I would imagine that in the OP’s case, too, the spontaneous death of all members of al Qaeda and an amount of criminals would probably lead to some religious debate, and beyond that the fear that someone (probably the U.S.) has some new weapon out there which works on such a large and vague scale (which, effectively, they do). I imagine there might be quite a bit of unintended consternation.
I would definitely use it, as long as it was fast enough to be useful. I wouldn’t hand that sort of power to anyone else, though.