Would you'd rather be a telepath or a precog?

[Nava]

@Skald_the_Rhymer

Re-reading the OP, I see that I wrote that either party can cut off the telepathy at will, so I don’t think that’d work. Anyway, what I had in mind was a telepathic conversation. Charlie Xavier lite, like I said.

Some of us converse in pictures, though. Really, I have had conversations with people using pen and paper to draw pictures, and I only think in words when I’m writing or speaking. Mostly I think in pictures.

I’d go with the telepathy, partly because it’s lite. Learning to separate the “heard” things from the heard things would take some practice, but so long as I could figure the switch early on, it shouldn’t be that much of a problem. I doubt I’d ever want to use it as a conversation tool, though: too likely to attract the men in lab coats. Once I had it figured out, it would be a good way to avoid Jobs from Hell and to help me navigate my family.

[BigT]

It has to be telepathy.

I know that I would be very hesitant to use my telepathy on anyone I cared about. And I have complete control. To make it a valid challenge, it would have to randomly go off occasionally. And even then, I believe I’d adapt.

If the drawback were removed, and thus I was able to choose precog, I’d almost never use the predicting powers. I’d be a nervous wreck after doing so, being without the safety net that I will have gotten used to.

And choosing nothing would be silly. I’d probably never get a chance again. And I can completely turn off the telepathy if I don’t want to. So even if it were a fairer choice, telepathy it is.

(Also, the whole thing about bad thoughts: If I know everyone occasionally has bad thoughts, why would I care? And anyways, as a bit of a social phobe, I’m always assuming people think bad things anyways. Like my proposed version where it randomly goes off occasionally, I believe I could adapt. I could never adapt to hurting people. Or, at least, I would never want to.)

Sorry if that’s not that clear. It’s close to bed time for me.

[MrDibble]

@Skald_the_Rhymer

Why do you want mental attack powers?

Who wouldn’t!

Well, not attack so much as dominance - it seems that’s what all the cool telepaths can do, like Professor X, Emma Frost, or the Jedi.

ETA: It’s precisely because I’m a pacifist that the ability to non-violently get attackers to leave me alone would be a bonus. Yes, it’s a violation, but only in self-defence. Hell, I’d settle for just a mental-based “Confusion” or “Invisibility” power like in the old D&D Psionicist’s Handbook.

[jasg]

Or a third option - to paraphrase Kurt Vonnegut, “If you would rather be a telekinetic, raise my hand.”

[Shot_From_Guns]

@Skald_the_Rhymer

I don’t think you need the words something like in that last sentence.

Yes, well, if I hadn’t hedged it, you know we’d have someone in here bitching about it.

Besides, for all you know, some of your crazy dreams ARE prophetic, and you are selfishly doing nothing about them.

Well, if we’re all attacked by zombies and/or my younger brother both manages to grow a beard and has all his hair go white before me, then you can officially blame me.

But not the dream about that guy from Memphis tracking down the Beastie Boys and feeding them to hyenas. That’s just your paranoia talking. You shouldn’t concern yourself with it all all.

Oh. Phew. That one was particularly realistic, too. Something about them being herded by a swarm of attack bees…

@Rala

The prophetic dreams mean that I wouldn’t take precognition if you paid me. I’d feel a moral obligation to intervene, but I’m a mild-mannered teenage girl who stands five feet tall and couldn’t fight her way out of a paper bag. What the hell could I do about preventing violent crime?

Win the lottery and buy yourself a private police force. Duh.

[Skald_the_Rhymer]

@Shot_From_Guns

Yes, well, if I hadn’t hedged it, you know we’d have someone in here bitching about it.

Well, the conversation, like the majority of those I begin hereabouts, is essentially silly. But if telepathy existed, I’m don’t see how what you described could be anything other than rape.

[Shot_From_Guns]

jasg: Hrm. Now telekinesis versus precognition might be a harder choice.

@Skald_the_Rhymer

Well, the conversation, like the majority of those I begin hereabouts, is essentially silly. But if telepathy existed, I’m don’t see how what you described could be anything other than rape.

Presumably there’s no physical injury, and the person whose mind you’re reading doesn’t know you’re doing it. So it would be kind of like sneaking into someone’s house while they’re asleep, drugging them so they don’t wake up, raping them very gently, then sneaking back out and letting them wake up normally. You’ve still done a terrible thing, but the aftermath isn’t as traumatic for the victim.

[Cheshire_Human]

@GuanoLad

I wasn’t planning on going to ancient Babylon. Just jump around within the range of thirty or so years to bugger about in a Marty McFly way.

Marty McFly never buggered anyone! Retract that caulumny, you cad!

[Cheshire_Human]

@Shot_From_Guns

… I’m sure the people here who voted for telepathy wouldn’t steal someone’s diary, would they?..

Why would they need to?

[Superhal]

I guess it depends on the rules of the powers. I don’t want to be one of those precogs who are always getting their visions blocked by mysterious forces, nor do I want to be one of those whose visions rarely come true. On the other hand, telepathy seems iffy. Reading someone’s mind doesn’t necessarily mean they will do what they think they will do. Telekinesis would be nice, but I think it won’t be as useful in daily life as fighting bad guys in the comics. Also, Xavier would always need to lie down after using his powers, i.e. his powers takes a physical toll.

I chose telepathy, but really I would pick the one (depending on the rules) that worked over half the time the way I expected it to without being a physical burden.

[Skald_the_Rhymer]

@Shot_From_Guns

jasg: Hrm. Now telekinesis versus precognition might be a harder choice.

Presumably there’s no physical injury, and the person whose mind you’re reading doesn’t know you’re doing it. So it would be kind of like sneaking into someone’s house while they’re asleep, drugging them so they don’t wake up, raping them very gently, then sneaking back out and letting them wake up normally. You’ve still done a terrible thing, but the aftermath isn’t as traumatic for the victim.

Um…are we arguing about something? If so, given that we agree on this subject, why?

This is part of some complicated plan to get to me listen to hip-hop, isn’t it?

[Shot_From_Guns]

@Superhal

Also, Xavier would always need to lie down after using his powers, i.e. his powers takes a physical toll.

What? Dude’s *already *in a chair. What a lazy cripple.

@Skald_the_Rhymer

Um…are we arguing about something? If so, given that we agree on this subject, why?

You asked why I was hedging. I was explaining (i.e., if I’d just straight-up said it was rape, I would have had somebody crawling up my ass about how no it wasn’t, because XYZ).

This is part of some complicated plan to get to me listen to hip-hop, isn’t it?

OH MY GOD WHAT IS THAT OVER THERE?!

Away!

[AClockworkMelon]

I’d choose telepathy. It’s an ability I’ve always wanted to have anyway. And yes, I would be far from ethical in my use of that power.

[Lamia]

I’m a bit surprised by other posters’ take on the privacy issue, because pre-cognitive abilities could also be used to invade the privacy of others. It would be more limited than telepathy in some ways (one would have to pick a particular time and focus on it, and would then temporarily lose the pre-cog power), but less limited in others (one could spy on things that hadn’t happened yet, and wouldn’t need to be in the same room as the target). One could of course refrain from using the pre-cog ability to spy on the private business of others, but one could do the same with the described telepathic powers. I don’t see any significant difference between the two when it comes to respect for the privacy of others.

[jasg]

Would the doper(s) who voted for telekinesis please lower my hand? I can’t do everything left handed…

[Broomstick]

Sorry about that - I got distracted. Try putting your hand down now.

[Hypno-Toad]

@Cheshire_Human

I’ll go with the telepathy, too. With the precog dreams, you have a moral obligation to decide what to do about them. With the telepathy, our standard “listening in on others’ conversations” rules are already a good guide on what is or isn’t OK.

This sums it up for me too.

[notsoheavyd3]

I guess I might as well make my pick and it’d be a telepath. Actually let me qualify that a bit. I know I asked about this earlier but since we didn’t say definitively which way the mind to mind thing works I’m basing my answer with the understanding that while either side can quit, it’s not obvious that you can quit. (IE the non-telepath doesn’t know he can hangup any time so it may take a long time for him to realize it.) Also the “voice” doesn’t have a direction either, IE unless he recognized the voice he’d have no idea who was doing the whole cell in the head thing. (Yes I know, I’m putting alot of qualifications.)

Anyway with that out of the way I’d probably just use it to play childish games with public figures. You know, shake hands with politicians and then when they try to give their speech just repeat everything they’re saying in my head to get them to flub or say a related freudian slip word and try to get them to say it while trying to give the speech. (Oh, and that doesn’t even count all the fun you could have pretending to be various spirits to really have some fun with them:))

[Kamino_Neko]

Telepathy, given the OP’s condition that it can be turned off. [ETA - and, of course, if it couldn’t, I’d rather not have either. See below.]

Aside from the whole ‘we already have rules that apply perfectly well’ part, there’s the fact that precognition is pretty much worthless.

Either you can’t change what you see, or you can’t be sure the conditions will really lead to what you saw happening.

To put it a different way - if I can change the outcome of events that I’ve foreseen, then the idea that I’m the only one with the ability to do so is incoherent, so there’s no guarantee - or even particularly good odds - that what I see will happen how I see it. Someone else may change their mind at the last minute…a subatomic particle may decay a millisecond later…a dog might decide to pee on the neighbour’s begonias, not their gardenias…any of which could skew events in ways that my precognitive dream didn’t predict.

Contrarily - if none of those things are a function of randomness or free will, therefor, I can guarantee that what I see will come to pass…I can’t do anything with that information. I can’t stop whatever it is from happening, I can’t profit from it. So, why would I want to know about it?

Of course, in that case, what I want and don’t want is a nonsensical concept. I want what I’m predetermined to want, and I get what I’m predetermined to get.

Then there’s the third possibility - free will and randomness exist UNTIL I dream about these future events, which then locks circumstances in until the predicted events pass and the world returns to its previous non-predetermined state.

That creates the moral problem of taking away other entities’ free will, and the practical issue of fucking up my own. Not something I want on my hands.

The only way it’s any good is if it’s REALLY short term - a world with free will and randomness, but the predictions come close enough, temporally speaking, to when the actual events happen, that, barring my, or somebody directly involved, deliberately changing the circumstances, there’s not enough time for changed circumstances to percolate into significantly different outcome.

But that has it’s own problems, when it comes to big events - I could probably make some money on horse races, or casino games (until they banned me for winning too much, even if they couldn’t know how I was cheating), but winning the lottery, or playing the stock market, or, less selfishly, mitigating natural disasters, or stopping crimes…that’d be out of my power.

[Lamia]

@Tengu

Aside from the whole ‘we already have rules that apply perfectly well’ part, there’s the fact that precognition is pretty much worthless.

Either you can’t change what you see, or you can’t be sure the conditions will really lead to what you saw happening.

This was one of the main reasons I voted for telepathy. I don’t want to fight the hypothetical so I’ll accept that in this fictional scenario pre-cognition actually does work as described, but if this choice were offered to me then I wouldn’t believe it works that way. Even if it really did then I can’t think of how this could be demonstrated to my satisfaction. It would be difficult to prove this to myself even if I had the pre-cognitive abilities, since I’d only be able to make one prediction at a time and would have to wait until it did (or didn’t) come true to see how accurate it was. Still more testing would be required to see whether or not I really had the power to change the future I’d foreseen. I’d probably never be totally certain about any of this – Did I change the future, or were my “predictions” merely delusions? Did I fail to change the future because it was predetermined, or because I didn’t take the correct action? Could some events be predetermined while others are not? – while telepathy would be relatively easy to demonstrate or test. I could also just turn it off if I didn’t like the way it worked.

Beyond that, the form of telepathy described in the OP sounds both more useful and more pleasant than the pre-cognitive abilities. I sleep badly enough as it is.