Could you handle super powers?

[Trill Co$by]

So to some extent, we're all nerds here. We've all had the dreams of wanting a super power, whether for personal gain or other reasons. Personally, I've always wanted the ability of duplicity so that I can multitask a lot better. Who knows, maybe I could even challenge myself [literally] to see if my "clone" would literally think like me on every move I make.

Now let's just say that one day you're approached by a Government official... like a governor or something. Or even a scientist. They tell you that they have developed secret technology that will give you the power you've always wanted. You're granted that power, and are from then on left to make the ultimate decision...

Do you...

Take responsibility and fight for justice?

or

Abuse the power for own personal gain?

Now I realize that this might seem like an "easy answer" question, but honestly, there are a lot of people out there that [even with powers] probably couldn't bring themselves to make the right decision. Or maybe sometimes, in their minds, the decisions they make are the right decisions. It's never easy to tell, but sometimes these things happen.

Personally, I'd have to admit that if given that ability to multiply myself even with a limit of one copy at a time, I would definitely end up using that power for personal gain. Even if it's something as simple as getting somewhere before everyone else, or as grand as robbing a bank... Admittedly, I'd love to have that control at my finger tips. And why not? If I'm the only person in the world with super powers, who's going to be able to stop me?

 

[Mac Attack]

I have no problem saying this I would use my power for personal gain and not care about it very much.

I've always wanted the power of either teleportation or invisibility. Now teleportation I always figured would be used so I could stay in a relationship wih a girl I love who is now 3000 miles away from me. If I could teleport of course the dating thing would be easy. Would I care about using it for good no not really. I've never been a crime fighter, I'm not trained, not certified, and if you've seen my other thread talking about the subject I'm extremely nervous about what the government would do. So I'd use my teleportation for simply getting around fast and seeing a girl who makes me smile whenever I'm with her. Is there shame in that? I don't think so.

Now in the invisibility idea I would absolutely use this for personal gain. I woundn't do anything crazy bad with this power, but would I potentially do things considered perverted, most likely. (If in fact I don't get my teleportation and can't be in a relationship with a girl I love) I don't want to come off as a douche but I mean who can honestly say here they have never wanted to sneak a peak in a women's locker room.

Plus would fighting crime whilst invisible be a safe thing to do in all honestly. Sure I guess you can carry an invisible weapon and try for the one hit ko but I'm sure there's going to be those awkward moments where your crossing a street and someone accidentally walks into you. (Imagine the shit storm that follows) I personally can say I'd never steal but like I said before sneaking a peak if I'm not in a relationship is something I could see myself doing.

 

[The Butcher]

Totally depends on the power(s).

If I acquired an ability that was essentially just an enhanced version of natural skill (e.g. super strength/speed), I'd probably just use it to play a pro sport or for some other legal money making venture. If I got something like flight, invisibility, or teleportation, I'd probably just use it just to amuse myself. In the highly unlikely event that that got old, I'd like to think I'd move on to being altruistic. I'm a decent, law-abiding person who's aware of the fact that there are cameras everywhere, so I doubt I'd use it to steal or harm others. Now, if I got some ability or combination of abilities that essentially made me a demigod, well, absolute power corrupts absolutely. So, if I could control minds or had Superman's set of abilities, I've little doubt that eventually I'd go mad with power and abuse the shit out of my power.

No matter the power, I can only imagine myself taking the utmost discretion in using it, at least at first. The last thing I'd want is to spend my life on the run from not only the U.S. government, but all the governments of the world. The minute an individual with superhuman abilities got found out by the government, he or she would be getting a nighttime visit from men in black suits and wind up either as an unwilling agent or splayed open on an examination table in Area 51.

 

[Jack-Hammer]

Depends on a lot of factors. I think the most basic of which would entail what my powers are, what level they're at and how adept I am at controlling them. For instance, if I had superhuman strength, I'd have to learn to apply the proper amount of force for simple activities. Whereas my body seems to know by instinct how much force to apply when pulling a door open, using what I perceive to be the same amount of force with super strength might result in ripping the thing off its hinges or accidentally crushing the bones in someone's hand if they shake mine.

If I was able to gauge what level my powers were and could control them, then I'd go onto the next step: what to do with them. As noble as it sounds to head out into the streets with the notion of making the world a better place, real life doesn't function in the same way as plotlines for movies, television shows and comic books do. Whenever you read about the adventures of various heroes or watch their exploits in on television or in the movies; they frequently seem to pop up when they're needed at just the right moment. It doesn't work that way in real life. Oh, I suppose I could spend endless hours patrolling the streets in the hopes I might run across someone that needs help or see a crime being committed. Most likely, I'd wind up passing by one street and there'd be a brutal gang rape 5 minutes later or a liquor store robbery on a block I patrolled half an hour earlier.

Also, as I'd no doubt be successful in stopping some crime or capturing some crooks due to the law of averages; then I'd have to deal with the aftermath of people knowing that there's some super powered do-gooder running around out there. Even if I wore some sort of disguise, which I would but I ain't wearin' no damn tights, some general description would eventually be given to the police or someone would capture pictures of me or footage of me on cell phones or surveillance cameras. If I'm able to catch someone doing something then, in the real world, I'd have to give testimony during criminal proceedings sometimes I'm sure, so how the frig do I do that without the whole world finding out who I am? In media, the superheroes never seem to have to testify at trials and, in the rare depictions in which they do, it always seems to skip over where you're asked to state your name for the record, what your motives are, the fact that they're breaking the law by engaging in vigilantism, etc. Also, what happens if I'm forced to used deadly force to prevent someone from killing someone else, or even myself for that matter?

I suppose I could handle just about anything, depending on my powers. I don't think I'd want "limitless" powers because the temptation to abuse them or convincing myself that what I'm doing is for the "greater good" because I know better is simply too great. A British aristocrat, John Emerich Edward Dalberg Acton is credited with the quote: "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men." He didn't create the concept, of course, but the phrase he coined is quote astute. Looking back over history at powerful men like Alexander The Great, Julius Caesar, Ghengis Khan, Napoleon Bonaparte, etc. and it's easy to understand. All of them were the most powerful men in their world at their time and all had a vision of how they thought the world should be and should operate. They went to great lengths to enforce their will and millions died as a result because, basically, they thought they knew better than everyone else because of their power. The temptation to abuse power is always there but, then again, what constitutes as abuse in the eyes of some can always be justified in the eyes of others. For example, say I was telepathic and could use my powers to read the thoughts & control people's minds; I'm sure that I or someone else could come up with some sort of justification to use my powers to influence the minds of political leaders in order to do what I perceive is the "right thing". Would I be "right" if I did something like that? Some would think so but some wouldn't, that's especially true if my secret was somehow revealed. After all, if I could do it to the honchos in Washington, what's to stop me from doing it to everyone else?

Then there's the whole thing about the federal government. As I said in a similar thread that talked about how superheroes would be received in America in the real world; I'd no doubt be viewed with a great deal of suspicion by both the public and government. The more I tried to keep aspects of my life secret, the more suspicious they'd get, especially the government. If Uncle Sam doesn't understand something or, at least, doesn't have it under his thumb, then that something is often viewed as a potential threat to national security. In reality, it'd be hard to blame them because we're just not at all equipped as a society to deal with ramifications of superhumans. And if they managed to somehow capture me, they're gonna wanna know how I'm able to do what I can do. They'd want to control it for their own purposes and, ideally, learn how to replicate it. Sound paranoid? Good, because paranoia doesn't mean unrealistic. A guy with superhuman powers under the supervision of the government is a military man's wet dream. It means money, it means funding, it means potential enhancement of a lot of careers & aspirations, it means potentially increasing national security, etc.

When it's all said and done, it might simply be easier to use my powers for some degree of personal gain rather than trying to be a hero. Depending on what my powers were and how I used them, I suppose it's possible that I could use connections, influence and, of course, money I'd gained through my various successes as a means of helping people. Realistically, it's probably the best way to go about it because there's not as much risk of me screwing up and making things worse.

 

[Mustang Sally]

Take responsibility and fight for justice?

This can be addressed from many directions, and there are numerous interpretations to what a super power is, but the one that's always fascinated me is if I had the power to "know." Upon being asked, I could reveal with 100% certainty the answers to questions such as:

-Did George Zimmerman stalk Trayvon Martin because he was Afro-American?

-Did Lee Harvey Oswald act alone in assassinating President Kennedy?

-Did O.J. Simpson kill his ex-wife and her friend?

-Is the Shroud of Turin really the burial cloth of Jesus Christ?


The problem with it all.....and why I couldn't handle it.........is how long do you think I would remain free? How much of my own life would be left to live as I please after people have learned what I could do? Yes, it would take a lot of convincing for most people to believe, but after they do, I would never be able to live a normal life.

Government officials, law enforcement, private organizations and millions of poor souls would hound me to the limits of my sanity, wanting to know everything from the answers to the above questions..... to whether the daughter that went missing in 1985 is still alive......to what happened to the $5 charm bracelet they lost in the 6th grade.

People would be lined around the block of my house daily, wanting answers to the questions that have been driving them crazy for years. Others would want me to "heal" them, even though my super power enables me only to know, not to heal.

My life would never be my own again. Police would approach me, saying that they're really sorry to bother me, but there's a serial killer in their town that they can't find, and could I help them? .......How could I refuse? Yet, once I accept, my privacy would be gone forever. Other people would tell me I'm selfish not to give up my freedom to use my super power to help mankind .....while I'm thinking how easy it is for them to tell me to sacrifice my freedom while they wouldn't be willing to give up theirs.

In the end, of course, I probably wouldn't live long enough to worry about a lifetime of "serving others" because for every person who wants to know the truth, there's another who doesn't want to see it revealed, lest it work to their detriment.

Example: The Florida legal system calls on me to reveal what really happened the night George Zimmerman met Trayvon Martin.......Problem is, Zimmerman doesn't want the truth known, so he takes out the one person who could reveal the truth..... that's me. Sooner or later, someone would rub me out in order to keep my mouth shut, no?

So, if given my choice of super powers, I'd probably take one for personal gain and move my bony butt to the South Seas to live in peace and tranquility.

Sorry about that; I'd like to say I'd use my super power for altruistic purposes, but I'd rather stay alive, thank you very much.

 

[Blade]

They? offer to give me the power I've always wanted? Well, the power I've always wanted is to fly. The ability to completely get away whenever I want. The ability to travel anywhere I want for free. I would love that.

With that said, there's not much I can do with that power when it comes to fighting evil. What am I supposed to do, fly to Egypt and tell everyone to be nice? Hover above the city, keeping an eye out for crime that I can't do much about? I could be, at most, a glorified Neighbourhood Watch member.

I would only use the power of flight for personal stuff. But I wouldn't consider it an abuse, considering I can't do much else with that power.

If I did have a power that allowed me to fight crime somehow, I would have to think about it. You would need to protect your identity, for the safety of yourself and your loved ones. You'd be giving up your life to fight crime, which isn't everybody's dream. But, at the same time, it would be kind of awesome.

Obviously, there's a lot of factors that you can't know. Would you be able to deal with the power and responsibility? But you be able to deal with the attention and follow-up scientific experiments that would need to be taken? Hell, just because you've got superpowers doesn't mean you'd be good and stopping crime. There are many, many variables to say the least.

 

[BrianFNPillman]

Personally I'd always wanted to have some form of immortality/invulnerability, death as a concept terrifies me because it's so final. I'd want to avoid it at all costs. Super strength or super speed or any other typical enhancement power seems rather trivial to me only because if you don't use it for personal gain you're still confronted by the same issues day in day out. Go to work. Get married. Live your life. Have some kids. Obey the law. Be the law. Whatever.

Immortality/invulnerability removes all that. You can basically do whatever the fuck you like with no consequences at all. It removes all the day to day elements of life and allows you total and utter freedom. Granted it all comes at the cost of your humanity, and I think that's the real issue with it. Not could I handle the power, but could I handle the fact that I'd basically be inhuman due to the power itself.

I would use it irresponsibly obviously. I could invest in stock and accounts and other such nonsense and know that in 50-100 years time I'd still be able to afford everything I'd need to. Short term I don't need to worry about other such factors that do mean people go out and do all the typical things that qualifies as existing.

 

[Dagger Dias]

I'd fall somewhere in the middle between taking responsibility and using the powers for personal gain. I would not want to abuse them to take over the world or anything, but I certainly would have a difficult time not showing them off for personal gain in some sort of way. At the very least I'd be tempted to use them to get exposure on America's Got Talent, Youtube, etc. It also depends on what the super power is. I have been asked that question many times in my life before and the most common response to my super power of choice has always been the ability to travel through time.

If I could warp to any given moment in time (past or future) within the snap of a finger, I'd be all for it. I'm faced with the immediate dilemma of whether or not to use information from the future to take over the present. That I would not do. I also would not go the opposite extremity of using it to fight for justice either. Then there's also the issue of making sure I never run into any other "me" while traveling through time so as to not destroy the time space continuum. Ever since seeing the Back to the Future movies or playing the video game Chrono Trigger, both very fond childhood memories, I've always been fascinated by time travel and how it can alter the present/future to change anything in the past. It's definitely a super power I would want, though I'd struggle with handling it properly. We are all human after all and deep down the temptation for more power is always going to be there.

 

[Spidey Revivey]

I don't see it as a clear-cut "black and white" question to ask anyone. I'm sure many a supervillain origin story began with good intentions. I am afraid of what my super power would mean for society in general. Do you really think our government would just let a person walk around freely, using that power for ill or good? Definitely not.

You'll be branded as a threat because you are a walking nuclear bomb just waiting to go off at a moment's notice. The majority will either cower from you or will try to ensnare you and use you for their own personal gain.

So the question is not if I could handle super powers. The question is if everyone else could.

 

[Ultra Awesome]

Said before, today's world is not like in the tele where there is crime to fight in plain sight. Naturally then, the more common reason to use super powers comes from the self gain of the spectrum. Self gain goes along way and deals with a person's desires. As strong as their ego is, is as strong as their desire will be. Such being said, no one at all deserves super powers for they wouldn't know how to properly use them or so much as even control them.

Given this, the correct way in having powers and using them is by being secretive about having your powers. Keeping your secret to yourself allows you to be able to use your powers freely without the notice of the whole world. As such, if you fly, fly higher. If you've got super strength, get in fights but sell your opponent. Super speed, not much to hide. The Knowledge concept of power is a good one, and really it's probably the easiest to hide. Just don't be too much of a know-it-all and people won't hate you. But trust, people will still hate you.

My power then, easily hideable, would be teleportation. I say this because lately I've been having the need to go to far away places from my location in order to cash in my luck but I have no means of transportation. It's convenient. In going to far away places, I avoid the need to pay for gas if I'm driving or avoid the need to take a plane if I need to go farther. On top of that, I can be late to meetings without being late. I can take all the time in the world doing my activities and not need to worry ever at all about transportation as I am my own transportation.

Keeping this power a secret is not hard. I'd just have to teleport to uncrowded areas and presto. Should someone ever see me, I'd be like "Foo you trippin', I always been here."

 

[Shotaro]

If I had superpowers I'd start like many others by establishing how well I could use them. If they were something lame like I don't know, Invisibility (which for my purposes is useless as will become apparent) I would use them. Ugh, I want to say altruistically but in all honestly I probably wouldn't.

However, I would do both. I would be a superhero, but I would also exploit it for personal gain.

But isn't that highly unethical I hear you ask?

No. Two words. Corporate Sponsorships.

Booster Gold. I'd be Booster Gold. But with a less depressing ending (read 52 if you haven't already)

 

[LSN80]

Honestly? No, I don't think I could handle them.

I like to think that I'm a good, moral person, but a big part of that morality involves avoiding the "Temptation of Evil." In other words, I don't put myself in situations where the possibility is there for me to screw up and do bad things. If given a superpower, that would no longer be my choice, and I imagine I'd screw it up.

When I think of what kind of superhero/superpowers I would have, I imagine myself as a Hancock-esque type of superhero. Yeah, I would do a lot of good with what I've been given, but should the opportunity present, I'd do plenty of bad along the way. Things I've held back from doing and saying in the past, both because I'm not that kind of person, but also, couldn't get away with in my line of work would no longer be an issue. Wouldn't having superpowers/being a superhero change up the make-up, the basic characteristics of what makes a person who they are? I imagine it would for me. So is it that implausible to think that who I am as a person would change as well?

Again, I'd like to think I could stick to being a good, moral person who's governed by a specific set of beliefs. But it easier to stick to those beliefs when the opportunities aren't staring at you 24/7 to violate them with no blowback. 'Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof', and all, and I like to think I've handled it pretty well for the most part.

But hand me both a way and a reason to do otherwise? I hope I'd have the strength to do the right thing, but that's very much easier said then done.