The thing about restrictions, is that there are ways around them.
What about willing there to suddenly be a bullet headed for said person?
What If? You are granted these powers. What do you do?
- Thread starter bintananth
- Start date
The thing about restrictions, is that there are ways around them.
What about willing there to suddenly be a bullet headed for said person?
bintananth
behind a desk
Totally ok, but a bit lacking in creativity.
TheRejectionist
TheRejectionist
It would be trial and error mostly.
Totally ok, but a bit lacking in creativity.
Because a 16-ton weight made of pure Plutonium-240 would be overkill.
bintananth
behind a desk
Indeed.
Anyway, assuming I get unlimited uses of this power at no cost, I'm not going out to try to "Change the World, man!" at all. I don't think I know enough.
So I'll just make some valuable things and sell them, and live comfortably. Maybe take that to 11, and contribute a pile of money to causes I think worth funding.
Or something.
So I'll just make some valuable things and sell them, and live comfortably. Maybe take that to 11, and contribute a pile of money to causes I think worth funding.
Or something.
Bear Ribs
Well-known member
Hmm, so logically there was some way possible for me to have been given said powers so willing up a "Machine to give people these powers" should be doable too. As the limitations appear to be arbitrary, it may be possible to remove them by willing "Machine to increase my powers' range" and such as well as bestow powers on others. With that in mind, I should be able to also experiment with willing up machines that grant other powers as well.
bintananth
behind a desk
That's probably the safest option because: "Just because I can doesn't mean I should" and "Great power has great insanity as a mistress".
I'd be inclined to clean up some of the nastier messes we've made of the biosphere along with ways to prevent them from happening again.
I also would not think about attempting to figure out how to grant these powers to anyone else. Humans gonna human and we're all just one brilliant idea away from making Florida Man look cautious and wise.
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Loony Toon anvils that say "Acme" on the side falling on people.
I suspect you'll change your mind about changing the world when someone asks where you got the things you're selling and insists you must be violating labor laws to get them without employees.
If this is a legit option I think I'd go with large-ish but far from life sized lead filled steel statues of Liberty Prime with RTG powered speakers cycling through his voice lines until the voltage drops off centuries from now. (Lead filled for weight and because it lets me power the speaker with an RTG for endurance without worrying about being a radiation hazard). Exactly how large they would be depends on how much radiation an RTG that can power a speaker at a loud but not shouting speaking volume produces and how much lead It needs. Might have to settle for batteries and shorter operation, but I hope not.
bintananth
behind a desk
I'd go with solid White Fuming Nitric Acid (HNO3) with enough Hydrazine (N2H4) to set the whole thing on fire when then the acid starts to melt at temperatures way below freezing.
Bear Ribs
Well-known member
Someone gave them to me so the cat's already out of the bag, and I don't have such an ego that I consider myself vastly better than other humans.
Also if I'm the only one and don't create a power-granting machine, the powers could be lost to humanity forever if I happen to die.
bintananth
behind a desk
You say that like it's a bad thing.
Bear Ribs
Well-known member
Indeed. The opportunities to advance humanity and spread among the stars are too valuable to lose, it may be that without the powers interstellar travel is just not something humanity will come up with before going extinct. I'd likely make sure any number of O'neil cylinders and various generation ships are well on their way to other star systems before I start spreading the power around, to ensure that a single misuse can't destroy the earth, but ultimately I'm not more deserving than everybody else and having the power may be the difference between survival and extinction. What if there's an alien invasion, gamma-ray burst, massive meteor collision, or other extinction even after I'm gone? Somebody will need to have the powers to deal with that.
bintananth
behind a desk
Life has repeatedly survived such things.
One of my sisters is married to a traceable distant cousin who has a surname which predates the New Testament of the Bible and Ancient Basque is the best guess for where it might have came from.
All very well and good, but how do you plan to make a hydrazine fire announce that "death is the preferable alternative to Communism," every five minutes for the next century?
bintananth
behind a desk
Hydrazine and Nitric Acid are hypergolic with each other and ignite on contact. They were used as reliable and somewhat safe rocket fuels for missiles way back when we didn't have anything better.
Bear Ribs
Well-known member
I fail to believe that you can show that life survived a gamma-ray burst or alien invasion.
bintananth
behind a desk
I can't prove that we've survivred either but the Y chromosome and MtDNA we have came from just one man and one woman from so long ago that Adam and Eve weren't alive at the same time and may have been pre-human apes.
bintananth
behind a desk
Btw, "no harm shall fall upon my little ones, not here and not in my great house"