What If Superpowers with a trauma induced activation become real today?

[Cloak&Dagger]

As far as lower tier 'Superman' types go, I think Lung in Worm is a good example of how that would go.

He's too powerful to fight, but... that's about it. He doesn't want to spend every moment of ever day fighting, the government doesn't want to deal with fighting him, so he carves out his little fiefdom of shared power and that's it.

You could even see a less beligerent Lung just collect a government paycheck and do nothing, or get paid even more to fight equivalent supers.


The problem with the concept of Super 'destroying society' is that people are society, so the police will just send Supers to fight supers.

People don't want to live a life fighting their government or run away to other nations instead of conforming at home, so the idea that governments won't recruit supers is frankly nonsense.

 

[CleanDeliverable]

The problem with the concept of Super 'destroying society' is that people are society, so the police will just send Supers to fight supers.

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They definitely would.

So summary is that superpowers:

a. Cause more mass shootings in places where the means for individuals to commit ones were not readily available. By giving certain people abilities about as good or better than having a black rifle and hundreds of rounds of ammo, you are spreading the means around. Also, a firearm requires a deliberate act - the individual has to go get it ("open up a trunk"), while superpowers are always available.

You might have to outlaw individuals with offensive superpowers from (sleep deprivation, or taking any alcohol or drugs not prescribed by a physician). It might be something that goes on a government ID.

b. A superpower is a form of wealth. Today, you get moderately well off by [ playing correctly a complex game set up by our ancestors and then investing your entire lifespan]. You get wealthy by [absurd luck. Starting a tech company at exactly the right time in the right market. Rapping or acting. Nearly everyone will fail, you only hear about successes in the news]. Or inheritance.

A superpower is another way to get wealthy, and since it goes more to people who are suffering, it's possibly more 'fair'. Most of the ways you can get absurdly lucky and become actually wealthy (10sof millions+) require a substantial upfront cost to even try (and probably fail).

Many superpowers it's like becoming "set for life". You can do something really cool and get paid to show it off or demo it so it can be researched.

c. Where the above breaks down is that if superpowers can be 'leveled up by killing other supers' or it is possible to get a 1 in a million 'roll' on your superpower issuance and get something hugely more powerful than anything else. Where most people just get healing or regeneration [since this is the trauma that the majority of living humans will eventually suffer - getting severely ill], what if it's possible to get something crazy strong or that covers multiple power domains at once, but super rare?

Mind control and near invulnerability, or tinker 10 and near invulnerability, or near invulnerability and super speed, or super speed and tinker 10, or tinker 12 by itself, or silver age superman, Akira level power, etc.

Someone like this is immune to the cops, maybe immune to anything the military has except nukes (which they won't use if the super stays in populated areas), and immune to every super that doesn't have a very high class offensive power. Or can just threaten to nuke a whole city, Akira style.

This would break central governments - they work because individual 'mayors' can't rebel and back it up but a super can - reverting to a feudal system, where there couldn't be a strong central king because the individual nobles had castles and were too expensive to be dealt with except in extreme situations. This would be like that - maybe someone with an S class multi-power would declare that they own Dallas, and the authorities would have to try to work out some kind of new system.

The other issue is that at these levels of power, the earth itself might be too small a battleground. A series of battles between the highest tier supers might do damage similar to a nuclear war, creating a post-apocalyptic scenario when the dust settles. Bummer.

 

[Skychan]

Anyone with a mind controlling power would probably get murdered pretty quickly. Like, police just shoot them, no questions asked upon learning they exist. Just manifesting the power would be criminal in most places. Its the only powerset that comes with a pre-baked assumption of evil, and in most of the western world it clashes with core concepts of personnel value.

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Okay, the number 1 cause of death is now due to mind control super powers. As 1 in 10 people are gaining powers, apparently 9 in 10 are carrying handguns for fear of the 10%, and anyone who doesn't like someone now has a ready made excuse, "They were trying to mind control me so I shot them." Watch society crumble and murders soar. Causing more tribalism, causing more powers, causing more trouble in a loop.

Also how would anyone ever be properly identified as a mind controller by sight?

Other things to consider, that police are going to be disproportionately killed by super powers because they are going to be disproportionately the cause of others gaining those powers and or thrown into situations opposing those with them. Even police with powers are going to drop like flies due to the problem of constantly encountering new variations and wrinkles.

You can prepare for a gunfight, and to face a man with a gun. You understand them, their limitations and their abilitys. How do you do that for random powers?

 

[I_S]

Okay, the number 1 cause of death is now due to mind control super powers. As 1 in 10 people are gaining powers, apparently 9 in 10 are carrying handguns for fear of the 10%, and anyone who doesn't like someone now has a ready made excuse, "They were trying to mind control me so I shot them." Watch society crumble and murders soar. Causing more tribalism, causing more powers, causing more trouble in a loop.

Also how would anyone ever be properly identified as a mind controller by sight?

Other things to consider, that police are going to be disproportionately killed by super powers because they are going to be disproportionately the cause of others gaining those powers and or thrown into situations opposing those with them. Even police with powers are going to drop like flies due to the problem of constantly encountering new variations and wrinkles.

You can prepare for a gunfight, and to face a man with a gun. You understand them, their limitations and their abilitys. How do you do that for random powers?

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Don't think of this as, common people in the street shooting anyone for fear of mind controlling others. Think of this as State actors preapproving extreme force whenever they suspect someone is using mental powers. I'd expect most "western" countries would simply make the use of any form of mental control or reading power explicitly illegal, and then police being called in over such a thing would be almost always be a swat team most likely of people with resistance to the powerset. Yes I'd imagine a bit of a witch hunt over such a thing, but simply put, government as we know it can't survive the threat of the potential of mind control. Much of law requires the prerequisite of the assumption that all parties involved are making personnel choices. If a plaintiff or defendant can claim they were mind controlled, it would be pretty much impossible to prove criminal activity in most courts. The only way around this is to Heavily criminalize the activity to the point that no one would dare to falsely claim the crime.

Do I think this would be effective? Hell no, but governments are gona government.


I think the potential of police being killed in general during normal policing actions as a result of super powers is a bit out there. Most people even those who own guns are unlikely to shoot at the police during a police interaction. I'd imagine no knock warrants and other intrusive policing measures would be made less common, but most citizens will comply with uniformed officer's making requests of them.

Power's are not as useful as you'd think in a realistic world. Basically, you either have a power that gives you immunity to guns or you don't. IF you only get one power, and it's not gun immunity, you probably realize that, and are likely to still not want to get shot. So the threat of a guy pointing a gun at someone with fire powers or insect control is the same as pointing a gun at someone with a firearm within arms reach. It's dangerous, yes, but generally the police have the advantage of the state backing their actions, if you shoot a police officer, you will die and you know it. Just as we see in heavily armed nations, such as the US, most police interactions involve the person complying with police requests.

Now brutes with gun immunity are a big problem for modern policing tactics. If someone is immune to small arms fire, or has regeneration that lets them shrug off being shot, then new tactics will have to be considered. How common and how varied the given powersets are under this scenario is going to become very important.

If people are gaining the ability to control fire and shoot psychic bolts then yea sure society is mostly the same.

If people are turning into sentient blackholes and gaining the ability to create tons of matter ex-nihilo, then 90% of humanity will die within the first 5 years and the rest will devolve into superhuman run enclaves in the post apocalytic wasteland.

 

[Shadestyle]

I feel like it's worth stressing, Mind Control Powers won't be made illegal, for one simple reason.

It's the power that a vast majority of people in power will get if they gain powers. Dictators and Despots might get them, sure, but so will Governers and CEOs.

People who are threatened by a lack of control over the populous, and are psychotic enough to both rise to positions of power, and invested enough to be traumatized by losing that power.

Instead, it's much more likely that Mind Control Powers will have bullshit laws appended to them, as well as Mind-control Immune individuals set to enforce those laws.

Or, to make a long story short, it's likely that the system will change in such a way that only the rich are able to benefit from Mind Control.

It's also likely that several people will gain powers to negate mind control, for similar reasons, being traumatized by a mind controller or just someone with too much control.

 

[Konradleijon]

I guess the governments will try to experiment with getting new superpowers and making triggers , also warzones will turn worse, and North Korea goes to shit.

 

[Cloak&Dagger]

The thing is, to fight the government you don't need gun immunity.

You need everything immunity. Guns, bombs, gas, fire, cold, radiation, poison, and disease all need to be totally stopped.

Everything immunity AND no sleeping or everything immunity while sleeping.

And no need to eat food ot water. Or at least be immune to poisoned food and water and no problem with forcibly stealing it every day because it won't be given freely.

And no significant others that can be threatened to keep you in line.

And no desire for life stability as you will be an outlaw, unable to reveal yourself or go a day without looking over your shoulder.

And an inability to surrender by just taking the government's bribe or employment offer.

And an immunity to government Superhero hit squads.

The thing is, even with a lot of random superpowers, the number of people who fulfill all these requirements simultaneously is about nil.

Not even (good) Superman fits the bill.

 

[Woodlark14]

The thing is, to fight the government you don't need gun immunity.

You need everything immunity. Guns, bombs, gas, fire, cold, radiation, poison, and disease all need to be totally stopped.

Everything immunity AND no sleeping or everything immunity while sleeping.

And no need to eat food ot water. Or at least be immune to poisoned food and water and no problem with forcibly stealing it every day because it won't be given freely.

And no significant others that can be threatened to keep you in line.

And no desire for life stability as you will be an outlaw, unable to reveal yourself or go a day without looking over your shoulder.

And an inability to surrender by just taking the government's bribe or employment offer.

And an immunity to government Superhero hit squads.

The thing is, even with a lot of random superpowers, the number of people who fulfill all these requirements simultaneously is about nil.

Not even (good) Superman fits the bill.

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It's not that simple. The first one man army, can't fight the whole government, that's almost certain. The danger to the government is enough smaller incidents of crime, that don't need to be outright rebellion, will cause significant damage to infrastructure and investment will plummet. Once that starts to happen, each and every response will be weaker, and rely more on superhuman heros giving them greater and greater leverage over the government.

At that point the power on a local level is in the specific superhumans not the government as an entity. From there things start to look a lot worse for the government. It stops being a matter of "does the government have something that can stop this superhuman?" But instead "is there a government asset nearby that doesn't cost too much we can use?" This still isn't outright rebellion, that starts with a larger revolution, but it does mean that there's more crime and more damage to infrastructure. Government superhumans are needed more and more, causing them to want more in compensation because they can't be replaced like soldiers and are basically doing the work themselves. Which makes centralized government look far less appealing to the average person.

 

[Cloak&Dagger]

It's not that simple. The first one man army, can't fight the whole government, that's almost certain. The danger to the government is enough smaller incidents of crime, that don't need to be outright rebellion, will cause significant damage to infrastructure and investment will plummet. Once that starts to happen, each and every response will be weaker, and rely more on superhuman heros giving them greater and greater leverage over the government.

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I don't think that's at all plausible. Crime for supers will be deliberately lowered with bribes and lavish social services, and even severe property damage can be more than made up for by a few %GDP increased construction spending.

The real threat I think is the Super-Vanguard of the Red Army, and God's Chosen Supersoldiers for the Islamic State.

Those are the threats to government power that actually gain a lot from this. Non-government popular movements now come with integrated militaries that can fight wars.

 

[Forgothrax]

Many people can, indeed, simply be bribed. Faux Superman can be arsed to work for the government if the government cares to make the experience of doing so both positive and profitable. If the number of truly mundane-resistant superhumans is relatively low, this will work.

The trouble will be if someone who is mundane-resistant is also ideologically motivated to an extreme. A religious fundamentalist, for example, cannot be bribed.

There will also be people triggering in areas that don't have a strong central government that can manage it's superhumans. Those areas are likely to become superhuman dictatorships.

 

[I_S]

Many people can, indeed, simply be bribed. Faux Superman can be arsed to work for the government if the government cares to make the experience of doing so both positive and profitable. If the number of truly mundane-resistant superhumans is relatively low, this will work.

The trouble will be if someone who is mundane-resistant is also ideologically motivated to an extreme. A religious fundamentalist, for example, cannot be bribed.

There will also be people triggering in areas that don't have a strong central government that can manage it's superhumans. Those areas are likely to become superhuman dictatorships.

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This is definitely a likely problem. Theocratic and extremist groups could definitely use super powered assets to take over large swathes of countries that are already unstable. These kinds of petty tin kingdoms would probably be utterly unassailable simply due to limited local resources and the apathy of the international community. They only become a threat to the greater stability of the world though if super powers include super technology creation.

Tinkers, mess up any dynamic irreversibly.

 

[wahooley]

Bit of a joke answer here, but honestly? Mob psycho 100 would become the world's most important piece of media

 

[Slow Learner]

Entire US senate is killed in first week. There's tons of people who got fucked by the system and it only takes one homeless with good super powers to mow down security. Heck, I'd go so far to say it might even happen on the first day with how hated congress is. Alternatively the Democrat and Republicans go into open warfare in the streets as each side kills the other in an escalating cycle of grief and super powers.

 

[in the shadow]

Entire US senate is killed in first week. There's tons of people who got fucked by the system and it only takes one homeless with good super powers to mow down security. Heck, I'd go so far to say it might even happen on the first day with how hated congress is.

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..... and nothing of value was lost