What if you were given the powers of God?

This is for topical issues effecting our fair world... you can quit snickering anytime. Note: It is the desire of the leadership of SFDebris Conglomerate that all posters maintain a civil and polite bearing in this forum, regardless of how you feel about any particular issue. Violators will be turned over to Captain Janeway for experimentation.
User avatar
Yukaphile
Overlord
Posts: 8778
Joined: Thu Apr 06, 2017 8:14 am
Location: Rabid Posting World
Contact:

What if you were given the powers of God?

Post by Yukaphile »

There are only two limitations put into place.

1) You can't tell people that you're God.
2) You can't interfere with free will.

As I've said before, I'd wanna make the world happier.
"A culture's teachings - and more importantly, the nature of its people - achieve definition in conflict. They find themselves, or find themselves lacking."
— Kreia, Knights of the Old Republic 2: The Sith Lords
Worffan101
Captain
Posts: 1047
Joined: Sat Apr 28, 2018 5:47 pm

Re: What if you were given the powers of God?

Post by Worffan101 »

Heh. OK, so make the world better without interfering with free will?

Use my divine powers to make me the most persuasive orator ever, then snap my fingers and backtrack global warming by 100 years. Then abandon my divine powers and use the orator skills I gave myself to convince everybody to embrace democracy, tolerance of all religions, cultures, sexual orientations and gender identities, and socialism. And then convince people to fight global warming.
User avatar
Yukaphile
Overlord
Posts: 8778
Joined: Thu Apr 06, 2017 8:14 am
Location: Rabid Posting World
Contact:

Re: What if you were given the powers of God?

Post by Yukaphile »

My original inspiration for this was the movie Bruce Almighty, and we got into a fierce debate on this on another thread, lol. My thinking was that he was too arrogant and too limited to really help humanity past "Answer yes on all prayers," which is a REALLY bad idea.
"A culture's teachings - and more importantly, the nature of its people - achieve definition in conflict. They find themselves, or find themselves lacking."
— Kreia, Knights of the Old Republic 2: The Sith Lords
User avatar
Deledrius
Captain
Posts: 1965
Joined: Sat Feb 11, 2017 3:24 pm

Re: What if you were given the powers of God?

Post by Deledrius »

Worffan101 wrote: Sat Nov 24, 2018 12:01 am Heh. OK, so make the world better without interfering with free will?

Use my divine powers to make me the most persuasive orator ever, then snap my fingers and backtrack global warming by 100 years. Then abandon my divine powers and use the orator skills I gave myself to convince everybody to embrace democracy, tolerance of all religions, cultures, sexual orientations and gender identities, and socialism. And then convince people to fight global warming.
How persuasive can you be before you're infringing on free will?
User avatar
Yukaphile
Overlord
Posts: 8778
Joined: Thu Apr 06, 2017 8:14 am
Location: Rabid Posting World
Contact:

Re: What if you were given the powers of God?

Post by Yukaphile »

The rule is simply you can't tell people you're God - you could claim to be a divine prophet or psychic. ;)

Now besides helping humanity, one thing I'd do is make my girl Yuka real and attempt to woo her to my heart's content.
"A culture's teachings - and more importantly, the nature of its people - achieve definition in conflict. They find themselves, or find themselves lacking."
— Kreia, Knights of the Old Republic 2: The Sith Lords
Worffan101
Captain
Posts: 1047
Joined: Sat Apr 28, 2018 5:47 pm

Re: What if you were given the powers of God?

Post by Worffan101 »

Deledrius wrote: Sat Nov 24, 2018 12:33 am
Worffan101 wrote: Sat Nov 24, 2018 12:01 am Heh. OK, so make the world better without interfering with free will?

Use my divine powers to make me the most persuasive orator ever, then snap my fingers and backtrack global warming by 100 years. Then abandon my divine powers and use the orator skills I gave myself to convince everybody to embrace democracy, tolerance of all religions, cultures, sexual orientations and gender identities, and socialism. And then convince people to fight global warming.
How persuasive can you be before you're infringing on free will?
I don't know. Maybe specifically make myself as persuasive as a Human can possibly be without reaching supernatural levels?
User avatar
Yukaphile
Overlord
Posts: 8778
Joined: Thu Apr 06, 2017 8:14 am
Location: Rabid Posting World
Contact:

Re: What if you were given the powers of God?

Post by Yukaphile »

There's all sorts of ways to bypass free will, you know.
"A culture's teachings - and more importantly, the nature of its people - achieve definition in conflict. They find themselves, or find themselves lacking."
— Kreia, Knights of the Old Republic 2: The Sith Lords
User avatar
Deledrius
Captain
Posts: 1965
Joined: Sat Feb 11, 2017 3:24 pm

Re: What if you were given the powers of God?

Post by Deledrius »

Worffan101 wrote: Sat Nov 24, 2018 12:46 am I don't know. Maybe specifically make myself as persuasive as a Human can possibly be without reaching supernatural levels?
I mean, there are lots of brain exploits that humans already use against each other in advertising and social engineering to short-circuit free will, so I'm not sure that's a sufficient delineation. But that's the real question, isn't it...
User avatar
TGLS
Captain
Posts: 2927
Joined: Sat Feb 11, 2017 10:16 pm

Re: What if you were given the powers of God?

Post by TGLS »

Alright. Here's what I'd do:

Frivolities
  1. Create a rock so heavy that I can't lift it, then lift it. (or not, am I omnipotent, or semi-omnipotent?)
  2. Get the answer (not the proof) of the Collatz conjecture.
  3. Drop fifty pounds (or maybe 10 pounds repeatedly until I'm happy).
  4. Make it so I stop getting headaches.
  5. Scratch the last two. Just adjust my form towards an ideal form. Permanently.
  6. Probably conjure lunch.
What I'd actually do with it (only one, at least at first)
  1. Be overwhelmed with all the power thrust upon me, and wander the multiverse trying to figure what to do.
  2. Just quietly help people I run into.
  3. Carefully construct new universes for fun.
  4. Terraform Luna, Mars, and Venus, then build a utopia there.
Image
"I know what you’re thinking now. You’re thinking 'Oh my god, that’s treating other people with respect gone mad!'"
When I am writing in this font, I am writing in my moderator voice.
Spam-desu
Darth Wedgius
Captain
Posts: 2948
Joined: Fri Aug 11, 2017 7:43 pm

Re: What if you were given the powers of God?

Post by Darth Wedgius »

I certainly wouldn't override free will. I would just subtly stimulate the production of oxytocin and vasopressin in people who are paying positive or neutral attention to me or doing what I say. That's totally different.
Post Reply