a thread about people having real powers, if they could exist and if they do why not be public?

what threats would they face? how would the world react to them?

Inevitably people will be afraid of them, and that will usually lead to either A) The person with said powers being alienated by society or B) More likely they would be subject to the violence (towards the person with said powers) that always seems to accompany fear what they don't understand...

Barring those options, it's likely they would be picked up by the government and subject to terrible tests in order for their abilities to be recreated, or inserted into other subjects...

Either way, it would be a terrible life in any sort of public eye...

Yeah, bottom line, I think comic books (particularly X-Men) aren't too far off from how the reality would be.

I think there's also the chance that they'd gain some sort of cult following.

That very idea was my basis for the character "Messiah" his powers lead him to believe he is the second coming of christ and a good number of people believe him.

I would imagine a good number of people with anything around C-class abilities (think spider-man and captain america) would end up being worshiped especially in areas like rural India and rural parts of south america and africa.

despite the racial undertones of the X-men I can see how parents would be justified in being afraid of their being mutants in the schools if something like that were to come about (remember back to high school and all the angst and bullying, now imagine if one of these hot head kids suddenly found out he could have metal skin and super strength or cause fire to shoot from his hands.)

well the real problem wouldn't be just in releasing the knowledge to public, it's the major governemnts you would have to worry about. anything they cant contorl is declared illegal.


that being said, we could wind up with a counter religous following. like some kind of paladin holy anti freak raid thing.

If they were to declare paranormal and mutation-based abilities "illegal", they'd have a lot of parapsychics to war with...

I seriously doubt any major governments would declare them "illegal" but alot of smaller governments would likely end up with "witch hunts" due to local ignorance.

From a military point of view I'd say at first you'd get some arm chair generals wanting to use them in battle and form real life "Avengers" teams. But in reality unless there are alot of insanely powerful individuals in real life combat situations super powers arn't tactically sound (guns are more easily accesible to larger numbers, and easier to rely on, and in fact probably quiker at the draw than a super power).

Plus we have the guy with a flamethrower effect on the battle field.

"a flame thrower can't make you any more dead than a rifle, but the enemy is going to notice the guy with the flame thrower first and try to take him out."

I'd say on the battlefield someone in fancy duds sporting plasma beams from his fists, or magnekinetic powers might as well have a target painted on him with a sign above his head that say, "kill me first".

plus numbers, and building plans around a few people with powers isn't tactically sound as the mission would depend on keeping them alive and their use.

the real issues I think would be the domestic problems it would cause, aside form the whole (deport or kill hysteria in many third world countries).

there would also be the hysteria of (anyone could have these powers) children in schools with otherwise defensless kids, and buisiness and what not.
Especially if its revealed that aside from fancy light show types that mind controlling telepaths exists, or people with control over probability (luck power when at its lowest grade). amongst others.
and the imagined hysteria of (what if they are really in power, secret socieities, bideing their time, ect...).

seeing as this thread covers a hypothedical situation (not related to things refered to as "otherkin")
I have chosen to move it to a more general discussion area. (Discussion).

I don't think that X-men type powers would change the face of warfare at all. Conventional weapons are insanely effective, so ocular blasts or pyrokinesis are kind of redundant for battlefield usage. Now, subtler powers could make all the difference. A half-decent precog, a limited telepath.. these would be really dangerous. Not as dynamic, but adamantium claws are basically a machete, and heat vision will never compare to close-air support craft. The most comic-book powers would make almost no difference to our world, but a psychic with any sort of measurable consistency would start altering history immediately.

I think there would be another witch hunting era because people fear what they don't understand. I know it's a cliche, but it's true.

exactly.

I originally had the thought when thinking over high class magic and how it would affect the world (middle ages vs modern times) and concluded while in the dark ages against swords, bows, arrows, and foot soldiers, fancy spells and super powers would make one a god, in modern times they wouldn't be as effective against modern military weapons and tactics.

a spell able to blow up a house or form a barrier might require a giant sigil, constant chanting, or over a minute of prep-time vs a missle from a jet or a few grenades.

super-powers may have the same problem, especially if its not super-man grade. Say you can life a car, run at cheetah speed, and shoot fire from your mouth, but in battle your against well trained soldiers with machine guns and sniper rifles. In the end you get taken out in that scenario.

But the subtle stuff would be more useful to governments, puppeteer mind control, precogs able to see more than one probable scenario.
Distant viewers used to be on that list, but with satelites and drones they are out classed now.

Given time and more tech even more "super powers" might be outclassed. Is it any wander why over time our "super-heroes" in comics and what not keep getting more insanely powerful or form complex teams, the writers have to compete with the reader minde set created from just hearing about the real world stuff.

on the battle field today Aqua Man and Captain America would be royally screwed if all they relied on were their super-powers.

On the other hand, someone invulnerable, or at least invulnerable to conventional weapons, would still be unstoppable. That one ability, at least, will still work as advertised. Being truly bulletproof makes you above the law, more than anything else. You don't need to fear violent reprisal, so you are truly free of restriction of law.

Not that this is really a good thing... *thinks back to preview for Hancock* .. though it does have entertaining potential. ^_^

So, the more subtle a power, the more likely it is to work to your benefit in a modern environment? Especially the information-based ones, I suppose.

made me think of Star Gate Atlantis on this one, they had a guy with a personal forcefield makeing him immune to physical damage, but being physically weaker than the soldiers who attacked him he had to listen to them or else they would just bury him alive or something.

strange how that made sense.

so in modern military is basically either be over-bearenly powerful (Super-Man, Apocalypse, Onslaught) types or be subtle and able to work behind the scenes type of powers (Charles Xavier, Mesmero, Master Mind) types.

I'd imagine also though if such people existed though most would thanks to years of movies, comic books, cartoons, and what not screaming out the alarm of (dangerous government consipiracies and witch hunts) they wouldn't reveal themselves unless they were either A: so weak or common that their power is only really seen as a side show act: psychics, hypnosis abilites) or B: so insanely powerful that nothing on Earth could stop them (and) they felt some obligation to use that power for some purpose they felt they had.

one might argue we have seen (A).

in this sense it would need to be the governments officially declareing this stuff real and reveal the existance of more than just psychics that can help cops find bodies and guys moving pennies in a bar for a few laughs for it to really impact.

Basically what I really wander how people would react if the news/ press conferance with congress or something were to announce that psychics are real, and add on that so are a number of other more "dangerous powers".
aside from questioning why to publically reveal something like that I wander how people

(you reading this) would react to hearing that.

as for teams it could be set like weapon x or x-factor. when the entire group is a super power how will a regular grunt know who to take out first?

and if the team trains like they should, should not will mind you, then i think they would be able to keep buildings and such in tact. think avengers and cap. always being shown as training and developing new battle techniques in order to keep everyone safe while maintaining infrastructure and completing the mission


all in all i doubt anything like this will be common knowledge for a great many years barring a world ender

the buildings comment makes me think you didn't read what I wrote exactly as I meant it to be read.

Ignore the comic books, comic books are supposed to make each character stand out, no two exactly alike. That's not tactically a good idea to make a team where they are all so dramatically different.

in the real world if you were to take a squad of all super-powers (special abilities or what ever the PC terms would eventually become) it would be like a squad of Marines or Navy Seals, with super powers (all likely hand chosen to basically be the most effective and interchangible for specific operations (cloaking powers, enhanced strength, animal like stamina or speed, ect..) unlikely they would send in over-powered types (one wrong shot and half your own team is dead or civilian casualty count) remember these would be real humans not idealized characters from a comic book equiped with the equivalent of walking around with flamethrowers and missile launchers activated by emotion and thought.

people able to go through Strict military training and discipline wont necisarily be the ones with the crazy end powers. so they have to plan around what they get and try to get as many who are at the same skill and power level grouped together (works better for team dynamics if the highest ranking officer and the lowest ranking officer on a team in the field are at the same level of physical* abilities).
so lowest common denominator basically and work with that.

personally though after the initial hype, and the let down by military officers realizing that either A: the high end guys arn't common enough, able, or willing to join the military (hell imagine the psych evaluation of someone whose power makes them view their own fellow soldiers on the same tier that people view dogs).

The scientists reactions would be the next big thing, wanting to know how telepathy works, or teleportation, telekinesis. The marketable powers if they can be duplicated through machinery.

then the domestic issues of people wandering at what age the powers activate and if these might be some of the more dangerous acting kids in the schools, or if numbers of them are increasing (a public reveal alone could cause this thought to spread), and if these people are "cheating" using their powers to get ahead in life (some powers can't even be proven to be powers unless there is some scientific way to verify if they have the ability: luck power being one such example),

and wether or not they should be counter measured or viewed as just using what they have to get ahead (for equal oppertunity countries like America this would become a very heated issue), and if they should all be registered (only really effective as in all new borns checked for the gene and marked on their records if they have them so an "eye" can be kept on them). and others "encouraged to come forth" or checked anyway as part of a doctors exame (make it routine so they can't go un-detected). be very heated that way.

PS: Also lets think in terms of (the government reveals this to imply that looking at our world now that they already existed, and the majority would be F and E class (meaning most can barely hear thoughts as a whisper, or need to strain just to move objects as large as cups, level of power), not like the day after they reveal this there would be a battle in the middle of New York between a flying strong man and a electrokinetic supervillian.

the military comment i first made was meant to show the pipedreams of an arm chair general (like the guys that got excited after seeing a James Bond movie for underwater breathers or the guys in Canada getting all moist over Iron Man type mech-suits). Basically highly un-realistic given the scenario that 99% of these mutants are barely beyond the average human (we are talking like powers that look like parlor tricks, or used for entertainment might be potentially outed as mutant super human powers).

more hype and paranoia than actual super-hero apperanes. plus would those with them come forward or go deeper into hideing via their own paranoia as to what this reveal could mean. How would the few and farbetween higher classes react? vs how would the majority low classes react? vs how normal people would react?

It would cause a paranoia. Too many people read comic books and watch the idiot box. Idiocy is as idiocy does, and thus they would riot. Here, it probably WOULD lead to witch hunts.

I would be more worried about the government wanting to cut them up and see how it works. I am sure they would claim that as they are mutants they are not human and don't have access to human rights.

Then war would come.

I really wouldn't see this, except post mortom exams, and blood tests and slews of other tests, as they really wouldn't have a leg to stand on to claim a normal looking person just for having powers isn't human.

some third world countries though...yeah maybe.