How would the world be if there were superpowers? Better or Worse?

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Red Oni

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Jan 19, 2012
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I think everyone has thought of it at one point or another. What if there were men and women who could fly and lift cars living here today? If they existed would you fear/hate them? (Personally I'd be JEALOUS) How would world government utilize them in war scenarios?
 

Exius Xavarus

Casually hardcore. :}
May 19, 2010
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I think they'd immediately be captured for study, more than anything.

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krazykidd

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Mar 22, 2008
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So how many people ? One? A dozen? A hundred? Everyone? It also depends what kind of superpowers they are .

For the sake of making the thread simpler :

If it's one person: humanity will hunt him/her down and use him as a lab rat or kill him .

If it's a dozen , they will band together and rule the world ( or at least a country or continent).

If it's a hundred . X-men will happen . Half would want to live peaceful lives and the other would want to rule humanity . Thus war will break out between the two and humans will be the casualties.

If everyonr had superpowers , nothing will have changed , everything would be as it is now.
 

Little Woodsman

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Nov 11, 2012
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There are too many variables to give a meaningful answer in a reasonably sized post.
But if we assume a scenario where say 1 person in 3,000 has meta abilities on a par with
Spider-Man. Well, that kind of power is like walking around with a loaded gun, and the
individuals with the "gun" can't put the gun down. Ever.
Accidents, momentary losses of temper etc...will quickly give the metahumans a bad name.
(Unless there are some really outstanding examples of pro-social metahumans who get a lot
of positive media, which seems unlikely.)
Best case scenario would be some sort of government program that encouraged metahumans to
come forward voluntarily for training & research , and laws that impose heavy
penalties for any metahumans who have not volunteered for the training and are caught
committing any crimes.
Worst case scenario, the rest of humanity hunts them down & exterminates them as a threat.

But like I say, the scenarios vary wildly if you shift those variables. For example if 1
person in 10 had powers on a par with the original Angel (above-average athlete, can fly
limited by his own endurance) people would get used to having them around pretty quickly.
 

Keoul

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Apr 4, 2010
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Watch Avatar: The Legend of Korra
Something like that I assume, except instead of bending the elements you got people flying around. We simply can't have nice things anymore...
 

Dr.Susse

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Apr 17, 2009
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The world would be more interesting that's for sure. (And it's pretty interesting to begin with.)

I do think that there would be a lot of people afraid of super-powered people at first though; then jealous.
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Heronblade

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Apr 12, 2011
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In nearly all iterations, worse.

The only scenario in which the world will become a better place is if the vast majority of those that end up gaining those powers are those that would not be tempted to abuse them for personal gain, and face it, given any kind of broad distribution among the population, the opposite would be true.
 

BiscuitTrouser

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May 19, 2008
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Worse in most ways. Even if they were good imagine the following scenario:

Imagine a few random cops chosen by TOTAL chance with no respect to morality or record could suddenly vaporize you at will and were answerable to no one whatsoever because what are they going to do, arrest Constable Lazor Eyes? You have a system run by gods and policed by gods and where you have no say. Sure you could plead with them and hopefully they listen to you but at the end of the day the only thing stopping you from being murdered with zero chance for any sort of defence or hope is someones ability to not feel like killing you that day. Welcome to being a second class citizen at the total mercy of super people who are policed by other super people. A system where everyone decides their own fate unless youre not a super person in which case pray a super person feels like saving your ass. YAY TOTAL DEPENDENCY!:D

As watchmen said:

Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?

Who will guard the guards?