If you had absolute power...

[Destructionator XV]

The one wish thread reminded me of a conversation I had with Robert Walper last month where he asked me what I would do if I suddenly became all powerful. In his words:

Suppose that, in some universal quirk or nature (or heavy self meditation/soul searching ) you become 'infinitely powerful'.

Essentially, your will and thoughts can alter the universe in any way you desire or wish, with no effort on your part other than thinking it to happen. Reality as we know it will be basically forced to conform to your perception and manipulation of it, althought it will fit whatever you chose to change as efficently as possible with the current model of the universe as we understand it. (In other words, the little details will generally fill themselves in unless you dictate otherwise). And this is a concious effort...your dreams won't wreak havoc upon the universe (again, unless you want them to )

You are still you (until whatever changes you desire upon yourself are implemented, such immortality, etc), and you aren't given any new knowledge other than what you chose to learn yourself.

So...granted absolute mastery and power over the universe to the extent you could claim to be 'God'...will this power 'corrupt you'? More importantly, explain the nature of this corruption if you think it will happen to you. Or on the other hand, explain explain how it wouldn't corrupt you.

At first, I thought I would live a pretty much normal life, but adding in the realizations of some of my dark side tendencies.

There are some assholes whom I hate. Drug dealers especially. As it stands, I can't destroy them, not practically, nor would the consequences of those actions be favorable. With absolute power, I'm quite certain I would blink those scum out of existence.

Robert felt I was being far too conservative, and after thinking about it some more, I agreed. Why would I give a damn about the real world when I can create my own, separate dream world and live there?

I refined my response to simply allow me to retire with my beloved wife to a simple home, with a starship available so we can go exploring the stars if the urge arises (which, I assure you, it would). Leave the lame real world behind entirely, unless I want to visit. But no need to change how it is.

Robert did bring up one possibility that would be hilarious though: make a real life version of SDN and watch trolls get flamed and eventually banned. Or mind control Dalton so he bans AdmiralKanos and watch what response Darth Wong would have. But while that might be humourous for a short time, it would quickly get old, and I think I would end up retiring to my starship with my wife anyway.


What would your answer to Robert's question be?

[Batman]

This world becomes (after approximately 18 billion iterations of 'okay, this still didn't work. Lets try again') a much, much better place. If I'm effectively omnipotent why not try to fix the place?
Erasing Abrahamic religions seems like a good starting point.
Legalise most drugs. Tax the hell out of them. Which would STILL lower street prices.
Oh, and if FTL travel really was impossible check again. It's not only possible, it's feasible (if not anyday soon).
Can I replace Winblows with OS/2 Warp as the most prevalent OS on the planet?
Just for starters.

[frigidmagi]

Funny how one man's good starting point is another man's hell.

[Hotfoot]

I'm pretty sure that giving me ultimate power would result in a place that would be damn near to hell for a lot of people, and probably ultimately boring for me, if not downright horrifying.

Imagine a world where you could erase people or control their minds on a whim. You might alter someone on a fundamental level without even realizing that you're doing it. As you interact with the world, you could alter things without even realizing it.

You wouldn't be human anymore. Your slightest fancy would drastically alter the world, and having the wisdom to handle such power might make you even more inhuman in mindset.

[Scottish Ninja]

I'd run out of crazy schemes after a while, but I'd have lots of fun until then. Imagine something like this. The WBC is protesting at yet another funeral. A voice booms out of the heavens.

"FRED PHELPS?"

"What? Who?"

"THIS IS GOD, FRED."

I can't even imagine his reaction to that.

"I HAVE A MESSAGE FOR YOU, FRED."

"What - what is it?"

"stfu, n00b."

At that point I'd drop a piano or something similarly comical on him.

[Comrade Tortoise]

Honestly? I probably wouldnt use it. I mean, what would I do with it? If I use it to try to fix humanity, I will probably fuck up the world more, because that is just how those things work. If I use it for selfish ends, like forcing <insert name here> to love me or granting myself that Ph.D, it would feel cheap, and frankly I wouldnt be able to live with myself.

The most I would use something like that for, would be little things, like a never ending supply fo Guiness or something in my fridge, or losing a few kilos.

[Kreshna Aryaguna Nurzaman]

Essentially, your will and thoughts can alter the universe in any way you desire or wish, with no effort on your part other than thinking it to happen. Reality as we know it will be basically forced to conform to your perception and manipulation of it,

I think everyone here has known me enough to realize how dangerous it is when I get such power, when all my fantasies and imaginations become real.

[B4UTRUST]

First thing, there'd be a buttload less incompatent officers in the Chair Force. Frigid and Cynical know my ire and hatred on this matter. The things I would do to them to remove them would make Hell look like a relief.

Secondly, I'd probably do a few selfish lowend things. New truck that never ran out of gas, nice house, some extra bank.

Honestly being all powerful would be boring unless you tried to manipulate events on a national or continental level. Peace in the middle east. Finding huge untapped reserves of oil outside of the middle east. Strong advancement of sciences dedicated to new types of energy and travel. Making sure that the US no longer has to vote but the lesser evil but rather the better candidate.

[Ali Sama]

I'd make every soul realize what they have done, good or bad. Show them that they can fix their mistakes. That their not doomed.
I'd work on creating space habitats in order to aleviate the population problem.
Eliminate poverty and hunger.
Create a world goverment and have humanity go explore the heavens.

[Narsil]

Essentially, given ultimate power I would indulge in the wholesale cleansing of Earth's population....

Literally.

Soap, water, lots of it, that sort of thing, for a play on words.

After everyone's nice, squeaky-clean and sparkly, turn all deserts and otherwise infertile land into fertile land ready for sowing the seeds which will solve a shitload of hunger. Add altruism as an inherent trait to humanity, and then remove any and all weapons from the possession of all people. (As a sideline; any and all disabilities will be reversed, quadraplegics will be given mobility, blind will be given sight, etc.)

As Batman said, make FTL feasible, and then leave Earth to its own devices, find the nearest sentient race with similar problems, fix theirs. Rinse and repeat.

[Hotfoot]

After everyone's nice, squeaky-clean and sparkly, turn all deserts and otherwise infertile land into fertile land ready for sowing the seeds which will solve a shitload of hunger.

I believe I mentioned this in the wish thread, but in case I didn't - we have enough farmland now to feed every single person in the world without a problem right now. The problem is that it's simply not economical to do so. Think about all the crops farmers in the US have to destroy each year - they could feed countless families in Africa if they were shipped out instead of burned. Our unused farmland could be made useful again, and so on.

[Comrade Tortoise]

I would also point out that you would seriously fuck up weather patterns in turning deserts into farmland

[SirNitram]

One BC-304 class battlecruiser with ZPM primary power core(Asgard Neutrino Generator backups).

And I'd cackle alot going 'POWER! UNLIMITED POWEEEEEEEEER!'