Suddenly Super-Powered (RAR)

[CaptainChewbacca]

This scenario has been knocking around my head for a while:

Suddenly, tomorrow, without warning, humans develop mental abilities. Roughly 1 in 10,000 adults between the ages of 16 and 40 suddenly has mental abilities. All of them have telepathic abilities of varyinh ability, control, and strength; Some can only read surface thoughts, while some can pull out what you got for your fifth birthday.

A small portion (one fifth) of these people develop another ability, either Empathic (can sense and influence someone's feelings and/or state of mind) or Telekinetic (the strongest ones can lift at most 1,000 lbs). Empaths are more likely to be female, and telekinetics are more likely to be male. These powers will continue to manifest in adolescents at the same frequency and strength. Its the "next evolution" of humanity, and mental powers can be passed on to children.

These abilities hit straight across society, affecting all races, economic levels, and faiths equally. Now, let's have fun and figure out how society changes. Does a "Psi-Corps" show up, or is it more free-market with Telekinetics serving as bodyguards and telepathic police detectives?

[Kwizard]

If it were 1 in 10,000? I'm inclined to say that there wouldn't be much of a community organization, but those people would definitely be hired as security and detective personell.

[Lord of the Abyss]

It'll create some interesting effects in more oppressive societies. Even a fairly weak telekinetic could easily kill someone; for example, a 100 pound yank on a steering wheel as the Beloved Leader drives by in his limo. Telepaths of course would make great intriguers.

I also think the use of telepaths to ferret out disloyalty to the state would be less effective than people think, since it's quite possible that very few people are loyal. If a tyrant decides that he'll execute everyone who isn't loyal, he might find that everyone is plotting against him. The psychological effects of a tyrant knowing that everyone ( or almost everyone ) really is out to get him would be interesting - from far away.

Telepathy would give people access to the truth, and a lot of the world's power freaks don't want the truth. They coerce people into singing their praises, into declaring agreement with them. I don't think many egomaniacs will like something that can show them how people really feel about them.

Of course, some regimes will just try to kill all the superpowered, which ought to be exciting. Naturally, they'll try to fight back, and finding and killing people who look perfectly normal ( and many of whom have invisible "weapons" ) will be rather difficult. Even if they coerce known telepaths into helping, the telepaths ( who will know they are slated for eventual execution ) will be able to create their own conspiracy to escape, or at least sabotage the extermination effort. How can a non telepath/empath tell if a telepath/empath is conspiring against them ?

Whatever happens, It'll be messy, I think.

[CaptainChewbacca]

Yeah, very difficult when you seem normal to everyone else until some other telepath points you out. Might be a bit more interesting if it was 1 in 1,000. That means there'd be 60 of them in my hometown alone instead of just six.

[Lord of the Abyss]

Yeah, very difficult when you seem normal to everyone else until some other telepath points you out. Might be a bit more interesting if it was 1 in 1,000. That means there'd be 60 of them in my hometown alone instead of just six.

How do you know the telepath doing the pointing is telling the truth ? Maybe he's not pointing out a telepath, but someone who hates them. If you bring in another telepath, how do trust him ? Remember, he knows you plan to kill him with the rest, and he knows what lies you will believe. Plus, if they are close enough to read each other, they're close enough to collaberate. Even if they aren't - how will you know ? Paranoia city.

Oh, I'm sure a lot will be killed, but this situation is perfect for a combination of guerilla warfare and a modern witch hunt frenzy. After all, you can't prove you're not one of "them". I'm sure plenty of non-telepaths will get killed; the telepaths will probably have a better chance of weaseling out of it.

[CaptainChewbacca]

If we make the frequency 1 in 1000, then its very probable that political leaders and/or their family members could have powers. Kinda hard to lock up all the "supers" when one of the Bush twins can toss cars with her mind or charm her way into the UN Security Council.

[Lord of the Abyss]

If we make the frequency 1 in 1000, then its very probable that political leaders and/or their family members could have powers. Kinda hard to lock up all the "supers" when one of the Bush twins can toss cars with her mind or charm her way into the UN Security Council.

Oh, I'm sure exceptions would be made for the rich and powerful; there always are. Besides, I doubt things would get that bad in this country, and in the ones that it would the local dictator probably would shoot his own kids - or try. After all, given the charming personality of most dictators' children ( Saddam and sons come to mind ), it's a matter of him getting them before they get him.

[Molyneux]

My first reaction would be: Well, cool!

My second reaction would be: I wonder if there could be some way to induce these powers in someone who doesn't already possess them...? To the gene sequencers!

[dr. what]

Reminds me of the Wild Cards novels.

Mass executions and witch-hunts of anyone suspected of being a super in many of the third world countries--either because the dictator in charge is freaking out or the neighbours are scared of the freaks. Very few of the people killed will actually be supers but enough of them will be for the rest to go underground--if they already did not do so right away.

First world countries? Anybody with more than two brain cells in their heads will try to keep it a secret--20th century history has shown that even democracies can go a little nuts when it comes to protecting the State from a real or alleged threat. Expect lots and lots of nervous politicians running around....

Any telepath can become a millionaire within one year by just hanging out in the financial district of any big city--stock market tips and potential blackmail information on various individuals will be theirs for the taking.

Telekinetics may be publicly ostracized by many governments--but expect the military of those same countries to have many, many 'chats' with any telekinetic they find/capture/rescue.

The power that one can obtain will be too difficult to pass up--I'm thinking that we might end up with 'psychic' Mafia families--indeed, think how much damage can be done if a dozen or so of the stronger types decide to join forces and take out some of the smaller 'families' or carve out their own little criminal empire....

[Gil Hamilton]

I can definately see corporate telepaths and psychics. Imagine how much of a competitive edge it would be if you had an advisor that could read the opposing parties mind during a contract negotiation. Of course, that may be made illegal, but that's never stopped a corporation.

It's going to be hell on the psychic kids, I can tell you that. I expect alot of violence toward them and murders, not to mention unsympathetic courts trying them. Worse, unlike other kinds of bigotry, there is even a legitimate cause for fear there. How many of us would be comfortable at all being in a room with someone who could read our minds?

They'd also have to go to special schools, or be taught by computer. After all, how could you instruct a student who can read a teachers mind? You can't test them, they can too easily cheat.

I also expect alot of lobotomies and other "treatments". Executions in third world countries and massacres of suspected people, real or imagined telepaths. Possibly internment camps in many places in the first world, including the United States.

[CaptainChewbacca]

I can definately see corporate telepaths and psychics. Imagine how much of a competitive edge it would be if you had an advisor that could read the opposing parties mind during a contract negotiation. Of course, that may be made illegal, but that's never stopped a corporation.

It's going to be hell on the psychic kids, I can tell you that. I expect alot of violence toward them and murders, not to mention unsympathetic courts trying them. Worse, unlike other kinds of bigotry, there is even a legitimate cause for fear there. How many of us would be comfortable at all being in a room with someone who could read our minds?

They'd also have to go to special schools, or be taught by computer. After all, how could you instruct a student who can read a teachers mind? You can't test them, they can too easily cheat.

I also expect alot of lobotomies and other "treatments". Executions in third world countries and massacres of suspected people, real or imagined telepaths. Possibly internment camps in many places in the first world, including the United States.

You think the US would, or could, inter 300,000 American citizens when they can't even identify all of them? There'd be celebrity telepaths, celebrity lawmakers (1 in 3 chance as to whether we get a telepathic congressman), judge and activist telepaths. I imagine many would find it "cool" or "exciting" and many telepaths or TKs or empaths could become celebrities because of their powers.

"Telepath reads would-be assasin" or "Telekinetic stops bus from going off bridge" would be headlines that could change minds. I think there would be too many old men who would see dollar signs or potential weapons to execute them in the first world.

[Gaidin]

Does anybody but me think that at least half the people that found themselves with this power witn no warning and no hint of how to control it would kill themselves thanks to depression from sensory overload?

[Molyneux]

Does anybody but me think that at least half the people that found themselves with this power witn no warning and no hint of how to control it would kill themselves thanks to depression from sensory overload?

Maybe not half, but a good number, unfortunately. Perhaps some sort of counseling service could be put into effect? Isolation chambers made available for use by telepaths with no control over their abilities, so they don't go insane?

I could see telepaths very quickly being exempted from jury duty in the United States.

[LadyTevar]

Does anybody but me think that at least half the people that found themselves with this power witn no warning and no hint of how to control it would kill themselves thanks to depression from sensory overload?

Maybe not half, but a good number, unfortunately. Perhaps some sort of counseling service could be put into effect? Isolation chambers made available for use by telepaths with no control over their abilities, so they don't go insane?

I could see telepaths very quickly being exempted from jury duty in the United States.

Why am I reminded of movieDareDevil where he used his hearing to see if the potiential client was lying?

[Gil Hamilton]

You think the US would, or could, inter 300,000 American citizens when they can't even identify all of them? There'd be celebrity telepaths, celebrity lawmakers (1 in 3 chance as to whether we get a telepathic congressman), judge and activist telepaths. I imagine many would find it "cool" or "exciting" and many telepaths or TKs or empaths could become celebrities because of their powers.

"Telepath reads would-be assasin" or "Telekinetic stops bus from going off bridge" would be headlines that could change minds. I think there would be too many old men who would see dollar signs or potential weapons to execute them in the first world.

It would be hella hard to indentify in alot of cases. It depends on the range of actual power they have. Like what curve? If it's on a bell curve, you'd have a bunch of people who can more or less (from your description of powers) have a good idea what ever a person is thinking at the moment. On one side you'd get a rarer group of people who are more powerful and can get specific information at will on one side. On the other you'd get people who can pick up some vague impressions, but they might not even be testable. After all, there are people who are good at reading body language who can do the same thing utterly without telepathy.

It depends on how early telepathy manifests itself in children and how accurate telepathy can be indentified. There aren't that many Ray and Egons out there looking and most telepathy tests that currently exist are dodgy because they've never produced anyone who could actually repeatedly past them other than by statistical burps.

The world probably wouldn't immediately catch on to the existance of the first generation of children to have telepathy for quite awhile, not until the really strong ones start popping up in psychiatric hospitals with desperate parents wondering what the hell is wrong with their children.

The average ones might go undetected for longer until the real possibility of telepathy becomes public knowledge and the public realizes that their weird kid might be a telepath. Worse, many of them will almost certainly be misdiagnosed with serious psychologic problems and be up to their eyeballs in anti-psychotics to keep the voices quiet. I can easily imagine telepathy being misdiagnosed as schizophrenia or other really horrible psychologic problems in children.

I also imagine the "weak" telepaths would simply go undetected, because you can't really tell them apart from just a normally very astute person.

My post was thinking further down the road when the first generation of children has grown up and people have already realized there is a pandemic of telepathy in that generation. They aren't celebrities and congressmen yet, after all. They have to grow up and in the mean time, society isn't going to know what they are looking at with this subset of children. Big people are going to want to have the issue identified, clarified, classified, et cetera and in the mean time, I doubt it's going to be a pleasant life for the kid who can read minds. Very possibly worse when they uncover what is going on. That's what I was addressing. I assumed that by this point the cause of the odd behavior in the Psychic Generation had been studied and identified as the real deal.

All this, by the way, would make a very good story.

[Molyneux]

You think the US would, or could, inter 300,000 American citizens when they can't even identify all of them? There'd be celebrity telepaths, celebrity lawmakers (1 in 3 chance as to whether we get a telepathic congressman), judge and activist telepaths. I imagine many would find it "cool" or "exciting" and many telepaths or TKs or empaths could become celebrities because of their powers.

"Telepath reads would-be assasin" or "Telekinetic stops bus from going off bridge" would be headlines that could change minds. I think there would be too many old men who would see dollar signs or potential weapons to execute them in the first world.

It would be hella hard to indentify in alot of cases. It depends on the range of actual power they have. Like what curve? If it's on a bell curve, you'd have a bunch of people who can more or less (from your description of powers) have a good idea what ever a person is thinking at the moment. On one side you'd get a rarer group of people who are more powerful and can get specific information at will on one side. On the other you'd get people who can pick up some vague impressions, but they might not even be testable. After all, there are people who are good at reading body language who can do the same thing utterly without telepathy.

It depends on how early telepathy manifests itself in children and how accurate telepathy can be indentified. There aren't that many Ray and Egons out there looking and most telepathy tests that currently exist are dodgy because they've never produced anyone who could actually repeatedly past them other than by statistical burps.

The world probably wouldn't immediately catch on to the existance of the first generation of children to have telepathy for quite awhile, not until the really strong ones start popping up in psychiatric hospitals with desperate parents wondering what the hell is wrong with their children.

The average ones might go undetected for longer until the real possibility of telepathy becomes public knowledge and the public realizes that their weird kid might be a telepath. Worse, many of them will almost certainly be misdiagnosed with serious psychologic problems and be up to their eyeballs in anti-psychotics to keep the voices quiet. I can easily imagine telepathy being misdiagnosed as schizophrenia or other really horrible psychologic problems in children.

I also imagine the "weak" telepaths would simply go undetected, because you can't really tell them apart from just a normally very astute person.

My post was thinking further down the road when the first generation of children has grown up and people have already realized there is a pandemic of telepathy in that generation. They aren't celebrities and congressmen yet, after all. They have to grow up and in the mean time, society isn't going to know what they are looking at with this subset of children. Big people are going to want to have the issue identified, clarified, classified, et cetera and in the mean time, I doubt it's going to be a pleasant life for the kid who can read minds. Very possibly worse when they uncover what is going on. That's what I was addressing. I assumed that by this point the cause of the odd behavior in the Psychic Generation had been studied and identified as the real deal.

All this, by the way, would make a very good story.

Actually, I think something like this'd make a great TV drama...any screenwriters on the board?

[Keevan_Colton]

Actually, I think something like this'd make a great TV drama...any screenwriters on the board?

*waves his qualification in script writing*

[CaptainChewbacca]

The point of my OP was that it isn't just youths who start manifesting powers. The initial "power surge" randomly distributes powers to all people over the age of 15. That's how you can get an initial generation of powerful people instead of the traditional "superpowered youth in hiding." As time goes on, powers generally manifest in new generations at about age 16, and never younger than 14. Sure, I stole that from B5, but it works for these purposes.

As for how powerful people are, its generally a bell-curve, though there are definitely lower-limits of power. For example, the weakest telepath without extra abilities can only read very emphatic surface thoughts, like "Oh god, a gun!" The weakest TKs can only perhaps push a button or lift a pencil.

[Molyneux]

The point of my OP was that it isn't just youths who start manifesting powers. The initial "power surge" randomly distributes powers to all people over the age of 15. That's how you can get an initial generation of powerful people instead of the traditional "superpowered youth in hiding." As time goes on, powers generally manifest in new generations at about age 16, and never younger than 14. Sure, I stole that from B5, but it works for these purposes.

As for how powerful people are, its generally a bell-curve, though there are definitely lower-limits of power. For example, the weakest telepath without extra abilities can only read very emphatic surface thoughts, like "Oh god, a gun!" The weakest TKs can only perhaps push a button or lift a pencil.

I could see a lot of ways that pushing a button-level of force at a distance could be very useful. Pull the trigger of the handgun in a baddie's holster...it'd be one heck of a distraction!

[Natorgator]

Actually, I think something like this'd make a great TV drama...any screenwriters on the board?

*waves his qualification in script writing*

I think there's already something very similar to this, it's called X-Men.

It's not the same, of course, but in the movies our modern society is very much dealing with a very, very similar problem.

[Lord of the Abyss]

I could see a lot of ways that pushing a button-level of force at a distance could be very useful. Pull the trigger of the handgun in a baddie's holster...it'd be one heck of a distraction!

Or even more simply, applying that level of force to brain tissue might have an effect. Or, take a splinter of glass and fly it into your target's eye.

[Gil Hamilton]

Or even more simply, applying that level of force to brain tissue might have an effect. Or, take a splinter of glass and fly it into your target's eye.

Or apply that force directly to the eye, or whatever. If you can apply enough force to pull a handgun trigger (which, for example, have trigger pulls of two and a half kilograms and such) directly to a persons eye, I should do substantial damage.

[Solauren]

[Joke]Within 100 years, you'll have a powerful telepath in power and she'll qoute lines like "I will create a Grand Army of the Republic." while getting her super-powerful TK lover to be her enforcer.[/Joke]

Okay, seriously, I think we'd see a lot of fear, then hesitation, then acceptance over the course of 3 generations.
1st Generation, Fear.
2nd Generation; Hesitation and civil rights demands
3rd Generation: General Acceptance

[Jaepheth]

Laws and social norms will have to change fast.

1. can telepathic cops arrest people who remembered a crime they commited?

2. Insider trading becomes less of a crime

3. Exams will have to be taken in isolated rooms with everyone being given a different exam.

4. If telepathic children grow up being able to read the minds of adults they'd probably mature faster and/or be really confused growing up.

5. political debates become a lot more interesting.

[CaptJodan]

I think the inital finding of these things would create a somewhat huge backlash against the supers within the first few years.

It's not just the fact of the danger they would be towards normals. It's the paranoia the normals would have. Sure, you'd have teeps and teeks doing things for others that made them seem like good guys, but the media would probably play up the bad things they are doing, such as a normal cutting off a teek in traffic and the telekinetic just squeezes the man's heart and kills him cause he's pissed off (or any other number of ways one can kill another without much detection. Some teek wants to win a football game so he kills the quarterback. Or a major political event takes place and the teek kills the president, and on and on..). Things like that would bring the public's fear to a fever pitch.

I also think something else is missing from the debate, and that's from the extremely religious. Powers like this would instantly be thought of in religious circles as a dance with the devil. From that standpoint, religious organizations would cry out the heathens that they are, and that it's a display of Satan's power yadda yadda. Given the religious bent on the US right now, it'd certainly be a major political platform. The very best you could hope for is registration and heavy monitoring of these people.

The kind of change is too big without there being some major conflicts in it. As a society, we couldn't get over the black/white for quite a while, or the lower opinions of Native Americans during the early years of this country. Something like this, which gives far more power to one group of people than the other would, I think, lead to a great deal of violence.

But then I don't have much faith in humanity.