Ethical dilemma of being (virtually) omnipotent

This raises the fascinating question of whether people in your utopia would find stories as we know them incomprehensible and offensive, like how The Bible and William Shakespeare are "smut" in Brave New World.

“Love is the eternal law whereby the universe was created and is ruled.” — St. Bernard

Why would a person in a utopia have need to be offended?

If I were nearly all-powerful, I'd probably create something that defies the laws of thermodynamics so that the human race can continue forever.

Entropy can suck it.

Why I am afraid of fences.

If I were omnipotent I'd be all like "Physics is so passe" and just ignore the whole "Entities created from matter" thing to begin with.

The problem is, if you were omnipotent, wouldn't you get bored really quickly?

You could selectively wipe your own memory so that you can experience things all over again, but then you'd get bored just as quickly as you did last time.

You could also reincarnate yourself into a normal human so you can experience things in a way that doesn't make everything ridiculously easy for you, completely wiping your memory, but then you'd essentially become a danger to others due to being unaware of your own power.

The only way I could see myself using such massive power is to do something that assures that humanity never places itself in a situation that would end it, then giving my own power up.

edited 11th Apr '11 11:00:41 AM by GuyInWhite

Why I am afraid of fences.

If it's that much of a problem, rewrite your own mind and remove the concept of boredom.

You're omnipotent. You don't have to remain human if it's inconvenient.

Da Rules excuse all the inaccuracy in the world. Listen to them, not me.

Okay Zach, you can come clean now-I know that you're watching these threads.

"Remove the concept of boredom," huh?

Just imagine the problems that would solve if humanity was like that; after all, quite a few people do stupid and crazy things because they're bored.

Why I am afraid of fences.

I think the God-being might have mental problems then.

And it may not want to remove them, if your using the whole "Infinite power would allow you to remove those problems." Why it wouldn't? Hell if I know, people are weird like that.

The more power a being has, the less justification it has for causing suffering, either through it's own action or inaction. If it already knows ahead of time not only every possible outcome, but the one that will occur if it does not intervene, and it's lack of intervention causes suffering, it can be said to be at fault. Once you start hitting the "omni"s, it's hard to excuse anything. If something is omnipotent, omnipresent (usually considered a part of omnipotence), omnibenevolent, and omniscient, even The Ends Justify The Means stops applying- going back to an example I'm sure is pages and pages back since I've left this window open since noonish—Allowing the earthquake in Japan for when the aliens land is still not justifiable, because omnipotence means it can make the aliens be peaceful or humans not attack them on sight or any number of things.

The "Omni"s especially become a problem when judging people comes into play- the age old "If you know ahead of time what I will do, and at any time could stop me and make me do something else, how can you judge me for doing it?"

If, however, a being's power is limited, even a few relatively small limits can make its actions far more justifiable- Only knowing all the possible outcomes, not which ones will occur or what will cause them. Not having the power to tamper with Free Will (TM). Only having the power to nudge things one way or another, not rewrite what events will occur entirely.

They lost me. Forgot me. Made you from parts of me. If you're the One, my father's son, what am I supposed to be?

Anyone willing to bet the God-being is having a duke out with Cthulhu and Azazoth. Infinite power vs infinite power and all that. We should have a trope for an eternal stalemate between God-beings.

I'm rambling, aren't I.

I'm pretty sure there can't be two omnipotent entities.

No no, if you're omnipotent, then you can make another omnipotent being.

The thing about making witty signature lines is that it first needs to actually be witty.

Well, opposing each other For the Evulz in a cosmic struggle could kill boredom.

You exist because we allow it and you will end because we demand it.

An omnipotent entity cannot make another omnipotent entity, as an entity with identical powers to itself would presumably create a situation where neither is omnipotent.

But it's probably true that an omnipotent deity could create an entity that is of equal power to itself, but in so doing, its own power would be reduced. Hmmmm... Stupid self-reference.

No, they'd both have the power to do anything, it's just that it would be an unstable equilibrium, basically like two admins fighting it out on a forum, one will eventually just get perma-banned.

The thing about making witty signature lines is that it first needs to actually be witty.

Which is why I use "virtually"" omnipotent when I refer to God-beings. Of course, then we just get into varying sets of Infinite power, which could get quite confusing.

Nah, we'll just arrange them in the proper formats and use L'Hopital's rule to see which is bigger.

Look, you can't make me speak in a logical, coherent, intelligent bananna.

Wouldn't it be better to see which one has the faster rate of growth after a sufficiently large amount of time?

edited 11th Apr '11 4:27:21 PM by Usht

The thing about making witty signature lines is that it first needs to actually be witty.

How exactly would removing boredom cause mental problems?

Why I am afraid of fences.

If I were omnipotent I would probably get all of my goals accomplished, maybe be a bit of an evil Jerkass for a while, and then relimit my powers to avoid getting bored.

edited 11th Apr '11 10:56:56 PM by PDown

At first I didn't realize I needed all this stuff...