The Effects Of Superhumans On Modern Society

Let's say that in precisely twenty days, people with superpowers start popping up all around the globe. I'm not talking about cheesy, spandex clad freedom fighters who fly around in leagues and teams 'n shit. I'm talking thousands, millions of people who just learned they can blow up a building with their minds.

How would society react to such a development in this day and age? Would superhuman rights become a relevant issue? Or would we see a rise in racism and segregation? How about politics? The economy?

edited 7th Sep '11 10:04:05 PM by KSPAM

I've got new mythological machinery, and very handsome supernatural scenery. Goodfae: a mafia web serial

In reality? If super-powered individuals started showing up in the way you describe, I imagine most of the world would quickly find themselves at the mercy of these super-folk. If a number of them realize they have even greater strength acting in concert and share the necessary philosophies, I'd say humanity could consider itself enslaved. As Philip Wylie said, a race of super-men almost couldn't help but be a race of conquerors. That would make super-human rights rather a moot point...

Yeah...it depends just about exhaustively on who gets the power and what they do immediately afterwards. Basically, the rest of the human race just became irrelevant to the determination of their own destinies.

Shinigan (Naruto fanfic)

Meh. It's not as scary as all that.

The world would have to adapt and change. The current world order would change, that's for sure. But, that's not in and of itself a bad thing. Remember, the current world order is a trap most of us don't have a clue how to escape as it is.

But in the initial months/years, humans would require the cooperation of like-minded supers to serve the public trust. A war between humans and supers, though, would be a pyrrhic victory on both sides. Most modern technology, in all honesty, would outclass superpowers something fierce. As I mentioned over in the "M Word" thread in OTC (it's pretty much the exact same subject matter), being super strong doesn't help you against tear gas or flashbangs. The ability to read minds won't save you against armed UA Vs. And no matter how good your telekinesis is, a sniper bullet travels 1000 feet a second. That's faster than the human eye can blink, so forget being able to consciously react to it.

The power of Superman is insignificant compared to the power of the 25 megaton bomb, and so forth.

We have, in truth, surpassed most of our own legends, both ancient and recent.

Nous restons ici.

I think it makes more sense to have the majority of these "superhumans" not actually be that super. Some of them might not even be distinguishable from the sort of mutants we normally encounter. (Is it a superpower to be triple-jointed, or to be able to wiggle your ears?) Even the ones who luck out and get super-strength or something probably won't be Immune to Bullets.

edited 8th Sep '11 3:59:26 AM by feotakahari

That's Feo . . . He's a disgusting, mysoginistic, paedophilic asshat who moonlights as a shitty writer—Something Awful

Well in another thread I suggested we should play it safe and have them all killed, but most people aren't as cautious as me

edited 8th Sep '11 6:19:59 AM by joeyjojo

hashtagsarestupid

Well, the idea here is that these superhumans are basically, for all intents and purposes, a random grab-bag from society. No one knows who they are until they turn a perfectly pleasant room into a blender set to liquify (whether intentionally or not), which brings up a frightening new facet to modern day terrorism.

That and a lot of these super humans tend to be a bit... broken. One, for example, can send anything Just One Second Out of Sync and return it at will. This includes guns, armor, tanks, and buildings. Then when that floor that disappeared beneath your feet comes back while you're occupying the same space...

So yeah, while they are still outclassed by heavier ordinance, they still pose a fairly significant threat. And they're even more dangerous when you take into account the threat even moderately powered superhumans pose to national security.

edited 8th Sep '11 7:03:48 AM by KSPAM

I've got new mythological machinery, and very handsome supernatural scenery. Goodfae: a mafia web serial

Like I said before, how does that stop him from being carpet bombed?

It doesn't. But here's something you should probably take into account. What sane government would authorize the use of such heavy ordinance on one person?

Besides, they're still people. I'd imagine there'd be a lot of disapproval to an immediate jump to "shoot to kill", even if the person is a bona fide terrorist.

edited 8th Sep '11 7:30:05 AM by KSPAM

I've got new mythological machinery, and very handsome supernatural scenery. Goodfae: a mafia web serial

A government that wants to make sure their target is dead...?

I'm just saying that superhumans won't be able to just run around using their powers like they do in comic books and movies. Modern society is starting to make anything less than Class 3 on the Super Weight scale obsolete.

Both the US and Israel have done bombing and artillery strikes specifically to eliminate a single person. Of course, we might not be classified as sane.

If you haven't looked at it before, I recommend reading the main rulebook for the Aberrant RPG by White Wolf. The setting is basically this - out of nowhere, regular people start gaining superpowers. It starts a little slower than your example*

, and there are numerous conflicts between the novas and various baseline governments and organizations. There's nova supremacist groups, nova criminals, and novas who pretty much say, "What, I'm invincible. Come at me, bro." There's also nova scientists, doctors, philanthropists, and heroes.

I think, depending on the person's background will determine how "bad" things get. China will be totally screwed, especially since any random assignment by population will have more super-powered people than anywhere else. I think most people in the western world, when they discover they have super-powers, will set out to do good deeds - in essence, try to make themselves a hero. Super-powered people in Africa will probably become the new warlords for their region.

That’s the epitome of privilege right there, not considering armed nazis a threat to your life. - Silasw

This is an interesting thread, I guess I underesitmated the power of us normals but one more thign that I want to bring to mind. I just want to point that we ahve a variety of tropes that also equally point out that as powerful as thos humans, in the real world they are bound most physical laws.

• Super Speed. You need to able to slow down.

• Super Strength. Without the required secondary powers, it will hurt you back and there are lots of different muscle groups that need attention as well.

• Invulnerability. Unfortunately, not every part of you is invulnerable although Superman is his own seems to defy this.

I am not sure about the other powers and I am not as grounded in physics as most people in thsi forum are. One thing I also want to point out is, how will superhumans affect daily life? How does it feel to know that you never be as fast as the Flash, strong as Supes or smart as Batman even with all the training you would actually go through? There is also indivdual responsiblity as to how they would handle their powers.

"Eratoeir is a Gangsta."

What person will not use every weapon in their arsenal when it's life or death?

And more to the point, the existence of superpowers renders previous morality moot; there are people who are not remotely equal physically and hence cannot be not equal under the law. If you want to arrest Superman, there's no way to do it safely. You have to kill him to make him safe, because he is always lethally armed even if he's standing around naked with his hands in the air.

edited 8th Sep '11 10:35:31 AM by Night

Nous restons ici.

Exactly. Like I said, the world will inevitably recover, but the current world order is pretty much finished. We'd have to construct a new status quo from scratch. I've mentioned in other topics how much I feel that Reed Richards Is Useless is the single Pet-Peeve Trope that is strangling the life from comics. You can't have a universe in which superhumans have been active for decades and then have the status quo try to be Like Reality, Unless Noted. It doesn't work.

I've also mentioned in other topics that the greatest asset for superhumans will always be their ability to do the work of many as one. For a very good example, think of the Air Force. Every time any airborne military sends a bird into the air, it costs millions just for fuel, maintenance, repairs, armaments, etc. If you have one guy who can fly like Superman, with no assistance or upkeep required, he will save incalculable amounts of time and money. That also goes for jobs in construction and/or heavy-lifting, where one skillfully-trained guy with Super-Strength will probably get more done in an hour than a team with cranes could do in a day.

That's why the biggest worry you'd have in a world of superhumans are the Muggles who'd want to enslave them.

Yes, but they'd be killing hundreds of their own citizens if it was in a crowded area, and that many explosives for one person is a really inefficient use of money and resources. But I see your point.

So, what would come first in this new world order? Let's assume we skip ahead twenty years after the advent of superhumans. What do you predict having happened?

I've got new mythological machinery, and very handsome supernatural scenery. Goodfae: a mafia web serial

I suppose it depends on the Super Weight of the superhumans involved. If there are a significant (by which I mean, approximately, 'greater than zero') number of class 3 or above supers who care sufficiently, they by themselves could pretty much set the course of the world. Lower-class supers being enslaved for their work potential? Isn't going to happen if there's the threat of Superman stopping by and beating up the enslavers. And if you have an actual literal Superman, or equivalently powerful, there's nothing we have right now that would stop him. I'm pretty sure Superman could either survive a nuke or evade it.

Shinigan (Naruto fanfic)

They don't have quite the level of bullshit Superman does. They each get one power, and one power only. They can extrapolate that power, but they can never have more than one.

That being said, they're quite broken, so they tend to score 3 or above in terms of Super Weight.

edited 8th Sep '11 11:42:52 AM by KSPAM

I've got new mythological machinery, and very handsome supernatural scenery. Goodfae: a mafia web serial

In that case, then yeah, it's less one-sided. In particular, if you can choose either Nigh-Invulnerability or a strong offensive power, but not both, then it's much easier for the muggles to fight you. In that case...yes, in some situations enslavement of superhumans who have a power that's useful for work but not so much for fighting might be a problem. I can't really think of how others are likely to occur without examples of the powers, but a strong telepath (like, Xavier-level) could basically rule the world, a speedster a la Flash could basically rule the world, a telekinetic could rule the immediate area without fear but lacks power-projection ability...

Shinigan (Naruto fanfic)

What about those who exist above thew super weight of three?

"Eratoeir is a Gangsta."

Given the single-power-only requirement, it would depend heavily on the specifics of the power, but we would basically just have to pray that they were well-inclined.

Shinigan (Naruto fanfic)

I was thinking this. The government, in an attempt to control the rise of these new "metahumans", has (take a deep breath because I'm about to steal from X-Men) initiated a registration act for all superpowered individuals. Their personal information is recorded and stored on a public database, and tracking devices are implanted in their skin. Compliance is mandatory, refusal to be registered will result in imprisonment, resistance in death.

Metahumans are no longer allowed in the military, nor in any position in which they could pose a potential threat to national security. There are task forces specifically developed to hunt and eliminate metahumans who break the law, even on minor offenses, and superpowered individuals are now considered the top terrorist threat in the world.

Socially, we're looking at a super Apartheid. Discrimination, prejudice, fear and denial of basic human rights.

edited 8th Sep '11 3:46:47 PM by KSPAM

I've got new mythological machinery, and very handsome supernatural scenery. Goodfae: a mafia web serial

If that goes on for too long (and there are sufficient high-class supers) I would expect some of them to attempt a coup or straight-out rebellion, and barring something outside-of-context I would expect them to succeed. The only way that you can get that to work for long is if the supers aren't particularly super, or they're idiots.

Shinigan (Naruto fanfic)

...The End of the World as We Know It.

Specifically, it would be open war. And humanity would lose to the supers...

Until we nuked them into oblivion. Or they'd win and take over, and it would be a hell-on-Earth Crapsack World beyond the likes of which we couldn't comprehend...

I am now known as Flyboy.

Considering the stuff you write, why am I not surprised at that answer?

Shinigan (Naruto fanfic)