Question of the Day!

I’m disinclined to believe that there’s any such thing as an inherently evil power, as it very much goes against my general belief that every tool can be used for either good or ill, dependent almost entirely on the will of the user. If I were to pick a “power” that seems inherently to tend toward negative application, it would be “reproduction”, as practiced by nearly every species on our planet.

For me, it’s mind control. I’m with C&A on the fact that taking over someone else’s free will is seriously problematic and pushes some boundaries that just shouldn’t be pushed… :unamused:

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Many people believe this, but I largely disagree. I feel that free will is an illusion anyway; there’s nothing inherently worse about someone else forcing your body to do something that your mind doesn’t want to do, versus your body itself forcing you to do something that your mind doesn’t want to do, which our bodies naturally do all the time because they evolved that way. Ultimately, the thing we call consciousness isn’t really in control; recent scientific research appears to suggest that it’s ultimately just a mechanism for constructing largely-false narratives which justify decisions that were ultimately made by our basest instincts and primitive urges, so that we can fool ourself into believing we’re anything other than purely selfish and naturally destructive biological robots. I prefer to simply embrace the truth that we are exactly that, and so I have no terror of the idea of someone controlling my mind, because it’s entirely possible they’d operate my body better than I can anyway.

QotD #96 Reply: True, any tool can be used for evil or good, but some are better suited to one or another. Here are what I think:

  • The ability to erase someone from existence and all memories of that person.
  • The ability to possess someone, destroying that person’s consciousness in the process.
  • The ability to implant hatred in people, making them fight each-other.
  • The ability to trap someone in a delirium of that person’s greatest fears.

Question of the Day #97: (You probably won’t like this one, Justifier.) What is the Goodest Superpower?

The ability to make peace between everyone.

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Actually I’m very fine with this one; I believe that you can have Good without having an opposing Evil, and it’s specifically the classification of things as Evil which I have issues with.

My pick for the ultimate Good in superpowers would be any form of creation/transmutation/destruction which violates the Newtonian conservation of energy and matter. If you could create or destroy substances without necessarily destroying or creating other substances, then you could turn back the clock on entropy, which otherwise inevitably dooms this universe.

(Post 1000 is either this one or the next, woohoo!)
(EDIT: Actually it looks like Pydro got 1000. And unsurprisingly, his answer to this question is extremely reminiscent of my worst nightmare.)

QotD #97 Reply: Regarding Pydro’s response, I think it depends on how it is interpreted, Justifier. If it is the ability to make everyone act peacefully, that’s straying a bit close to mind control. But if it’s the ability to solve the problems that are preventing us from having peace, it seems pretty wholly good, and I’d probably choose that as my answer. Then again, there are folks whose ideological differences mean that no problem being solved will cease the friction betwixt them.

The scientist in me really groaned at this.

Question of the Day #98: Cake or Pie?

PIE!!! :smiley:

(Just too much air in cake… :wink: Although an ice cream cake… :yum:)

Pie for the most part, although it really depends on what kind.

Any attempt at forging a peaceful solution requires individuals to compromise on their priorities, and nobody should ever be forced to compromise on something which is truly important to them. If I’m some random warlord in Africa whose entire life has been dedicated to the idea of reclaiming his grandfather’s kingdom, then choosing to stop me from getting that goal, because a bunch of other people don’t want to be killed, is a violation of my individual rights, and thus is just as evil as any of my warmongering. The only way to truly have peace would be to transport all individuals to a bunch of different parallel dimensions, so that none of them who would be destined to come into conflict would ever be capable of reaching each other. I categorically reject any other strategy aimed at creating peace, as the state of peace among everyone is far, far less desirable IMO than the ability for every individual to accomplish their own personal aims. Peace is simply the state of holding everyone at gunpoint so that they aren’t free to make war; I’d rather see the world torn apart in the fires of chaos than endure this kind of “polite society”, where everyone is kept suppressed and restrained and forced to treat gently those people they have reason to despise.

The entire point of me picking that was to do away with the restrictions which real-world science imposes on us, since they basically guarantee that we can never solve the ultimate problem of limited resources. Even if we master space travel and go about harvesting all the wealth of the cosmos, eventually all energy will run out and we’ll be doomed to dwindle into nothingness. Only by disposing of the Newtonian limitation can we hope to ultimately sustain our civilization indefinitely.

Yeah, I sure wouldn’t trust anyone who says that nuclear reactions are the “goodest” superpower! :wink: It would be a very different story without the word “Newtonian” in there.

I’m not scientist, so perhaps I misspoke. My understanding is that it was Sir Isaac Newton who first observed that all actions have reactions and that energy cannot be created or destroyed. If that is a misconception, then mentally correct my exact word choice as necessary. The point of what I’ve said is simply that energy MUST be created and destroyed in order for Good to be possible to accomplish on any meaningful scale. As long as we invariably create energy by destroying matter and vice versa, the universe is a clock ticking down to Doomsday, and nothing we can do will ever save us from that fate.

The classical (sometimes called Newtonian, though Newton didn’t formulate them) conservation principles of energy and mass don’t recognize exchange between the two. Einstein introduced the concept that energy and mass can be converted from one to the other – that’s what E = mc^2 means, a principle known as matter-energy equivalence…and a principle that violates the classical conservation laws.

Anyway, I think what you’re looking for is the ability to reverse entropy.

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QotD #98 Reply: Pie! (Especially apple. Mmm . . . )

Question of the Day #99: Oh no, your evil opposite from an alternate reality where all characteristics are reversed (e.g. a veterinarian here is a ruthless hunter there.) has come to our universe! What is this person like?

A driven, ambitious go-getter who believes absolutely in the rule of law and the fundamental goodness of humanity, which he shamelessly exploits with bald-faced lies in order to achieve his purely selfish goals.

QotD #99 Reply: She would be an artist who is very religious, follows gut feeling, is flippant about loyalties, thinks roleplaying games are satanic, and is horrible at grammar and never finishes her sentences with punctuation

Question of the Day #100! Since this is such a special QotD, there are multiple questions you can answer:

#100A: Hamburgers or hotdogs?

#100B: What past QotD was your favourite?

#100C: Will you ask a question to everyone? (And what is that question?)

#100D: What character(s) (e.g. Hero, Spirit, etc.) from GTG’s games is your favourite to play?

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A) Neither – I kinda stopped eating beef and pork in the past couple of years… :confused:
B) No favorite, here. Too many to go through…
C) Nope. :blush:
D) Ooo… :unamused: Really depends on the mood, but Argent Adept is a blast. I love support and he does all the things! :sunglasses:

Sacre-bleu! Ze plot, she zickens, no?

Hamburgers, unquestionably. The best hotdog in the history of the world is worth only slightly more to me than an average Wendys quarter-pounder. And something like the recently-discontinued Bourbon Pub Burger from the same establishment? No contest.

Not sucking up to fjur here, but #99 is pretty cool and thought-provoking.

Yes. Why?

I’ve historically cited The Naturalist as my bestie in this regard, and he probably still holds the crown, but have recently been obsessed with The Idealist, closely followed by Mainstay and Writhe. I really wish the GTG store would get the Void Guard back in stock.

QotD #100 Reply:

#100A: I don’t really like one more than the other, but right now I’m in the mood for a hot dog.

#100B: Eh, I can’t think of a single one as being outstandingly better than the others.

#100C: Yes. That’s what I do everyday.

#100D: I don’t have any real favourites here; I’m annoying like Christopher in that regard. However . . . I like playing Argent Adept, but my fellow players always complain that my turns as him take quite a long time ; ). I agree that The Naturalist is very strong, with his strength (in my opinion) coming somewhat from his versatility. Void Guard are also all quite potent. Also, I enjoy the challenge that Bringer of Dreams and Nightmares presents.

Question of the Day #101: Do you have any pets? If so, what and who? If not, have you ever had any?

Currently: 1 dog (1 died a few weeks ago), 2 turtles, two fish tanks with fish, and a pond with a fish in the backyard.

Previously: A cat, multiple birds, hamsters, frogs, mud puppies, and probably some other things I can’t remember.

Currently, we have two cats who were abandoned by their past care-takers while still kittens. (One spent several months outdoors in the winter, resulting in a lot of health issues. :pensive:)

As a kid, we had cats and dogs at various points, only one of which (an Australian Shepard named Bandit) was actually mine. I had a miniature hamster for a little while after college, but it didn’t live for very long. :confused: