Rob a bank? Thanks to serial numbers they can tell it's you who is using the money.
Steal from your neighbor? Same deal. Someone will notice.
It's all risks and consequences. Most big acts of "evil" still have those risks and consequences even if you can stop time or whatever else. And your ability is going to be worth so much fuck you money to scientific and other use cases that you really won't have reason to steal or whatever.
You’re thinking too small. Why steal money when you could just steal the thing you’d be buying with the money? Why steal from your neighbor when you could steal from a megacorporation that won’t know it’s you?
Yeah money gets around, which means once you exchange it, it loses all connection to you. Merchants don't track serial numbers, and there's no guarantee those bills will be picked up in the next deposit to the bank.
That's why banks use dye packs, because once it's gone there's no actual way to track it. If there were, they wouldn't use dye packs...
This is an idea that has been around for very long time. Plato used the Ring of Gyges to talk about it - which went on to inspire Wells’ The Invisible Man - and influenced Tolkien among others.
The Ring of Gyges is a hypothetical magic ring mentioned by the philosopher Plato in Book 2 of his Republic (~375 BC). It grants its owner the power to become invisible at will. Through the device of the ring, this section of the Republic considers whether a rational, intelligent person who has no need to fear negative consequences for committing an injustice would nevertheless act justly.
So many ideas trace their roots back to ancient Greece/China. I guess there’s nothing new under the sun.
You would think so, but once you get used to it, you’d be like, ‘What’s the hurry? I can be there immediately’ and start traveling at the nick of the moment, and then eventually start showing up late, even with the superpower. If you were late to begin with, you’d be late all the way through. I know I would be.
There is so much that I would want to do that requires time to be “flowing” that the only things I could probably get done would be some cleaning, reading, and some rest.
Food doesn’t cook without time. Computers and other electronics need time to process inputs. If I want to get anywhere I’m walking.
The only immoral stuff might be some shoplifting, maybe. But even then I wouldn’t really be motivated if I could afford whatever it was otherwise.
There is so much that I would want to do that requires time to be “flowing”…
If we’re talking about physics-accurate superpowers, please add partial blindness - photons are frozen in place, they can’t reach your eyelids, unless you walk into them. And suffocation due to completely still air.
Photons move at the speed of light relative to the observer, regardless of the observer’s speed.
If we’re going physics-accurate, you wouldn’t be blind, though you’d probably be a black hole (for a very brief time, before you evaporated due to Hawking radiation).
I’d definitely fuck with people who were being shitty, not straight up evil, just mischievous:
Park in a bike lane? Oh no, all your valve stems have disappeared!
Attack someone? Your shoelaces are now tied to your belt, which is also now fastened around your arms.
Steal from a person? Your shoes are now hanging from a lamp post and the stuff you stole got unstolen.
Be a shady company that screws everyone over? Your infrastructure keeps breaking and funds keep disappearing, how weird!
Invade Ukraine and commit hundreds of war crimes? Oh no, you fell out of a window and also I have now been “recruited” by the CIA because they found out about my ability to pause time. Now I’m forced to do morally ambiguous things under the guise of national interests.
Oh shit, OP was right!
Also, hey Netflix: Hit me up if you wanna do a series, I know you’ll literally hire anyone. I do comedy too.
Not a customs officer, but over a decade back I had job duties that involved posting photos of babies online. The parents would give their consent, maternity would snap the photos, and I’d put them on the website (complete with the option to order prints).
One of the babies was named “Secret Angel.” First name Secret, middle name Angel. That girl would likely be in her teens or early twenties by now. I still sometimes wonder if Secret had any trouble with her name given how much kids can bully other kids for the slightest thing.
I can only imagine their last name. And what did the parents call her by if they got mad ? Something like … „Secret angel Patterson, come here right now“.
I think it depends. Most people could already get away with a lot of immoral or antisocial behaviors without super powers, but most of us still don’t.
The Boys is an interesting one because there are hundreds of supes out there, enough to have a community of depravity. If you were the only one with super powers and you decided to majorly abuse them, you’d be a social outcast, even if you didnt face strict punishment, which most of us would really not want.
My only hope is that the first time I stepped over the line when using my powers, I’d feel so bad about it afterwards that it would prevent me from doing it again… mostly.
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