WCFQ #1:Should people desire omniscience, omnipotence or omnipresence?ChristianHilton
I'm gonna go gets me some super powers.... 
All knowing, all powerful, or ever present...?
Frankly, I'd go for the first. Knowledge is power after all. If you're just all powerful, you can make mistakes. If you're always around, everyone will always be bugging you to do stuff for them. The best of the three choices is being all knowing. Then you can be at the right place at the right time with the proper tools to get the job done before quietly slipping away before anyone notices you just averted disaster.
Think about it. If you're all knowing, you can help people dodge the bullet without them ever knowing that their lives were in danger. You can influence society without them ever knowing it wasn't their own idea to include airbags in cars. The right word in the right ear, and the future is golden. Even if the ear is little Billy when he's five so one day he grows up to be president and brings world peace.
I can dream...
But regardless of what I could do with omniscience, it seems the most useful of the three abilities. Being all powerful could get you into a bit of trouble if you get mad and punch a wall or almost hit someone. Superman must have the patience of a saint, but Lex Luther would be dead meat if he got in my face. Same goes for any of the superhero/villain pairings. The temptation just to put some creep out of everyone's misery is the biggest drawback to being all powerful. The temptation is just too great.
And I already pointed out the problem with being anywhere people expect you to be. It doesn't let you get any work done, let alone leave you any time to rest. I speak from retail experience....
I suppose though that even being all knowing can be corrupting. Taking the Superman analogy a little further, Brainiac is the character who continually seeks to be all knowing, and look at the trouble he gets into. Albeit, his programing appears to be corrupt. Is it really necessary to destroy everything once you've learned everything there is to know about it? Is it really that arduous to share? Actually, I can come up with only one plausible reason why Brainiac might want to destroy everything after he's learned everything and that's so he doesn't get tied up in the minutiae of every culture he comes into contact with. In other words, he kills them off so he can move on and learn something somewhere else without having to worry about missing something when he leaves. Perfectly reasonable, if a bit selfish. Me, I wouldn't care if people came up with something new after I've moved on since I'm assuming being all knowing, I'd pretty much be immortal and able to come back later for a refresher. Regardless, Shakespeare says there's nothing new under the sun, so history, unfortunately, is bound to repeat no matter what culture you encounter. Really not necessary to destroy a culture when the next one may have parallel development.
June 29th
The Bawming of the Thorn is celebrated in Appleton, England. An ancient hawthorn tree is bedecked with flowers, flags, and ribbons by all the adults of the town before the children are permitted to dance beneath its branches.
This day honored Petosiris of Hermopolis (300 BC), an Egyptian astrologer and high priest of Thoth. After his death and canonization, his tomb became the site of pilgrimages.
This is the best day to harvest herbs in the East Anglian tradition.
This is a sacred day to Papa Legba, a powerful loa in the Voodoo religion. Originally a Dahomean sun god, Papa Legba is worshiped as the spirit-master of pathways and cross roads, and is the most important deity of the Vodoun pantheon.
Comments (8)
Damn straight a person would have to be really patient! Could you imagine losing your temper and saying Oops... maybe I shouldn't have done that? Not to mention what it would do to a persons psyche. I think that all knowing is the better choice too.
Hmm, well my first pick was omnipotence, but now you've got me thinking. Knowledge is power... but I don't think knowledge necessary creates wisdom. Omnipotence has the same double edge as omnipotence, because if you know everything there is to know, your brain may explode. Also, you can use your knowledge for evil as well as for good. Not to mention there are some things a person just doesn't want to know.
I think a person could actually cause less damage being omnipotent... the pen is mightier than the sword and all that.
@heidenkind - Well, I am the Queen of TMI as I mentioned in another post. lol
So you want to be an omnipotent writer?
@harmony0stars - That would be cool.
@Broom_Service @heidenkind - Well, if I'm omniscient and you're omnipotent, does that make Broom_Closet omnipresent? lol
@harmony0stars - Broom_Closet?
I don't want to be everywhere at once. Sweetheart would kill me. We'd have absolutely no time together. And that would mean that I'd be in the Vatican alone... where's the fun in that?!? I think I'll stay in the broom closet. 
@Broom_Service - lol, slip of the fingers. But that must be where you monitor the goings on of the rest of the world, oh omnipresent one.
Within your secret bunker, just behind the broom and dustpan, is your video center with multiple screens. Your electric bill must be astronomical! hehe
@harmony0stars - hehe. I'll never tell where my secret bunker is... then it wouldn't be a secret. No, wait! I don't wanna be the omnipresent one! Electric bill? What's that? Oh... that would have to be someone else's problem since I would have to piggyback off someone in order to keep my secret... if I were the omnipresent one... which I ain't gonna be. *pouts* *giggles* That would be way too huge a responsibility for me. I just want my land and to be left alone... *curls out lower lip*