Written: May 17, 2019 | Released: July 9, 2021
A little game for you related to power: suppose that each of the supervillains listed below actually existed and that each had “become dictator of the world” as their only high-level goal. That is, their primary and permanent desire is to become the highest leader of a single world government. Based on each of their listed superpowers, which do you think would actually succeed if they lived in the real world as it is today?
To play the game, vote in the comments by listing the letters of the supervillains you think would have MORE than a 25% chance of eventually becoming a “world dictator.” If you think all would have less than a 25% chance of success, type “none” in the comments. Assume that each is healthy (and will remain so unless someone hurts them), is currently age 20 (they suddenly get their powers on their 20th birthday), and each has a natural lifespan of 80 years. Except when otherwise stated, assume that each has pretty high but not exceptionally high intelligence (say, top 10%, by however you prefer to define intelligence). Also, assume that each person is normal-looking and, except as otherwise stated, has a typical human body. Finally, assume each person has their own universe (that is, they are not in competition with each other; in each case, it is the real world plus this one supervillain).
Villain A: Arcana
Her superpower is that in every single subdomain of “intelligence” (broadly construed), she is equal to (but no better than) the most capable human to have ever lived when that person was at their peak. So, for instance, her working memory is precisely as good as the person in history with the best working memory, her facility with numbers is as good as the person who had the best facility with numbers ever, and so on for every other intelligence subdomain that exists. This includes everything associated with intelligence, including pattern recognition, word generation, logical reasoning, reading comprehension, creativity, probabilistic thinking, etc.
Villain B: The Blur
His superpower is that his thinking and processing speed is about 1000x faster than that of the average person. In other words, he doesn’t think differently than other people, only much, much faster. Assume, for instance, that he could read a long pdf file or make a plan or solve a math problem 1000x faster than a normal person. If you asked him a question, from his perspective, he would have (our equivalent of) an hour to think about the answer before replying. Assume that he can still pretend to be thinking at normal speeds (e.g., to conduct a normal conversation) and doesn’t get bored just thinking about things (e.g., while waiting and waiting and waiting for a conversational partner to make their response). He cannot, say, run or punch faster than a normal person, though; it’s just his mind that works much faster. Let’s assume, though, that his eyes operate fast enough to read at 1000x normal speed.
Villain C: The Coaxer
His superpower is that he is as good at persuading any given person to think or do any particular thing as the best person in the world would be at persuading that person of that thing (via the same medium of communication). For instance, he’d be at least as good at persuading you to come to dinner with him as your best friend would be in the same situation. When giving a presentation, he’d be as good at persuading investors that his startup idea is amazing as any CEO in the world would be who is pitching the same idea to the same people. He’d be at least as good at convincing a police officer not to arrest him (after, say, the officer witnessed him committing a crime) as that police officer’s own mother would be after committing that same crime in front of her son. If there exists a person P that could persuade the president of a nuclear nation to deploy nukes against country X for reason R via an email at a particular moment in time, then he could also persuade that president via email to nuke country X for reason R at that moment in time.
Villain D: Duplicitous
Her superpower is that there are 1000 identical copies of her. Not only does each copy have identical values, bodies, and capabilities, but each is just as eager to have any other copy succeed as it is to have itself succeed. In fact, 999 of the copies would happily sacrifice themselves by undergoing torture or committing suicide if it caused the remaining one of them to succeed at becoming dictator of the world. That means that each copy is indifferent towards whether it is she herself or some other copy that succeeds as long as at least one copy succeeds. The copies are not telepathic, though; they’d still have to communicate with each other through normal means, like conversation or email. Assume that all of these copies suddenly appeared on her 20th birthday (before that, she was one person), and they all start with identical knowledge and memories (which, of course, will start to drift almost immediately). Let’s assume they are all in different places in the world to start when they come into existence, and they each know the other 999 exist but not where they are.
Villain E: Energize
While of normal size and outwardly typical-looking, his superpower is that he is about 1000x more capable than an average human in every physical, athletic, or mechanical metric (e.g., the number of pounds he can bench press, the speed at which he can sprint, the height he can jump, the velocity at which he can throw a baseball, the force he can punch with, the velocity of a strike that it would take to crush his organs, the time he can hold his breath, the volume he can yell at, etc.) However, unlike his astounding athletic abilities, he is in only the top 10% in intelligence (however you prefer to define intelligence). [This villain doesn’t jive well with the laws of physics, but let’s go with it.]
If you want to take part in this game, just list in the comments the letters of the villains (A, B, C, D, E) that you think would have at least a 25% chance of eventually becoming a “world dictator” in the real world (assuming that is their only high-level goal) or say “none” if you think all of these villains would have less than a 25% chance! Bonus: explain why you think they would (or wouldn’t succeed).
SURVEY RESULTS
As of 5/19/2019, we had 45 people vote by posting in the comments! [EDIT: one of the commenters requested to see the original post and comments – here it is.] Here are the percentages of voters who said each supervillain would have more than a 25% chance of becoming a world dictator:
| Supervillain | Percent of voters* |
| C: The Coaxer – with persuasion | 73% |
| A: Arcana – intelligence | 53% |
| B: The Blur – with mental speed | 29% |
| E: Energize – with physical strength/speed | 24% |
| D: Duplicitous – with 1000 identical copies | 16% |
| NONE of them | 9% |
ABCE
Where can I read people’s comments with their explanations?
You can find the original post and comments here: https://www.facebook.com/spencer.greenberg/posts/10104445589095612