Simon_Jester wrote:I'd like to hear what people think about the idea, which I mentioned earlier, that it is a good policy to encourage metahumans to 'register' in some sense and have some kind of paper trail tying them to the government, to give them incentives to do so rather than giving them incentives to live as renegades, refugees, or hobos.
I'll clarify my position as simply as possible, for those who don't want to read the gigantic argument a couple pages back. I think that a lot of this is already covered by existing laws concerning medical and criminal records, but if we were to do any kind of advanced registry it should be:
1) voluntary-- government coercion or espionage is both unethical and counterproductive in my view. You can read all of my previous objections at your leisure.
2) NOT used for law enforcement purposes; if the cops want the information they should need a court order. This is both to prevent harassment like I said earlier, and because as Starglider said, the cops are known to look for easy answers in their investigations when easy answers are made accessible, and that tends to create injustices rather than putting genuine offenders in prison. This is particularly important when you realize that there is frequently a lot of overlap in terms of who has what abilities in comics-- lots of super strong individuals, lots of telepaths, lots of telekinetics, and often more than one super-speeder.
3) DON'T share it with the public, just in case there is a major stigma against metahumans or even metahumans with a specific ability set. Anyone familiar with the X-Men who are thinking of comic books as their main reference material should know why. Individuals can disclose information to the public at their own discretion, if for instance they are seeking a job. But yeah, I don't think you want ignorant people to start discriminating against telepaths or shapeshifters out of blind fear. Superhumans aren't the only ones known for breaking the law or taking it into their own hands.
4) DO use it for occupational and educational purposes. The best way to lead people away from a life of crime is to make them feel valued by society rather than feared, and the best way to lead them away from vigilantism is to make them feel like they have something else productive they can do with their unique talents. Of course, any that want to enter law enforcement should have that option available. And the odd superhuman who, due to circumstance, saves a bunch of people from disaster should be protected by good samaritan laws like everyone else.
Anything else would probably just backfire, either in reality or in the actual comic book universes (because it
has backfired in comic book universe. Multiple times and in multiple franchises.).
biostem wrote:I feel like the main issue here is one of degrees - we regulate radioactive materials - no one has an issue with that. We regulate weapons and vehicles - again, no one really objects with that. Imagine a person that could make a gun gesture with their hand, and have it fire real bullets - why does it now become objectionable to regulate that?
First of all, because not everyone agrees on how we should regulate these possessions you mention, and I should not have to add that gun regulations are particularly touchy with a lot of people. Which is no bad thing, people debate the merits of government regulations literally all the time. But also because of the fundamental problem:
how do we regulate superhuman ability? Its not as cut and dried as you make it out to be, because its not
just a matter of degree but of kind. As we keep saying, this isn't about regulating goods sold on a market which the government both can and is empowered to regulate. We're talking about regulating people, their natural abilities and body parts. Even in as simplistic an example as you just gave, what are we supposed to do even if he actually shoots someone? Cut off his hand? Fat lot of good that will do you if he can shoot invisible bullets from his other hand too. And it gets worse if he can use other appendages to shoot mime-bullets. And you don't know all the consequences of cutting off his hands-- if he can shoot invisible grenades or cannonballs from the stumps of his amputated wrists, you've just made the problem worse for the people around him and not better, AND you've given him reason to hate the government that took his hands from him. And that is just the
practical problem, and ignores the medical ethics problem as well that should be fairly obvious-- do we have a right to amputate his hands to begin with, knowing that we are imposing a serous disability on this person? As it currently stands, the law and every physicians training says no. And there is the problem of justice, because most of this thread has been dealing with the issue of regulating powers
before abuses take place. If our bullet slinging mime has never actually shot a person, but
does have a talent show routine where he shows off his trick shooting skills, do we have a right to take that away from him on the basis that he
could hurt someone? I think most of us on the opposite side of the fence from you find that to be obviously unjust. And again, that's a power that can be obviously weaponized, as opposed to any number of common superpowers like super speed, flight, water breathing, x-ray vision, wall climbing, teleportation, echolocation, invisibility, shapeshifting, telepathy (most of the time, anyway), illusions, animal communication, (and at this point I'm tempted to put "enhanced intellect, but that just shows how ambiguous the idea of superpowers can be) and so on and so forth, often found (in comics) as an array of abilities just one individual possesses. It isn't so simple that you can make an easy analogy to gun registries and call it a day, no matter how many times that analogy is brought up.
Simon_Jester wrote:Apparently, because when I do drag racing on a residential street it's illegal, reckless behavior, but when I do the same damn thing while being a five hundred pound mutant juggernaut who can wrestle elephants and run eighty miles an hour it's "my right to privacy."
Anyone can go drag racing as long as its on a private racetrack. We only police the public roads.
