Oremus 'Superhero Or Supervillain' Analysis

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Author Oremus wrote an essay that appeared in the online magazine Slate in 2013 which discusses the outcome of the relationships between our emerging technology and people who use it. In his Essay “Superhero or Supervillain? If science gives people superpowers, will they use them for good or evil?” author Oremus argues that people posses the capacity for both good and evil, but the type of superhero they become is determined not only by the make up of their genes, but also the circumstances in which they find themselves. I agree with the author and believe that superpowers give people confidence that enable them to either help of hurt people successfully. The author makes a strong point when he says that most people possess the capacity for …show more content…

Although the author did not say that he supported this idea, he effectively provided examples that make it seem like he does. He says that the clinical psychologist Robin Rosenberg proved her hypothesis with her experiment and believes “people might treat an extraordinary ability as a sort of gift that brings with it a responsibility to help others.” This is necessarily not true because many people who pick a common superpower like invisibility, will not use it to help others, but rather use it to commit crimes or steal money that they wouldn’t steal unless they were invisible to the public. In addition, he believes that certain “superpowers” lead people down a “dark path” and encourage them to hurt other humans. The author supports this belief by stating “Powers that inherently violate other people’s autonomy, like mind control, would also seem to lend themselves to abuse.” I agree that mind control is evil and immoral no matter what its purpose is. For the most part, those mischievous individuals who have the superpower to control and manipulate minds, feel strong, invincible, and content with the fact that they can manipulate and control the actions of an individual without being exposed. On the other hand, the individuals are taken away their autonomy and ability to make

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