There's an idea in science fiction which is dumb, but appears to have been assumed into comic books. The idea is that telepathy will somehow be banned. That the testimony of telepaths will be disallowed. That telepaths will have to wear badges. That telepaths will be shunned and avoided.
This is, of course, ludicrous.
If telepaths actually existed, they would be treated the way we treat other people with unique abilities. Saturn Girl can read someone's mind. Pretty scary, huh. Elmo can make a nuclear bomb. Saturn Girl can tell that Garth is staring at her ass in those pants. Elmo, out here in the real world, could sell his services as a nuclear physicist to Iran. Do we make elmo register, where a little nuclear symbol on his arm, and restrict his movements? No, instead we let him raise gas prices.
Here's what would happen out here in reality:
Telepaths would be licensed. The government would hire them. They'd be trained as expert witnesses. Their testimony would be the admissable as the basis for search warrants. Why not? We let people use infrared cameras. We let people use wiretapping. We rely on the testimony of police officers. We use DNA evidence. And people still get off. It's not like everyone on the jury would believe the telepaths. It's not as though eyewitness testimony is reliable.
The notion appears to be that since lie detector results are inadmissable, we somehow would not admit anything. But lie detectors are inadmissable because they are unreliable. They are still used to help police decide if the investigation is going in the right direction, and at a minimum that's how telepaths would be used. Police would use telepaths to find out where murder weapons are locted. Where the money is hidden. Where the serial rapist is keepign trophies.
What about search warrants?
Please, reading someone's mind is certainly non-custodial. It's not even as invasive as a Terry stop. The search warrant is a device of strutures. Houses, buildings. It is much weaker for cars and a touch stronger for people.
Imagine this scenario in court:
Prosecution: No further questions for J'onn J'onz, your honor.
Defense council: So, J'onn,J'onz, first let me thank you for your good work in saving the world. Now, you testified earlier that you read my client's mind and saw that he had murdered his wife.
JJ: Yes.
Defense: How well can you distinguish fantasy from real memories inside someone's mind?
JJ: Well, I can tell when people are having real memories.
Defense: Really? How?
JJ: he physical effects are, for instance, more pronounced.
Defense: How so more than erotic dreams? THose can cause physical effects.
JJ: Yes, but (long convoluted explanation that puts the twelve people who didn't hear anything about the case to sleep.)
And then the defense would bring on its own telepath.
I think the great comics writer Alfred Bester had it right in _The Demolished Man_ to a great extent: telepaths would be part of society.
What about business? SUrely every corporation would hire telepaths. This is especially true if telepaths can block each other's abilities.
Posted by Mike Chary at June 20, 2005 11:38 PM