Just something I was thinking about based on some of Richard Osterlinds ideas in his books. Here is the thing, If you had real mental powers in everyday life, what would you actually use them for? now forget things like the lotto and cards, infact, forget competitions where some one has to win or loose. If I go to drive to the shops or I'm out, or some one is in there day job, what would actually be useful. One idea I came up with was knowing roadworks were ahead, or an accident had happened so to take a different route. Spoon bending would not be much good. spoon bending would not be much good, but to strighten a damaged screw driver with your mind would be useful.
What other ideas can people here come up with?

See the movie "What Women Want."

In REAL life? Well, it ain't pretty! The Lord Acton quote seems applicable, the one about 'absolute power corrupting absolutely.'
Sure, you'd do 'show off stunts' when you were young and wanted to impress others. Youth has always been that way with their talents.
But the real story would take place in every day circumstances.

If you could get someone to walk across the room and bring you some object - so you wouldn't have to get up and go get it yourself - you would find yourself doing that occasionally, just as a minor convenience.
In time, you'd nearly always have people doing these small things for you. Why not, you'd justify, they're only small things. No big ethical deal . . .
Then the list of the KINDS of things you'd have 'them' doing for you would grow larger and larger. And more frequent.

It's human nature. If there is a definite advantage that we have, we will, in time, use it. What of those things that we want very,very badly? Would we refuse to have them, when doing so would be very, very easy?

Look at those presently who gain such abilities, through money, power and/or fame - only the tiniest fraction of them can resist that temptation forever.
Some very good science fiction has studied this theme for a long time.

What would the attitudes of those who do NOT have 'The Ability' be toward those who DO have it, when it is discovered to really exist?
Again, not pretty, I think. Look at what happened when people believed that 'witches' existed. It still happens today in some places.
Would there evolve a hidden 'police force' of some of those with The Ability to prevent the young and foolish from being too open with it? This might be necessary for the survival of ALL.

So now you know why I can't do some of the things that you ask me to do for you. It's just showing off; I can't do that. It is not permitted. Don't ask by whom; you don't want to know.

What Sylar did in the show Heroes.

I'd use it to make SURE the server brought a side of mayo with my french fries. They always forget.

Oh, and, World Domination.

I will use my mental ability to bend spoons... not!

Really good question, it supposes you had the choice of powers and abilities, and that you'd have the ability to control your ability, which is seldom the case.. In real life, however, the ability dictates what you can do. And you can't do any of the rest unless you really train for it, and even then it may not happen.

Until Man leashes Revenge and Anger, those abilities won't show up in our genes...look what we do with sticks and stones! Think what we'd do with real Mental control of the physical. The men would make the women robots, and vice versa.

I think the best thing we could do (and you can learn to do this for real)is learn to perceive when people are lying or telling the truth. Very valuable. The day the machine is built that can do this without error will be the day the world changes...the most important advance since electricity or maybe even the wheel.

Real abilities would bring out the worst in you more often than the best in you.

Anyway, enough diatribe....I'd use my powers to Kudzu edible.

You read my mind

So wait.. You mean you guys DON'T read minds for real? I guess I'm in the wrong place..

Yeah, you belong in the McDonnell Lab (hope I got that right)

I use my abilities (I see pictures in my head which, about 70% of the time are related to the thought processes of those around me) to listen, to be emotionally open to people. Though I seem to be able to influence behaviour sometimes, it is never when I try to-only casual thoughts affect people around me as far as I can tell. I firmly believe that such abilities are given to serve, in a practical way.

Tom, kudzu is quite edible. We've been eating in the south for more than a century.
Wash it thoroughly, and tear (not cut) into pieces. Parboil it in
water for a few minutes, then drain and either fry like mustard greens/poke sallet/collards (pan fry the parboiled greens in bacon grease and add a litle water or pot likker and simmer for an hour or so), or cook for an hour or so in pot likker (ham hocks boiled in water for about half an hour). It's the two step cooking that is the key. If you fry the kudzu, you might scramble some eggs with them, right in the pan at the end. Squirrel brains are a popular addition. Serve with pepper sauce.
And of course, there's always kudzu blossom jelly...

Nope. You got it wrong. Sorry, go back and check your sources.

You can eat Kudzu? I always heard it was inedible...who'da thunk. Hrumph. Now I have to think up some other way to save the world with my powers. Rats!

(John, I'm working on your Compendium this week, BTW...the theory am that I'll get things up on Lulu by Saturday....)

Now back to your regularly scheduled program:

I would go to the government and give them two options: pay or die. xD

I stand corrected, for some reason I remembered it as the MacDonnell Lab. My error (while I admit to being opinionated on some subjects, I've never claimed to be infallible).

Just double checked, it is the McDonnell. I wasn't trying to cause any strife, I just looked it up on BANACHEK.COM. If the central person in the experiment was wrong about the laboratory that he attended, feel free to correct me.

This is why I looked it up the first time instead of trying to remember where Banachek went:

ONE OF Einstein's colleagues asked him for his telephone number one day. Einstein reached for a telephone directory and looked it up. "You don't remember your own number?" the man asked, startled.

"No," Einstein answered. "Why should I memorize something I can so easily get from a book?"

This has been a subject of numerous SF novels. See “Slan” by A.E. Van Vogt; “The Stars by Destination” by Alfred Bester as two of the better ones.

Asimov touched on it in his Foundation series with his character “The Mule.”

The "norms" would probably hunt us down as they would correctly perceive that those of us with "powers" held a distinct evolutionary advantage over those who didn't. The military would want the process studied as a potential weapon that could be used for or against us. We would have to be “controlled” or eliminated.

I don’t believe there would be any benefit to anyone who had these various powers to identify themselves publicly.

That’s why most of us disguise ourselves as entertainers.

[You will all ignore and forget that last sentence.]

I use my developed sense of intuition and people reading to sell technology to business during the day, and by night I use my skills in pattern recognition and knowledge of crowd psychology to predict fluctuations in the stock markets.

If Im feeling flippant, I will use my abilities tell someone what name they are thinking of.

I would use my ability to do a thought of card to pocket,thats all

Named after noted engineer James S. McDonnell, board chairman of McDonnell-Douglas