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[scrdest]

Also, in the 'more wishes' vein, 'Decrease power cooldown by 1%'.

[Radio Controlled]

"Increase the percentage of this power's ability to alter percentages by 1%"

Thread's over, folks. This is the clear winner.

Not yet. While it's true that an increase in utility is a good long run investment, you could die (from whatever causes) before really gettin a chance to use it.

Perhaps spamming "decrease the chance I die from whatever cause this century by 1%" until you are sufficiently unkillable before increasing utility is a good idea.

[LordBucket]

You have no idea how much patience one man can have so that, one day, he could literally stand in front
of a crowd and declare "Gravity shall now cease to exist on Earth!" and have it be so.

Truly, that particular application never occurred to me.

By the way want money?

I want 1% of the USA's Wealth

Want Power?

I want the ability to control 1% of the world's interests.

These wouldn't work for reasons explicitly described in the opening post. In fact, I gave almost that exact example.

Also, it would reach 2% in 52 days, not 70. 3% at 69 days. 4% at 78 days. 5% at 83 days. 6% in 87 days.

And I don't mean relative to each other- I mean relative to the start date. You forget that by increasing the power by 1%, the next day I'd increase it by 1.01%, and so on. By 99 days, you're already at 20%.

...right. Was doing the math wrong. Still, the point remains: if you had the power to increase the world's average IQ by 1% or eliminate diseases and so forth, I think it would be psychologically difficult to sit around not doing anything with it for months. Also, it occurs to me that using the reducing side of it has peculiar implications when altering the power itself. "Reduce this by 100%" is contrary to the spirit of the power I was attempting to describe, even if the math happens to work that way. Might need to apply it differently on the reducing side.

Though at this point I'm tempted to say "no wishing for more wishes" since it mostly makes the discussion boring.

[Sergarr]

Government finds you have these powers. The odds of your survival drop as they dissect you.

How would it even find out that? Unless you tell everyone, that is. And even than government has a good chance of thinking that you're just another charlatan.

[penguinofhonor]

.

[LordBucket]

I would decrease the force exerted by gravity by 1%. All gravity.

Why?

[Levi]

I'll take the increase my amount of money by 1% per day.  Starting at 1000 dollars, I'd have 1.4 million in two years.    In four years I'd have 1.9 billion.

[Helgoland]

"Reduce the amount of hydrogen atoms inside Assad by 1%."

The fucker would just drop dead from all the suddenly appearing radicals in his body.

Also, why go with the compound interest route of gaining money? "Reduce the amount of protons in this pool of mercury by 1%." BAM, puddle of gold, right there. Impure, sure, but good enough. Of course whether this works kinda depends on how it is determined which protons are eliminated, but if we assume even probabilities, we'd get over 80% for sure. If you game the decay tables a little, there's bound to be even better ways to get even rarer precious metals.

Hell, "increase mass of this block of Pu-239 by 1%". Iran would like to have a word with you... Or "increase the chance of malfunctioning of the Russian army's weapons, trucks etc etc by 1%". Do that a couple of times, and you can win that war all on your own.

Holy crap, ten ninjas? I put way too much thought into this.

[penguinofhonor]

.

[pisskop]

If we increase the odds by 1% per day, do we ever reach 100%?

Or do we just increase it by 1% relative to the current?

i.e. 100+1=101
Is it:
  -101(1.01)
  -101+(100(0.01))

[miauw62]

BTW, "Reduce the average temperature of Earth by 1%" would probably bring us back to the level we had before we started mass-polluting things. (Maybe "decrease the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere by 1% would also do a good job, idk)

Theres so many great things you could do with this power.
How about "Decrease the speed of light by 1%"?
"Decrease the temperature required for fusion to occur by 1%"?

What would happen if you said "Decrease the distance between point A and point B by 1%"?

[thedrelle]

Can I increase the humanity's average IQ?

Sure. Yes.

Then I abuse that power every day.
30 days => 135% the intelligence.
365 days of using that power => 3778% the intelligence.

Nothing can go wrong with more intelligence for everyone! Just after one month, there already should be a pretty noticeable effect. After three months, average people exceed Hawking level. After one year, the science will be going at the speed of light.

For bonus points, it should also affect myself. I could use some extra brain-muscle.

ah, but you missed something, it raises the AVERAGE IQ. It may do that by spiking ONE PERSON randomly to well above genius. you don't see any change in yourself or those around you, but random people around the world are getting their heads exploded.

[Radio Controlled]

"Increase the percentage of this power's ability to alter percentages by 1%"

Thread's over, folks. This is the clear winner.

Not yet. While it's true that an increase in utility is a good long run investment, you could die (from whatever causes) before really gettin a chance to use it.

Perhaps spamming "decrease the chance I die from whatever cause this century by 1%" until you are sufficiently unkillable before increasing utility is a good idea.

Well, what are the odds that you'll die in the next 4 months? Not very high? Then you're fine.

Then again, would you really be willing to take that chance? After all, it's entirely possible that you do in fact die before you get the chance to use those powers, whereas decreasing the odds that you die means you can still increase your percentages afterward.

[Neonivek]

These wouldn't work for reasons explicitly described in the opening post. In fact, I gave almost that exact example.

Unless you word it correctly.

Decrease 1% of the world's cash into my pocket.

After all the power never says HOW it increases or decreases something.

As well we are decreasing an existing quantity but just qualifying where it is going.

BTW, "Reduce the average temperature of Earth by 1%" would probably bring us back to the level we had before we started mass-polluting things. (Maybe "decrease the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere by 1% would also do a good job, idk)

Theres so many great things you could do with this power.
How about "Decrease the speed of light by 1%"?
"Decrease the temperature required for fusion to occur by 1%"?

What would happen if you said "Decrease the distance between point A and point B by 1%"?

Stop destroying things!

By the way decreasing the carbon dioxide in the air by 1% would... kill all live on earth just about.

[WillowLuman]

If increasing the power itself were a thing, I'd be willing to dedicate some time to it as it would decrease the time needed to effect changes with later uses. Or, with the money and other examples, it seems delayed gratification would get greater returns overall than using it for something immediately (but slightly) useful every single day.