Monday, February 28, 2011

Omniscience and Omnibenevolence

The second variant of Omnipotence/Omniscience/Omnibenevolence is the latter two: Omniscience and Omnibenevolence.  This is somebody who is all-knowing and all-loving, but without power.  I find this the most curious and most tragic of the three characters.

The tragedy comes from the natural story of the character.  Somebody who is all-loving wants the absolute best things to happen for everybody - a noble and kind-hearted desire.  If that person is also all-knowing, then they know exactly how to make it happen and what the results will be.  But without the power to do so, that person is trapped.

I think of a character like this as a brilliant scientist.  All the knowledge in the world will not give him the materials needed to make that reverse-doomsday machine.  But that is what leads to the curiosity.

If you were all-knowing, then why couldn't you know how to obtain the power needed to do what you wanted?  All I can imagine is that not everything is possible.  Although we like to believe that everything can be accomplished with enough know-how (plenty of stories paint this picture), sometimes knowledge just isn't enough.

This person is endlessly frustrated, and fairly sad.  They are an embodiment of "so close, yet so far."

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