So much in our society relies on some very fundamental (and seemingly sure) assumptions about the world and the rules that govern it. What if some of them ended up not being true?

For instance, we assume we can perceive the world as it is, on a macro scale. Let’s consider a simple thought experiment and suppose that a small group of people throughout the world had the ability to become invisible (and, say, affect the visibility of a small set of objects in their reach). What would the implications be? It is famously said that invisibility is never used for good, so with that in mind presumably what would be affected are societal standards, controls and guardrails; the sticks that ensure that our civilization doesn’t collapse in chaos.

We would have to seriously rethink security and the way we govern access. If I were invisible, I could board a plane very easily (staying out of the way of others would prove somewhat tricky, but I’m going to consider this a merely logistic problem rather than a fundamental one). I could walk past most security gates, likely only expect for those that use non-visual controls or ensure only one individual could pass the gate at once. Security would not only need to change; it would likely also have to be implemented in places where there normally isn’t any, as now the barrier for a breach is much higher. The world with invisibility would be a paranoid one.

What about other similar assumptions? How would the world change if we could suddenly teleport cheaply, safely and instantly to any place in the world? What if we could fly (have we built fences similar to what we build around turkeys)?