Everyone can delete exactly one person

[Bloodshadow]

Am I the only person to think about the scientific consequences of deletion? For example, what exactly happens to a deleted person? Is the conservation of mass violated? If not, is the conservation of energy violated? If not, are the laws of thermodynamics violated? Here I am, already speculating about setting up human clones to delete one another in a systematic manner to break laws of physics and generate infinite energy.

Oh, and trying to reverse-engineer this ability might work too. Look at exactly what goes on in the person's brain as he or she deletes someone, etc.

[Xenocidius]

Let's say, for argument's sake, that a wormhole appears out of nowhere and teleports them to the inside of a star where they are promptly destroyed. Also, unfortunately, we're not yet advanced enough to reverse engineer it and won't be for hundreds of years. Sorry.

[bobknows]

 if humans had this ability i doubt we would be any more advanced than, well, maybe the bronze age.
The problem with technology is that literally any 2 people could walk up and say "hand it over" and if you didnt you would die.

[Cel]

How do you know if your power worked? What if there was an event where a guy rose to presidency and then hundreds of people promptly tried to delete him? Probably the first person to use his deletion would kill the guy, so the guy is dead, but how do the other people who activated their power know that?
  If they are able to tell that their power was not used, are other people? Is it something that can be easily hidden like a tattoo, or can you 'feel' they their power is unused?
    If you can't feel it, or it is hide able, probably 99% of the population are gonna say they haven't used theirs yet.

  Also, the concept of not knowing if your own self hasn't used your power yet is pretty funny, but could be interesting.

[SnoWeb]

Only Mildly relevant but funny:

[russianspy1234]

How do you know if your power worked? What if there was an event where a guy rose to presidency and then hundreds of people promptly tried to delete him? Probably the first person to use his deletion would kill the guy, so the guy is dead, but how do the other people who activated their power know that?
  If they are able to tell that their power was not used, are other people? Is it something that can be easily hidden like a tattoo, or can you 'feel' they their power is unused?
    If you can't feel it, or it is hide able, probably 99% of the population are gonna say they haven't used theirs yet.

  Also, the concept of not knowing if your own self hasn't used your power yet is pretty funny, but could be interesting.

If we had such an ability, our society would evolve in a way where we did not have a president, at least not a publically known one.

[Cel]

How do you know if your power worked? What if there was an event where a guy rose to presidency and then hundreds of people promptly tried to delete him? Probably the first person to use his deletion would kill the guy, so the guy is dead, but how do the other people who activated their power know that?
  If they are able to tell that their power was not used, are other people? Is it something that can be easily hidden like a tattoo, or can you 'feel' they their power is unused?
    If you can't feel it, or it is hide able, probably 99% of the population are gonna say they haven't used theirs yet.

  Also, the concept of not knowing if your own self hasn't used your power yet is pretty funny, but could be interesting.

If we had such an ability, our society would evolve in a way where we did not have a president, at least not a publically known one.

That's not the point I was trying to make, it could be anyone who put themselves forward publicly enough that more than one person tries to kill him/her.

[Bloodshadow]

Let's say, for argument's sake, that a wormhole appears out of nowhere and teleports them to the inside of a star where they are promptly destroyed.

That still probably violates the conservation of energy and the laws of thermodynamics. I'd still speculate about setting up human clones to delete one another in a systematic manner to break the laws of physics and generate infinite energy.

Also, I see more than a few problems with that wormhole argument of yours. For the sake of not derailing this thread, though, I won't bring them up, unless you're interested.

[Naesala]

Let's say, for argument's sake, that a wormhole appears out of nowhere and teleports them to the inside of a star where they are promptly destroyed.

That still probably violates the conservation of energy and the laws of thermodynamics. I'd still speculate about setting up human clones to delete one another in a systematic manner to break the laws of physics and generate infinite energy.

Also, I see more than a few problems with that wormhole argument of yours. For the sake of not derailing this thread, though, I won't bring them up, unless you're interested.

"It's magic you don't have to explain it." ~Linkara.

[Captain Scibra]

Society would probably go normally if this were so sudden.  However, this would be short-lived.  Once a few deletions happen, the whole society would crash much like the banking system and stock market of the Great Depression era.  The population would severely decrease, then the whole planet would come together, then create a single nation of the world, and would agree to discontinue any knowledge of deletion.  Some would do it anyway, only leading to a few missing, but eventually the society would truly forget.  With technology at mid-prime with the crash of the old society, a scientist of the old ways would be highly respected, and would likely be the main powers of the nation.  Fights among the scientists would cause nations to split and free colonies to form.  This new state would be much like today, but several technologies of the old society remain undiscovered. 

[OldTrees]

Let's say, for argument's sake, that a wormhole appears out of nowhere and teleports them to the inside of a star where they are promptly destroyed.

That still probably violates the conservation of energy and the laws of thermodynamics. I'd still speculate about setting up human clones to delete one another in a systematic manner to break the laws of physics and generate infinite energy.

Also, I see more than a few problems with that wormhole argument of yours. For the sake of not derailing this thread, though, I won't bring them up, unless you're interested.

"It's magic you don't have to explain it." ~Linkara.

"Any sufficiently analyzed magic is indistinguishable from science!" (http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20081205)

[Camoninja]

Thoughts about random stuff in the world of deletion:

Spoiler for Credit (as in copyright):

Would not exist. If somebody made something to improve people's lives, they would make it in secrret, and bring it home and say "oh, look what  found on the side of the road."

Spoiler for Mass production:

Very difficult, because you have  to trust people enough to get them to help build a factory and keep it running.

Spoiler for Names:

Someone might realize it's harder to identify people without names, that would become a trend when having kids, and byebye names.

Spoiler for Skills:

Nobody would want to get better than anyone else at something or they would stand out. However, lazy people would stand out too, and they would work harder out of fear.

Spoiler for Government (one possibility of many):

Somebody would have to be in charge of a government, and that somebody would stand out and be deleted fairly quickly. People like to blame somebody in charge for something wrong, not themselves.

Spoiler for Crime (I'm talking about the auto-deletion universe):

I'd say the only crime would be deletion. Another murder would most likely result in death, and people would be afraid of the idea of private property, so there would be nothing worth stealing- someone would find the culprit with it and possibly delete.

Spoiler for Money:

Wouldn't work, because somebody could get jealous of someone rich and delete to steal money.

If something here doesn't sound right, please correct me. These are just ideas about random stuff I had.

@OldTrees That was one of my favorite sections in there