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This question came to me after re-watching Jason movies and some Hulk movies. SCP-096 was a huge inspiration as well. Forgive me if this question is silly but I'm curious on how humanity would react to something like this if it actually came to be.

So in this scenario, a psychotic misanthropic man by some unknown means does not take physical damage and is unable to be destroyed. Diseases, toxins, and elements also do not affect him in any way. Neither does depriving him of food, water, sleep and oxygen stop him. This man intends on killing every single human being on the planet due to some delusion that it's his destiny to do so. He goes outside and starts killing people one by one.

The limitations for this man is that his top speed is about 15 miles per hour (said to be the average human running speed). His jumping ability is also common being able to jump up to 16 inches. His agility is also 'average'. In terms of physical strength, his maximum output is equal to that of a bull elephant (estimated to be able to lift 9000kg. He also enters a state of rage upon seeing other humans and tends to attack without thinking or planning.

What steps could be taken for someone like this? Could such a man be successfully contained indefinitely and away from people? What could be done to stop this person?

EDIT: To those wondering if this man has a lifespan, as the title says, he is immortal and is not impaired by age. Another is that this scenario is taking place in our current time (2019) and this is taking place in the United States.

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    $\begingroup$ I didn't want to simply say "This man has superhuman strength" because I see that as vague, so I used an animal to make it a bit more simple. I will add the power of an elephant into the question though. Basically the guy can exert that power but the "magic"/anomaly is him just not taking damage. The protocol I wish to achieve is to stop this man by containment or something similar and how would humanity go about doing this. $\endgroup$
    – malikc6
    Commented Apr 16, 2019 at 12:39
  • $\begingroup$ Does this guy need to breath? $\endgroup$
    – hszmv
    Commented Apr 16, 2019 at 13:29
  • $\begingroup$ In the post, it says that depriving him of oxygen has no effect on him. He does not need air. $\endgroup$
    – malikc6
    Commented Apr 16, 2019 at 13:34
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    $\begingroup$ We do have the means to contain elephants. And "entering a state of rage to attack without thinking or planning" should make it easy enough to bait him wherever we need him to go. $\endgroup$
    – Steve-O
    Commented Apr 16, 2019 at 17:45
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    $\begingroup$ The poor guy just doesn't stand a chance... hard to feel sorry for a psycopathic mass murder though... He would have much better luck if he were a super intelligent immortal man. $\endgroup$
    – conman
    Commented Apr 16, 2019 at 19:55

16 Answers 16

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Incapacitate him

  1. Dig a hole, put murderer in the hole, pour concrete
  2. Dig a hole, put murderer in the hole, pour molten iron
  3. Cast murderer in steel, dump it in the ocean
  4. Launch it with the next satellite for deep space.
  5. ...

Honestly, the possibilities are infinite. Strong as an elephant is meaningless if he can't move. If he doesn't use a vehicle, you can circle around him all day (less refuelling) and ponder how to stop him.

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    $\begingroup$ Nets will work well for catching him. $\endgroup$
    – jamesqf
    Commented Apr 16, 2019 at 16:50
  • $\begingroup$ Yep, this answer. See the Ashtown Burials series for a detailed example. $\endgroup$
    – LarsH
    Commented Apr 16, 2019 at 17:20
  • $\begingroup$ No 1 happened to immortal/regenerating Captain Jack Harkness in Dr Who/Torchwood. He only escaped when ... spoilers! $\endgroup$
    – EveryBitHelps
    Commented Apr 16, 2019 at 17:33
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    $\begingroup$ Maybe his body is indestructible, but his mind will go completely blank after enough sensory deprivation... This was used in Fine Structure where an indestructible woman was trapped in bedrock. After a few months she was rescued, but her mind was completely erased by the sensory deprivation. $\endgroup$
    – vsz
    Commented Apr 16, 2019 at 18:31
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Imprison him in an indoor skydiving facility.

indoor skydiving facility

Superpowered earthbound killers are sort of frustrating to me. Doomsday, for example. Is there no-one in the DC world who can levitate people telekinetically? Can Superman not just puff him up into the air with superbreath, then puff again, and puff and puff while Batman figures out a longer term solution?

Once these Hulkish bruisers are off the ground, they have no leverage. They can flail about with good comic effect. Shouting is fine. They might be able to spit hard or throw stuff like a caged monkey. But that is about it.

So your psycho gets put in an indoor skydiving facility and there he stays, hovering. Sell tickets for people who want to watch the flailing. If you need him for your plot you can have someone come break him out.

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    $\begingroup$ Thank you! I thought I was the only one who believed the lanterns, Zatanna and others were so useless everytime Doomsday attacked. $\endgroup$
    – The Square-Cube Law
    Commented Apr 16, 2019 at 16:15
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    $\begingroup$ Better have a good UPS system for the facility, though. (Though maybe that's a plot element: he has allies who scheme to cut off the power in order to free him...) $\endgroup$
    – jamesqf
    Commented Apr 16, 2019 at 16:52
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    $\begingroup$ What is the purpose of the "skydiving facility" rather than just a very strong cage? You don't think he'd be able to make his way to one of the walls? $\endgroup$
    – BlueRaja - Danny Pflughoeft
    Commented Apr 16, 2019 at 18:49
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    $\begingroup$ It's actually very easy to move around while skydiving, indoor or otherwise. With a bit of practice, your killer should have no trouble reaching the walls or the floor. You'll need them to be strong enough to contain your subject anyways, so the levitation gains you nothing. $\endgroup$
    – Mark
    Commented Apr 16, 2019 at 19:59
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    $\begingroup$ Rather than using fans, which provide moving air to 'push off', seal him in a vacuum, contained within a tubular Bitter Electromagnet. Magnetic levitation in this manner has been demonstrated before - Andre Geim won a Nobel Prize in 2000 for levitating a live Frog $\endgroup$
    – Chronocidal
    Commented Apr 17, 2019 at 10:38
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Assuming he can be contained, launch him into Jupiter. Not the sun: the sun has flares and coronal mass ejections that might fling him back out. Dump him into Jupiter. He'd stop sinking in the supercritical hydrogen layer a few thousand kilometers down and be stuck there for at least a few billion years until the sun entered the white dwarf stage and Jupiter started cooling, but it could be another few billion years after that before it cooled enough to give him a frozen surface he could actually walk on.

If anyone started strip-mining Jupiter for the mass before then, one would assume they'd have sufficient technology to deal with him another way like firing him into a black hole.

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    $\begingroup$ Immortal, invulnerable, murderous hatred for other humans. Sending him to see what happens inside a black hole sounds like a perfect solution for all concerned. Have my +1 $\endgroup$
    – Steve-O
    Commented Apr 16, 2019 at 17:42
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    $\begingroup$ Well, issue is we can't do that right now. On the other hand, we do have the technical capacity to drop him into Jupiter. All you'd need is a big-ass launcher, a small capsule that holds him and his restraints (no life support needed, obviously), a small RTG to power a camera or two and beacon/transmitter so you could monitor him en route, and some small maneuvering thrusters for final approach. Since you're not looking at anything fancy like going into orbit, fire him on a least-time ballistic trajectory. $\endgroup$
    – Keith Morrison
    Commented Apr 16, 2019 at 19:24
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    $\begingroup$ Well, we could fire him into a black hole, just encase him in graphene augmented cement, and then put him in a capsule fired at a ballistic trajectory toward a black hole, and well due to there being nothing in space to slow down the capsule, in a few thousand years he'll end up in the black hole. $\endgroup$
    – Efialtes
    Commented Apr 16, 2019 at 19:59
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    $\begingroup$ @Efialtes I doubt we could aim well enough to hit a black hole, even if we had a candidate to aim for. For instance, we certainly couldn't hit the black hole in the center of the galaxy. Orbital dynamics and modern rockets make that impossible. $\endgroup$
    – conman
    Commented Apr 16, 2019 at 20:44
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    $\begingroup$ @Efialtes that also risks him becoming a Khan to some future Kirk when a hapless spaceship that is faster than the rocket you stuck him on happens upon him. $\endgroup$
    – asgallant
    Commented Apr 16, 2019 at 21:31
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Make him depressed, he wont get out of bed.

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    $\begingroup$ Remember that answers are expected to explain why the proposed solution is the best. One-liners are strongly discouraged and likely to be flagged for being inadequate, as this one was. $\endgroup$
    – Frostfyre
    Commented Apr 16, 2019 at 17:38
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    $\begingroup$ Gently disagree with the flagging. I think this answer is complete, with no further explanation necessary. $\endgroup$
    – user535733
    Commented Apr 16, 2019 at 17:40
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    $\begingroup$ How would one succeed in making this individual depressed? What would be your method on making this man so depressed that he cannot function? $\endgroup$
    – malikc6
    Commented Apr 17, 2019 at 4:36
  • $\begingroup$ @malikc6 Teaching him that his goal is mathematically impossible might do it. $\endgroup$
    – Jedediah
    Commented Apr 17, 2019 at 20:15
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Teach him math

Poor invulnerable psychotic misanthropic man... He's taken on an impossible task. There are 7.5 billion people. To kill us all in a year would require slaughtering more than 20,000,000 people a day. This seems implausible.

Killing 500 people a day, it would take him around 40,000 years to manage 7.5 billion - but over that long a period, that would scarcely dent population growth!

One invincible psychotic murderer simply cannot get the job done. The mathematics don't pan out.

Now, if he just takes it easy and waits however many centuries or millennia it takes for us to go nearly extinct... As long as we don't become an interstellar species, he just needs patience - and a good grasp of math.

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    $\begingroup$ Yeah that's great til he decides to switch up his tactics and head for the nearest nuclear missile base... $\endgroup$
    – Harabeck
    Commented Apr 16, 2019 at 21:26
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    $\begingroup$ @Harabeck Since, of course, anybody can walk into a nuclear missile base (clearly pointed by signs almost everywhere), and just launch precises nuclear strike (he is not good at maths, but he will figure it out) by pressing the big red button clearly labelled "End of the world"... I think it's a tad more complex than just walking in. Unless he is also president of USA (place of the question) and has the nuclear launch codes. Jedediah is right, it doesn't add up. Dewi Morgan adress the problem at length in his answer. $\endgroup$
    – Nyakouai
    Commented Apr 17, 2019 at 8:04
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    $\begingroup$ @Nyakouai, ok, so he won't end the world that way. But has teaching him the math helped stop him? That was my point. If he starts targeting military bases or gathering followers or something, we haven't contained him. You don't if or how explaining the math will affect the immortal murderer. Getting him to give up is a humorous but unlikely possibility. $\endgroup$
    – Harabeck
    Commented Apr 17, 2019 at 14:09
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I looked up the SCP you mentioned, and I don't see how you could possibly stop him. It explicitly says he can't be stopped.

So I'm gonna ignore that part, and go with the Jason example. Lure him into a pit or room somewhere, and pour concrete on him. Once it cures, dispose of him however you like. Launch him into a graveyard orbit, drop him into Jupiter or the sun, or bury him in a subduction zone so he'll sink into the mantle.

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Subvert his personality co-opt him - turn him into a superhero.

Anger management.

After catching him with a net, drop him in a teflon coated slippery bowl, surround the bowl with a fence and see-through plastic shield (only needs to be strong enough to stop people falling in), then invite the public to come gawp at him and mock him.

No doubt he will rage and rage, quite impotentley of course, he will be mocked about this.

This would count as exposure tharapy in the first stage of:

Cognitive behavioural therapy.

First an assesment would have produced clear triggers for the murderous rage: humans. Thus the exposure above.

He would then be given councelling, if necessary by remote (no image of a human need be seen at first) to encourage him to develope strategies of coping with his anger.

A variety of therapies may be given: CPT, Stress innoculation (psychological resillience therapy, Relaxation Training, ACT.

Ultimatley he will learn to accept his urges and private feelings without the necessity of acting upon them, understand better the context of his life and be free to chose to act for the benefit of all.

Either that or he can have raw custard (dilatant non-newtonian fluid) poured on him to a depth that he finds disagreeable and just let him live there in the bowl. There is a video, fast forward to 7.30 to start to see the point of the effect (beware - terrible jokes allert) 14 minutes in the guy starts to panic.

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Virtual Reality imprisonment

Build a machine that constrains his motion, and turns it into power. Imprison him in a virtual reality machine, giving him the satisfaction of chasing and killing an infinite number of humans, meanwhile all of his efforts produce enough power to keep a small city lit up.

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  • $\begingroup$ Do we have the technology to pull this off? $\endgroup$
    – malikc6
    Commented Apr 17, 2019 at 4:47
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I don't see why restraining him would take anything more than a typical prison inmate? Maybe a somewhat reinforced cell? Invulnerable and immortal makes no difference, since you don't want to hurt or kill your inmates. The only important super ability he has is that he's a bit strong. So long as your cell would withstand a smart inmate with a crowbar and a winch, then you're good.

But first, you have to capture and restrain him. Assuming he's "invulnerable" to everything, so tasers and gasses won't work, some kind of entrapment would work - a pit trap, for example.

The encasement that others have suggested (mortar, lava, etc) should be safe since he can't accidentally be harmed. By the same measure, you could just enclose him ny driving at him with a truck.

Or what about just playing golf with him and a bunch of RPGs? Consider, you have a pit trap in a golf course. You've lured him to the golf course. Your goal is to knock him into the pit trap by shooting him with high explosives.

There's one guy with essentially zero anti-capture super powers other than "push/punch door", and he can't push a door with 9 tonnes of force since unless he has something to brace against. Exactly how far does he expect to get?

So let's flip the question around. So, we're That Guy. We can't be hurt or killed, and we're pretty strong, but we can be captured, and we're susceptible to losing our mind around people. We need to kill as many people as possible, preferably All The People.

Bombs... just won't kill enough. Going out into crowds, we won't be able to kill nearly as many and will risk capture.

And we need to kill them FAST. A few years, tops. The more time we take, the more likely they are to capture us.

So, what other options are there?

  • We can leap onto air liners and plough them into buildings and walk away and grab more air liners and rinse and repeat, but after the first few all planes will be grounded and we'll just be shot down on takeoff. We'd kill hundreds, maybe thousands if we're lucky. We need to be thinking at least in the hundreds of thousands.
  • Ocean liners. We could probably sink and destroy a few without being discovered before people stopped using them. But say we hit the top ten biggest ones in one fell sweep, in the first day. About five thousand per ship, assuming they're full. That's fifty thousand people, which is a decent number. Now we just need to equal or top that kill rate every hour for the next twenty years or so... OK, this isn't going to work.
  • What if we destroy all nuclear plants? Most are built to survive a direct impact from an airplane, but possibly not a fully loaded Airbus A380. The reason to do this is to just make much of the planet unlivable, reducing our target area. Except... we'd need to destroy an insane number of them before we'd make any significant dent in the livable surface area, and I'm unsure there even are that many (anyone want to do the math?) Plus, after the first few, the rest would be temporarily decommissioned or protected against the plane attack method, so we'd need other approaches.
  • OK, so it's all-out thermonuclear war, or nothing. But how do we start thermonuclear war? All the systems are guarded. Even if we broke into a nuclear depot, how would we fire the missiles? How do we figure out all the interlocks and safety protocols and authentication requirements? The only real way is to get into the design team.
  • OK, bioweapons, then. The only real way there, again, is to get into a bioweapons research team.

There is one final option, but it would take some luck.

Invest in pot, lots of pot, enough to keep you mellow even in large crowds. Always be stoned, your cover depends on not going Hulk. Invest in an internet startup. Become rich enough to start up some companies (this is the luck part). Start up a successful space research company (takes more luck, or at least a fanatical level of determination to see it through). Create some truly massive rockets. Begin many other companies with philanthropic goals to get a following with religious, unquestioning fervor. Get the company to the point where it is regularly sending interplanetary ships. Get some of your followers to agree to a mission where they attach rockets to space rocks for space mining in orbit around your lunar facility. Attach the rockets to something which is about 60 miles (100km) in diameter.

Do the maneuver perfectly, exactly as you had told your investors, bringing it safely into orbit around the moon... except, once it is hidden from all those pesky earth-based observers by the moon, have the rockets change the path to an orbital slingshot which ploughs the rock into the Earth, wiping out all life other than the few employees you have left in space, who will be easy to mop up.

How would you stop or restrain such a man? Basically the same way as any other man, as I said above. But first, you need to know that you needed to stop him.

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  • $\begingroup$ Is that you, Elon? $\endgroup$
    – No Name
    Commented May 20, 2023 at 1:18
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Build a pit in a granite formation, say 10x10 hole, 20 feet deep. Disguise the opening. Place bait (ie distressed damsel) on opposite side of pit.

Mindless rage monster runs at the damsel and falls in pit.

Drop a 9.5 x 9.5 x 9.5 stone cube on top of rage monster. Fill remainder of hole with cement or lime slurry.

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tl;dr- He'd get restrained by chains, then become a test subject at some secret research facility with the goal of discovering how his body apparently violates the known laws of physics.

He'd be wrapped in chains, then studied.

We'd probably just wrap him up in some chains until a more customized aperture could be constructed. Probably something like a steel suit, except it wouldn't be mobile or cover all of him. That way he'd be restrained, but scientists would still have easy access.

Some answers have suggested blasting him off into space – which would seem like a neat idea, if we actually wanted to get rid of him. But, we wouldn't. Because he's freakin' invulnerable!

I mean, seriously, the guy can survive being strapped to a hydrogen bomb? Can he survive the hottest temperatures we have, above which all of our current materials melt? Such amazing abilities would make him an incredible scientific curiosity!

It'd probably be the case where the first major military that hears about him will steal him off to some research facility and cover up any claims of him having existed.

Note: He's not that strong.

In terms of physical strength, his maximum output is equal to that of a bull elephant (estimated to be able to lift 9000kg.

His max lift of $9000 \, \mathrm{kg} ,$ while impressive for a human, is still beneath the rated working limit for many common chains, much less our strongest chains, much less many chains. So he's super-strong for an individual, but a far cry from being unstoppable.

This answer's based on his strength being so easily contained. If he were orders-of-magnitude stronger, then other suggestions based on containing him using fire-hose-like techniques would make more sense.

But as long as he can't control his momentum, e.g. as superheroes who have the power to magically fly, he's not that dangerous to a prepared society. Like any murderer, he may be unfortunately dangerous at the start of his rampage, but he wouldn't be too much of a technical problem once people know about him and have some time to prepare.

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This answer is based on the information given in your question.1

Aside from being immortal and invulnerable, the only advantage of this superhuman is their strength. Thus by negating the strength advantage you effectively have them neutralized.

How do we negate the strength advantage?

I am glad you asked, simply put them under pressure. Find a means to apply a constant pressure upon them, greater than the force they can apply and you are done. You could e.g. make use of hydraulics to build up a pressure differential they are put in-between.

1I did not look up any of the mentioned pop-culture phenomena as they are neither linked nor inlined and thus not actively relevant

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Your magma bath is ready

I'm sorry, has it gotten cold?

Using bait (death row inmate / cardboard cut out of Bob Ross) lure the man/creature into a location where you can pour liquid metal or magma (substance that is currently liquid but will harden at room temperature) on them. Making sure that the substance once harden is harder than what the man/creature can break.

After the first pour as long as the creature is partly covered you can repeat the process over and over again. Each time you would be able to cover more of the creature. At one point the creature will be gone, trapped inside the metal casing.

Now don't stop. Keep pouring layer after layer. Every year or so engineers/scientists compete to see who has the strongest/hardest material. The winner will have their material chosen as the next layer.

When the technology bubble pops and humanity is thrown back into the dark ages. Hopefully there is enough layers wrapped around this creature to keep them trapped until technology catches up again.

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  • $\begingroup$ Magma is a bad choice - being denser than humans, it would not submerse him. Instead, he would just float on/through the liquid rock until he could escape the pit. In fact, Magma is dense enough that your invulnerable man could pretty much walk on it like a waterbed. Many metals would have the same issue. $\endgroup$
    – Chronocidal
    Commented Apr 17, 2019 at 10:44
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    $\begingroup$ Now what do you think if it is showered onto them. How much volume of magma would need to be dropped over their head so that they didn't start on top of the magma but had to "swim" out of it while it's (magma) viscosity increased (hardened). $\endgroup$
    – Tolure
    Commented Apr 17, 2019 at 13:05
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  1. Bolt and chain,
  2. Wall, and/or
  3. Maximum security prison setup.

Cemented ground (so a dirt ramp cannot be constructed, sturdy wall, added chain if you're able to get near him. Reinforce these regularly. Determine his range and start with your reinforced fence / wall outside the amount of time it will take to construct; then continually reinforce it indefinitely.

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There are multiple people suggesting that they fling him into a planet or a star or what ever... of course, how do you stop the unstoppable? More importantly, if this is your option, why stop the unstoppable? Just fling him into space on a trajectory away from Earth. Since space is a vacuum, he'll never stop, just like he wants... but he also can't get to anything to provide that equal and opposite reaction to return home. He just drifts away in space forever... A human Voyager.

See, space is really big and the likelihood of hitting something at all is really small... you could go light years and never have an impact

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Dig a deep hole, build a big bonfire in it, once the fire is burned out, and all that remains is ashes, surround the hole with people for him to murder. When he comes over to murder the people run up behind him, and kick him in the ash hole.

With sufficiently deep ashes (like up to his waist), after allowing him to thrash around for a bit down there, he'll be covered in ash, which will help the steel stick to him. Then you dump molten steel on him, the molten steel will cover his top, but the ashes will prevent him from climbing on top of it. The first layer should be around a foot or so thick, and once it's hardened, you should have encased him fairly well up to the hip. After that it's a matter of doing that a layer at a time so he can't somehow swim up through the molten steel if too much is added at once. Once he's fully encased up to his hip over the head, you can either leave him there, and hope humanity has left by the time it breaks down, or you know, toss him into jupiter like a previous answer said.

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    $\begingroup$ Hello, Ted. Welcome to Worldbuilding.SE. As you can imagine, non-answers like this one (meant to be funny or not) aren't useful. We hope you'll take a moment to review our help center and learn more about us. It's a fun site and frequently challenging. But this post will probably get deleted. $\endgroup$
    – JBH
    Commented Apr 16, 2019 at 20:05
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    $\begingroup$ I mean, a deep hole that he can't climb out of might actually be a decent answer. Nothing in the question says he'd be capable of climbing out of one. I still think you should rewrite this answer to be a bit more serious, though. $\endgroup$
    – F1Krazy
    Commented Apr 16, 2019 at 20:46
  • $\begingroup$ You say: "he'll be covered in ash, which will help the steel stick to him", that's great and all, but you could tell us where the steel might have come from. I agree with F1, a re-write'll make this a good answer. $\endgroup$
    – Escaped dental patient.
    Commented Apr 16, 2019 at 22:33

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