I recently stumbled upon this useful list of superpowers (read: I searched for "superpowers" and clicked on the Wiki link). Some powers are pretty lame: prehensile/animated hair allows one to "animate and lengthen one's hair," while sonic scream allows one to "generate vocal sounds of a higher amplitude than a normal human." Come to think of it, maybe Susan Boyle is a superhero.
On the other hand, there are also some pretty awesome powers I had never considered, like probability manipulation, resurrection, and omniscience. Regarding probability manipulation, it's not clear what its limits are. Can one change the probability of an impossible event (one with a 0% chance of happening) to 1? Then anything one wanted would be possible, which seems a little abusive. Maybe one could manipulate the likelihood of only those events with a non-zero probability of occurring, keeping the impossible impossible. Yet quantum physics tells us that there is a non-zero probability of virtually anything happening (like walking through a wall); therefore this rule doesn't seem good enough. Perhaps one could only increase the probability of an event by some scale factor, so if the probability of walking through a wall is 10^(-1000), exercising this superpower would change that probability to only 5 x 10^(-1000) (multiplying the original probability by 5). Meanwhile, this supowerpower would allow events with a 20% chance of happening to occur with 100% certanty (assuming 5 is the scale factor).
I had long believed that my superpower of choice was time travel. In practice, time travel would allow me to achieve both teleportation and near-omniscience. For teleportation to a location on the same land mass (like somewhere in North America), I could simply walk or drive to that location and turn back time when I arrived; this way the "teleportation" would be instantaneous. Moreover, turning back time wouldn't change one's physical location (at least I don't think it would), so I'd still be in the same place I had traveled to. For water crossings, I could steal a boat or plane to reach my destination, and upon arrival, turn back time to erase any record of wrongdoing. (Note that I could also use the airplane method for long-distance land crossings.) "What if I crash?" you might ask. Simple: right before I crash, I'll turn back time! No problem is too difficult for time-traveling Jon.
Time travel would also allow me to achieve near-omniscience, because I could learn about anything on the earth, regardless of its location (remember teleportation) or its time. I could voyage back in time to see dinosaurs, cavemen, and anything else interesting, and I could leap forward in time to foresee future events, like the inevitable android takeover of human civilization.
Lastly, time travel would make me the most powerful human alive (if I so chose). Money would be easy to come by (just win the lottery), and my ability to accurately predict the future would generate the nationwide faith necessary to win me the Presidency. But I'd probably be too busy riding brontosauruses to run for President or do anything else that requires real work.
Time travel has its own problems, though. It's not clear whether I could change the past (the grandfather paradox). If I could, I would likely be doing so in a parallel universe. The problem is that I wouldn't want to enter a parallel universe, because the people just wouldn't be the same (would my mother in a parallel universe really be the same person she is in this one?). Perhaps it would be impossible to re-enter my original universe; if that were the case, traveling in time would be forever saying goodbye to the people I knew and loved.
There are other cons against time travel (like facing God's judgment for stealing hundreds of airplanes, abusing dinosaurs, etc.), but I think dooming myself to live as a lonely cosmic traveler is enough to make me reconsider which superpower is really the best.
Maybe one of you can choose omniscience, and then from your infinite knowledge let me know which power I should have. Until then, I'd be happy to hear your thoughts on which superpower you'd choose and why yours owns the shit out of everyone else's.
6 comments:
i would have the power to control water cuz then you could not only control the liquid, but you would be able to control the h20 molecules and get a little creative from there
So i find that time travel other than that would have its problems too. In the case that traveling time is within your own universe, that the future you predicted would have to come true no matter what. In this case, if you went to the future to get lottery numbers then you would also have to see your future self winning the lottery. In which case a paradox would ensue. If you were to go to win the lottery anyways you might as well travel to the future where you have already won. This makes you think that in a sense you never actually have to use your powers of going to the future to manipulate anything, but simply go to the time where you have already done so. Does that make sense? Granted its traveling to parallel universes, then using your powers to see in the future may not correlate with your current universe at all. That's why i decided that the best power is telekinesis. This would allow you to move yourself as well as other objects to manipulate things in your favor in the present. You could win the lottery by choosing which numbers would fall out with your mind. You could manipulate the actions of others to make you the president or other stuff. Telekinesis is like having a bunch of powers all at once except time travel. You can control water or make fire or anything. It would be the shit.
So i find that time travel other than that would have its problems too. In the case that traveling time is within your own universe, that the future you predicted would have to come true no matter what. In this case, if you went to the future to get lottery numbers then you would also have to see your future self winning the lottery. In which case a paradox would ensue. If you were to go to win the lottery anyways you might as well travel to the future where you have already won. This makes you think that in a sense you never actually have to use your powers of going to the future to manipulate anything, but simply go to the time where you have already done so. Does that make sense? Granted its traveling to parallel universes, then using your powers to see in the future may not correlate with your current universe at all. That's why i decided that the best power is telekinesis. This would allow you to move yourself as well as other objects to manipulate things in your favor in the present. You could win the lottery by choosing which numbers would fall out with your mind. You could manipulate the actions of others to make you the president or other stuff. Telekinesis is like having a bunch of powers all at once except time travel. You can control water or make fire or anything. It would be the shit.
Recently I've been thinking about time travel and I've been getting hooked on this one thing: say you don't "move" anywhere when you travel through time, but what is that relative to?
The Earth? Galaxy? Universe?
If it is not the earth, you will most likely find yourself in the middle of space, as the planets and stars keep moving.
I wouldn't wanna test that out, I'd just take my power of "being international bank robber and never getting caught or killed" Think about it - all the money you want, plus it is a super sexy occupation (ladies love danger) and you can work from home nowadays (online banking)
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