Friday, March 22, 2013

Super Power




If you could have one super power, what would it be?

Understand you get only one power and nothing else changes.

So if, for example, you want to run faster than a speeding locomotive, you can.  You can run at top speed like The Flash for just as long as you can run at your top speed right now. You’d cover more ground but you couldn’t run for a longer period of time.

If, instead, you want to run for a longer duration, you can have that power but your typical running speed would be the same as now.  You could cover more ground but you wouldn’t win any more sprints than before. 

You can have X-ray vision for as long as you can go without blinking right now. Ditto for night vision.  Would you be satisfied with glimpses?

Strength or endurance. Endurance or strength.  Not both. Lift a car and hold it in the air over your head like Superman for as long as you can hold up the heaviest weight you can lift as ordinary you. Or continue past your current ability to hold aloft something as heavy as the weight you can press overhead under ordinary circumstances.

How about flying through the air? Sounds good, of course keep in mind you can fly in the air just as fast as you can walk along the ground.  You carry something with you for as long as you can carry the same thing while walking. And you’d better hope it doesn’t rain. Lightning would be frightening. 

Read minds? User beware.  I don’t recommend that one.   At all.

What’s your choice?  

7 comments:

  1. Dang, I'd fly but don't want to go that slow! And there's that whole bugs-in-your-teeth issue. Maybe I'd reverse time instead...

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  2. I think I would increase my memory. But then maybe then my brain would become so clogged that I'd have trouble sleeping at night. Still, I'd like to at least remember the names of all those I come across who seem to remember me.

    Maybe I'd increase my energy and endurance level so I could get more gardening and yard work done and still come in refreshed and ready to write or clean the house.

    I think I'd like to increase my will power so I only ate things good for me and not be tempted by things that are sweet or not so good for me.

    But then, Warren, you said only one. Maybe I'd like to be able to make concise and good decisions without dithering back and forth.

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  3. Invisibility. No contest. And I could be invisibile for as long as. . . I can now be visible?

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  4. I'd like the super power of not needing to sleep. I could accomplish so many things and save money because I wouldn't need to buy coffee.

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  5. I'd like power over time. If I controlled time, I wouldn't need to have many of the other superpowers. If I could stop time, then I could take my time getting anywhere and still arrive on time. It would seem as if I'm traveling at the speed of light to everyone else. I'd also like to see the past and the future, which I think would be possible if I controlled time.

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  6. I think I'd take the going without sleep superpower. I could go without sleep without any of the problems normal humans suffer when they don't sleep. It would double my time to get things done. In essence, doubling my lifespan.

    Years ago, Larry Block wrote a series of novels about Tanner, a spy who'd had his sleep center in the brain destroyed while in Korea (based on actual cases of such injuries in the Korean War).

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  7. A perfect memory. Perfect including the ability to deal with it all.
    Going without sleep sounded good too. I keep dozing off during my favorite shows at Prime Time.

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