Pick your super-power

[Medium Brumski]

The Kansas City Uncle show got me thinking about this. I came up with, what I feel, is a better list of possible super-powers.

[the1thepwnly]

just because im a nerd and need clarification before i pick a fake super power i will never have...
1. precognition- do i determine what/when i see. or is it the shitty ones that make better movies where i just see flashes of shit i dont wanna see so i have to do good. i wanna flash on the lottery numbers or something

2. time travel- is this a time machine like doctor who, must i stay in my time line (butterfly effect), can i bring people with me, am i not allowed to fuck with time, am i allowed to step into my own time line

3. telepathy- does it come with mind control/inceptioning/retrieving information

[FletchLives]

of course i would vote for energy control. everything in existence has energy. to control energy would make you God of all that is.

[Medium Brumski]

This is what I wanted

Originally Posted by the1thepwnly

just because im a nerd and need clarification before i pick a fake super power i will never have...
1. precognition- do i determine what/when i see. or is it the shitty ones that make better movies where i just see flashes of shit i dont wanna see so i have to do good. i wanna flash on the lottery numbers or something

2. time travel- is this a time machine like doctor who, must i stay in my time line (butterfly effect), can i bring people with me, am i not allowed to fuck with time, am i allowed to step into my own time line

3. telepathy- does it come with mind control/inceptioning/retrieving information

For telepathy & precognition, assume no drawbacks, you have complete control, and you can actually make perfect sense of whatever you see or hear, and can pick where or who you're getting it from. But for telepathy, you can read minds, and talk mind-to-mind, if you can use that for inception, then you're as clever as that Nolan guy, but no, you can't inherently dominate another person.

Time travel is a hard one, you can absolutely fuck things up, but if you create a paradox that makes you your own grandfather, or blows up the universe, that's on you. You can bring someone with you, sure, and I don't think butterfly effect style would be that fun. I'll add that time travel moves you thru time, not space, so if you are in your house and travel to, say 1 A.D. you'll be in the same location as your house is in now, you don't also get teleported to where you want to be at that time. But of course you can alleviate that problem by traveling to where you want to be first.

Originally Posted by FletchLives

of course i would vote for energy control. everything in existence has energy. to control energy would make you God of all that is.

I meant specific energy, like Magneto, Human Torch, Iceman, maybe even Cyclops, I'm sure there is some gravity controlling super hero somewhere. I actually debated the most about adding this one, but I figured what if someone really just wants to set things on fire, or shoot lasers at people, who am I to say that that's not allowed in ImaginationLand.

[FletchLives]

Originally Posted by Medium Brumski

I meant specific energy, like Magneto, Human Torch, Iceman, maybe even Cyclops, I'm sure there is some gravity controlling super hero somewhere. I actually debated the most about adding this one, but I figured what if someone really just wants to set things on fire, or shoot lasers at people, who am I to say that that's not allowed in ImaginationLand.

can i shoot shit like a fucking super sayan? if yes, i still pick energy control.

[hellbent]

There was an interesting podcast on This American Life where that PC guy from those mac commercials uses a superpower question to break the ice at parties. You could only pick 1 power out of 2, it was either flight or invisibility.
Most people picked flight because (like KATG said, invisibility is just for perverts)

Heres a few pros/cons I thought up....

Telepathy: you can read minds. hooray. like the pepsi max commercial all youd hear from guys is 'i wanna sleep with her'
Telekinesis: i might pick this becuase im very lazy. with this power i dont have to get up and could just float a sandwich from the counter to me.
Flight: would be fun but teleportation is faster.
Teleportation: i would probably pick this one, unless your clothes dont go with you.
Time Travel: neat. i could go back and pants hitler until he offs himself.
Energy Control: I suppose I could turn off/on lights without getting up.
Invincibility: probably the most useful
Super-strength: being able to lift cars and crap might be useful, but someone could still shoot you and then the car would fall on your head.
Precognition: a little more useful, youd be able to detect if someones going to shoot you.
Super-speed: being superfast might be fun, but not during sex.

[FletchLives]

hellbent, i find your pros and cons shallow.

[the1thepwnly]

Originally Posted by FletchLives

hellbent, i find your pros and cons shallow.

my thoughts exactly

i hope you were looking for a discussion/debate and not just opinions.

Heres my few pros/cons/questions I thought up...

Telepathy: can i focus on certain people and have the ability to turn it off when i want, say at the library or at a football game?

Telekinesis: really good for lazy me, easy to steal and never have to work, become great basketball player or baseball pitcher.

Flight: i fucking HATE the subway, could be cool to fly, do i get tired like with running, is there a max speed i can fly?

Teleportation: kind of a waste, you get one super power and you use it to cut down travel time, or use it to rob banks but still get caught on camera and be hunted, escape from jail, be hunted again

Time Travel: just because you can travel in time doesnt mean you become instantly popular or important. just because you time travel doesnt mean you can kill hitler, what makes you think you can get closer to him them millions of soldiers that failed. how do you expect to fuck cleopatra when we have so many hot people now and you can't score with them.

Energy Control: itd be cool to never need a stove, oven, weapon, microwave, lighter ever again. can you control it? if you orgasm do you accidentally shoot off some fire, what about if you sneeze. if super sayan, do you get super tired and have to compensate by having a phelps like diet to not die of exhaustion.

Invincibility: would you really like to live forever, watch everything you love die around you, (watch the man from earth for all the cool philosophical arguments against this)? do you get hurt at all? do you age/when do you stop aging?

Super-strength: how super? can i lift a car, an airplane, a train, can i throw a person into space?

Precognition: is there a limit to what i can see, time, distance etc.

Super-speed: faster then the flash? speed of light? can i run around the world and turn back time? do i get tired or can i just run for infinity?

this has already become the thread i have contributed to the most (besides film club and last movie you watched)

[DWarrior]

Invisibility is useful if your goal is to infiltrate heavily armored bases, but I wouldn't use my super-power for that.

As far as Energy Control goes, fluxquanta will have to chime in on this, but energy isn't really something physical that can be manipulated directly, it's a measurement of other stuff.

Time Travel: just because you can travel in time doesnt mean you become instantly popular or important. just because you time travel doesnt mean you can kill hitler, what makes you think you can get closer to him them millions of soldiers that failed. how do you expect to fuck cleopatra when we have so many hot people now and you can't score with them.

You can easily kill hitler by going back to when he's 12 y/o and abduct+murder him on the way back from school. You don't have to wait until he's the leader of the Third Reich and lives in a bunker.

Teleportation: kind of a waste, you get one super power and you use it to cut down travel time, or use it to rob banks but still get caught on camera and be hunted, escape from jail, be hunted again

A lot of people seem to work so they can afford to travel. Plus you can just put pop corn in the microwave, go chill at the space station for a few, then be back for the pop corn.

Invincibility: would you really like to live forever, watch everything you love die around you, (watch the man from earth for all the cool philosophical arguments against this)? do you get hurt at all? do you age/when do you stop aging?

This would probably be my choice given that I don't love anything. And I'm sure my psyche would cope with loss the 5th time around. The most important factor is how would you age? Do you look middle-aged forever so you never get carded or have to go through any other teenage bullshit? No deal if you look like a mummy.

[Medium Brumski]

I think you kind of need to assume the classic inherent drawbacks don't apply, otherwise you'll end up in the Unsure category.

The mind powers don't make you go crazy or make your head explode, you don't have to be naked to teleport or go invisible, you have total control, so you won't ever accidently rip anyone in half, you don't need a 300 million calorie diet to stay alive...