How unrealistic are super powers?

[Enigman]

Only with tech. Technology ROCKZ!

 

[zoobyshoe]

This is basically the answer I was looking for. So it is safe to say that there can be no life in the universe which has a super power, because to posses such a power would mean breaking the laws of physics?

If we define "superpower" as a power that contradicts the laws of physics, then, yes, it follows that there will be no life in the universe with superpowers.

So there is no possible way that for as long as humans are alive we will never be able to evolve an ability to read minds, move objects without touching them, turn invisible or interact with electricity without getting fried lol.

We can already do some version of all these things, but not in a way that violates the laws of physics. Rather than mention specific things it would be better to broadly assert that we will never evolve to the point where we can authentically violate the laws of physics. (That's pretty much tautological, I reckon, since we're going to define anything we can do as within the laws of physics, whether or not we've figured out what those laws are yet.)

 

[MathJakob]

OK I've just found this video and I'm stunned... it could be fake you never know with these shows but I'm not so sure.

This indian man can withstand massive amounts of electricity, his resistance is 10 times that of a normal persons and the electricity flows through his body to power light bulbs, fruit blenders and even a flat plate grill.

Although he says that he loses his vision a little when doing this... is this not an example that humans can have "super powers". OK it isn't exactly a super power but it goes against everything we know about electricity. Could you imagine how cool it would be to have a battery pack that was sending electricity through your body, you could touch people and zap them lol

 

[Pythagorean]

I'm sure whatever the case, it doesn't really go against biology or electricity. Biological systems are complex and diverse enough that some people will just have extreme properties, but it doesn't require a violation of laws of physics.

 

[zoobyshoe]

I watched the electric man video and can't think of any easy explanation for it.

The whole business about his resistance was garbled and unreliable, though. High resistance would hinder him from conducting electricity, not help.

They were measuring the resistance of his skin. This site says:

But if the electrocution is by an AC source, the epidermis's natural resistance is "shorted out", allowing the current to bypass that part of the body's resistance and making the body's total resistance much lower.

http://van.physics.illinois.edu/qa/listing.php?id=6793

My tentative wild guess, then, would be that he is a biological freak such that his skin offers vastly lower resistance than the average person's when "shorted out" by AC. This would make the current favor the path of his skin from one place to another and keep it away from his internal organs, particularly his heart.

They should have measured the voltage drop, if any, with him in the circuit, and I would like to have seen them take his skin temperature before and during the demonstration, to see if it got any hotter.

 

[MathJakob]

here is another dude who can do similar stuff lol. I wish there was a proper scientific study in these people not just some TV show looking to make money

 

[amos carine]

Just take a look around and list all the 'super' powers that life on this Earth has. Birds can fly, flying insects, spiders spin webs, a certain lizard can shoot blood out of its eye, insects use camouflage, a chameleon that can change color, carnivorous plants, stinky shunks, fish breathing through gill in water, exoskeletons, quilled pocupines, sonar from bats, bees that can see UV rays, and the list goes on. So right here on Earth there is a wide variety of adaptations that animals ( and plants ) do use to better their chances of survival that we know about.

I guess a really good super power, one that is more original, would have to be based on events generally not thought of as belonging to our biosphere.