If you had superpowers what would they be?

  • Thread starter Thread starter X-43D
  • Start date Start date
Click For Summary
The discussion centers around the appeal and potential applications of various superpowers, with participants expressing preferences for abilities like invulnerability, intangibility, super-strength, flight, and teleportation. Many contributors highlight the versatility of shape-shifting, emphasizing its potential for creativity and fun. The conversation also touches on the philosophical implications of superpowers, such as the loneliness of immortality and the unpredictability of omniscience. Participants debate the practicality of powers like mind reading and time travel, while some humorously suggest powers that would allow for personal gain, like generating money or manipulating others. The overarching theme reflects a fascination with the implications of superpowers on life, society, and personal experiences, with a mix of serious and lighthearted tones throughout the exchanges.
  • #31
Shape shifting!
Its the most wicked super cool amazing power worth having!
What are you people thinking?
Shape SHIFTING!
 
Physics news on Phys.org
  • #32
cyrusabdollahi said:
Another good one would be the ability to travel in time.
We all do that.
 
  • #33
You can't go forwards, and you can't go backwards in time. That's what I'd call no ability to time travel.
 
Last edited:
  • #34
cyrusabdollahi said:
Ok, and? Thats still not a superpower, is it?
I'm not talking about The Matrix.

I guess if the universe were my personal dream then I could do anything I have the ability to imagine. Basically, I would have all super-powers. So I'd instantly think of all the possibilities of every possible combination of events right down to the atomic structure and experience them all. Then I'd be bored and wonder what is real that is beyond my imagination. What am I missing?

My super-power would be the choice to discover what happens to dreams when the dreamer awakes and to understand what is more real than this reality. What happens to something if there is no observer to observe it? If I am dreaming and realize I am dreaming then I can feel the difference between the dream and reality. So if I suddenly realize I am dreaming now, what would the new reality be like. Would it feel more real than this one?

Having a super-power is like being a big fish in a little pond. Can you imagine a world where everyone could time-travel or shape-shift or be invisible or dominate minds? Maybe it's my own pessimistic view of humanity, but the abuses of these abilities seem to outweigh the benefits to me. Super-powers are super because they are rare. It's being the big fish.

I'd rather be a small fish in an ocean of experiences larger than I can imagine.
 
  • #35
This is somewhat randon and is certianly no super power:
If I was really fat my goal would be to find wooden chairs, sit on them and break them.:smile:
 
  • #36
The ability to tell the future, even if it were only for a short time, would trump all the other powers. You would know where others were going to punch, where the bullets were going to fly and what the stock market was going to do (hey! every super hero needs money). And best of all, what questions were going to be on the test.
 
  • #37
radou said:
I'd like to be able to see through womens clothes. Sometimes. :biggrin: o:)

Actually, I'm kidding. Hell, I wouldn't like to have this super power. Things wouldn't be fun.
Hah, that's why I refuse to go into any stripclubs. Don't ever want to be desensitized.
 
  • #38
wildman said:
The ability to tell the future, even if it were only for a short time, would trump all the other powers. You would know where others were going to punch, where the bullets were going to fly and what the stock market was going to do (hey! every super hero needs money). And best of all, what questions were going to be on the test.
I agree, especially if you had a high amount of control over it and with a large range. It would definitely be the second most powerful. The first, of course, being the ability to give yourself new superpowers :biggrin:
 
  • #39
Huckleberry said:
I'm not talking about The Matrix.

I guess if the universe were my personal dream then I could do anything I have the ability to imagine. Basically, I would have all super-powers. So I'd instantly think of all the possibilities of every possible combination of events right down to the atomic structure and experience them all. Then I'd be bored and wonder what is real that is beyond my imagination. What am I missing?
The whole 'Omnipotence would be boring' argument makes no sense to me. It's impossible to predict what existence would be like for someone who wasn't confined by human mortality. It might be boring, it might be something completely different, we can't even begin to speculate.
Gale said:
Shape shifting!
Its the most wicked super cool amazing power worth having!
What are you people thinking?
Shape SHIFTING!
Yeah, I guess it'd be cool to be a girl for a day. :smile:
 
  • #40
mathwonk said:
as in the mel gibson movie, knowing what women are thinking.
Just women? Why not all people? That'd be cool. Oh, and you'd have to have a translation power as well. And why stop at people, all sentient life! Solve the question of animal intelligence once and for all. Imagine the look on Greenpeaces' face when you tell them whales only ever think about McDonalds.
 
  • #41
Maybe the ability to shapeshift into two people, one man and one woman, and then give new meaning to the phrase "go..."
 
  • #42
:smile: That's awesome. I'd totally do that if I had the superpower. Pure Awesomeness.
 
  • #43
told you shape shifting was the bestest. Imagine the possibilities! Why stop and just being men and women? You could be a man and a tree, a woman and a horse, a caterpillar and a french fry... Shape shifting would be the funnest power. hands down.
 
  • #44
Psycho Kinetic ability and teleportation. Those two would trump anything.
 
  • #45
whats psycho kinetic?
 
  • #46
crazy excersize?
 
  • #47
worst superpower ever.
 
  • #48
Seriously though, I've considered this a long time. Shape shifting is the way to go. In theory, you would never die of old age right? and you could look like anything. Its as good as being invisible. and you wouldn't ever need tools and stuff, cause you could just shift it into your hand. Plus, shape shifting would be super fun!
 
  • #49
It's probably one of the easier ones to shrug off scientifically too. I mean, your cell's re-organizing themselves makes more sense than, say, flight (wing-less), invulnerability, the other 'traditional' ones.
 
  • #50
Getting the pants off of women would better anything though... hmmm... combine that with telekenesis, and you really have something...
 
  • #51
Smurf said:
It's probably one of the easier ones to shrug off scientifically too. I mean, your cell's re-organizing themselves makes more sense than, say, flight (wing-less), invulnerability, the other 'traditional' ones.

Dunno... what if you could change the behavior of individual cells? Like say, something like stem cells maturing into different types of cells...
 
  • #52
cyrusabdollahi said:
You can't go forwards (in time).
Yes I can. We all can.
 
  • #53
Gale said:
told you shape shifting was the bestest. Imagine the possibilities! Why stop and just being men and women? You could be a man and a tree, a woman and a horse, a caterpillar and a french fry...

...or a loudspeaker with a hunk of beef on its top.
 
  • #54
The powers i'd like to have are invulnerability to physical injuries and to all physical attacks, intangibility with the ability to phase through solid and liquid objects, ability to fly through sheer force of will, tactile telekinesis, super-strength, super-speed, heat vision, freeze vision, ability to see through solid matter, and cosmic energy absorption to increase strength.
 
  • #55
X-43D said:
The powers i'd like to have are invulnerability to physical injuries and to all physical attacks, intangibility with the ability to phase through solid and liquid objects, ability to fly through sheer force of will, tactile telekinesis, super-strength, super-speed, heat vision, freeze vision, ability to see through solid matter, and cosmic energy absorption to increase strength.

Aren't those the abilities of the martian mahunter?
 
  • #56
Kurdt said:
Aren't those the abilities of the martian mahunter?

Yes some of them, not all. Freeze vision is actually a power of Bizarro.
 
  • #57
I think Gale has the best superpower nailed. If you could turn into anyone/anything at will, you could be invisible anywhere (like paint on a wall, or grass on a lawn) or make your hands into tools at will, like the advanced Terminators.
 
  • #58
or turn into a bird and learn how to fly.
 
  • #59
or heal your body, prevent it from aging, and get a new hairstyle every day!

Its the ultimate power because its so versatile, but at the same time, not so powerful that life would lose meaning or fun.
 
  • #60
Gale said:
or heal your body, prevent it from aging, and get a new hairstyle every day!

Its the ultimate power because its so versatile, but at the same time, not so powerful that life would lose meaning or fun.
Yeah, can you imagine how dull life would be if you were omniscient? I wouldn't wish that on an enemy.
 

Similar threads

Is the US abandoning its position as a science superpower?
  • · Replies 48 ·
2
Replies
48
Views
9K
What superpowers would you choose?
  • · Replies 67 ·
3
Replies
67
Views
7K
Protagonist wants to meet his exact clone
  • · Replies 41 ·
2
Replies
41
Views
6K
What Mundane Superpowers Would You Choose?
  • · Replies 20 ·
Replies
20
Views
3K
What Makes Darmok the Best Episode of Star Trek: TNG?
  • · Replies 4 ·
Replies
4
Views
1K
Plotting My Air Flight Path from Photos
  • · Replies 24 ·
Replies
24
Views
3K
Project Orion Revisited: Is Nuclear Propulsion the Future of Space Travel?
  • · Replies 13 ·
Replies
13
Views
2K
How much kicking power would a horse lose with human feet instead of hooves?
  • · Replies 5 ·
Replies
5
Views
840
Royal Society, French Academy of Sciences
  • · Replies 6 ·
Replies
6
Views
1K
Does energy currency make sense?
  • · Replies 4 ·
Replies
4
Views
1K