(no subject)
Karen and I had a really weirdly long and intense conversation tonight about super powers.
We've been watching Heroes, she's a little less than halfway through the first season, and I'm a little more than half way. She posed the question "which power would you pick?", it being understood that we could only select from ones she's seen in the series, which doesn't effect the outcome for various reasons.
Here are the ones we discussed:
Bending time and space
Flight
Regeneration
Telepathy
Telekinesis
Super memory
Super strength
Super.. persuasion
The ability to phase through solid objects
The ability to manipulate technology
The ability to emit radiation
The ability to paint/draw the future
The ability to absorb other people's powers
Intuitive understanding or whatever Sylar has
First things first: immediate throw aways. The ability to absorb other people's powers was eliminated, because the question does not specify whether there are other people with super powers, so that one could turn out useless. The ability to emit radiation is ruled right out, that's obviously like the worst power you could have if you have a significant other.
Second: disqualifications. These aren't things we would necessarily reject, but things that we don't have enough information to decide about. I don't know if we even really discussed intuitive understanding, which would be cool, but it's extremely vague so it's hard to say what the limits would be.
After a great deal of discussion, we disqualified the ability to bend time and space Hiro style. I was initially for it, because it's probably the most powerful ability. I was originally attracted to it simply because I have a lot of horrible regrets in my life that I would like to correct. This discussion first brought up the theme that there are two attitudes you can use to approach the selection of super powers: you can think about the effect it would have on your life as you live it and you can think about the biggest possible impact you could have on the world if you had that power. Often these concerns conflict with each other, for instance with time travel, there are thorny cases. If I went back and killed Hitler, I could almost certainly not guarantee that the conditions would arise so as to create Karen. I don't even want to touch that. We focused on the effect it could have on our lives. Interestingly Karen said she knew she wouldn't pick it because she doesn't have any regrets. She said that she thought as a kid that when she died, she would just get to live her life over knowing what she already knew, and that she decided that she wouldn't make any changes because she valued the relationships she had so much and she couldn't predict how changes would play out. I thought that this was strange, and called her Nietzschean.
Ultimately we got into discussion about the mechanics of the power and could not come to a satisfactory conclusion and decided that disqualification was our best option.
ELIMINATION ROUND 1:
flight vs. the ability to phase through solid objects
This comes down to effect on real life vs. superhero potential again. The ability to phase through solid objects allows for a lot of renegade superhero potential. You could be a very effective assassin, if it came down to it, and the possibility for getting into places you're not supposed to be allows for you to have a lot of power in the world stage. Ultimately, we figured we'd become notorious and just get shot when we weren't paying attention, and plus flight would make our personal lives a lot easier. We both chose flight.
WINNER: FLIGHT
regeneration vs. super strength
Karen initially said she couldn't think of anything she'd do with regeneration and I said I couldn't think of anything I'd do with super strength. We thought about it. We couldn't honestly come up with anything you could really use super strength for that would not be either mundane or not useful actually. You can only break so much stuff when you're still vulnerable to being shot. I pointed out that regeneration means no longer having to be afraid. We wondered if you could still get cancer and then both realized that even if you did, you would survive whatever procedure you can come up with to get rid of it. The decision was mutual.
WINNER: REGENERATION
telepathy vs. persuasion
She sided telepathy, I sided the ability to be convincing. She said that you could use telepathy to improve people's communications, and you'd probably just use the other one for evil. I said imagine what good effect you could have had on the world if you'd persuaded yourself into the position of Bush's advisor a few years back. Furthermore, I said telepathy would be extremely bad for your relationships because you are going to hear the thoughts that no one ever wants you to hear, and it would be very hard to interact with people in that circumstance. Plus, if you had it you couldn't tell anyone because what do people think when they think their minds are being read? Only the worst things they could think about, it's kind of like the "don't think of the Eiffel tower" thing. We agreed again.
WINNER: PERSUASION
ability to manipulate technology vs. telekinesis
It was hard, because neither is very exciting honestly. We considered how hard it would be to use telekinesis for anything useful, really. We concocted an abstract plan for using telekinesis for stealing shoes. The problem with that power, is it's just like most of the others that you could potentially cause a real big ruckus: if you're not invincible, there's a limit to how much you can use it before someone finds a way to take you down. The ability to manipulate technology actually allows for more practical uses, most of which essentially involve theft, so you can become a kind of robin hood and if you're careful you can prevent yourself from being caught.
WINNER: TECHNOLOGY!
super memory vs. painting the future
Super memory. Painting the future is severely not controllable, and tends to produce cryptic results that other people have to act on. Karen is obsessed with memory, also. And it would make some aspects of scholarship a lot easier for me.
WINNER: SUPER MEMORY
ELIMINATION ROUND 2:
At the beginning of this round, in a surprise move, flight was disqualified. We've already talked at length about flight vs. invisibility and we were pretty tired of flight. It's a fun power, but it's one of those where you're once again not invincible, so you can't use it to upset to status quo too much, and the ability to essentially travel is not that exciting compared to the long term possibilities for some other things.
persuasion vs. technology
These are actually somewhat similar. Manipulating technology is causing technological devices to function in ways that they would not normally. Being very persuasive is causing people to function in ways that they would not normally. The deal is, in almost all situations, technology is owned or operated by a person, who you could influence. But there are situations where there's no helpful technology present, for instance an interrogation room.
WINNER: PERSUASION
regeneration vs. super memory
This was hard for me, but two things made it. First, regeneration as seen on the show is not all powerful, there are ways to get around it. I doubt a regenerating person would survive an explosion and we agreed that having the power would not extend their lifespan in ways that did not result from being able to heal from direct trauma. AKA, you could still get sick and would probably die of natural causes at some point. Furthermore, I realized that I could learn a lot more about the world if I never had to worry about forgetting anything. Karen had no problem choosing, because she's spent large periods of her life writing down nearly everything that happened to her so that she would not forget.
WINNER: SUPER MEMORY
THE FINAL SHOWDOWN
super memory vs. persuasion
Karen picked super memory instantly. She knew it was hers from the very beginning. I considered it for a long time, and decided that the appeal of being able to learn so easily was irresistible and sided with her. She seemed surprised and I don't think she even had to finish her sentence before she got me to change my mind. I realized that most of my anxiety about my future stems from the fact that I'm concerned that no matter how much I'm able to learn, I might never be able to use that knowledge to actually make a difference in the world, because social factors can very easily prevent knowledge from being put to use, and that having an ability that results in me learning more would probably only make that more frustrating. I could make my research matter, and more than that, I could use my power on a very large scale to engineer a political climate where real drastic change for the better is possible. I could do a lot of good, but a lot of ethical concerns are raised, to say the least.
RESULTS: super memory (Karen), persuasion (yours truly)
We realized quickly that these were the powers that were meant for us, and weirdly that neither of them were really supernatural, that they were actually just exaggerations of abilities we already have, and have the capacity for improving. I don't know quite what that says about us, actually.
We've been watching Heroes, she's a little less than halfway through the first season, and I'm a little more than half way. She posed the question "which power would you pick?", it being understood that we could only select from ones she's seen in the series, which doesn't effect the outcome for various reasons.
Here are the ones we discussed:
Bending time and space
Flight
Regeneration
Telepathy
Telekinesis
Super memory
Super strength
Super.. persuasion
The ability to phase through solid objects
The ability to manipulate technology
The ability to emit radiation
The ability to paint/draw the future
The ability to absorb other people's powers
Intuitive understanding or whatever Sylar has
First things first: immediate throw aways. The ability to absorb other people's powers was eliminated, because the question does not specify whether there are other people with super powers, so that one could turn out useless. The ability to emit radiation is ruled right out, that's obviously like the worst power you could have if you have a significant other.
Second: disqualifications. These aren't things we would necessarily reject, but things that we don't have enough information to decide about. I don't know if we even really discussed intuitive understanding, which would be cool, but it's extremely vague so it's hard to say what the limits would be.
After a great deal of discussion, we disqualified the ability to bend time and space Hiro style. I was initially for it, because it's probably the most powerful ability. I was originally attracted to it simply because I have a lot of horrible regrets in my life that I would like to correct. This discussion first brought up the theme that there are two attitudes you can use to approach the selection of super powers: you can think about the effect it would have on your life as you live it and you can think about the biggest possible impact you could have on the world if you had that power. Often these concerns conflict with each other, for instance with time travel, there are thorny cases. If I went back and killed Hitler, I could almost certainly not guarantee that the conditions would arise so as to create Karen. I don't even want to touch that. We focused on the effect it could have on our lives. Interestingly Karen said she knew she wouldn't pick it because she doesn't have any regrets. She said that she thought as a kid that when she died, she would just get to live her life over knowing what she already knew, and that she decided that she wouldn't make any changes because she valued the relationships she had so much and she couldn't predict how changes would play out. I thought that this was strange, and called her Nietzschean.
Ultimately we got into discussion about the mechanics of the power and could not come to a satisfactory conclusion and decided that disqualification was our best option.
ELIMINATION ROUND 1:
flight vs. the ability to phase through solid objects
This comes down to effect on real life vs. superhero potential again. The ability to phase through solid objects allows for a lot of renegade superhero potential. You could be a very effective assassin, if it came down to it, and the possibility for getting into places you're not supposed to be allows for you to have a lot of power in the world stage. Ultimately, we figured we'd become notorious and just get shot when we weren't paying attention, and plus flight would make our personal lives a lot easier. We both chose flight.
WINNER: FLIGHT
regeneration vs. super strength
Karen initially said she couldn't think of anything she'd do with regeneration and I said I couldn't think of anything I'd do with super strength. We thought about it. We couldn't honestly come up with anything you could really use super strength for that would not be either mundane or not useful actually. You can only break so much stuff when you're still vulnerable to being shot. I pointed out that regeneration means no longer having to be afraid. We wondered if you could still get cancer and then both realized that even if you did, you would survive whatever procedure you can come up with to get rid of it. The decision was mutual.
WINNER: REGENERATION
telepathy vs. persuasion
She sided telepathy, I sided the ability to be convincing. She said that you could use telepathy to improve people's communications, and you'd probably just use the other one for evil. I said imagine what good effect you could have had on the world if you'd persuaded yourself into the position of Bush's advisor a few years back. Furthermore, I said telepathy would be extremely bad for your relationships because you are going to hear the thoughts that no one ever wants you to hear, and it would be very hard to interact with people in that circumstance. Plus, if you had it you couldn't tell anyone because what do people think when they think their minds are being read? Only the worst things they could think about, it's kind of like the "don't think of the Eiffel tower" thing. We agreed again.
WINNER: PERSUASION
ability to manipulate technology vs. telekinesis
It was hard, because neither is very exciting honestly. We considered how hard it would be to use telekinesis for anything useful, really. We concocted an abstract plan for using telekinesis for stealing shoes. The problem with that power, is it's just like most of the others that you could potentially cause a real big ruckus: if you're not invincible, there's a limit to how much you can use it before someone finds a way to take you down. The ability to manipulate technology actually allows for more practical uses, most of which essentially involve theft, so you can become a kind of robin hood and if you're careful you can prevent yourself from being caught.
WINNER: TECHNOLOGY!
super memory vs. painting the future
Super memory. Painting the future is severely not controllable, and tends to produce cryptic results that other people have to act on. Karen is obsessed with memory, also. And it would make some aspects of scholarship a lot easier for me.
WINNER: SUPER MEMORY
ELIMINATION ROUND 2:
At the beginning of this round, in a surprise move, flight was disqualified. We've already talked at length about flight vs. invisibility and we were pretty tired of flight. It's a fun power, but it's one of those where you're once again not invincible, so you can't use it to upset to status quo too much, and the ability to essentially travel is not that exciting compared to the long term possibilities for some other things.
persuasion vs. technology
These are actually somewhat similar. Manipulating technology is causing technological devices to function in ways that they would not normally. Being very persuasive is causing people to function in ways that they would not normally. The deal is, in almost all situations, technology is owned or operated by a person, who you could influence. But there are situations where there's no helpful technology present, for instance an interrogation room.
WINNER: PERSUASION
regeneration vs. super memory
This was hard for me, but two things made it. First, regeneration as seen on the show is not all powerful, there are ways to get around it. I doubt a regenerating person would survive an explosion and we agreed that having the power would not extend their lifespan in ways that did not result from being able to heal from direct trauma. AKA, you could still get sick and would probably die of natural causes at some point. Furthermore, I realized that I could learn a lot more about the world if I never had to worry about forgetting anything. Karen had no problem choosing, because she's spent large periods of her life writing down nearly everything that happened to her so that she would not forget.
WINNER: SUPER MEMORY
THE FINAL SHOWDOWN
super memory vs. persuasion
Karen picked super memory instantly. She knew it was hers from the very beginning. I considered it for a long time, and decided that the appeal of being able to learn so easily was irresistible and sided with her. She seemed surprised and I don't think she even had to finish her sentence before she got me to change my mind. I realized that most of my anxiety about my future stems from the fact that I'm concerned that no matter how much I'm able to learn, I might never be able to use that knowledge to actually make a difference in the world, because social factors can very easily prevent knowledge from being put to use, and that having an ability that results in me learning more would probably only make that more frustrating. I could make my research matter, and more than that, I could use my power on a very large scale to engineer a political climate where real drastic change for the better is possible. I could do a lot of good, but a lot of ethical concerns are raised, to say the least.
RESULTS: super memory (Karen), persuasion (yours truly)
We realized quickly that these were the powers that were meant for us, and weirdly that neither of them were really supernatural, that they were actually just exaggerations of abilities we already have, and have the capacity for improving. I don't know quite what that says about us, actually.