2mo ago

If you could have a superpower, what would it be? I'll start: to be invisible.

314 comments

Oh mine is very simple and not much to ask at all: I just want pure, unlimited, godlike omnipotence.
I promise to use it in every irresponsible way imaginable.
- Hmm, reminds of this part of the Narcissistic Personality Inventory
- At least you would be using it. (Ahem)
- Objectively the correct answer.
- You would definitely enjoy Preacher. Graphic novels are great, show is better than ok.
  Guy ends up gaining "the word of God" as an ability
- We allready have one Stephen Fry
- Excellent!

Be able to do stuff, at will.

My answer to this question is always teleportation, including my clothes and anyone I’m touching (and their clothes). And the ability to not appear inside solid objects. No more traffic. No more passports or visas. No more long multi-hour drives or long haul flights.
- Have fun figuring out the point of reference of your new powers. It would be hillarious if it was not the nearest grvitational well. Earth moves, the sun moves, our galaxy moves. Watch it be not the most obvious thing, and you teleport into empty space.
  
  This flaw in teleportation logic hinges on the assumption that there is an absolute reference frame- which as far as I'm aware there isn't. There is real science behind teleportation, and from what I've seen the frame of reference of the origin is what determines the endpoint. If you COULD manipulate the frame of reference as well, you could teleport a small rock an inch forward, but with the frame of reference of a near lightspeed object to create a crazy projectile.
  Basically, you'd still need to follow the rules of conservation of momentum and energy, or it could be broken.
  
  …and that always comes up as a response. Ok fine, I’ll add another line to the fine print: The ability to teleport at the exact place I want to be. If you want to counter that still, then make it places I’ve been to before. It will limit my destinations, but it still saves me time and effort. I’ve never been to France, but I’ve been to Germany, so that still reduces my travel from almost a day of flying and layovers to a train ride.
- at least in x-men they have limitations to that, where they also have added ability to sense where they are teleporting is filled space or not. not in the comics but blink the portal creator can sense dimensional distorstions too.
- You know the movie jumper?

Bend probability to my will.
Example: Jump out of a plane (see a bowl of petunias and a sperm whale on the way down), bend probability so that against all odds; I start to fly.
- Is there a monkey's paw clause in this? Does probability snap back like an elastic on the things you aren't focusing on?
  
  Well, a high probability doesn't mean it will happen, and a low probability doesn't mean it won't.
  (A tossed coin that shows head the first 5 times and after that it always shows up tails still has a probability of 0% head and 100% tails, assuming you don't know which coin toss this is.)
  
  There's definitely an inherent paw clause to this power...unintended consequences galore!
  Probability has more than one side, bend it one way and its also being bent away from another.
- like scarlet witch, and domino, they both manipulate probabilities.
- I would choose this too. Probability that I'll win lottery next week would be nice to adjust. Also probability of getting sick/staying alive. And as I'm (allegedly) slowly getting older: Probability that I'll wake up tomorrow well rested in a good shape and nothing hurts.

The power to instantly, constantly, automatically, and effortlessly transmute the bone marrow of every single individual on Earth who is being harmful to humanity's progress and wellbeing (fascists, billionaires, global warming denialists, mimes, and so on) into molten lead.
- Damn, what do you have against mimes?
  
  I would like to take a screenshot of your reply and the parent comment. May I?
- Lead is kinda toxic for the rest of us, how about something more compostable?
- eren , of AOT basically, but they all have to be related.

I’ve always liked the idea of time manipulation- stopping, starting, speeding up, slowing down, rewinding time. It has a lot of uses like giving me as much time as I need to get ready in the morning and doing good in the world in ways I won’t mention.
- This is probably the best one.

The older I get, the more I'm sure it's healing/regeneration. Wolverine didn't have a sore back after digging an afternoon in the yard or sleeping without a pillow between his knees.

To never have to worry about the basic necessities of life 🥹
- And the same for everyone else.

I have two choices depending on my role in the narrative.
1: unrestricted ability to grant other people powers with the requirement that I keep them balanced both in power scale and moral direct as well as not being able to use the powers on myself either on my own or through proxy.
2: I'm the Thing from Carpenter's 1982 movie The Thing but every cell is me and under my control. If need be, I can consume an injury's worth of biological mass to heal. I would mostly use this to get out of conversions by bisecting my face and spagetti-ing before returning to normal, apologizing for that, and saying I should go take my meds.
- For number one, you might enjoy the excellent, then subsequently boring, show Misfits.
  
  that is a good description.
  
  Actually yes, I watched ever episode as they aired until they killed Curtis. At that point I wasn't invested enough in the new characters to keep watching.

The power in Jumper would be damn legit. Teleportation.
Criminally under rated movie.
- That is still one of my favorite guilty pleasure movies. It's so good! It got so much flak but I really enjoyed it. The concept was very interesting and I really wanted to see where it could've gone. I felt like they could've done better in the movie but still, I'll take what I can get.
  I always wondered why the jumpers were even struggling against the paladins, though. I mean... they could jump literally anywhere in the world instantly. How are the paladins even able to catch up at all even with the tech they had? It was ridiculous. They also didn't use guns? I didn't get it, lol.
  
  Well when they'd jump they'd leave a "wake" and the paladins could just follow that wake every time so it does kind of make sense. I haven't seen it actually in over 5 years, I need to rewatch again actually.

Unlimited do overs. I can save, load and redo any point of my life at will. Caveat, death grants me access to the load game function.

Teleport. See the world, visit everywhere, without enduring planes,trains,cars , nipping home for a quick 15minute alone time and being able to sleep in my own bed every night.
- This is the best super power hands down. If you get a space suit, you could even jump to the moon. And in a single night every despot and dictator could be dealt with.
  
  Hmm. good thought.
- This is the one. I hate driving, so taking the middle man out of traveling would make my life so much better. Being able to visit my family and then come back home to sleep? That would be the dream
  
  Also true!
- Would be so cool to have personal sanctuary in the middle of the wilderness to relax at without the worry of how to I get back.
  
  YES!

Being able to stop time. Unlimited sleep.
- Make sure to add that you don't age or need food/water/oxygen while time is stopped, otherwise this is more of a curse
  
  Right. That'd be a nice bonus.
- Cashback was a good take on this.

To be able to talk to animals. Really just so I can talk to my dog who is losing the ability to walk, so me and her vet can help her; where it hurts, are the drugs helping. So I know exactly what she needs and where she wants to go when she's barking at me for help getting up and walking.
So I can explain to my boy dog why we don't go on walks as often or as far, why he can't rough house with her anymore.
- :(

Shapeshifter: it’s broken as hell if you take it to the molecular level. Shapeshift into something that can fly, into a very thin transparent film on the ceiling of a room, into something which can withstand great temperatures or bullets, hell, you can even shapeshift into something that photosynthesizes.
- Monkey's paw version: you're a shapeshifter like Odo in DS9. You have to consciously model every aspect of your form. Imagine the most detailed image of a human you can in your mind. That's the fidelity with which your form will be represented. You can only take on a form that is as detailed as your understanding and perception of an object is. Your form is more of a human-shaped animate object than an actual human being.
  
  Your form is more of a human-shaped animate object than an actual human being.
  Plot twist: I already feel like that

extreme cum
- how extreme?
  
  Like 3.6 roentgen.

Is third person empath a thing? Like being able to have what one person is experiencing be felt emotionally by another person? I would do that, then really fuck up the day of an ICE agent.
- https://hitchhikers.fandom.com/wiki/Point_of_View_gun
- That would be awesome!
- like deanna troi. empath seems to be a weaker form of telepathy, just no mind reading or if powerful enough mind control, (induce sleep, paralysis,,,etc)

I want a familiar named Git that obeys me.
Hey! That annoying guy that you hate speaking with is coming towards you
Git, push!
Would you look at that! What an amazing thing
Git, pull!
Oooh. What a great idea!
Git, commit!
There’s no way I said that, you must be remembering wrong
Git, diff!
So many possibilities
Edit: bonus points if you guess what I’d be stashing all the time
- Waow! Look at those succulent cherries growing out of that tree!
  git cherry-pick
  
  Hey! Look what you did to that poor cherry tree 😡
  Git, blame!

I want time travel like a video game or Git handles it. I want to be able to save and load timelines.

Normally I would say teleportation or the ability to fly but in 2025 I think I could solve some big problems with mind control.

I wanna teleport things. I'll use this to make money, among other things.
- Jumper was fun.
  
  Yeah, anytime anybody asks this question that’s my first thought. Either that or like Shadowcat and the ability to phase through things.
  
  The movie wasn't half as good as the book, imo, except for the car scene.
- Incredible!

Every poop is a no-wiper.
- It's called fiber supplements
- My superpower choice is to convert all of BlueberryWalnut's no-wipers into butt mud like wet red Georgia clay.

Technopathy. Being able to sense and manipulate electronics/electricity flows to "hack" computers and less smart hardware by waving my hands and "wishing" the outcome I wanted would make my life so much easier.
I could charge a good rate for my ability and my learnt knowledge as well take down huge tech companies.
- This, but with selective abstraction.
  I could just manipulate raw electricity signals, but if i need to i can see the flow of assembler instructions running through the CPU, or even the same code in some high-level language modeled on my brain pattern.
  
  As en electronics engineer I'm going to "Yes But..." this and say that the lower the voltage/current you're trying to manipulate the more concentration it requires to do it without over-voltaging the components you're trying to manipulate and frying the circuitry.
  So whilst this would be possible you'd have to:
  Hold all the cores, ALU, etc. in the CPU at the current state that they're in
  Then spend time flipping the bits (not one at a time but like a whole 32 bit number) required to represent your instructions.
  With enough practice and meditation you get a "feel" for the instructions and can do this but it takes time. I think this is fair as once you've learnt a CPU architecture most of the machine instructions are the same and it's just a matter of getting them to run in the right order.
  This way you don't start out overpowered and there's a high skill ceiling.
  (I may or may not be writing a book around this already and have thought about it a lot haha)

The ability to reset my life from and resume from any "save point".
For the purposes of this power there are two kinds of "save points":
autosave points (yearly, on one's birthday)
regular save points (done at-will as part of the power)
Why? Who hasn't indulged in the what-ifs of life? What if I can revisit certain points in my life and relive those what-ifs myself?
- Ooh, you should read Replay by Ken Grimwood.
  A one of it's kind books too.
  
  Thanks for the recommendation!
- Are your save states unlimited or do you have only 3 slots?
  
  It's infinite, though it'd also be intriguing to imagine them being limited to a number of slots (3, 15, etc).

In order of preference:
Immortality
Shapeshifting
The ability to look at something and immediately know what it is and what it's worth (would make flea market and thrift store visits a lot more efficient)
- Immortality is such a mixed bag depending on the exact mechanics behind it.
  You simply won't die of old age, but can be killed by anything that would kill a normal person? Probably fine.
  Almost any other interpretation opens the doors for some absolutely horrific states of being that you're just unable to escape from.

Teleportation. Most superpowers would be either useless on a day-to-day basis or - as another commenter suggested - would make you too inhuman to continue to have meaningful interpersonal relations with other normal humans.
And it would allow you to have a croissant in Paris for breakfast, spend the morning strolling along a beach in the Caribbean, pop across to a great barbecue place in Texas for lunch, pass the afternoon exploring the ruins of Pompei before an evening meal of scallops in Hobart. Even just not worrying about the daily commute, always being able to 'port home to use your own toilet during the day, just mundane stuff like that would be grand.
- depends on which kind of teleportation, interdimensional or matter transporting in the same reality. Nightcrawlers and azazel teleportaiton is all interdimensional, so more advanced(at least azazels teleportaiton is more advanced than nightcrawlers, because he can teleport anywhere even if he never been there. Or like dofp apocalypse, teleportation bubble forms and it teleports you to another location, cons is it takes a long time to form it, but benefits from teleport multiple people without any straining.

Shapeshifting so I can impersonate people. I love Mystique in the X-men.
- "Shapeshifting."
  "blahaj.zone"
  Checks out.
- mystiques shapeshift seems weaker, than let say changelings they can turn into anything,even fire or reflective surfaces(DS9) and turn thier body into weapons, also immunity to telepathy, also the technobabble goes when the changeling shapeshifts, they move mass to a pocket dimension, or store energy to change to various forms.
- I want to shapeshift too

I feel like what some of you guys miss. Here is understanding what makes life fun. Certain superpowers would make life criminally boring and the goal would be to get power so that you can do what you want with your life, try different things out, be safe and secure, but still have a life that has meaning.
If you are too overpowered or have things that allow you to see way past what being human is, then you'd be stuck all alone looking at humans that look like ants to you and you'd be bored out of your skull. I kind of feel like that's what Dr. Manhattan was except I think the reality would be worse.
You have to look at what phase two of this super power would be. I kind of like the save point one or something that gives you control to do what you want, but you still have to deal with the consequences. That way you gain a lot of control over your life, but you still have to live it with consequences. It would kind of be like winning the lottery. It would be turning the video game on easy mode, but not making it so easy you don't want to play.

A healing touch.
- If you extend that to "manipulating organic matter by touch" you could not only heal them but also fix that crooked nose that always bothered them but wouldn't count as illness or injury. Makes more people more happier. You could also grow them wings or cat ears ;-)

Voluntary Immortal. Meaning I can die if I want to badly enough. I'd like to just observe all the remaining time humans are a thing without having to worry about mortal body maintenance and food.
- Do you really wanna see that? Could be unbearably sad.
  
  For reasons unknown to me, I still want to even though it's guaranteed to be.
- like painkiller Jain, shes can voluntarly turn off her immortality.
- But you'll still experience hunger and pain from the poor maintenance.

Time travel, not to change anything, just to be able to experience things that no longer exist or relive memories.
- You have died from dysentery.

My farts are now filled with ultra potent sex pheromones. My farts are usually quiet, and usually no one notices them. Time to reap the wind!
- My farts are usually quiet, and usually no one notices them
  Famous last words
- Nothing beats accidentally farting at the dmv and getting swamped by a couple grannies in line next to you
- ouch. that sounds like either a great or awful death.
  
  I hadn’t thought about that. No ability to really control it, there’d be a lot of women after me.
  At least I’d go with a smile on my face. Well maybe…

The ability to manipulate probability.
Get the green light, getting you some where on time. Somehow manage to tickets to a sold out concert. Boss just extended a deadline to allow you to get the work done. Score the prefect seats on an airplane. No delays when taking a train.
- scarlett witch and dominos mutant ability is probability manipulation, i think thats what makes her chaos magic so more stronger because of her mutant abilities
  
  Probability manipulation seems like just being able to transfer your consciousness into whatever multiverse contains the outcome you prefer. All the other versions of you still experience all the bad outcomes, but you get to surf through your best guess at the ideal one.

Super Siri that can answer any questions.
"How do I build a time machine?"
"Is there any hidden treasure around here?"
"How do I make myself immortal?"
- Really close to mine: reach into my pocket and pull out whatever I want to. Time machine? Treasure? Functional immortality tied to my intent to live pill? Pants with a huge pocket so I can pull out this big thing that wouldn't fit in my normal pocket?
  
  I enjoy the fact that at least one person was so offended by my idea that they had to downvote me.
  Egotistical maniac that I am, I like to think they were enraged that I came up with the idea before them.
  Or that they hate Apple so much that the mention of any of their products sends them into a blind rage.
  But as to your comment. Wouldn't you get burns from all the pizzas in your pocket? And wouldn't Hackers - era Angelina Jolie suffocate in there?
- oooh. like the magic talent from the guy in xanth who answers any question for one year of service. not bad. doesn't make impossible things come to be though so many of the answers to your questions could end up being you can't.
  
  Never read the Xanth books. Might give them a try.
  Try "City of Last Chances" by Adrian Tchaikovski. Guy carries a box full of weak god around, doing very small miracles...

Ending all conflicts in the world with one command
- What's the command?
  
  "Can you fucking not?"

The ability to break things down into bricks of their atomic elements. Imagine what could be done with waste and recycling, especially tech recycling. You could make money easy.
If you were willing, I think you could create world peace (not absolute, but you could end wars if dickhead political leaders suddenly became chunks of carbon and other elements).
- You would have to be very skilled, though. You would be the replicator from Star Trek, but do you really know how to assemble complex substances and even living things from their constituent molecules?
  
  it sounded to me his power is like you can take a circuit board and convert it to plastic and smal bits of gold and other elements that its made of. It did not sound like he could reconstitute. Still hella useful.
  
  I'm not concerned about reconstructing anything other than bricks of pure individual elements.

Hyperintelligence?
It's a gamble. But if you can survive long enough to cobble some tech together, you're basically a god.
...Time travel is a close 2nd. Also powerful, but risky.
- So, The Doctor.
  
  the doctor seems different, its accumulated knowledge which a time lord brain can handle.

Rapid healing. Living for several hundred years would be nice. Change my carrier once every 20 years. This is the selfish choice.
The superpower that I feel could help more people is superspeed. First on my list is a visit to all dictators with a warning to knock if off.

Adaptability.
Get a cut? Your skin adapts to no longer have that happen. Get shot? You’re now bulletproof. Cancer? Your body adapted before it could even get slightly serious. Muscles that build faster without needing to do much more than lift a heavy weight a few times.
Saw it in a book called Superhuman way back in the day. Cool concept.
- Adoptability
  Basically become one of those cats that walk into a house and no one makes them leave

My family is full of mental health issues.
I'd like to fix that for them and myself, and for all the other sufferers out there.
Superhero ability? Healing. By far.
- telepathy, psionic effect on the brain does that in variations of it.

Telepathy.
I really want to know the truth of what people think of me. Especially these "blood relatives".
- Why do you care, and what would you do with that information?
  
  Understanding them better to make better informed decisions on whether to rebuild relationships or just burn bridges.
- I bet you you don't.
  
  Sounds very psychosis inducing.
  
  this. telepathy seems like it would be great but opens a can of worms.
- Imagine knowing every time the person who cared for you most in the world almost slipped up because they were exasperated with you. And there's no real way to know when it's a bad time to read their mind, if it isn't always on. I think it would be hard to be really close to anyone if you could read their mind and they couldn't stop you.
  
  I already have trust issues, I automatically distrusts everyone and assume they have a hidden malicious motive. Knowing addition info would be an advantage.
  I'm even suspecting my "parents" are not my parents, that's how fucked up my thought process is. Having mindreading powers would help a lot, I could just ask a question then I know if they are telling the truth.
  I have no one to trust right now. Just gimme this power.

Omnipotence or time manipulation.

Healing powers 100%
But if I'm being selfish/lazy, I'd copy Ezra from Fairy Tail, she can swap out her armor and weapons instantly. I'd use it to always have a rain coat, umbrella. Fall over in bed and be instantly be PJs, wake up stay and in comfy cloths right until I get to work. Climb up a ladder and never have to go back down for a tool. Spill food all over, and instantly have a new shirt. Get mugged and swap over to appropriate armor and a heavy assault weapon.

The ability to phase thru anything, passive ghostlike body. Basically walk into any bank and walk thru the vault snatching whatever, bullets pass right thru you, but you can still hold things to deal damage back!
Then take out most of the world governments at an unstoppable slow-walk with a shit-eating grin and declare the new post-scarcity world ready for action without anymore billionaires or megacorps.
- So you phase, then the absence of meaningful matter to stand on means you are pulled to the centre of earth's gravity well.
  You now can't unphase without frying in the liquid core.
  
  the wierd trope about phasing in media, is your bottom of your feet doesnt phase at all, they give some kind of technobabble explanation, that your interactions with the feet is "normal as its not phased out like the rest of your body or something about your molecules is is normal interacting witht he forces of the earth. there was one incident in one of the batman shows? i believe where a person that can phase had some kind of accident and phase right through the floor and to the earth center, and dying.

Photosynthesis

Definitely the ability to speak/communicate deeply with animals.

I don't want to be truly immortal, but if I could be like I am now for a few hundred years that would be pretty cool.
- Yeah, be immortal, with an off switch.
  Few hundred years later, "I'm good! See ya!"
  
  yeah its like. mmm. most of the stars are going out and im not sure I want to survive the heat death of the univers. on the other hand. galactus.

Gaining energy going social activities not losing it

Basic telekenisis. I want to be able to move object(s) with my mind. This can include me, also giving me a base level of flight.
It would just be so convenient. Nothing is ever out of reach again.

To make people know stuff and experience stuff.
Then I'm just gonna travel the world to get people educated, see the other side of the story, think independently, etc. Like I think those are if you have the experience of it once then you know how to do it on your own.
There will be all those mind control moral dilemma of free will and bias and stuff I think rising up o along the way, so that could be the complicated part, the self-justification of power. I don't really care for being just though so I think it's just going to be all jolly.
I think with that we should be able to get some people to stop fighting and be happy at least. Probably make some part of the society more functional as usually the system always break at some point but good men along makes stuff work. Though it's another jump from educated men to good men :)

Hands down something like magik (marvels magik, ie illayan rasputin, ie colossuses sister) where you can teleport and get your own dimension. Its basically like having the tardis as an innate power.

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