Would you choose invisibility or teleportation?

Teleportation every time. It's just too useful. Invisibility is really only useful for mischief and security. And both can also be done with teleportation.

Invisibility, while cool, just seems like it’d only be cool for a little bit. Like, oh wow, I can sneak into the girl’s room without anyone seeing, woooh. Or I could maybe attempt to rob something and carry whatever I can hold. Meanwhile, Teleportation would mean being able to go literally anywhere on Earth instantaneously. Would almost never need a car or plane ever again in my life. You could take a vacation to a new country every weekend. You would have a get out of jail free card for life. You could talk to anybody you wanted to (assuming their security didn’t tackle and/or kill you if they were important enough).
And you could make a killing on selling instant travel.
- Or make instant travel a killing. Straight to the moon.

I'm struggling to think of any situation in which invisibility would benefit me personally. Teleportation would save me over an hour a day of driving to/from work alone, plus hours at work itself, fuel & vehicle maintenance costs just about disappear, world travel becomes something possible to do any time of any day on a whim, you could do anything.

world travel becomes something possible to do any time of any day on a whim, you could do anything.

I feel like Greek food for lunch, suddenly appears at a cafe in Athens.

Maybe some chocolate for dessert, pops into Switzerland for a moment , then back home in time for my kid's soccer game.
Have you thought about moving closer to work?

Teleportation. There's the obvious advantges like no commute. The biggest, however, is that I would just feel so much safer (as a woman). Dodgy situation? Just teleport away.

I seem to be alone in that I see teleportation as a great way to travel all the time without ever having to set foot on a plane again. The time and money saved would allow me to visit with distant friends on the regular.

And move to a cheap spacious house in the middle of nowhere, ideally somewhere absolutely beautiful. You could work anywhere you want and never need to actually live there. You could also become the first person on every planet and moon. I'd probably try to get nasa to pay me a billion dollars to be on call to teleport anything they want to anywhere in the solar system.

Most of the things you want to do with invisibility you can do with teleportation, but likely better. The only exception being hiding in the lockerroom of your preferred gender but bruh, c'mon this isn't a 80's movie. Also maybe faking a haunting since the invisibility lets you make stuff "float".

Wanna be rich or just have loot? Teleport somewhere you know has it. Grab and go.

Wanna kill somebody? Teleport to their bedroom while they sleep and shoot them. Or for the less messy alternative, teleport in, grab them, teleport a hundred feet above Point Nemo, drop 'em, and dip.

Wanna live a life unbothered by anyone? Teleport to the middle of nowhere and slowly bring in supplies. Pop out and back in whenever you feel like it.

Yeah, teleportation solves way more real life problems than invisibility does.

Invisibility in the real world, for a civilian, is really only good for pranks and crime. Which isn't exactly a bad thing, but teleportation can do all of that and more.

You could use your invisibility to become the most effective citizen journalist in the world though. Get footage of Exxon execs scheming with politicians to fuck the planet or get world leaders on tape dismissing the Geneva conventions, that sort of thing.
- You could in most cases so the same with teleportation
- Assuming they don't have access to thermals....

Teleportation is the queen of all powers. Invisibility can be basically mimicked with quick teleportation work if needed.

Although my legs would probably atrophy from lack of use, lol. Why walk to the kitchen when I could blink there and get a sandwich and blink back in no time at all?

Time control is the pinnacle of superpowers. Most aspects of every other super power can be achieved or closely appreciated with full time control.
- Interesting view point. I would have to consider whether time still passes for the user of the power? If you freeze time for everyone else, do you still age? And if so, I would still take teleportation over that as travel would be instant vs "appearing" instant to outside perspectives.
- Absolutely. You could never fail at anything, or you could try it again. You would have full control of probability, which is fucking insane.
Why visit the kitchen at all? Just teleport that sammich straight into the tum-tum.

Also, what's the king of all powers?
- Also, what's the king of all powers?
  
  Having money
- Queen is superior. At least in chess... and life 😉
- And teleport it back out after the stomach cramps start!

Teleportation by a long shot, though I would be afraid it would make me fat and unhealthy (never walking just teleporting everywhere).

If you are saying I can hold another person and teleport us both? Abso-damn-lutely teleportation, can you imagine the savings on travel?

Thinking too small.

Contract out to nasa or highest bidder and transport goods and people to ISS. Transport goods and people to mars. Get spacesuits and transport asteroids to the highest bidder. Become richest person on earth.
- Plot twist: The conspiracies are true and NASA drugs you and abducts to you experiment on you and learns to milk that sweet teleportatium out your ears while tied up in an underground warehouse somewhere in Area 51.

Teleportation would be so much useful. I spend 80% of my time alone. People already can't see me.

I spend like 99% of my time alone and I feel like draw attention everywhere I go.

Teleportation solves the world energy crisis, invisibility does not.

It could help in a lot of other crises too

During a natural disaster, you could jump back and forth carrying aid in, and the wounded people out. In any time sensitive crisis, you could get people out of harms way. This bit is more complicated, but you could potentially help out during floods and fires, depending on how far the 'teleport other stuff with you' extends to.

A reasonable limit might be 'Only what you could physically carry yourself', in which case you'd need to be a lot more strategic. In that case, you could work on personal strength and be a one-human-rescue-team. When there isn't a disaster, you could probably shuttle light weight (but important) stuff for a fee, then use that money to fund your own charity to do good

As for this prompt, you could probably just teleport away when someone might see you, or teleport to spots that people can't see. So you could do most things that invisibility would allow
I don’t think that’s necessarily true. It could use energy proportional to the energy that could be gained by moving an object somewhere.
- There would be no limits on how many times or where you could teleport. The items you hold while teleporting would be teleported too.
  
  Sure, if you choose to change the parameters from what OP said, it might change the outcome.
How could teleportation solve the energy crisis? I'm too lazy to think myself so pls elaborate.
- In addition to what the other commenter said: from the description of OP, the teleportation is basically "magic", ergo free potential energy (by moving objects from one place to another).
  
  Create a large magnet in a generator that's very tall, free transport the magnet up to the top, let it fall slowly creating electricity. It's basically how hydro works: the sun "transports" water, in the form of clouds, to a higher point, gravity pulls it down, we use that to make energy.
- Scratch costs with transportation. No need for any means of transportation.
  
  Also a lot more free time. No commuting, no early leave to get somewhere on time. Just blink and you're there.

Does the teleportation come with a bampf noise or do I have to carry my own bluetooth speaker and a button? This is make or break for me.

I want the H2G2 Krikkit robot teleportation noises: the sound of 100,000 people saying "WHOP!" when you appear, and 100,000 people saying "FOOP!" when you disappear.
Do I sense Nightcrawler vibes?
- Yes! Although someone requested an Elderman sound and now I want the sound effect to be customizable via an app.
- No, that super sense wasn’t one of the options.

Not even a question for me, absolutely teleportation.

I wouldn't need to own a car, never need to pay for plane tickets or any sort of transportation.

I can go anywhere at any time. Live anywhere and then just blink where I want/need to be.

Invisibility doesn't provide nearly the same practical applications. The only useful thing I can think of for invisibility would be to hide inside a bank vault and steal money, but that could technically be achieved via teleportation too.

Invisibility does not get you out of the bank vault.
- And unless you are stuffing your orifices, don't think you are getting far with a theft of floating cash anyhow
You could also surf all day without getting sunburnt.

Do I keep my velocity relative to earth if I teleport? Because if would really suck if I teleported from one side of the equator to the other one and am suddenly moving at 3300 km/h

In the same line of thinking: do I go blind if I turn invisible? After all: no light falls onto the receptors in my eyes, it all just passes through.
There's always a catch, huh ...

Teleport. I could be running late to something important but in the blink of an eye be there right on time. Plus, absolutely no need for any form of transport when you can just teleport.

If Flash taught me anything, is that being slow doesn’t make you late, but being fast makes you lazier, and laziness makes you very late.

Teleportation. Doesn't matter if you can see me when I can just pop in and out in an instant.

I'll teleport to where you can't see me. Checkmate legtards
If you can pop in and out fast enough then you can be there and not be there at the same time.
Wear clothes that cover your identifying features

Teleportation, hands down.

Teleportation would be neat assuming you can just totally disregard basic laws of physics like conservation of momentum - otherwise you end up either as a red smear somewhere, or accidentally turn yourself into a kinetic energy weapon

I always understood teleportation as a accelerate-decelerate sequence to reach the end point, as in not A to B but A to B to C, where B is the midpoint where you have enough momentum to naturally stop at your destination.
- A lot of depictions of teleportation seem to imply that you instantaneously move between two distinct points in space without having moved through the intervening matter - if that's the case you have to deal with a whole lot of complexity to ensure that you are moving at an appropriate speed at your destination - it depends a lot on your reference point, but imagine teleporting from the equator to the north pole without accounting for the difference in velocity of the ground due to the earth being a sphere. If you were standing still on the equator but preserved your momentum through the jump, you'd be moving at 1600km/h when you arrived. Air friction and the sonic boom alone would mess you up, let alone if you collided with something.
  
  You are right, you could solve it by having the teleportation move you through some sort of hyperspace and making the jump almost instantaneous so you have time to accelerate and decelerate, but even then you'd need to hand wave away where the energy goes. Imagine the same set up, you've accelerated through hyperspace towards the pole, then decelerated back down to end up going 1600km/h slower than you started. For an average person this is about 8 MJ of excess kinetic energy that has to go somewhere
I would be afraid of accidentally teleporting into a wall.
- That'd be covered by the "you know if it's safe" clause

My first instinct would have been to pick invisibility - I'm a total introvert and I do NOT enjoy having to deal with people, so knowing that noone sees me anyway sounds tempting.

... but then again, teleportation sounds even more tempting for the same reason. Need groceries? Teleport into a store after hours, grab some stuff, teleport back and enjoy the rest of the day undisturbed (and with a still full wallet) without having interacted with anyone. Need to run an errand, like sending a letter? Who needs the post office anyway when I can just teleport wherever the letter was supposed to go and stuff it into the recipient's mailbox, then quickly teleport back...? I could sell the car since I would never need it again - no more traffic jams either. I would be on time for every appointment without having to rush. And there are a million smaller things too, like never having to worry about locking yourself out of the house.

Definitely teleportation for me.

As others have said, invisibility versus teleportation is way too lopsided in favor of teleportation. Even if we're talking perfect 'you cannot be detected unless you bump into something or otherwise reveal your own presence' invisibility, it's still not good enough to compete with teleportation. Especially with S-tier teleportation like described there.

You'd have to really beef up the invisibility side to make it more fair. Maybe instead of just invisibility, go full incorporeal, with the ability to have gravity affect you (or not affect you) however you want, relative to whatever reference frame you want (be very careful with this) and the ability to make any part of yourself incorporeal or corporeal without it being all of you. Even then, I'd have a bit of a hard time picking this over teleporting.

Or go with the Invisible Woman's powerset, that'd be a pretty solid other option versus that teleportation. At that point I would actually have a hard time choosing, cause that is some nice teleportation, but Sue Storm's powers are pretty high tier as well.

Force field bubbles are wild. I bet you could use them as transportation as well. Just explode one under your feet and catch yourself with them when you land.

At a minimum you could make bridges that would let you walk/run/ride/drive though the air or across water. Still great for travel.

Invisibility. Ever been the only person in a friend group who owns a truck?

"Oh, I guess the family and I will need to book some expensive flight tickets... unless PowerGloveSoBad wants to just give us a ride"

"Oh, I guess my administration will need to invest billions in foreign aid... unless PowerGloveSoBad wants to just carry all the boxes"

Your country needs you(r truck).
Grandma got a new phone... . . . -=Invisibility on=-

If I could somehow be assured that the world wouldn’t immediately turn in me when they discovered my super power and try to capture me for its own ends, teleportation. If not…definitely invisibility. Much easier to hide the power, not just myself.

Invisibility.

I don't know why but I love the feeling of being able to watch people without them knowing about my presence. I spend a lot of time in nature and intentionally dress to blend in and I love that often when I hear/see people near me I can just stand there in plain sight and they still often don't notice me.

I don't know if this is creepy or cute but uh keep doing but not next to me
- What if he's already invisible and saw you typing this comment?

awesome for pranks "and stuff"

Myeah 😏

Teleportation, because the only upside to invisibility is subterfuge. Not that I am some saint who denies ever wanting that, it just seems like teleportation would be just as good at any use case invisibility has. It would also have lots of very life changing above board benefits too.

Invisibility is cool and all, but teleportation is simply way better

Teleportation, especially if you can take anyone with you. I'll be traveling the world without passport and go back home anytime I want.

With the stipulations given here (no limits on where, and ability to know if it's safe) you could teleport to what astronomers speculate are earth-like planets. Grab some samples, head home, repeat. Maybe win the Nobel Prize for discovering extraterrestrial life.

Given that, it feels a bit one sided against the other option that would let you perv a locker room or get trapped in a bank vault when you trip a non-visual sensor.

If you could teleport anywhere, you could demonstrate the power to your region's space agency and get them to build a pressurised container or suit that can go with you.

Teleport to the moon and grab some rocks for a billionaire to make some money, then teleport to Mars and repair the broken rover. Take whatever samples the space agency wants,or transport some materials there ready for the first settlers.

This is just the standard stuff. Once you start using your imagination, there's not much of a limit :)

Teleportation. Invisibility is a nice gimmick (until you accidentally leave it on and get hit by a car, that is).

Teleportation isn't just incredibly convenient, depending on the distances you can travel in one hop it'd also save you a lot of time (skip your commute, instantly travel to a nice vacation destination and back), and it'd be a money maker (fastest courier in the world).

Even if it was just line of sight, being able to easily reach places that are normally hard to reach or require extensive detours would be helpful. Even just crossing a busy street without having to wait for the traffic light would be a nice thing.

I would teleport to Japan to eat all my meals. So much good food for so cheap.

Teleportation 100%. I could be anywhere on Earth, at any time. Invisibility is super cool but its most practical applications are kinda weird tbh. Being there without people knowing is basically always a privacy violation.

I'm already invisible.

Teleportation. I would pick it for the friends and family visits alone but the travel and science stuff would be amazing.

Even for those who inevitably want to use their power to commit crimes, teleportation is still more useful than invisibility.

Even better, portals.

All the benefits of teleportation, plus you could slap a portal to the sun in front of people you don't like.

Teleport. Could make so much money. Could advance science, depending on range.

Teleportation even if it was line of sight based like in the Dishonored games I think it still wins.

Me being able to teleport would prove that FTL is possible so I think I'd have to take it for that alone. Invisibility in comparison is tricky but very grounded in existing physics.

Why would teleportation necessarily be faster than light?
- Some assumptions are common with teleporting.
  
  If it takes the same time to travel 10 meters or 10000 kilometers that kinda implies faster than light.
Are you referring to dark matter? What kind of invisibility is grounded in physics?

It would require matter (including the inter-particle interactions) involving no absorption or emission of photons.

According to some models, subatomic particles exert action at a distance by exchanging photons.

This is what bothered me about the notion of a “black domain” in the Three Body series
- You're wayyy over complicating it, invisibility is just a matter of taking the light that hits you, bending it around you and putting it back in place. We can already do this on a small scale with fixed stationary setups.
  
  Even simpler is just a very accurate and fast camera/display system that records and displays the background onto itself.

How fast can you teleport? If there is no cooldown, you could teleport so fast nobody would see you being there

Ha, I'm already invisible for all non nefarious purposes, I choose teleportation.

I think this depends on what invisible means. Does it mean no detectable signature - IR/thermal, scent, sound, etc.? Or just not on the visible light spectrum for humans? If not detectable at all, I think it would hold greater value for information gathering and have a lot of useful applications in hostage and other criminal situations, as well as state security through a very useful means of tradecraft. All that's out the door if a couple of rottweilers can sniff me out though.

It's a bit of a monkey's paw question as having either power puts a huge burden of secrecy as well as the threat of danger on yourself and whomever you choose to share knowledge of it that with.

If you had the teleport jump ability from the book Jumper that would be pretty cool and useful. The character fills a cistern by being in water and in the cistern simultaneously which would be a great way to help drought suffering areas while also helping flooding areas.

I'm looking for a new book to read but wasn't blown away by the movie. How different is the book?
- Far better than the movie. Much crap was added to the movie. Better antagonists in the book and the sequel was also good. Upon searching just now I found that there are a total of four novels in the series.
  
  Jumper, Reflex, Impulse and Exo all by Steven Gould. Now I have two more books to read.

Teleportation. I suppose it would be somewhat limited by the fact that teleporting to a place where other people might be would be tricky, since I absolutely don’t want to be caught.

Even with hesitation to teleport to populated areas, the ability to teleport home would be massively useful as a utility. I could also teleport out of danger in an emergency. I wonder if I pick up a person would allow me to teleport them with me, in which case then it’s got hero potential too.

Don't you became blind if you're invisible?

How will your eyes function if they can't control the way light hits your retina?

Teleportation. I love to travel, but I hate the airport.

Are you truly invisible? As in not appearing on thermal or any other commonly used forms of visual detection and imaging?

Teleportation for sure. It covers all practical applications that I can see for invis, plus more.

Teleportation. Hands down

Depends on the situation. On the one hand, you can choose to teleport and go anywhere instantly and be able to save time, money, and get tasks done faster. On the other hand, you could choose invisibility to avoid Carl the office dickhead and prank the shitty hr department.

eat both pills

I’d pick invisibility if it came with some mechanism to keep people from running into me.

I attract way too much attention in public and I’d like to be able to go out and walk around without all the attention.

Clearly teleportation, because when you are invisible, you cannot see - your body let photons through.