Pick one: power of flight vs. power of invisibility

And yes, this was a This American Life piece: http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/178/transcript. But it's a good question.

flight

I don't care what you all are doing when I'm not around, would rather just get away from you

flight

when i think of flight i think of flying away to the mountains for my lunch break

when i think of invisibility i think of being pursued by crazy people, or stepping over subway turnstiles and feeling like shit

how fast can i fly?

If you're into the whole "using your powers for good" thing, invisibility seems more practical. Power of flight with no other powers isn't very useful.

It is useful in the sense that you can fly places. That would be nice. I wonder how much stuff you could carry, though. That could limit its usefulness.

xpost
that makes some sense. maybe there's a tense hostage situation, but then you invisible your way into the room and steal the hostagetaker's gun or something.

OR

you could distract the hostagetaker with all of the cool gopro footage you recently captured during your lunch flight to the mountains

I need more details. What kind of exertion is required to fly? Is it like running? Or do I just levitate and lift off? Can I carry things while flying? How fast do I fly?

Assuming it's relatively effortless and I can like, carry groceries home, I'd prefer flying. I'm not sure what I would use invisibility for, and living in a busy city, I'd end up getting stepped on all the time anyway.

xp tipsy asking the important questions.

of course, if everyone could fly, that changes the equation

because then the only solution would be to construct an enormous series of one-way tubes between important locations, so that people don't fly into each other, and that would be an eyesore

Hodgman scenario stipulates a) you are the only one with the power, b) for flight you can fly 1000 mph, c) for invisibility you and your clothes are invisible, but anything you pick up is still visible

flight

so jealous of birds, man

I think I'd go with invisibility even though it makes me feel like a creep.

i'll go with flight then as long as it's not too strenuous

power of invisibility seems nightmarish (for oneself, not just others)

some things better just not to know

yeah with invisibility i'd probly give myself away lolling if somebody was slagging me off behind my back

Flight, but will have to find or develop a good flight suit or else be windburned to death.

dunno if I would "fight crime" with my flight power, given that most of the crimes I consider as important to stop can't really be stopped by a flying guy

I guess I could disable some drones, that would be cool

flight by a zillion miles, this is like choosing life or death

one of the more prominent okcupid match questions, this, btw

so jealous of birds, man

― example (crüt), Thursday, May 7, 2015 11:59 AM (8 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

srsly

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QwNc0SFIp-o

I wonder if flying around would be hard on your stomach. Think like when a plane drops all of a sudden. You'd be puking all over the place.

Invisibility. Think of the hard time you'd get if you could fly, kids would be flinging rocks at you, you'd be a freak constantly in the newspapers, you'd probably be dead in a few years. Plus vertigo.

Invisibility would get boring faster, I think, assuming that I didn't use it for evil. I probably would end up using it for evil just to keep on rationalizing giving up flying.

if i was invisible, would my poop be invisible too

it matters

i think it would be pretty cold to fly everywhere. plus you gotta deal with ears popping and shit

Hodgman scenario stipulates a) you are the only one with the power, b) for flight you can fly 1000 mph, c) for invisibility you and your clothes are invisible, but anything you pick up is still visible

Pockets?

When I chose invisibility I was assuming of course that you're not constantly invisible, that would not be a good thing.

good point. you always got to read the fine print

Or just read the original post, that would help.

I wonder if flying around would be hard on your stomach. Think like when a plane drops all of a sudden. You'd be puking all over the place.

― Immediate Follower (NA), Thursday, May 7, 2015 5:10 PM (33 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Oh good point. I get pretty motion sick as it is.

Let's be real if I could be invisible I would totally become a thief.

what would you steal?

tacos

I'd hide in department stores at night and then work with someone on the outside to steal a bunch of stuff, like in Bad Santa but I wouldn't have to wait for Christmas.

if you're invisible, are you also blind?

if you could fly, kids would be flinging rocks at you

you could piss on their heads from heights they could never touch, even with slingshots

you'd be a freak constantly in the newspapers

sky-high Q-score! product endorsements!

i'm pretty familiar with invisibility and do plenty of good in my life without a superpower, voted flight

Those who envision a successful life of crime as an invisible person ought to read H.G. Wells' story for tips on what to avoid.

being visible, kinda like pain, helps one avoid lots of danger. so I'd take flight and play professional sports.

but I'd only fly high in secret. otherwise I'd just make it seem like I had an insane vertical leap.

another negative for invisibility is the paranoia it would stoke in everyone else. you could never be comfortable in a seemingly empty elevator ever again

xpost imagine air bud with an insane vertical leap that is actually a disguised power of flight

at the end of movie air bud dunks and then flies away

Invisibility would get boring faster, I think, assuming that I didn't use it for evil. I probably would end up using it for evil just to keep on rationalizing giving up flying.

― jmm, Thursday, May 7, 2015 1:14 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

lol otm

the creep in me says invisibility, and i know i'd get depressed really fast and would only be a net negative on the world, so flying it is.

being visible, kinda like pain, helps one avoid lots of danger.

True, we evolved to be visible for a reason.

it was a fucking disaster when everything was invisible

it is to experience the ecstasy of flight

and pooping on a cafe awning

based on the digression above, my answer is now "whichever one will inspire the fewest number of thinkpieces"

how many of you would swap all of these powers combined for the power to fall asleep under any conditions and wake up refreshed and rested at a time of your choosing?

isn't this a Calvinist version of heaven?

the practicality of flight just crushes this

if we're only weighing enjoyment & not practicality then they're both kind of crap powers unless used immorally

I'd choose the crap powers

flight induced by crapping with great acceleration. invisibility through the power to be able to crap yourself your own mound to hide in.

I question the level of invisibility afforded by a mound of crap

the practicality of flight just crushes this

^^^

Admittedly most of the joys of invisibility are creepy to semi-creepy but also it just sounds relaxing to know that no one can see you.

just find a theater screening Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2 for that

I like the point about how being invisible would be dangerous. Not just around other people -- try taking a walk in the woods without a thousand bewildered bugs flying straight into you. A lot of not-getting-injured hinges strongly on having a visible presence.

is a persons' bodily waste also invisible?

once it leaves your body, I assume.

you could terrify a fair amount of people just pissing and shitting in strange places I suppose

how many of you would swap all of these powers combined for the power to fall asleep under any conditions and wake up refreshed and rested at a time of your choosing?

― Philip Nunez, Thursday, May 7, 2015 6:50 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Like ten hours of rest in five minutes of sleep? SIGN ME THE FUCK UP.

Man using your power of invisibility to poop on things is way worse than using it to steal from department stores.

I wish I had the power to turn everything but myself invisible. Constantly running into shit would be rad.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electromagnetic_spectrum

yeah, what's the bandwidth of the invisibility?

we are constantly running into invisible frequencies of radiation and destroying all the fascinating lives of the tiny people that reside within them

the air around us is filled with the horrific screams of dying tiny universes, but we can't hear them either

Acts 7:13

photons contain fascinating lives of tiny people?

it's all in wikipedia+the bible

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51mly9APSqL._SY344_BO1,204,203,200_.jpgp

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51mly9APSqL._SY344_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg

i don't know what a calvinist version of heaven is but it might be closer to crapping on people while flying invisibly.

Flight easily.

But I do fantasize about invisibility but only with additional ghost powers of being literally untouchable, flying anywhere at great speed and moving through walls or anything solid. Just being able to gaze at anything from anywhere as long as I wanted. As well as staring at people it would be cool to sink into the core of the sun and not be damaged. Flying underwater, across space and seeing everything.

Stopping time seems like the ultimate power to me. But it does raise a few questions about getting tired or hungry, maybe you'd feel like shit if you didn't maintain a sleep pattern and perhaps you'd need to secure more food, toothpaste, toilet paper and soap so you didn't disturb anything by taking stuff that would vanish before other people.
It's one of my ultimate fantasies to stop time then read all the books and listen to all the music I've accumulated and do all the drawing/painting I can manage until I run out of ideas.

there's a story by R.A. Lafferty you shd check out

Which one? I haven't even started on him yet. Doesn't help that his books are usually scarce and expensive.

"this is like choosing life or death"

steady on now

you could terrify a fair amount of people just pissing and shitting in strange places I suppose

― Οὖτις,

wouldn't require invisibility

flight obv btw. imagine commuting.

If I could be arsed I would find and post a gif of the boob sucking scene in Hollow Man.

I voted for flight though.

"The Six Fingers of Time" iirc

I wonder if there is a correlation of type-a or type-b personality to whether you choose invisibility or flying

or correlation of introvert/extrovert

if you don't mind taking my brief survey

flyers-prigs

not having to spend time sleeping would beat both of these for me i think. that's like a 50% increase in your lifespan essentially

o I fuckin wish....30% max in a good month

sleeping is precious time away from consciousness

what the hell kind of life do you lead where you average 12 hours of sleep a night

any gain in productivity would be outweighed by the amount of acid you'd have to do to remain functional

& yeah stopping time is almost a strict improvement on invisibility

i was using 8 hours of sleep in my math but tbh i probably only get 6 most nights

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Flight would be so awesome. I've dreamt about flying many times, but never about being invisible. Also, if you want to get away from people, you could just fly far away and hide out.

going for invisibility

http://i.imgur.com/aEkRHUZ.jpg

how would you use invisibility or flight to change the outcomes of SNL sketches/monologues?

If you use the internet in your daily life then does the invisibility transfer over to some online anonymity?

I guess you could have an anonymous email but then whoever you sent it to wouldn't know who it was from... or... something.

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