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Flight or Invisibility?

Dorian Gray

Hypocrisy Detector
Dorian Gray
Joined
Nov 15, 2002
Messages
20,366
Suppose that you could have one of two super powers: Flight, or Invisibility.

You could only choose one or the other. You would be the only one in the entire world who had the super power. The power would not confer any other auxiliary powers. You would be a human being in every way, with all the vulnerabilities that implies, except where the specific power of flight or invisibility was concerned. You could fly with anything you could have lifted before having the power of flight, OR you could turn anything invisible along with you as long as it touched your bare skin.

OK, that was just to answer the inevitable questions.

Now, if you could choose one and only one of the two powers, which one would you choose - flight or invisibility?
 
Someone posted this query quite a while ago.

My answer now is the same as it was then.

I'd choose flight. If I were invisible, I'd be blind.
 
Brown said:
I'd choose flight. If I were invisible, I'd be blind.
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It depends on the method of invisibility. If you had "the power to cloud mens' minds" like the Shadow, you would be effectively invisible without being blind.
 
Flight would be in my mind, far better, depending of course upon the maximum velocity I could achieve.

Of course, it stretches the imagination to the point of pain as to how that would work. Also, fear of heights could be an issue.

As pointed out, true invisability would require you not interact with electromagnetic waves, thus redering you blind. I would circumvent this by being transparent, and hopefully non-distortional in visable spectrums, but able to see in ultra violet and infra red.

Heck, it'd bee plenty cool just to see in IR and UV. X-ray would be nice too, but there's not much ambient x-ray energy due to our atmosphere, so it would be quite dark.
 
Invisibility of couse. There are technological alternatives for flying. Currently, there are none for invisibility.
 
This is not a bad question, but a similar one I have often pondered is this:

Again, assuming the same rules for invisibility (though, also assume you are able to see normally while invisible, regardless of what science tells us) and similar rules (being able to extend the bility through bare-skin touch and the ability to breath normally) to intangibility, which would people prefer?
 
Invisibility is much easier to keep secret. Once it became known that you could fly, all the fundamentalist kooks would try to kill you, all the new age kooks would try to worship you, and the government - well, let's just say that they would take a strong interest in you.
 
You could be like the hero of "The Fortress of Solitude" and have both powers at separate points in your life and not really do much with either one of them. Personally, I would choose invisibility. Better though, would be able to stop time, like in "The Fermata."
 
I'd choose flight. If I were invisible, I'd be blind.
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No, you wouldn't. I said the ability wouldn't change anything else about yourself. You are affecting the ability of others to see/detect you, not yours to detect them. This could be accomplished in many ways, none of which involve what you claimed. For example, you could affect every individual's ability to detect you by tapping into their selective memory. I don't think that I have to prove that selective memory exists, do I? (Psst - Rush Limbaugh) Also, you could cause a blind spot to constantly appear before everyone's eyes where you are concerned, which would be filled in by the minds of every person.

Invisibility of couse. There are technological alternatives for flying. Currently, there are none for invisibility.
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Sleight-of-hand? Hiding? Camoflage? Darkness?

There are a lot of incredible powers to have - most of these I got from the Xanth series (remember that?) and from X-Men.

Transforming any creature into another creature
Communicate with any living thing
Communicate with any inanimate object
Read minds
Flight
Invisibility
Time travel
Super strength
Mind Control
Fast Healing
Teleportation
Mastery of fire
Mastery of ice
Ability to absorb energy and release it at will
Mastery of electricity
Mastery of waves

The best ones are the communication ones and mastery of waves
 
I can't think of a practical or even fun way to use invisibility. I pretty much go through life unnoticed anyways.

On the other hand, I can think of a host of practical and fun applications for flying. Getting rid of the 30 minute rush hour commute to work in the morning (takes 5 minutes w/ no traffic) is on the top of my practical list.
 
definitly flight


already have invisibility and am trying to get rid of it!
 
Invisibility. I currently have the power to calm jittery squirrels. If I could add invisibility to that power - I would be invincible!
 
Almost every time it is cold outside and I have to go out, I have to think about how nice it would be if I could teleport myself from one warm house to the other.

It is more of an associative connection between "cold" and "teleportation" than a real wish.

I think many of the items on the larger list posted by Dorian Gray are either a bit immoral to use (Mindreading or Mindcontrol), or quite useless (how often do you need "Mastery of Fire" or "Mastery of Ice"?).

I would say Invisibility is on the immoral, Flight is on the useless side.
 
Marc said:
definitly flight


already have invisibility and am trying to get rid of it!
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Ha, I know what you mean. I agree.

However, IF super healing would also involve not feeling pain, then I would definitely take that. As long as it didn't hurt, I would LOVE to get shot by a machine gun!

Also, if it was really super WOW healing, then I'd just off mountains. Just cause.
 
shemp said:
Could I have the power to eat unlimited Krispy Kremes and LOSE weight?
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Don't be ridiculous. That's such a gross violation of TLOP that you'd fracture the time-space continuum.
 
If you were invisibile all the time, I think you'd go nuts from social starvation.

Flying, on the other hand, would be just fun.

But if I could choose only one power, it would be the ability to always tell if someone was lying or not.
 
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