Super powers

[rowyn]

A long, long time ago, on a site far, far away, a diarist called Imago posed the question: "If you could have a super power, what would it be?"

Curiously, this wasn't at all a hard choice for me. I just never got around to setting it down.

Teleportation.

Now, not the short-hop style of teleport, to go through walls and such--no, I want long-distance teleportation. Want to go somewhere? Poof, you're there. Wouldn't that make going to see friends a snap?

Of course, such an ability would also carry lucrative opportunities, both to earn money and to do good. If I could carry just a couple of kilograms with me when I 'ported, think of the benefits in, say, organ transportation for hospitals. Great talent for a courier job. Not to mention spy missions.

There's the usual host of criminal applications, but I can't imagine that I'd use any (except under special cases, see below). There'd be plenty of legitimate ways to make a good living. The closest I might come to "crime" would be the above-mentioned spying. Though I'm not sure I'd want to let the US gov't know about my power. On the one hand, I could help them lots. On the other, I don't trust them.

On the bright side, it's really hard to threaten someone who has global teleportation powers. "If you don't do this, we'll shoo--oh, frak, where'd she go this time?" On the down side, I wouldn't necessarily be able to protect my friends and relatives from being taken hostage. I don't know that I'd want to be in a position to get blackmailed, or be a target.

Really, though, I don't care about being a super-hero or a super-spy. I just want teleportation so I can go visit all my friends. I'd be happiest if we could get Niven's teleport booths running on street corners world-wide. That'd do me just fine.

Comments

[koogrr.livejournal.com]

Yup, I've thought about it, though more along the lines of 'if you got 3 wishes, what would they be?' But, here's the kicker, if you had that power, do you think you'd be ontime for work, appointments, etc?

I can guarantee I still wouldn't be.

[rowyn]

I'd be on time 90-95% of the time, I expect. I'm already a fairly prompt person, and taking out the "travel time" from the equation would only improve my efficiency. I think. :)

[prester-scott.livejournal.com]

My first impulse is to say "invisibility," but I'd have to ponder it some more.

[rowyn]

As I recall, that is what you came up with last time. :)

[minor-architect.livejournal.com]

I would choose healing powers - is that considered a super-power? I know it's not a typical superhero ability, like flight or shooting fireballs from the palms of your hands or whatever, but that's what I'd go with. I might make enemies of a lot of HMOs, but I think I could live with that. ;-)

[rowyn]

This brought up something I had thought of, but didn't mention, in this entry. Teleportation is the power I would want to have, if I just happened to be born with a superpower or imbued with one by a radioactive cat scratch, or whatever.

If some super-being came to me and said "You can have any power you want. Choose" I'm not sure I would pick teleportation. There's a certain moral compulsion to choose the ability to heal, if the option is offered. And beyond that, if I had the ability to miraculously heal, I would feel a compulsion to use it. I don't think this would make for a very fun life. In fact, I think I would feel continually trapped between the sense of guilt that I wasn't doing all that I could, and a desire to have my life back and be able to do what I wanted again. I just have this vision of a life spent shuttling between hospitals all over the world, healing people. And constantly beseiged by those seeking to be healed by me.

This is another power that I'd rather see everyone have, and not just me. :) Remind me, and later I will describe my "superbeing" fantasy. :)

[minor-architect.livejournal.com]

Then consider yourself reminded to do so. I'd be interested in hearing that sometime. :-)

And believe it or not, the healing ability is not a "superpower" that I picked out of thin air, on the spur of the moment. It's been a part of my own "superbeing" fantasies for a while now, if you will. If you'd ever like to hear the (too long-winded and grandiose, probably)explanation behind this choice, ask me about it on Sinai whenever you have a free hour or three. ;-)

I also think that the feeling of not doing all that you could with your abilities is a constant for anyone who has them, though they be superhuman or not. (Or, it would only affect those who care about developing their powers and using them to help others as well as themselves. I'm sure there are plenty of people out there who couldn't care less about using the gifts they have been given.)

Super-powers are a lot mroe visible than human abilities

[(Anonymous)]

Most people have relatively ordinary abilities which are not likely to bring throngs of people insisting that "you are the only one who can help me...." Being able to do something twice as well as the average person or even 100 times as well is relatively invisible compared to being able to do something unique. Whether or not I care about helping others on a given day, I don't have to live my life in fear that if the word got out that I could do X then I would never be able to avoid the people who wanted my assistance again.

Telnar

Re: Super-powers are a lot mroe visible than human abilities

[rowyn]

Telnar covers about half of my point. The other half is that my moral obligation to help people if I really am the only one who can help them goes up proportionately. Even in Everquest, I found myself feeling this to a certain degree. Yes, in real life, I can help others. But rarely can I take a minute or two of my own time to save someone else several hours of theirs. In EQ, I could do this by resurrecting people with my cleric.

If I felt vaguely guilty for not sacrificing a little of my time to save someone else several hours of time in a game, I can only imagine how I'd feel if it only cost me a little of my time to save someone's life.

I couldn't turn healing down if it were offered to me as an ability. I'm not sure I could decline to ask for it if I had the opportunity to do so. But I don't think I would wish this on myself--even though I always like to play clerics and healers in games. Even in those, I often felt that my "healer" characters ought to spend all their time, well, healing hurt people. This would be an awful lot for me to bear in RL.

Selfish?

[zorkfox.livejournal.com]

[minor-architect.livejournal.com]

I have noted everyone's points. If the choice of any power was offered to me, I would still ask for healing - although it might be worthwhile to ask the "superbeing" who was doing the offering if it thought I was strong enough to accept such a power.

I respectfully withdraw from this conversation.