Friday, October 09, 2009

The problem with superpowers

Having some minor annoyances with technology in the house this today. I've been sick, only worked about 4 hours today. I had about 12 to 16 hours of work I could have done. It would have gone lots faster if I could just communicate directly with technology. I am sure it would go faster, even though I type fairly fast. Tried spending a lot of time watching baseball today. I was worried about lunchtime, because TBS kept cutting out. Seems to have been fine during the games. If I could have talked to the DVR, it might have been able to explain it's failure to record Smallville tonight. And the wireless could explain to me why it keeps dropping. I could tell my cell phone who I don't ever want to talk to, and when to go straight to voicemail because I am sleeping. Diagnosing problems would be sweet. I am sure there would be some drawbacks, but you really could curse out a server properly...

Other potentially useful superpowers, and the problems with them:

Heat Vision - I think Superman uses this ability way too infrequently. It doesn't seem to bother him any. I would really say I have a short fuse, just a fast burn rate. I am sure there would be a couple of accidents at work. I would also not be able to drive, because if I got cut off, the lights would light right up, and I would end up melting my wind shield. It would be fun to melt some knuckle head's tire at a read light, though.

Super hearing - I have six kids in the house. It's too loud as it is. Super hearing would be a big, big problem.

Mind reading - Sometimes I really don't want to know what other people are thinking... I have enough problems with the things I think.

Super speed - This would have to be coupled with super healing I think. For one, I hurt bad enough as it is. For another, I am sure that tripping at super speed would cause a number of divots in the ground, not to mention what creating the divots would do to me.

Teleportation - I think about this every time I drive across Wyoming. It would be nice to just pick the things up you need, and teleport to the other side of the country. Makes vacations a little easier... In Wyoming, I tend to think that it would even be nice to teleport the car to the top of the next rise. (Like some sort of line-of-sight ability) The problem I see with this kind of thing? Teleporting a van with all it's contents must be pretty tiring. Would you be able to drive? What about all the other cars on the road? How would you maintain your speed, and ensure that you didn't drop on top of someone else? What about normal teleportation? How do you ensure the landing site is clear? I am also sure that teleporting into a wall is pretty painful...

Time travel - Lots of benefits, but way too many paradoxes involved...

Flight - Not likely to be fun in cold, wet conditions.

Invisibility - What happens if you turn invisible, then fall asleep somewhere inconvenient?

Super strength - Hurting people the the problem with this one, even accidentally. And smashing my desk. And I don't think typing would work very well. All my keyboards would get bashed up.

Telepathy - I speak my mind enough, I don't need to be transmitting things wirelessly.

Spiderman's abilities - This might not be bad, but there aren't too many tall buildings where I live. Wouldn't be any fun.

Iceman's abilities - I always thought they ended X Men 2 wrong. The dam was bursting, they had Ice Man there! Make him freeze everything, they get away, he is left looking like ice. Much better ending. Tara gets cold, she wouldn't like me as Ice Man. She would never get warm.

Shape shifting - I am sure this one would hurt, but it might be kind of cool to turn into an elephant once in a while, or a mouse, or an old tire. You really could be the proverbial fly on the wall...

I'm sure there are others. What have you got on your list?

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