this post was submitted on 04 Dec 2023
164 points (97.7% liked)

Ask Lemmy

27254 readers
1665 users here now

A Fediverse community for open-ended, thought provoking questions


Rules: (interactive)


1) Be nice and; have funDoxxing, trolling, sealioning, racism, and toxicity are not welcomed in AskLemmy. Remember what your mother said: if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. In addition, the site-wide Lemmy.world terms of service also apply here. Please familiarize yourself with them


2) All posts must end with a '?'This is sort of like Jeopardy. Please phrase all post titles in the form of a proper question ending with ?


3) No spamPlease do not flood the community with nonsense. Actual suspected spammers will be banned on site. No astroturfing.


4) NSFW is okay, within reasonJust remember to tag posts with either a content warning or a [NSFW] tag. Overtly sexual posts are not allowed, please direct them to either !asklemmyafterdark@lemmy.world or !asklemmynsfw@lemmynsfw.com. NSFW comments should be restricted to posts tagged [NSFW].


5) This is not a support community.
It is not a place for 'how do I?', type questions. If you have any questions regarding the site itself or would like to report a community, please direct them to Lemmy.world Support or email info@lemmy.world. For other questions check our partnered communities list, or use the search function.


6) No US Politics.
Please don't post about current US Politics. If you need to do this, try !politicaldiscussion@lemmy.world or !askusa@discuss.online


Reminder: The terms of service apply here too.

Partnered Communities:

Tech Support

No Stupid Questions

You Should Know

Reddit

Jokes

Ask Ouija


Logo design credit goes to: tubbadu


founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] peto@lemm.ee 82 points 1 year ago (8 children)

A lot of them assuming you don't get the required secondary powers.

Super speed, if your perceptions aren't heightened it rapidly becomes impractical, if they are things are going to get painfully boring real quick. Even thinking at double speed means you are going to be waiting for the world to catch up a lot. Never mind what even relatively low G-forces can do to someone.

Super-hearing. Imagine if you really could hear conversations a block away, it can be hard enough discerning one conversation in a crowded room, imagine it being like that everywhere. All the rats and insects you will be hearing, the sound of people's clothes rubbing together. Even if normally loud things aren't deafening just focusing on one thing will be taxing.

If you don't get secondary powers then super strength is going to suck. The human body is already capable of injuring itself with its own strength. How many fastball pitchers get arm or shoulder injuries just from throwing something really fast, or power-lifters who have something break or burst. Modern sporting records are starting to push up against the structural limits of the human body.

[–] NounsAndWords@lemmy.world 40 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Super-hearing. Imagine if you really could hear conversations a block away, it can be hard enough discerning one conversation in a crowded room, imagine it being like that everywhere. All the rats and insects you will be hearing, the sound of people’s clothes rubbing together. Even if normally loud things aren’t deafening just focusing on one thing will be taxing.

Super hearing would essentially be tinnitus with some variety in the inescapable noise.

[–] bionicjoey@lemmy.ca 16 points 1 year ago

Also it would be similar to the experience a lot of autistic people have with their sense of hearing. Feeling overwhelmed by the background noise of every nearby animal, bit of noisy clothing, conversation, and heavy machinery is par for the course for me.

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] SheDiceToday@eslemmy.es 11 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I think the superhearing power is going to be different than you think. You can already hear your clothes rubbing against skin, the air conditioning blowing, etc. Your brain is pretty good at filtering those out. Now, the conversations will be more difficult, but think about your experiences at a party. Most of the time you can hear another group's conversation if you listened and focused on them, but you can tune them out (most of the time, ignoring the cocktail party effect stuff for now). Unless you have focus issues already, it wouldn't be a big deal. The issue would be the initial period where your brain has to learn what exactly to filter out. Right now, a rustle to my right would be a bad sign, and hearing a rat crawling through the wall would freak me out. After a few weeks though, I bet I'd have adjusted.

load more comments (2 replies)
load more comments (6 replies)
[–] CADmonkey@lemmy.world 71 points 1 year ago (9 children)

Super strength is something I could see being problematic.

The movies always show the super strong hero picking up buses or trains with one hand, but in reality you have to lift such vehicles in specific places, or they will be damaged. Youtube is full of videos depicting cars falling from mechanic's lifts due to improper lift point placement, or just old fasioned rust. Imagine Mr. Incredible going to pick up a bus in a state where the roads are salted, and just breaking off a handful of the frame.

[–] Usernameblankface@lemmy.world 29 points 1 year ago (3 children)

This is the kind of gritty reality I'd like to see in a movie. Stuff is constantly breaking when the hero tries to pick it up, he has to go through a montage of classes on structure and how to choose the best place to grab onto things.

Also leverage. Unless the super strength comes with stability, lifing a boulder from the edge would just make the hero's feet slip out from under them. He has to lift one side straight up until he can fit underneath to balance the thing. Then he has to hope that the ground below can withstand all the weight of the boulder pressing on the soles of his feet.

load more comments (3 replies)
[–] magnetosphere@kbin.social 22 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Additionally, see the essay Man of Steel, Woman of Kleenex by Larry Niven

Overthinking? Yes, intentionally. Gross and funny? Also yes!

load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments (7 replies)
[–] XTL@sopuli.xyz 53 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (10 children)

Any sort of super strength without added toughness and motor control. You'd break your own body let alone everything around you pretty fast. Same for juggernaut movement. Or high jump type flight.

[–] TheGiantKorean@lemmy.world 32 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Also, forget picking up buildings or planes. Most things would break or crumble under their own weight as soon as you tried to pick them up.

[–] SheDiceToday@eslemmy.es 12 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Insert: >Superman is actually a psychokinetic

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] Shurimal@kbin.social 14 points 1 year ago

Forever War delved into the problems with super strength. The power armor took a humongous amount of training to be used finely enough in everyday tasks and not break something or someone. A simple handshake between someone in power armor and someone without could result in crushed bones or a ripped off arm. A great show of skill in using the power armor was the main character sitting down in office and writing a letter with pen and paper while wearing the armor!

Another great example of how dangerous superstrength is when dealing with non-superstrength people was in anime Beastars where one big carnivore accidentally ripped off the arm of his smaller non-carnivore friend. In-lore was said to be a very common thing to the extent that limb reattachment is a common medical procedure.

[–] yyyesss@lemmy.world 14 points 1 year ago (1 children)

My Hero Academia deals with this

load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments (7 replies)
[–] Tolookah@discuss.tchncs.de 40 points 1 year ago (5 children)

Teleportation. Unless truly instantaneous, you need to account for the fact that the earth moves 18 miles per second relative to the sun.

[–] Endorkend@kbin.social 20 points 1 year ago (4 children)

And isn't the solar system moving at like 500000 miles an hour around the milkyway too?

Teleportation and timetravel both have this issue where you have to take a fuckload of moving parts we don't even completely understand yet, into account.

load more comments (4 replies)
[–] volodymyr@lemmy.world 17 points 1 year ago

Inertial systems are all equal in a certain relevant here sense, if there is no need for account for your movement relative to Sun, Galaxy, CMB, or anything else. Yes, in this sense, Sun also rotates around Earth.

[–] peto@lemm.ee 15 points 1 year ago (1 children)

On top of that you need to account for the fact that the earth's surface is moving at different speeds depending on latitude and elevation. Even if you can do the calculations to hit your mark, there is most likely to be some energy mismatch that needs to be accounted for.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] 56_@lemmy.ml 14 points 1 year ago (1 children)

This doesn't make sense. The earth moves at very different speeds depending on what you compare it to. The only thing that makes sense is for the teleportation to be relative to the teleporter. Maybe it would still require taking into account rotation, instead of linear momentum. idk, still seems complicated.

load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments (1 replies)
[–] Zozano@aussie.zone 39 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

Ability to stop time.

As soon as you stop time, everything will go pitch black. The photons which refract off everything will be absorbed by your eyes instantaneously.

Assuming you could still see, it would be freezing everywhere as the heat would dissipate the moment you touched it.

Assuming you could still see, and wouldn't freeze to death, if you were to unfreeze time, the human-shaped vacuum tube you created while walking from point A to B would collapse violently, killing you, and anyone else standing close to it.

This also assumes that with time stopped, you can push microscopic particles around. If not, then any movement at all will make every molecule around you act as radiation, and and dust will feel like tiny razor blades, ripping through your body.

Also, the ability to stop time doesn't guarantee the ability to start it again.

[–] eskimofry@lemmy.world 19 points 1 year ago

Also, the ability to stop time doesn’t guarantee the ability to start it again.

That's some Monkey's Paw shit right here

[–] emergencyfood@sh.itjust.works 13 points 1 year ago

Lack of light is something that does come up with the History Monks in Discworld. Although they only slow down time, so they can see things, just very dimly lit.

[–] x2XS2L0U@feddit.de 35 points 1 year ago (1 children)

mind reading. it would make you super sad super fast, because you'd always know when you're being lied to.

[–] SheDiceToday@eslemmy.es 13 points 1 year ago

I remember one of the tidbits I picked up from a psychology textbook was that people who were worse at knowing if their partner was lying were in happier relationships. Turns out that white lies are important.

[–] theKalash@feddit.ch 33 points 1 year ago (11 children)

Invisibility. It would also make you blind.

load more comments (11 replies)
[–] RBWells@lemmy.world 32 points 1 year ago (5 children)

There was a TV show about a guy with super senses -hearing, smell, touch, vision. I grew up with brothers, learned to breathe defensively to not smell things, and remember thinking there is no way I would survive having a supernaturally sensitive sense of smell. There are just more bad smells than good in an average day.

I think also that hearing people's thoughts would drive anyone crazy.

What I would like to have is super jumping and landing, sort of like flying but just bouncing.

[–] Socsa@sh.itjust.works 12 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I mean, my dog thinks garbage and shit are the greatest smells possible and he's the most trustworthy person I know, so I have to assume it all circles back on itself somehow.

load more comments (4 replies)
[–] ICastFist@programming.dev 28 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Super speed. Even if you ignore the air friction and possible "everything moves too damn slow for me" problems, it doesn't come with super endurance.

[–] ThatWeirdGuy1001@lemmy.world 23 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Fun fact! There's a theory that the reason humans can't run faster than ~25 mph is because at that speed the injuries from an impact become much more life threatening. So everyone who was capable of running that fast would generally die by running into something or tripping

load more comments (3 replies)
[–] mrcleanup@lemmy.world 27 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Imagine

How

Slowly

It

Seems

Like

Everyone

Is

Talking

To

The

Flash.

[–] TheGiantKorean@lemmy.world 33 points 1 year ago

Can you imagine what it's like when they ask him to search the entire city for a bomb? To him he's spending months or even years just walking around looking in every room, every trash can, under every car, etc.

[–] LegionEris@feddit.nl 12 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

They actually address this with the super speed character in I'm a Virgo. Flora's superpower is that she's always bored x_x

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] doctorcrimson@lemmy.today 26 points 1 year ago
[–] kryllic@programming.dev 25 points 1 year ago (7 children)

Immortality. If you go to the bottom of the ocean or space without protection your muscles won't get any more oxygen and you'll get rigor mortis and basically be stuck forever.

load more comments (7 replies)
[–] hakunawazo@lemmy.world 25 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Laser eyes/heat vision where you can't see where to shoot.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] Death_Equity@lemmy.world 21 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Shape-shifting would almost certainly be agonizingly painful.

[–] dingus@lemmy.world 27 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Not sure why it has to be. Being a superpower, it already defies logic. Why is it necessarily painful? I don't see why the brain can't temporarily shut off pain receptors if it's already doing something fantastical.

I'm reminded of the Animorphs books, where they describe the process as grotesque and the odd sensations they feel.

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] MTK@lemmy.world 19 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Super speed. Either you would need to also think and react at super speeds, which mean the world would be agonizingly slow, or you would have normal speed reaction in which case you would crash and die.

There is also the option of super reaction time on demand, but in any case non of this matters as super speed would make the air as "thick" as a concrete wall so you would also need to me super strong and super durable.

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] spittingimage@lemmy.world 19 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Super speed. You'd have to slow down or die of heatstroke from air friction.

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] ReallyKinda@kbin.social 19 points 1 year ago (2 children)

When you step the air under your feet turns solid so you have to go infinitely up

[–] LemmyKnowsBest@lemmy.world 17 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I find this amusingly humorous.

and not so much a superpower. More like a disability. Wouldn't be able to walk anywhere and would have to resort to living in a wheelchair.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] Fedizen@lemmy.world 17 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (3 children)

x ray vision, pretty sure you need to expose things to x rays to see skeletons. You gonna walk around irradiating people with an x ray source?

load more comments (3 replies)
[–] BrianTheeBiscuiteer@lemmy.world 17 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Unless your power is to control fire, the power to create fire or engulf yourself in fire would be mostly useless. Finding or making fireproof (not fire resistant) clothing would be a pain and uncomfortable to wear all the time. Plus, a lot of things are flammable, so unless you plan to be a super villain you're more of a menace shooting flames everywhere than you are a hero.

[–] at_an_angle@lemmy.one 22 points 1 year ago

The Venture Brothers played on this.

Mr. Impossible kept him alive in a vacuum to prevent Cody the human torch from bursting into flames.... until he became evil and trapped him in an oxygen rich chamber to power his skyscraper.

[–] yessikg@lemmy.blahaj.zone 16 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Hearing everybody else's thoughts all the time, X-Men is probably the most popular example

[–] ilinamorato@lemmy.world 18 points 1 year ago

EVERY superpower is a curse if you can't turn it off.

[–] AgentGrimstone@lemmy.world 12 points 1 year ago (4 children)

Super speed. That doesn't necessarily mean you have super reaction time.

load more comments (4 replies)
[–] jcrabapple@infosec.pub 12 points 1 year ago (1 children)
load more comments (1 replies)
[–] masquenox@lemmy.world 11 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Superman's powers would be totally impractical in real life. I mean, destroying any building you're in with a fart you didn't catch in time doesn't sound very practical to me...

load more comments (3 replies)
[–] HubertManne@kbin.social 11 points 1 year ago

close to all of them if we take real physics into effect. Anything impractical can be made practical by just making its practicality part of the story.

load more comments
view more: next ›