Interesting conversation on NPR - choose ONE superpower: invisiblility or flight

[hal]

Mini 9 wrote:
Bad news guys... my wife answered INVISIBLE.
Can I properly assume she's evil?

no, no, not at all...

say... what's her number?

[Mini 9]

8

I think that's her number. She's old...lived next door to A.G. Bell.

[Doc]

Mini 9 wrote:
Bad news guys... my wife answered INVISIBLE.
Can I properly assume she's evil?

According to the NPR story, it means she's insecure.

[Blankity Blank]

$tevie wrote:
LOL, I guess computer geeks can't understand the nature of this exercise.

Or maybe closer to the truth, the nature of the question. Comics moved away from a simplistic world of 'Flying! Neato-o!' and 'Invisibility! Cool!' at least a good twenty years ago, so the question probably feels a bit quaint to a lot of people who grew up reading modern comics (In the defense of "This American Life", the show the question comes from is almost a good decade old).

If you think this thread is "bad", try posting the same question on a comics board and it'll likely get parsed and picked apart till your eyes bleed. :biggrin:

[N-OS X-tasy!]

Thrift Store Scott wrote:
Ah, but assuming that the power of flight would be like Superman's (which I always thought was more of an infinitely long-range jumping ability than actual flight per se)

That would not explain how he can hover in mid-air, would it?

[Doc]

N-OS X-tasy! wrote:
[quote=Thrift Store Scott]
Ah, but assuming that the power of flight would be like Superman's (which I always thought was more of an infinitely long-range jumping ability than actual flight per se)

That would not explain how he can hover in mid-air, would it?
He originally only "leapt tall buildings," but it changed to flight in the mid 1940s and by the dawn of the silver age he would often levitate.

One reason we should define "flight" a little better: If it's just motion along the z-axis, that's not especially useful beyond fetching things from high shelves or tricking people into walking off of rooftops.

[M A V I C]

$tevie wrote:
I think that since the original question was "which superpower would you choose", it should be obvious that the flight in question would be like Superman's and the invisibility in question would be like Sue Storm's. You can fly when and how you want, you can become invisible when and how you want -- it's a superpower for crying out loud. So questions about the mechanics, the physics, the science are all irrelevant.

The comparison isn't relavant. Superman and Sue Storm are fictional characters. I am not fictional. How superpowers apply to fictional characters is not comparable to how superpowers would apply to real people.

$tevie wrote:
LOL, I guess computer geeks can't understand the nature of this exercise.

I think it's the exact opposite - geeks can understand the nature and ramifications of the question, but others quickly gloss over the details.

[N-OS X-tasy!]

M A V I C wrote: How superpowers apply to fictional characters is not comparable to how superpowers would apply to real people.

Superpowers are fictional. Jeebus!

[Surfrider]

Girls in showers...invisibility...nuff said!!!