I wish for pointless superpowers... To turn diamonds into coal, smell like vanilla at will, the ability to transform into an 82 year old Hungarian woman with a weak bladder... http://www.pointlesssuperpowers.com/post...lar?page=2

(04-05-2017, 04:51 PM)JayRodney Wrote:  I wish for pointless superpowers... To turn diamonds into coal, smell like vanilla at will, the ability to transform into an 82 year old Hungarian woman with a weak bladder... http://www.pointlesssuperpowers.com/post...lar?page=2

explosive projectile diarrhea.

(04-04-2017, 11:28 PM)failboat Wrote:  but the question is: would you abuse your power or use it for good?

Both of them over and over until the end of time. I'd be a benevolent fake deity when I'd get tired of Darth Vadering all the "bad guys".
Well, when thinking about a situation where a person would have such capabilities, one would surely be pressed to join the UN and/or some more secret world leading scheme. I mean, if there was "that omnipotent immortal dude" somewhere, I'd figure lot's of people would want his opinions on stuff. People would most likely try to get the person to do lots of work for them and also trying to figure out a way to steal his powers.
All in all I think it'd become quite stressful at some point.

I'd have iron skillet hands and make food for the hungry

(04-05-2017, 04:51 PM)JayRodney Wrote:  I wish for pointless superpowers... To turn diamonds into coal, smell like vanilla at will, the ability to transform into an 82 year old Hungarian woman with a weak bladder... http://www.pointlesssuperpowers.com/post...lar?page=2

Great site.

(04-04-2017, 11:28 PM)failboat Wrote:  but the question is: would you abuse your power or use it for good?

edit: had to delete my post because i realized it ends with the horst wessel song... which is forbidden in germany... it's actually a criminal offence to start playing it...

I've never heard of that song before. Is this what your talking about?

Horst Wessel Lied ? Die Fahne hoch

(04-04-2017, 11:28 PM)failboat Wrote:  but the question is: would you abuse your power or use it for good?

If one was merely omniscient (and maybe immortal) it would be kind of hard to abuse such power, or at least any more than the powers that be abuse their own influence and resources at hand. The best analogy I could imagine is if a modern scientist, physicist, MacGyver, etc was sent back 10,000 years ago, it is possible for them to screw things up but unlikely enough to screw things any more than they already are; considering what the state of the world would be like at that time and their improbability of exerting control of the people/culture of the time more than the people/culture would exerting their own influence and control on them.

Perhaps a better example might be Tesla and supposedly how much more he could have changed things and how Thomas Edison used him to improve his bottom line instead.

However if instead we are talking omnipotence, that is a hard question. It is said the power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely so I think the best answer that anyone could give is that they don't know. We are controlled by our fears and the human condition and what it would be like not to be controlled by such (ie. which would in all likelihood make one no longer a human), so I assume as a human always influenced by fear/human condition/etc. I don't have anywhere enough experience to say what it would be like to be something more or at least other than human.

(04-05-2017, 02:23 AM)failboat Wrote:  

(04-05-2017, 02:08 AM)White Ribbon Wrote:  

(04-04-2017, 10:27 PM)failboat Wrote:  i would like to be immortal. i also would like to have the ability to teleport through space and time.

You aren't immortal?

no. i'm getting old. i watched recipes on youtube.
maybe it's time to settle down now.

i'm ready for marriage now.

Have you thought about maybe getting yourself a robot body?

(04-05-2017, 08:12 PM)dclements Wrote:  

(04-04-2017, 11:28 PM)failboat Wrote:  but the question is: would you abuse your power or use it for good?

edit: had to delete my post because i realized it ends with the horst wessel song... which is forbidden in germany... it's actually a criminal offence to start playing it...

I've never heard of that song before. Is this what your talking about?

Horst Wessel Lied ? Die Fahne hoch
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gWizLfM1L3E

it's not available in germany. but yes that's the song.
starts at 0:34. had to use a canadian server.
there are better versions though...

(04-05-2017, 08:29 PM)dclements Wrote:  

(04-05-2017, 02:23 AM)failboat Wrote:  

(04-05-2017, 02:08 AM)White Ribbon Wrote:  

(04-04-2017, 10:27 PM)failboat Wrote:  i would like to be immortal. i also would like to have the ability to teleport through space and time.

You aren't immortal?

no. i'm getting old. i watched recipes on youtube.
maybe it's time to settle down now.

i'm ready for marriage now.

Have you thought about maybe getting yourself a robot body?    

yes! :D i love transhumanism.

(04-05-2017, 04:51 PM)JayRodney Wrote:  I wish for pointless superpowers... To turn diamonds into coal, smell like vanilla at will, the ability to transform into an 82 year old Hungarian woman with a weak bladder... http://www.pointlesssuperpowers.com/post...lar?page=2

Have you ever watched the movie "The Specials"? That and Mystery Men are two of the greatest parody movies about superheroes. I  image it would be one thing to have super powers and be shunned by other people, but for someone to have a 'super power' that is useless would be another thing. I may be wrong but it wouldn't be that much better than being a crazy person who thinks they have super powers but doesn't , sort of like how Don Quixote thought he was a knight but wasn't.

The Specials trailer


However having extraordinary confidence (as well as some ability to pull off several of the things wants to do with that confidence) can almost be like a super power. I know it sounds laughable, but history has several examples of regular people with only marginal talent doing pretty extraordinary things. A few examples I can think of at the moment are Joan of Arc, Alexander the Great, and Rasputin. Each of them had characteristics and skills of regular moral men (or women) but welded power that made them God-like by those who either encountered them or tried to oppose them.

It makes me wonder if sometimes when someone is crazy whether they also possess the ability to access a bridge between the divine and oblivion; since such overconfidence often seems to either put people at risk by acquiring addition enemies and/or often being oblivious to the dangers around them.  At any rate it might be plausible that the story of Don Quixote is also a story of someone being willing to become one of  Kierkegaard's 'knights of faith' just as Kierkegaard himself obviously used Abraham (from the bible) as a sort of prototype for his knights of faith. If you think about it, someone who is willing to kill/sacrifice his only son because God commands it is definitely a real secret squirrel. However he is also the person who people are supposed to model if one is a follower of the Abrahamic religions (since he is the patriarch and they are even named after him), however I wonder if having a person who is obviously mad serves as a good example for those who actually believe in such religions.

(04-05-2017, 08:47 PM)failboat Wrote:  

(04-05-2017, 08:12 PM)dclements Wrote:  

(04-04-2017, 11:28 PM)failboat Wrote:  but the question is: would you abuse your power or use it for good?

edit: had to delete my post because i realized it ends with the horst wessel song... which is forbidden in germany... it's actually a criminal offence to start playing it...

I've never heard of that song before. Is this what your talking about?

Horst Wessel Lied ? Die Fahne hoch
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gWizLfM1L3E

it's not available in germany. but yes that's the song.
starts at 0:34. had to use a canadian server.
there are better versions though...

Canadian proxy? Zo, you admit to ze mind crime Herr Failboat?

(04-05-2017, 09:24 PM)JayRodney Wrote:  

(04-05-2017, 08:47 PM)failboat Wrote:  

(04-05-2017, 08:12 PM)dclements Wrote:  

(04-04-2017, 11:28 PM)failboat Wrote:  but the question is: would you abuse your power or use it for good?

edit: had to delete my post because i realized it ends with the horst wessel song... which is forbidden in germany... it's actually a criminal offence to start playing it...

I've never heard of that song before. Is this what your talking about?

Horst Wessel Lied ? Die Fahne hoch
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gWizLfM1L3E

it's not available in germany. but yes that's the song.
starts at 0:34. had to use a canadian server.
there are better versions though...

Canadian proxy? Zo, you admit to ze mind crime Herr Failboat?

(04-05-2017, 04:07 PM)failboat Wrote:  ok i found the perfect superpower combo.
immortality and the power to split myself into unlimited instances. i would take all the jobs and provide humanity with everything we need forever. :D

I think that is something that is sort of theoretically possible if you consider cloning and possibly using eugenics. Just having more of the same people around (even if they are all like you) may not improve things unless you already have special skills or if the genes in the copies are improve some way such in genetic manipulation. I imagine anyone that has scene in Star Wars Obi-Wan encounters a clone factory might be able to envision what it might be like to actually try an implement cloning on a large scale; not that it will ever be done nor would it necessarily be done in such a fashion if implemented.

Obi-Wan Discovers the Clone Army - Attack of the Clones


There is also the possibility of augmented humans, cybernetics, gene jacks, etc. which offers some of the benefits(as well as other things) if for whatever reasons clones where not an option. Augmentation is a generic term for nearly ANYTHING that can be done to the human body to change and improve it. Giving people prosthetic arms, legs, and even eyes for those who who don't have or can not use them isn't what augmentation is really about (since augmentation is supposed to be an improvement of natural body parts instead of a replacement) , but technically prosthetic can still be thought of as a type of augmentation done to improve on natural function but instead fix ones that don't work. Cybernetics itself is a type of augmentation.

I don't know much about gene jacks except they were mentioned in Alpha Centauri in a technological advancement know as Genejack Factory; which describes it kind of as genetically modifying people in a such a way that they would be optimize for work (ie. they can not feel pain and they only derive pleasure by doing their job and/or other functions). While Alpha Centauri only uses genejacks to create workers for factories, there is no reason why genejacks would be only used for this function; that is of course IF our society would allow such things to be created and used.

Also theoretically it is plausible to create genejacks not only on or around conception but even with fully grown and developed human beings depending on how they need to be modified. Of course such alterations could more easily be done by replacement with machine/computer components than genetic manipulation, but it is safe to say that IF it wanted to be done for some reason one might choose to use either option to implement it. Of course by the time it becomes feasible to create genejacks, it becomes plausible to completely replace humans being for many tasks by just building androids and/or robots. I just believe it is worth noting that certain..groups might be willing to use genejacks and/or clones before we have the technology to build androids and robots.

While it is plausible, I believe it will be a very long time before anyone has the technology to implement 'human blanks' (blank human bodies grown in tubes that can be reprogrammed using regular human DNA to quickly change them into a copy of that person) and mind recording devices which where used in a movie called "The 6th Day", but if it was done I imagine it would be kind of interesting.

The 6th Day (2000) - Trailer

i want to marry you dcelements.