Poll: Would You Rather - Superpowers 2

[CitrusLover]

Hi again, got another one for you.

Mind reading - You can read minds, discover conspiracies or other things (whatever tickles your fancy). However, it can't be turned off. Meaning you will know everything everyone is thinking ever.

Telekineses - You can move objects with your mind. Unblock traffic jams, be the best NBA player there ever was, etc. But it can turn out like the third X-Man movie (I think it was called 'Last Stand', it was terrible basically) where your brain overloads and you kill all of your friends and family and cause the apocalypse.

 

[Euryalus]

Telekinesis. Definitely Telekinesis. It'll be just like having the over charged gravity gun

I'd take the risk, consequences be damned!

 

[Heronblade]

Depends on the limitations and ability to control both.

If, with the former case, you autoread the minds of everyone around you without limits, insanity is inevitable. I can live with the consequences of knowing the thoughts of those I am in close contact with if the ability can be relatively controllable without becoming a hermit. If I do use this ability, I'd most likely use it for the sake of investigative work.

Telekinesis, now there is a useful ability, although it varies somewhat in scope. On the low end of the spectrum, rescue operations, combative techniques, etc. On the high end (AKA the widespread subatomic control exhibited by Dr Manhattan), insane engineering projects become fairly simple. I could, for instance, create the several hundred thousand kilometer long buckytube cable required for a space elevator, which is step one of our best shot at functionally unlimited resources and energy. Concerning the possibility of loss of control, that is indeed a factor. I suspect that my mind is resilient enough to deal with it, but who the hell knows.

 

[Catfood220]

Hi again, got another one for you.

Mind reading - You can read minds, discover conspiracies or other things (whatever tickles your fancy). However, it can't be turned off. Meaning you will know everything everyone is thinking ever.

Telekineses - You can move objects with your mind. Unblock traffic jams, be the best NBA player there ever was, etc. But it can turn out like the third X-Man movie (I think it was called 'Last Stand', it was terrible basically) where your brain overloads and you kill all of your friends and family and cause the apocalypse.

I would have to take the telekineses, if there has to be an apocalypse then I want to be the one who caused it because I have a super villain complex.

Having the ability to read peoples minds and not turn it off would be horrible. It would drive you insane, hearing everything everyone is thinking ever would just be noise, just a lot of babble like being in a noisy crowded room forever.

No thanks, I'll just destroy the world. My loved ones will understand.

 

[Eddie the head]

Telekineses the mind reading how you put it would suck hard.

 

[ClockworkPenguin]

I'd take the mind reading. I'm not sure people think as much as they think they do, and if it's just sort of 'verbal' thoughts then it'd just be like constantly being in a crowded pub, and I reckon I could handle that.

And if it gets too much, well they are looking for 1 way volunteers for mars.

 

[Rose and Thorn]

Telekineses - where your brain overloads and you kill all of your friends and family and cause the apocalypse.

Telekineses, that sold it for me.

Honestly though, being able to read minds would make everything too easy and it would take a lot of magic out of love and romance.

 

[Queen Michael]

I'd smurf telekinesis. Mind-reading would make a happy life imsmurfable, but there'd still be a smurf for happiness with the telekinesis.

 

[The Event]

Would mind reading be any use if you could hear everyone's thoughts all the time? Would you even be able to filter the background noise out to focus on the one you were trying to read?

And telekinesis, is this brain overload related to the size of what you are trying to move? Like try to pull the moon from orbit and your brain goes pop? Or just moving a feather off your sweater causes it? If it takes a moon sized effort I'll go with telekinesis.

 

[ace_of_something]

Mind reading would be infinitely more useful in my chosen profession, assuming mind reading works in the optimal comic book like fashion. Meaning I can hone in on what I want and can shut if off when I chose.

 

[spartan231490]

With those restrictions, telepathy. There are places with no one for dozens or hundreds of miles around if I need peace of mind, and I can make more money off telepathy anyway.

 

[MeChaNiZ3D]

Telekinesis for sure. I know some of the things I think in public or when talking to other people, if I knew what other people were thinking all the time I'd never have a regular conversation ever again. Not to mention the sheer noise I would have to contend with in a crowd. Funnily enough, it seems more of a matter of comparing disadvantages that what benefits the power would actually have, but even so, I think I'd go telekinesis regardless, if not for the potential benefits to mankind, then to be able to lift heavy things and imitate the Force.

 

[Risingblade]

Telekinesis, when I die I'm taking the OP down with me.

 

[LetalisK]

Telekinesis. The way you describe how mind reading can't even be turned off, meaning an unmitigated barrage of telepathic information 24/7, seems to be a quick way to insanity.

Without those restrictions, mind reading.

 

[kailus13]

Telekinesis. I wouldn't be able to drown out peoples thoughts with music.

 

[Izanagi009_v1legacy]

Telekinesis, if your power is refined enough, you could affect the behavior of atoms and produce other powers such as pryokinesis. It could eventually lead to a weaker version of vector manipulation.

 

[Asita]

I'd take the mind reading. I'm not sure people think as much as they think they do, and if it's just sort of 'verbal' thoughts then it'd just be like constantly being in a crowded pub, and I reckon I could handle that.

And if it gets too much, well they are looking for 1 way volunteers for mars.

Depending on the range and your location, they might not have to. Picture, if you will, living in the city and constantly hearing the thoughts of everyone within a 500 meter radius (The canonical range of Mao from Code Geass, who is practically the poster boy for the problem of constant telepathy), or an area of roughly .785 kilometers if you prefer to think of it that way. If you're in London, which has a population density of 5206/km2, that means you'll typically have 4087 people in range. Now granted, I have no way to calculate this next part, but let's assume for the sake of argument that 5% of those people are actively thinking at any given moment during the day. You're looking at around 204 voices constantly buzzing in your skull under those circumstances. Scarily enough, this isn't even the worst case scenario[footnote]Union City in New Jersey, for instance, has a population of 67,088 over a 1.27 square mile area, yielding a population density of 52977.8 people per square mile. Under the above circumstances that would mean roughly 16100 people would be in range[/footnote]. It's also worth noting that this actually gets worse when people are sleeping as the human brain tends to act as if it's remembering something under those circumstances, and thus likely fair game for your telepathy. As such you could probably expect the ability's strain to spike during the graveyard shift rather than die down. My point, of course, being that the 'talkativeness' of any given brain doesn't matter if the sample size is large enough.

Of course, we aren't given a range of effectiveness, so the above is purely illustrative rather than definitively applicable.

 

[ClockworkPenguin]

I'd take the mind reading. I'm not sure people think as much as they think they do, and if it's just sort of 'verbal' thoughts then it'd just be like constantly being in a crowded pub, and I reckon I could handle that.

And if it gets too much, well they are looking for 1 way volunteers for mars.

Depending on the range and your location, they might not have to. Picture, if you will, living in the city and constantly hearing the thoughts of everyone within a 500 meter radius (The canonical range of Mao from Code Geass, who is practically the poster boy for the problem of constant telepathy), or an area of roughly .785 kilometers if you prefer to think of it that way. If you're in London, which has a population density of 5206/km2, that means you'll typically have 4087 people in range. Now granted, I have no way to calculate this next part, but let's assume for the sake of argument that 5% of those people are actively thinking at any given moment during the day. You're looking at around 204 voices constantly buzzing in your skull under those circumstances. Scarily enough, this isn't even the worst case scenario[footnote]Union City in New Jersey, for instance, has a population of 67,088 over a 1.27 square mile area, yielding a population density of 52977.8 people per square mile. Under the above circumstances that would mean roughly 16100 people would be in range[/footnote]. It's also worth noting that this actually gets worse when people are sleeping as the human brain tends to act as if it's remembering something under those circumstances, and thus likely fair game for your telepathy. As such you could probably expect the ability's strain to spike during the graveyard shift rather than die down. My point, of course, being that the 'talkativeness' of any given brain doesn't matter if the sample size is large enough.

Of course, we aren't given a range of effectiveness, so the above is purely illustrative rather than definitively applicable.

Okay, so its a VERY noisy pub, which I never get to leave. However, the brain is pretty damn good at ignoring stuff. Just because I'm hearing everything doesn't mean I'm listening, its just background after a while. Like how you stop noticing really strong smells after a couple of hours.

I'm not saying it wouldn't be a annoying or have no downsides, I just think I could cope. And it's better than potentially causing the apocalypse.

 

[teisjm]

I'll assume the risk is low, and go for telekinesis.

Am i beeing reckless? What do you think capcha?
"do it now!"
Oh, i feel much better about accepting the gift of the force then