Telekinesis is the best super power
- Thread starter LitmusDragon
- Start date
Checkmate
Commodore
Oh, if we're just picking the one type of power we'd most want, I'd have to go with the Luck / Charmed Life / Probability Manipulation / Guardian Angel / Whatever You Wanna call It one.
Basically, no matter what you do or what someone else tries to do to you (directly or indirectly), you always come out ahead. Defensively you're nigh untouchable. Superman would trip over his own cape and super kill himself on a spiky stone of kryptonite that just happened to be nearby, for instance. Offensively you pull off crazy ass stunts that just leave other people blinking in disbelief. Financially you win every lotto, are always the 1,000,000th shopper, and/or find a $100 bill on the street whenever you need some pocket change. Romantically you have the hottest, most intelligent, charming and funny person you've ever met (and probably a whole harem/stable full of similar lovers) at your beck and call. When you need to be seen, everyone notices you. When you need to be on the low down or just want some quiet time, gosh, things just happen to go your way.
Screw all the other powers. Gimme that one. The only problem is if that you have that power, you're rarely ever in the superhero limelight because you don't need to be; you're too busy enjoying your awesome life. Hence the general lack of such characters in the comics with the full brunt (<-- keyword) of the power.
Basically, no matter what you do or what someone else tries to do to you (directly or indirectly), you always come out ahead. Defensively you're nigh untouchable. Superman would trip over his own cape and super kill himself on a spiky stone of kryptonite that just happened to be nearby, for instance. Offensively you pull off crazy ass stunts that just leave other people blinking in disbelief. Financially you win every lotto, are always the 1,000,000th shopper, and/or find a $100 bill on the street whenever you need some pocket change. Romantically you have the hottest, most intelligent, charming and funny person you've ever met (and probably a whole harem/stable full of similar lovers) at your beck and call. When you need to be seen, everyone notices you. When you need to be on the low down or just want some quiet time, gosh, things just happen to go your way.
Screw all the other powers. Gimme that one. The only problem is if that you have that power, you're rarely ever in the superhero limelight because you don't need to be; you're too busy enjoying your awesome life. Hence the general lack of such characters in the comics with the full brunt (<-- keyword) of the power.
The minor difference is that he can't manipulate anything not made of some kind of ferrous metal.
How'd that work out for Nathan Petrelli?
ProtoAvatar
Fleet Captain
Telekinety is the most versatile "power".
The most useful is the ability to control other people's minds. Has anyone read "Foundation and Empire" by Asimov? If one has a high-end mind-control ability (similar to the Mule's), then this person has or can have anything humanity can offer - and no problem whatsoever in getting all this or getting away with it
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I disqualify previously mentioned powers such as manifesting everything one wants or probability manipulation because they're too vague, too general - essentially, you would be a Q (meaning you actually refuse to make the choice, to select only one power, which defeats the point of this thread).
The most useful is the ability to control other people's minds. Has anyone read "Foundation and Empire" by Asimov? If one has a high-end mind-control ability (similar to the Mule's), then this person has or can have anything humanity can offer - and no problem whatsoever in getting all this or getting away with it
.I disqualify previously mentioned powers such as manifesting everything one wants or probability manipulation because they're too vague, too general - essentially, you would be a Q (meaning you actually refuse to make the choice, to select only one power, which defeats the point of this thread).
Telekinesis.
In teh world today what power would give you the greatest ability? Telepathy? NO it just allows you to read minds (thus gain knowledge and insight, but it has limited ability to shape your environment.
Mind Control, the ability to force another to your will? Again sure you could gain wealth and power, but the power would be that of a business man or a politician.
Telekinesis has a vast array of abilities, while it doesn't allow you to gain knowledge or the ability to influence people against their will, it still allows the ability to acquire great wealth, the ability to interact with any form of your environment, the ability to manipulate the environment without direct contact with that environment (thus people wouldn't know it was you, well unless you were stupid).
In teh world today what power would give you the greatest ability? Telepathy? NO it just allows you to read minds (thus gain knowledge and insight, but it has limited ability to shape your environment.
Mind Control, the ability to force another to your will? Again sure you could gain wealth and power, but the power would be that of a business man or a politician.
Telekinesis has a vast array of abilities, while it doesn't allow you to gain knowledge or the ability to influence people against their will, it still allows the ability to acquire great wealth, the ability to interact with any form of your environment, the ability to manipulate the environment without direct contact with that environment (thus people wouldn't know it was you, well unless you were stupid).
Telekinesis is the best power ever. Assuming you have the control over things as small as cells, ala being able to heal your body.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fg_cwI1Xj4M
"So all her clothes fall off."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fg_cwI1Xj4M
"So all her clothes fall off."
No, it doesn't. It's more like magnetic manipulation.
I think that would be rather risky unless you have considerable medical knowledge. You would probably end up seriously malformed otherwise.
I don't know.I somewhat facetiously submit that Telekinesis is the most interesting and therefore best superpower.
Obviously Magneto is the coolest X-Men villain. Why? Telekinesis. Furthermore, the appeal of Sylar can in large part be explained by his telekinesis.
Telekinesis appeals to a primordial desire inherent in humankind to be able to pick things up without having to get up off the couch. It's probably the only superpower that we have all tried to use, at least once.
Even Superman could be improved by giving him telekinesis. Able to leap tall buildings? How about about the MOVE tall buildings. With his mind.
Jedi are badass because they have telekinesis.
How much cooler would Aquaman have been if he could throw fish at you without even touching them.
End communication.
Would Telepathy trump Telekenesis?
If your telepathic, I'd know what you're going to do before you do it and shut down you mind so you couldn't.
I don't know.I somewhat facetiously submit that Telekinesis is the most interesting and therefore best superpower.
Obviously Magneto is the coolest X-Men villain. Why? Telekinesis. Furthermore, the appeal of Sylar can in large part be explained by his telekinesis.
Telekinesis appeals to a primordial desire inherent in humankind to be able to pick things up without having to get up off the couch. It's probably the only superpower that we have all tried to use, at least once.
Even Superman could be improved by giving him telekinesis. Able to leap tall buildings? How about about the MOVE tall buildings. With his mind.
Jedi are badass because they have telekinesis.
How much cooler would Aquaman have been if he could throw fish at you without even touching them.
End communication.
Would Telepathy trump Telekenesis?
If your telepathic, I'd know what you're going to do before you do it and shut down you mind so you couldn't.
Theoretically, you could lock up the guy with telekinesis and use his powers whenever you feel like it... You would probably have to keep him sedated when you're not around, though.
Doesn't Jean Grey manipulate matter at the atomic level? Maybe I was thinking of Kes on Voyager. TK would be my first choice, having the ability to even superheat, crush, or destroy objects with mere thoughts.
ProtoAvatar
Fleet Captain
It's not about manipulating matter at the molecular level. It's about manipulating MILLIONS of cells/BILLIONS of molecules simultaneously. The human brain just doesn't have the processing capacity for something like this.
How exactly does telekinesis would allow one to acquire great wealth? By robbing banks? By being a circus freak? By selling his genes to a farmaceutical giant?
Telekinesis allows one to manipulate one's environment by focusing one's mind.
Well, humans can already manipulate their environment - it's just that they use tools.
Telekinesis would just make life more comfortable -and high level telekinesis would turn one in a living weapon of mass destruction.
With telekinesis, the best you can do is being a weapon working for some government or being some overpowered villain everyone hates and tries to kill.
You can also choose to be a circus freak and win some money this way.
A - and you can, of course, try to have a miserable life by listening to police transmissions and trying to be a vigilante.
High level mind control, on the other hand, can get you everything you want and is in humanity's power to get for you - power, money, fame, fun - everything you want. Much better than mere telekinesis - which is flashy, but not very useful, unless you really are a superhero, fighting galactic villains.
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Well it really depends. Yes you can acquire wealth either way, both would be illegal (as coercion or out right theft is illegal), you want fame you could use mind control Iif its powerful enough) to make the masses love you. But if by the same token your a telekinetic you use your ability to lift a few mountains, and your going to have a lot of fame.
When I said mind control as limiterd ability over your environment, I meant it. A telekinetic can fly, can you with mind control? Well steal a plane. Can you lift a mountain? Nope, can you go to the Moon, well after years yes. A Telekinetic would just need to snatch the survival gear and take off.
Mind control would offer limited ability to defend yourself from natural disasters, telekinetics as long as they are awake should be able to survive any non end of the planet (or its ability to maintain life) event.
If we are talking about a significant lower level of power, I would still take TK over mind control, easily.
When I said mind control as limiterd ability over your environment, I meant it. A telekinetic can fly, can you with mind control? Well steal a plane. Can you lift a mountain? Nope, can you go to the Moon, well after years yes. A Telekinetic would just need to snatch the survival gear and take off.
Mind control would offer limited ability to defend yourself from natural disasters, telekinetics as long as they are awake should be able to survive any non end of the planet (or its ability to maintain life) event.
If we are talking about a significant lower level of power, I would still take TK over mind control, easily.
ProtoAvatar
Fleet Captain
mswood, lifting a mountain or flying are comic book stuff. In real life you'll find they're much less appealing (much like Batman's suit would be rather ridiculous):
With high level telekinesis you can break a safe - you'll be hated, people will try to capture/kill you constantly - not much of a life. You can lift a mountain, fly - people will be afraid of the threat you represent, try to capture/kill you constantly.
To repeat - telekinesis is flashy, but won't give you much of a life. If you're not alert - ALWAYS - you'll end up sedated in some bunker, while a cigarette-smoking man has teams of scientists working on you, trying to figure out how and why you tick.
With mind-control you'll have all the money/everything else you want, and everyone else will love you for it - simply because you want hem to.
With telekinesis you can go to the moon? Survive x cataclism? Hollow, meaningless achievements. How many times was you life threatened by a cataclism? And what will you do on the moon - beyond looking at a desert?
I'll take the ability to influence people in creating technology for efficient interplanetary craft anyday. Or the ability to make the people prepare on time for such cataclisms/rebuilt quickly afterwards.
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Sure people would hate you (would for either), but first people (in both situations) would have to know it was you (ie see you, or some one...) to even thank that a person is doing this.
But how would mind control really work. Do you control everyone? If not, how do you stop discovery? And once that knowledge is out how do you protect yourself?
Now of course if its on a global scale, then you don't have to worry about any of that.
As for my examples of TK, I was trying to point out that mind control has no direct impact on your environment.
How many accidents in life occur? From mother nature, to traffic accidents? A vast array of events occur every year costing the lives of what can number in the hundreds of thousands. Mind Control would have little to no impact on any of that.
With TK one could have a very comfortable life (and if one had any real sense) could be done safely and without being seen. It offers one the ability to have direct impact on one's environment.
Now obviously you would still be vulnerable, but one could take steps to protect your sleeping self (at least more then a typical person could).
You are in plane that is about to go down, how does mind control impact that? You are in an earthquake how does mind control impact that? You are walking down the street and a random accident occurs how does mind control help here? Flash Flood? Mudslide? Fire? Hurricane? Tornado? Random violence?
Now with mind control (either individual or mass scale), you could better your financial life and thus decrease some of the risk you might have to go through in life, but to a much smaller level then having telekinesis would.
A TK (depending on your power level, I mean if your are talking about just being a spoon bender then...) would have no problem getting resources and being able to do so with out being seen.
I mean how hard is it to find a target, buy in some other state (some typical scuba gear, a few bits of equipment, any form of material to cover your body), find an outdoor area and simply go under your target, come up from below ground and remove what you need, with to video evidence of your theft or leaving any physical evidence of your presence? I mean seriously. It isn't rocket science. If people from Mexico can manage to dig under the boarder to get to the US and do so many, many times before discovery, imagine someone who could do it an a few minutes and remove all evidence.
Just once (in the right place would allow you a very comfortable life). Sure you could get a larger payout (by either many robberies or by stealing more valuable and more risky objects, thus more likely to be tracked at some point).
Now with Mind Control (again on a lower power level) you might get a billionaire to give you a huge payout, but someone is going to want to know why. And that could easily spin way out of control. In both cases (unless you are talking about having vast amounts of ability in either case) smaller amounts would be wiser.
Fame which you mentioned, again unless your mind control can effect society as a whole, then you couldn't have fame unless you were open about it (which just like TK would open you up to a huge amount of threats. So I wouldn't recommend it for either.
Now if all you want (or take pleasure out of) is having people wait on you at your own whim (basically raping them for any possible need), then yeah mind control works for you.
But personally I love doing things. Being able to climb a mountain that I wouldn't normally be able to. That isn't meaningless if someone enjoys it. Taking a trip to space, meaningless (and you are on a Trek board), how many people on earth would love to go up (and yeah you could easily manage this where no one would ever, ever be able to see or discover you) to just do it. To fly (and again you could easily do this with none the wiser, I am not recommending you do it over a populated area or fly up from your home) on your own power over the earth.
And personally I would rather steal once or twice then be forcing others to do my will.
But how would mind control really work. Do you control everyone? If not, how do you stop discovery? And once that knowledge is out how do you protect yourself?
Now of course if its on a global scale, then you don't have to worry about any of that.
As for my examples of TK, I was trying to point out that mind control has no direct impact on your environment.
How many accidents in life occur? From mother nature, to traffic accidents? A vast array of events occur every year costing the lives of what can number in the hundreds of thousands. Mind Control would have little to no impact on any of that.
With TK one could have a very comfortable life (and if one had any real sense) could be done safely and without being seen. It offers one the ability to have direct impact on one's environment.
Now obviously you would still be vulnerable, but one could take steps to protect your sleeping self (at least more then a typical person could).
You are in plane that is about to go down, how does mind control impact that? You are in an earthquake how does mind control impact that? You are walking down the street and a random accident occurs how does mind control help here? Flash Flood? Mudslide? Fire? Hurricane? Tornado? Random violence?
Now with mind control (either individual or mass scale), you could better your financial life and thus decrease some of the risk you might have to go through in life, but to a much smaller level then having telekinesis would.
A TK (depending on your power level, I mean if your are talking about just being a spoon bender then...) would have no problem getting resources and being able to do so with out being seen.
I mean how hard is it to find a target, buy in some other state (some typical scuba gear, a few bits of equipment, any form of material to cover your body), find an outdoor area and simply go under your target, come up from below ground and remove what you need, with to video evidence of your theft or leaving any physical evidence of your presence? I mean seriously. It isn't rocket science. If people from Mexico can manage to dig under the boarder to get to the US and do so many, many times before discovery, imagine someone who could do it an a few minutes and remove all evidence.
Just once (in the right place would allow you a very comfortable life). Sure you could get a larger payout (by either many robberies or by stealing more valuable and more risky objects, thus more likely to be tracked at some point).
Now with Mind Control (again on a lower power level) you might get a billionaire to give you a huge payout, but someone is going to want to know why. And that could easily spin way out of control. In both cases (unless you are talking about having vast amounts of ability in either case) smaller amounts would be wiser.
Fame which you mentioned, again unless your mind control can effect society as a whole, then you couldn't have fame unless you were open about it (which just like TK would open you up to a huge amount of threats. So I wouldn't recommend it for either.
Now if all you want (or take pleasure out of) is having people wait on you at your own whim (basically raping them for any possible need), then yeah mind control works for you.
But personally I love doing things. Being able to climb a mountain that I wouldn't normally be able to. That isn't meaningless if someone enjoys it. Taking a trip to space, meaningless (and you are on a Trek board), how many people on earth would love to go up (and yeah you could easily manage this where no one would ever, ever be able to see or discover you) to just do it. To fly (and again you could easily do this with none the wiser, I am not recommending you do it over a populated area or fly up from your home) on your own power over the earth.
And personally I would rather steal once or twice then be forcing others to do my will.
ProtoAvatar
Fleet Captain
mswood
WE ARE NOT LIVING IN A COMIC BOOK!
Earthquakes? Tornados? Cataclisms? Plane accidents?
These don't happen on a daily basis, as one would expect after reading comic books.
The ability to escape such phenomena is useless simply because it is almost certain you won't encounter them. Only a small minority ever do - and only once.
What you want for yourself (with telekinesis) is the life of a paranoid bank robber who can barely sleep for fear of being captured, who hides for fear of being seen and hunted. That's NOT a desirable life.
You taking a trip to the moon via telekinesis is meaningless (beyond your personal pleasure) simply because there is no future gain for humanity, no advancement in science, technology, exploration, colonization of space. it's just you taking a 10 minute walk through a desert.
About 'mind control' - you don't need to conntrol all the population. Read 'Foundation and Empire' by Asimov. All you need to do is 'adjust' the emotional structure of a few people, making them completely loyal to you.
A billionaire gives you billions and people ask questions? Who cares? They were his money to give. The 'people' can ask all the questions they want.
Fame? You can easily become a powerful figure, or a movie star, or any other extremely famous person if you want to.
What I find interesting about all this is that the only realistic ways (that we found) to use such superpowers to improve one's life to any substantial degree involve being immoral - robbing banks, brainwashing people. etc.
Have you read Plato's "Ring of Gyges" story?
The question should be - suppose you have telekinesis - will you use it rob banks/crush anyone in your path, becoming rich and powerful in the process?
Or you will only use it to turn your TV on and off (and other such menial tasks), while your life is like any other's - with a daily job (these days, if you're lucky), worries about paying your bills, stress regarding your family, etc?
WE ARE NOT LIVING IN A COMIC BOOK!
Earthquakes? Tornados? Cataclisms? Plane accidents?
These don't happen on a daily basis, as one would expect after reading comic books.
The ability to escape such phenomena is useless simply because it is almost certain you won't encounter them. Only a small minority ever do - and only once.
What you want for yourself (with telekinesis) is the life of a paranoid bank robber who can barely sleep for fear of being captured, who hides for fear of being seen and hunted. That's NOT a desirable life.
You taking a trip to the moon via telekinesis is meaningless (beyond your personal pleasure) simply because there is no future gain for humanity, no advancement in science, technology, exploration, colonization of space. it's just you taking a 10 minute walk through a desert.
About 'mind control' - you don't need to conntrol all the population. Read 'Foundation and Empire' by Asimov. All you need to do is 'adjust' the emotional structure of a few people, making them completely loyal to you.
A billionaire gives you billions and people ask questions? Who cares? They were his money to give. The 'people' can ask all the questions they want.
Fame? You can easily become a powerful figure, or a movie star, or any other extremely famous person if you want to.
What I find interesting about all this is that the only realistic ways (that we found) to use such superpowers to improve one's life to any substantial degree involve being immoral - robbing banks, brainwashing people. etc.
Have you read Plato's "Ring of Gyges" story?
The question should be - suppose you have telekinesis - will you use it rob banks/crush anyone in your path, becoming rich and powerful in the process?
Or you will only use it to turn your TV on and off (and other such menial tasks), while your life is like any other's - with a daily job (these days, if you're lucky), worries about paying your bills, stress regarding your family, etc?
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That's Psychokenesis.
It's basically the ability of "whatever you think you can do, you can." Jean has the ability through the Phoenix, Kes has in naturally.
Cable & Franklin Richards are psychokenetic