The Glade 4.0

Absolutely.

Midgin,

I'm right with you on Invisibility. I believe the usefulness of flight is limited by not having invisibility. However, Invisibility's usefulness is not very limited by not having flight. The big problem of flight is that using it for anything practical would require not being seen. Eventually, you're getting caught.

While Elmo is right that invisibility can be countered in various ways, doing so requires that the world knows you are there, and is trying to get you. Used well, nobody would ever assume there is an invisible person out there. The practical uses of invisibility, though, are endless. Most of what you get from visible flight can be duplicated with the billions of dollars someone who could be invisible at will would end up having. What you get from invisibility cannot be duplicated by flight.

_________________
Well Ali Baba had them forty thieves, Scheherezade had a thousand tales
But master you in luck 'cause up your sleeves you got a brand of magic never fails...
...Mister Aladdin, sir, What will your pleasure be?
Let me take your order, Jot it down -You ain't never had a friend like me
█ ♣ █

Flight, if only for the fact that invisibility doesn't have many moral uses.

When you say flight means you can withstand any atmospheric pressure or altitude, does that mean I can do so without some kind of oxygen-supplying device?

Caveat, me picking flight depends on the stipulation that the world doesn't mind that I can do so. I don't want to be hassled by governments or anything. If that's not a possibility, invisibility it is.

power overwhelming!

_________________
"...the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?" -Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

My assumption is that the world would very much mind. If they found out, they'd try to catch the flying person and dissect him in a lab. Flying around without a pilot's license and filing flight plans is going to be unpopular. Cross-border flying is right out. You'd be hunted, without question.



Au contraire, it has many of them. You'd be the world's best spy/private investigator. As tempting as it is to think of how much you could take by theft, information would rapidly become your biggest asset.

The less "moral" uses are of course interesting, too.

_________________
Well Ali Baba had them forty thieves, Scheherezade had a thousand tales
But master you in luck 'cause up your sleeves you got a brand of magic never fails...
...Mister Aladdin, sir, What will your pleasure be?
Let me take your order, Jot it down -You ain't never had a friend like me
█ ♣ █

It would be hard not to choose flight for the sheer fun / coolness factor, but I'd choose invisibility because it can also be fun/cool and a whole helluva lot more useful.

_________________
Ron Paul 2012

Invisiblity by far, for reasons other than stealing or listening in on conversations.

Look out mens locker room here I come. Woo-who

I can touch things while invisible right?

_________________
"None is more important, none more legitimate, than that of rendering the people safe as they are the
ultimate guardians of their own liberty."- Thomas Jefferson

"Yeah, I'm rehearsing my poker face. I don't handle stupid well. *sigh*" - Farsky

Too many potential problems with flight. Hitting anything even an insect at 700 miles an hour is going to hurt or be fatal. Static electricity/lightning... just too many potentially fatal side effects of flight. I'll stick with invis.

I chose Invisibility just because of the enhancement I think it would bring to every day life (as opposed to becoming a super hero or something).

How much fun would driving around invisible be?

Or being able to hang out on the field during batting practice?

Dress in black, fly at night, stay away from major airports/airbases. If you don't want to get up close and personal with anything/anyone, it's casual invisibility. And flying.

I think the risks of being invisible are being understated. When you are invisible, no one can see you. Accidents are just waiting to happen.

Invisibility

_________________

Holy shitsnacks!

Intellectually, invisibility. Emotionally, definitely flight. Still haven't decided which to choose, however. But, really, I'll make a decision when you show up at my door with a red and a blue pill, Taly, I promise.

_________________
This cold and dark tormented hell
Is all I`ll ever know
So when you get to heaven
May the devil be the judge

You don't always have to fly at 700 mph.

_________________
"...but there exists also in the human heart a depraved taste for equality, which impels the weak to attempt to lower the powerful to their own level and reduces men to prefer equality in slavery to inequality with freedom." - De Tocqueville

Invisibility can get you on a plane for free, so I don't need to fly

_________________
"None is more important, none more legitimate, than that of rendering the people safe as they are the
ultimate guardians of their own liberty."- Thomas Jefferson

"Yeah, I'm rehearsing my poker face. I don't handle stupid well. *sigh*" - Farsky

With invisibility, you already own the airline.

_________________
Well Ali Baba had them forty thieves, Scheherezade had a thousand tales
But master you in luck 'cause up your sleeves you got a brand of magic never fails...
...Mister Aladdin, sir, What will your pleasure be?
Let me take your order, Jot it down -You ain't never had a friend like me
█ ♣ █

I chose flight because I have always wanted to do that.

_________________
Darksiege
Traveller, Calé, Whisperer
Lead me not into temptation; for I know a shortcut

Flight, 700 mph would make the perfect alibi for so many things if nobody knew you could do it.

_________________
The U. S. Constitution doesn't guarantee happiness, only the pursuit of it. You have to catch up with it yourself. B. Franklin

"A mind needs books like a sword needs a whetstone." -- Tyrion Lannister, A Game of Thrones

I choose invisibility because, well I can get on a flight anytime I want, but to be unseen by the masses would be excellent! I could come and go as I please and no one would ever know! What bliss!

_________________
"Said I never had much use for one, never said I didn't know how to use one!"~ Matthew Quigley

"nothing like a little meow in bed at night" ~ Bruskey

"I gotta float my stick same as you" Hondo Lane

"Fill your hand you son of a *****!"

Why is it assumed that flight would be used in a manner that would draw attention? If the level of control can be nuanced, you could be anything from the greatest acrobat, marathonner, bike stunt dare devil etc.

Invisibility isn't going to lead to wealth. If the government is going to harass me for flying, then the I'm going to have to go through all sorts of channels to make my stolen wealth usable. Laundering money (and laundering missing gold bullion, cheah ...), defrauding the IRS etc. Does anyone have any idea how worthless large amounts of physical currency are when you didn't obtain them legally? The only thieves who get away with large scale robbery wear suits and ties and invisibility isn't going to help me become them any easier.

Pretty sure this question is, at heart, an indicator of the answerer's personality type. Are you a "look at me!" type or a "don't look at me!" type?

I voted for invisibility. I'd much rather have the power to go completely unnoticed at will than have a power as high-profile as flight.

_________________
Go back to zero, take a pill, and get well ~ Lemmy Kilmister

How do you propose to be "the greatest acrobat, marathonner, bike stunt dare devil etc." without drawing attention?I believe Taly already addressed that question when she said "information would rapidly become your biggest asset".

_________________
Go back to zero, take a pill, and get well ~ Lemmy Kilmister

If you have flight, you are NOT going to be undetectable by radar.

Ground Surveillance Radar



That's a tiny little radar to be carried around in a HMMWV and set up where convenient. No, you won't get detected at the same range as an airplane, but not all airplanes get detected at the same range either. If you start becoming a serious problem (i.e. start flying into the airflow of engines and disrupting it, which makes one wonder how you'd avoid getting sucked into the engine in the process, or carrying MANPADS aloft and trying to shoot planes down) you're going to be a pretty easy target.

Even at your maximum speed, you're an easy target for radar-guided or infrared SAMs or AAMs; you don't come with any threat-warning receivers , radar of your own, or... much of anything. Even the radar is likely to kill you; no, it won't heat you up nice and evenly like a microwave but I guarantee if you walk close enough to most large radar antennas while they're transmitting you'll quickly find out you are not immune from them; they are pumping out a LOT of energy and it has to go somewhere. Certain types, such as the AN/SPY-1 can focus that power into a beam. Clearly, no one has ever tested trying to use the radar as a weapon against a person but.. you wouldn't want to experiment.

Flight is not going to make you a seriously dangerous air combatant in and of itself. Superheros are a danger in the air because they come with a lot of OTHER powers beyond just flight and because they have writer fiat on their side.

_________________
"Hysterical children shrieking about right-wing anything need to go sit in the corner and be quiet while the adults are talking."

I'm guessing that same radar would detect someone who is invisible as well?

Well, that depends how the invisibility works.

Visible light is just a particular range of wavelengths on the electromagnetic spectrum. To be invisible, that range of EM radation would have to pass through you unaltered rather than be reflected away.

Radar uses microwave radiation, essentially shining a microwave light on its target to spot it. Microwave radiation is part of the electromagnetic spectrum, as well. (As are gamma rays, x-rays, ultra-violet, infra-red, radio waves, etc.) If the invisibility worked its magic on the entire EM spectrum, then no, radar would not detect you at all.

For the purposes of this poll, i've already stated invisibility works against all forms of EM radiation, so radar would be inneffective. Sonar would work, but it is far less useful to begin with unless you're using it under water.

_________________
Well Ali Baba had them forty thieves, Scheherezade had a thousand tales
But master you in luck 'cause up your sleeves you got a brand of magic never fails...
...Mister Aladdin, sir, What will your pleasure be?
Let me take your order, Jot it down -You ain't never had a friend like me
█ ♣ █

They do upgrades to the E-3 at my work site...part of which involves ground and flight testing of the AN/SPY-1. The flightline safety trainer tells of how he inadvertantly walked past the "do not cross" line during a ground test and was quite certain he would never do so again.

That's the AN/APY-1 and AN/APY-2 on the E-3. The AN/SPY-1 is the AEGIS system radar for ships.

_________________
"Hysterical children shrieking about right-wing anything need to go sit in the corner and be quiet while the adults are talking."