The Glade 4.0

Right you are (and I now realize, I've been quoting the wrong radar for years now)! In any case...a lot of energy being kicked out near the aircraft.

Then you need to make a similar assumption for invisibility (that you will be found out/identified eventually), because people will, relatively quickly, adapt when they realize that there is absolutely no way that anything short of literal physical invisibility caused the loss/leak of certain information; this means pressure plates, saturation traps, and lockdowns with knockout gas. And then you also have to worry about things like footprints/shoe imprints, making sure that you leave no physical trace behind (skin oil, hair, clothing fibers, saliva, blood from unfortunate incidents with bad timing), etc etc etc.

That also means they know they can't find you directly, so they go after everyone you care about. As presented, the better choice would be to take neither.

Super powers are bad karma without writer fiat and/or invulnerability of some manner anyway.

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Grenade 3 Sports Drink. It's fire in the hole.. Your hole!

Here's the dilemma:

How does the world discover you possess the ability to fly?

How does the world discover you possess the ability to become invisible?

A similar assumption does not necessarily have to be made.

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Buckle your pants or they might fall down.

Part of the problem with this comparison is the nature of what the invisibility includes. Invisibility to the naked eye? Ok. Electromagnetic spectrum in general? Pretty much manageable.

However, what does this mean in other terms? EM energy coming from outside sources passes through the person? All right.. how do they see? Magic. Ok, that works. But what about EM energy from the person? Do they no longer radiate their own heat? If not, how do they cool themselves? They don't need to because that's part of the magic? What about if they need to use a flashlight or anything else that emits EM energy, like a radio or cell phone? All their possessions turn invisible with them, right? Ok, well if that involves their body no longer emitting heat that's visible on infrared or thermal systems then their possessions should not emit EM energy in any interactable way either and things like cell phones and flashlights should be useless.

Sure, you can handwave those away by specifying in the scenario that posessions still emit EM energy usefully, although then they could be located by a flashlight beam if they used on or by triangulating phone or radio emissions, but there's also a point at which making them undectectable because they don't emit heat (or whatever) ceases really being what we imagine as invisibility and starts being a power of insubstantiality, at least in a limited fashion.

Flight we have a lot more real-world reference to, and we can imagine what problems and limitations it would involve and its much harder to handwave those away in the scenario description without it obviously extending into powers that extend well beyond simply flight - for example, if bugs impacting the person are not a problem then that implies some sort of kinetic resistance as well as just flight.

Basically, the answers to which you'd rather have are affected a lot by whatever arbitrary properties are assigned to the invisibility, and how much handwavium is applied to make it more or less attractive relative to flight. Don't get me wrong, it's still fun to play around with, but if we want to talk about the implications in a deeper sense we need to know fairly precisely what the properties of this invisibility are, and why we're picking those properties and not others.

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

Always loved flying in my dreams... would take that in a second.. exploring space would be awesome! (albit a tad slow)

But then there's nothing stopping me from creating rocket boosters and other things to increase speed and agility...

oh ya... no cape!

I know the Incredibles put forth good wisdom on not wearing capes, but, Lydiaa, consider this . . .



Of course I'm sure you have a rear well worth looking at, but do you want everyone looking at it?

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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 have never really understood why super heroes have to wear lycra. It’s cold, completely unflattering and come in colours that are always too bright.

If I could fly, I’d go with a leather outfit (think a mix between bike leather and the original michelle Phifer (sp?) cat woman). Of course I’d never walk again (flying is way more fun), but sort of float, magneto style through life.

Considering Talya’s allowed us to fly at a max speed of 700mph, I think I’m okay with people being vaguely aware that my arse may have flashed before their eyes lol. I can’t imagine any outfit to be worse than the current trend of small ankled jeans…

The practical, mortal part of me would choose super regeneration. Good health and long life? No contest.

But if I were to pick a power for "fun" then I'd probably go with super agility. Being able to move like spider-man, daredevil, a crazy martial artist, AND probably be the only non force-user to not kill themselves with a lightsaber? Sign me up.

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Les Zombis et les Loups-Garous!

Numbuk,

The choices for the poll were invisibility or flight (within stated parameters)

Ah. Didn't see it was a poll. Thought the whole "if you choose this..." was only if you had selected one of those particular powers.

Then I guess I'd go with flight. Invisibility lends itself a bit to the creepy factor.

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Les Zombis et les Loups-Garous!

If I lived in a world where being able to fly wouldn't result in being immediately dissected I'd pick flight.

I don't live in that world, though...

I'd LOVE flight. No question. Screw you dissectors!

I'm still coming down hard on the invisibility angle.

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Holy shitsnacks!

It just takes a little bit of creativity. You could practice incredible stunts with no risk of harm because you could use your power of flight to break your fall the instant you make contact. It would have to be subtle a d practiced, but wouldn't be noticeable to onlookers if you mastered control. The problem with most acrobatic acts is that they are no in the realm of no mistakes because the consequences are so high.

Being a fast runner would be easy. Since running is just a bio-mechanical act of falling, you could take strides with greater explosiveness then Usain Bolt and without expending any energy. You would just have to use your flight to augment each stride. Again, it would require practice, but wouldn't be observable.



But who are you going to provide espionage for? Most sources wouldn't believe you if you just provided them information without corroborating evidence. And of you were capable of providing highly reliable intel on very discrete matters, I would wager that would attract all sorts of attention to oneself.

Invisibility could probably only be used for intangible, selfish gains.

Invisibility has a major drawback in that you can't adjust the amount of light your eyes can intake. Maybe your irises can be invisible and still function, but your eyelids and anything you'd use to instinctively block light (like your hand) wouldn't work. One flashbang or even a powerful flash from a handheld light and you'd be crippled.

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Les Zombis et les Loups-Garous!

I'm going to murder this catgirl.

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Buckle your pants or they might fall down.

This thread makes me want to run/play in a supers game.

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I prefer to think of them as "Fighting evil in another dimension"

If you really want to get that technical, if you were invisible, you'd also be blind.

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Ron Paul 2012

For yourself. With all the corporate espionage and subterfuge you could perform, it would only take you a few months to be majority shareholder in a medium size company of your choice. Then you start on others, and quickly own a dozen major companies.

And of course it would be used for selfish gains. I have no interest in becoming a hero.

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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
█ ♣ █

Yeah. We've already established the parameters that your eyes work normally. We'll include eyelids there, numbuk...

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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
█ ♣ █

When I say selfish, I mean to ends that wouldn't be tradeable to others for profit. Besides, aren't you an objectivist? All actions are fundamentally selfish, right?

I think you are overestimating the value provided by espionage by one person. At best, the information could be used to provide trading information that would draw attention to oneself as a participant in inside trading. If the espionage provided by a single person would give you the edge to take a large capital stake in several companies, chances are you are savvy enough about the nature of business to do only slightly worse without invisibility.

The point is it would be incredibly hard to use either power to gain widespread influence and power. By it's very nature it would attract attention to itself.