5 Powers I Would NEVER Want to Have

[BaileyisDarcy]

1. MIND READING

This one is a biggy. It's a massive biggy. Why does everyone want this!? The thought boggles my mind that anyone would want to know, at all times, what everyone around them is thinking.

Yes, it would be great to know if I'm being lied to and if I really can trust what this person is saying and to know if the psychoanalyzing I tend to do is spot on.

But I don't want this power.

Why?

Because I don't want to know what people really think of me.

I don't want to know their dirty little secrets.

I don't want to know how bad they have it at home unless they TELL me.

I don't want to be the one who never knows how much they're supposed to know.

I don't want to know. Full stop.

2. Immortality

What is immortality? It's when you never die of any disease or poison. It's where you can age as much as you like without being affected by the passing years. It's where you can live a thousand years and look back, thinking it all passed so quickly while the new generation is complaining the bus is thirty seconds late and if it takes another thirty seconds they might as well hang themselves.

It's where you spend only a minuscule amount of your life with your family, and attend all their funerals. It's where every friend you ever make dies in the end. It's where the only mate you can have is a tortoise, as they can live to over a hundred, but eventually even they will leave you.

It's the loneliest existence of all. That's what immortality is, and that's why I don't want it.

3. Instant Expertise

This isn't a common power to hear about, but what it is, is the ability to master any talent you choose in an instant.

Sounds pretty cool.

But I would hate it.

I'm an artist and a writer, and yes, everyday I strive to be better. I strive to write better, to string words together in more legible, easier to read sentences while still getting my message across in beautiful ways. I strive to draw better, to understand instinctually where to apply toning and shadow, how thick to make the lines, the anatomy of the character I'm drawing. How to best position the viewer, to see my work in a way as to deliver the greatest impact.

I long to have those abilities, but I would never cheat them. With this power I would cheat them, I would instantly be great at my craft, I could sell my works, sell my books, make money.

I could be the reason you love the lyrics to that song so much, or the one to make you laugh at that animated dog in that ad you saw once.

But the art I would be producing, the words I would be creating, neither of these would be mine.

They would not be mine because I did not work to make them mine, the same way that toy I stole as a child was never mine, even though it came to be in my possession.

4. Time Control

Either way, this power would be entirely illogical and impossible. Not because there's no foreseeable way to move time, but because time does not exist. It is a man made concept to explain how we can have a 'then' and a 'when' but we never leave 'now'.

There isn't a HUGE downside to this, I mean, stopping time to give yourself longer to sleep would be pretty cool, and reversing time to before your sisters accident? Then distracting her for just a few seconds so that truck that slammed into her goes on past without a hick, before she gets in the car. That'd be great.

Moving forward after doing a thing so you can see what that did, then going back before you did it and changing your actions to create a more desirable outcome. Yeah.

Here's the thing though, everything I've mentioned above? A little over powered I think.

It's the kind of power a person would grow to depend on. They will become lazy and uncaring because if they make a mistake they can fix it in an instant and there's no such thing as being late.

You become a worse person in the long run. Disorganized, tardy, unreliable.

Even if those around you can't see it, because you keep changing their reality, it's still true isn't it?

5. Auto Consumption

This is not what it sounds like. In fact, this has nothing to do with food at all.

Honestly I'm on the fence about this.

What it is, is that with a single touch you can have read an entire novel. Touch the spine of Twilight, and you have instantly read it, within the amount of time it took for your brain to process that your finger was on the book.

This goes for letters, essays any written media, as long as it is physical and you are able to touch it.

Why am I on the fence about this?

Because I am a student. Being able to read all the texts I need to and to gather and hold that information within seconds would be absolutely valuable to me. It would be, in the school system, the most OP power you could have.

So, on the academic side of things, yes, I WANT this.

On the hobby side of things? The one where I can curl up with a book and spend hours turning pages and living through heart-stopping chapters and tear jerking death scenes.

I don't want to miss that. I don't want to miss the experience of getting overly attached to a fictional character, I don't want to miss that scene where the main character is dying and everyone around is crying and professing their undying love and that arsehole you secretly liked all along suddenly blurts out some awkward comment that makes you laugh in it's absurdity.

I don't want to miss the cliff hangers or page turners.

I don't want to miss any of that.

And... well, I'm going to have a hobby of reading for much longer than I'm going to be a student so... yeah. That's why this is here.

Plus I don't want to get fined for reading the contents of my neighbors bills after taking them out of my letterbox because the postman screwed up again.

Anyway those are five powers I would never want to have, I hope you enjoyed reading and that I didn't make it too long!

I have had complaints that my takes are too long. No more!

So let me know in the comments what powers YOU would never want!

[Anonymous]

i wouldn't mind being able to read minds as long as I have an off and on button for it. Meaning, I can choose when I want to read someones mind. I can go my entire life and never want to know what someone else is thinking and never end up using the ability but I can also choose to use it during a time when I want to know if someone is lying to me. I guess a better question is, would the mind reading work only based on what they are thinking to themselves outloud in their head, or will it be able to read into someones unconscious part of their mind.

I wouldn't mind immortality... but I think invincibility would be nicer. I guess it would depend entirely on how one defines each specifically. For me, with immortality I wouldn't mind living forever and seeing love ones pass. It's already happening now, the only difference is I will experience that forever, and over the years I think I will grow accustom to it. The upside is I get to continue to meet new people generation by generation and experience life like never before. Instead of living for sub 100 years and only knowing what happened in the short time span that I was alive and relying on books and what not for the past and never knowing what the future holds, I'd be able to say that I experienced what happened during these early years of the 21st century and the late years of the 20th century while living in the 31st century. It will be a memory to me while to everyone else it would just be something they learned, but never truly experience. I don't really care about the other 3.

[Bamaty]

Do you know which superpower I would like to have? The ability to live again, and decide what will happen in my life, but once my new life starts, I have no idea what's going to happen! Haha.

What if I did this before my birth? Maybe all my dreams will come true, because I decided so. :p

[JudgmentDay]

For number 2, immortality is ONLY worth the trouble if there are no maintenance requirements (not needing to eat, sleep, drink water, etc.), and that you are more so invulnerable and indestructible or near indestructible to virtually all forms of physical trauma or otherwise. Being immune ONLY to dying from the effects of aging, or not aging at all is really not the kind of immortality that is worth the trouble. But then there's also physical pain, being able to live forever and able to suffer horrible physical pain over and over aging would be torturous, I would not want immortality if physical pain would still remain in effect. As for everyone dying around you, if emotions are still fully intact and remain in effect then that is also problematic because you will have emotional attachments to those that you care about when they suffer and die and you can't do anything about it in the end. I rather have no emotional attachments to anyone or anything at all if I had immortality, unless somehow they are also immortal too, then I guess we'd both be alright, although everyone else would eventually be gone. I can only hope that other "immortals" exist also and that we will find each other and keep each other company when everyone and everything else is gone, even if the other immortals are animals and not people.

For Auto consumption capability, as long as there are limits and capacity on how much information you can absorb and retain at a time, such as a limit of up to a few weeks to a few months at a time and then that information becomes completely forgotten again. Instead of knowing it permanently forever unless you take the manual and slow way. I still think having an optimized and increased memory is really good, but having auto consumption without any limitations and drawbacks would be really be too good to be true and easily abused and easily spammed. Having some drawbacks and limitations so you only use it for certain really critical moments where you may really need it to save someone's life or to save your own life instead of abusing it to take shortcuts constantly and too frequently.

The same goes for number 3 since I found them both to be very similar. Having a limit to the capabilities, not easily abused in anyway and only really use it when you really need it. Like having limited ammunition, you'd only use them when you really need to, as the effects of the abilities are not permanent, but they would really be useful in unexpected emergencies.

[Zorax]

1. Why not - You could use it as an advantage (if someone is planning something against you).
2. Well, it can be boring unless you meet some other immortal.
3. I've never heard of that superpower.
4. Actually, this is one of the best powers I can imagine.. you can organize your time more efficiently, without worrying about making mistakes, because you can always change the outcome.
5. Interesting, but I think that power can be used by will, you don't have to read everything with a single touch... even Superman doesn't have to use his x-ray vision all the time.

I wouldn't want to have Optic blasts (like Cyclops from X-Men), that power is irrelevant for me.
Anyway, very interesting Take :D

[Bobbyhill1]

actually, time isn't a man made concept. Besides human interpreting it, time is the motion of everything, without humans the illusion of time will still exist so controlling time will actually mean being able to control the motion of time and space. so lets say you slow down the earths orbit and rotation around the sun, that means you make the days longer. Lets say you stop the earth from spinning completely, time doesn't pause, but it will kill everybody who is on the planet because the atmosphere is still going at the rate that the earth was,

[BaileyisDarcy]

That's not slowing down time though, that's slowing down the rotation of the earth. 'Time' as it's percieved will still be moving forward at the same rate, the clocks would just no longer match where the sun sits in the sky.

[Bobbyhill1]

I never said anything about a clock lol, time in terms of science is the motion, slowing down the motion of things slows down time by definition. its really simple once you think about it.

[BaileyisDarcy]

By that logic if I lift my glass of water slower than usual I am making time move slower.

[Bobbyhill1]

and we dont understand things from a clock, we mostly grasp things from motion without motion there is no indication of what ''time'' it is. The clock is just a product of motion. without motion there would never be any clock because every single hour would be the same as the last.

[Bobbyhill1]

think of when you are inside a car and you are driving 60 mph, from the outside you are going extremely fast, but when inside the car it doesn't appear that way to you. motion has many illusions and technicalities. have you ever read into the theory of relativity?

[Bobbyhill1]

and by slowly picking a cup up does not mean you slowed down time, there is no right motion to anything. you are comparing picking up a cop to slowing down the orbit around the sun.

[BaileyisDarcy]

The suns orbit is not time! It does not control time!

The sun going any faster or slower doesn not affect how quickly or slowly I go abotu doing things. It does not affect whether or not I will be late for my lunch date.

If the sun stops moving, I won't. Because that is not time stopping that is the sun. (technically it wouldn't be the sun stopping motion it would be earth as we revolve around the sun not the other way around)

[Bobbyhill1]

''The suns orbit is not time! It does not control time!''

actually I said OUR orbit around the sun, which vindicates how long our days are. I am sorry but I am feeling like a smartass just by typing this dont get agitated at my replies ok?

''The sun going any faster or slower doesn not affect how quickly or slowly I go abotu doing things. It does not affect whether or not I will be late for my lunch date''

actually it does, it the sun goes faster or slower, so does the earth and this affects the climate there may not be any lunch date to go to!
''If the sun stops moving, I won't. Because that is not time stopping that is the sun. (technically it wouldn't be the sun stopping motion it would be earth as we revolve around the sun not the other way around) ''
I never said otherwise but you are wrong again. the sun can't stop moving, because everything in space moves, without it there would be no time period. ANd even if the sun did stop we are all dead

[Bobbyhill1]

when I say without it I dont mean the sun, I mean without motion in space

[MagiAlphaOne]

I won't mind #5, Auto Consumption. As you described the power, you would simply have to touch the book to read it. Rogue (X-Men) had a similar problem, touching someone to get their powers. She controlled the power using Gloves. So, put on a set of Gloves before touching a book. Abracadabra, your Superpower is under control!

https://marvel.com/universe/Rogue

[BaileyisDarcy]

Part of my love for reading is the feel of books. When I read I tend to stroke the top of the pages, and you can tell which of my books I read the most because the tops of the pages will be really smooth, rather than the rough texture of books that don't get read often.
Gloves would kill that small pleasure.

[JudgmentDay]

But the capabilities that she "steals" or "borrows" from another character do not last forever and isn't a permanent effect. It has a time limit and is usually really for a short amount of time.

[PlainJane86]

I love this Take! I agree with all of your points, and I love your writing style! I know what you mean about the Auto Consumption. It sure would make things a lot easier in school, but I'm also one who enjoys reading, and savouring what I'm reading. I wonder how that would work for reading things online though...

[YourFutureEx]

theintersectionist.com/.../...sagree-with-you2.jpg

[Phoenix98]

Actually I would want the ability to manipulate time within a field around me like time displacement make myself faster or slow another persons time down. that would be very useful.

I agree with all the others though.

[JudgmentDay]

I'm thinking Time Manipulation will be something like if not exactly the same as the Bullet Time Ability from The Matrix. Stopping all incoming Bullets and the ability to dodge them.

https://m.popkey.co/899790/47NzZ.gif

img.pandawhale.com/...lets-gif-The-Matrix-7uIW.gif

Slowing down all incoming attacks or danger to protect yourself and/or others.

[Phoenix98]

@JudgmentDay Basically yeah.

[FatherJack]

@JudgmentDay Or a particle deflector shield , similar to the Independence Day aliens tech

[Phoenix98]

@FatherJack Or star wars old republic tech since personal shields were really common back then

[KnightinDarkArmor]

I'd want them all.

Read minds, I'll never be suprised again, and can use it to tell who is lying to me, and freak people out.

Manipulate time: Use it to play stocks and place bets, will become a billionaire.

[JudgmentDay]

If you can never die, then money really doesn't matter at all anymore and would be redundant. Although if that was the case I do the same and use that money to help fund those that are really in need instead of keeping the money to myself. No need to save up for an old age nest egg retirement fund since I wouldn't age or ever die.

[KnightinDarkArmor]

@JudgmentDay if you were immortal you can see to it that the money was used for a cause and you would never have to worry about a successor because you would never be replaced.

[JudgmentDay]

Make that used for a "just" cause, to help those that are really in need and suffering from poverty or have chronic illnesses that have caused them to have huge medical bills, etc.

[pervertedjester]

I wouldn't want to have Shape-shifting as a power. I think I'd lose my sense of self if I could change into anyone or anything.

[soulbabe]

Um I would want the first and the auto consumption mostly because they can turn it off with practice😂

[OpalLi]

i want to ontrol time it's fun and very useful ability a for me

[Saoirse_Nua]

Great take and I agree with all but I see some pros of mind reading as well as the cons.

[KINGNIGGA123]

D FUQ wolverine is not immortal he just ages very slowely

[BaileyisDarcy]

Since when is that the case?

And even if it were, he's the closest thing to immortal any of my fandoms have gotten.

[KINGNIGGA123]

Dude I can go all day. Wolverine looks around 40 when he's over 200 years old so a couple hundred years later he will die.

[BaileyisDarcy]

Looks around forty because maybe, just maybe thats how old the actor is?

He wasn't exactly young when he had the procedure done.

And he is still, as I said the closest thing to immortal any of my fandoms have ever gotten. 200 years old is pretty impressive.

[Yanoa_Yanza]

The expertise one, the time travel... I'd like those. There's people I got to save and people who are alive but needed some early saving too

[starzcapz]

Wow you sound very wise for 18 and that's good you read books not many people do anymore

[Anonymous]

Mind control would be good because id be having sex with scarlet johansen and Jennifer lawerence at the same time tonight.

[Pilulu]

When I read number four, i instantly thought about Max from Life Is Strange XD

[Anonymous]

About mind reading , i always want one because , well , tbh , i am kinda suck at reading women..
well may be just a bit. , not extreme like xavier..

[Anonymous]

I agree with the Mind reading. it would suck.
It's already bad enough when you know how read body language.

[Harpesian]

I want immortality but I'm terrified of death, so...
And I'd want everyone else to be immortal too.