Choose a superpower! Psychologically!
May 23, 2013 1:25:18 GMT -5 by puffs
sitbone and Proxymei like this
Post by puffs on May 23, 2013 1:25:18 GMT -5
(EDIT: Please follow this through to the end. It isn't just self-indulgent rambling, I swear. There's audience participation if you read through this)
As a teenage boy (I'm a MAN, dammit!) in what could be called "normal" American society, I've been a participant of numerous variations on the good old "If you could have one superpower, what would it be?" I don't know how much/often the rest of you think about this, but this is a topic that has genuinely piqued my interest for years.
I've heard a whole lot of arguments for and against a whole lot of powers, and I've heard every variation and qualification of the particular hypothetical and of every possible power (I really (REALLY) enjoy these conversations, so I start them a lot). There are the big ones, of course: Super strength, super speed, super intellect, teleportation, flight, laser vision, etc. And sure, a lot of these are very useful for all kinds of different scenarios and lifestyles, but I've never been really satisfied with any of them. I'd like teleportation, I guess, but it still doesn't really click for me as "That's it. If I could have a power, it'd be this."
No, what I always keep coming back to is Immortality.
God damn, what I would do to become immortal.
Now, there have been arguments that "That's not an actual power, you can't choose that!" Well fuck you, this is my hypothetical and it does count as a superpower by virtue of being an aspect of myself that is deemed supernatural.
So in these conversations where I bring up immortality I will undoubtedly hear both:
"Why?"
AND:
"But it would suck to be immortal. Everyone you know and love would die."
My usual response to the first question of why I would want to be immortal, I've realized, is actually a little flawed (at least in regards to the particular aspects I focus on whilst answering). My reasoning has always been, more or less, this:
As a teenage boy (I'm a MAN, dammit!) in what could be called "normal" American society, I've been a participant of numerous variations on the good old "If you could have one superpower, what would it be?" I don't know how much/often the rest of you think about this, but this is a topic that has genuinely piqued my interest for years.
I've heard a whole lot of arguments for and against a whole lot of powers, and I've heard every variation and qualification of the particular hypothetical and of every possible power (I really (REALLY) enjoy these conversations, so I start them a lot). There are the big ones, of course: Super strength, super speed, super intellect, teleportation, flight, laser vision, etc. And sure, a lot of these are very useful for all kinds of different scenarios and lifestyles, but I've never been really satisfied with any of them. I'd like teleportation, I guess, but it still doesn't really click for me as "That's it. If I could have a power, it'd be this."
No, what I always keep coming back to is Immortality.
God damn, what I would do to become immortal.
Now, there have been arguments that "That's not an actual power, you can't choose that!" Well fuck you, this is my hypothetical and it does count as a superpower by virtue of being an aspect of myself that is deemed supernatural.
So in these conversations where I bring up immortality I will undoubtedly hear both:
"Why?"
AND:
"But it would suck to be immortal. Everyone you know and love would die."
My usual response to the first question of why I would want to be immortal, I've realized, is actually a little flawed (at least in regards to the particular aspects I focus on whilst answering). My reasoning has always been, more or less, this:
When you're immortal, you have an infinite amount of time to learn everything there is to know about everything. You can learn LITERALLY everything there is that could possibly be learned.
Immortality, to me, has always been about the knowledge of it all. Infinite experiences to have an infinite wealth of knowledge. I've always found myself attracted to the idea of knowing everything about everything, but in the hundred or so years I'll be alive (hopefully that long), I'll be lucky if I even get to know a majority of things about a handful of things. With an infinite amount of time I could know everything about computer science until I can compile code in my head (like Mouse (or whatever his name was) from The Matrix), and I could know everything about medicine until I can figure out how to use a coat hanger and a few cardboard boxes to conduct major surgery, or literally any other possibility you could think of.
But that's the keyword right there. Possibility. A more accurate reason as to why I would really want immortality has to do more with the word "possibility" than it does with the word "knowledge" and I've just recently come to realize this.
It may be because, at this point in my life, I'm constantly being asked (or told) to make decisions that will significantly alter my life. Decisions that carry a finality to them that I'll never be able to undo or change if I decide the other choice was better. Or, it may be because of my very nature as a person; constantly striving to carry every possibility through - laboring eternally against the sad realization that I am stuck on a linear path of "fate" and that branches are not accessible to me.
It's probably a combination of the two. My nature as a person which becomes alarmed and exacerbated by the grim reality forced on me by my parents and councilors and classmates. I'm going to college next year and I'll be majoring in Mathematics (most probably working along the Pure Mathematics path as opposed to a more Applied route). And it scares the living daylights out of me that I've definitively put myself on a path which will result in a definite end. What if I'd be more suited in the future to be an author/writer? A politician? A chemist? Physicist? Teacher? Nurse? Professional gambler?
But if I were immortal...
If I were immortal I wouldn't have to be afraid of those choices. If I were immortal I could be all of those things and more. If I were immortal then I could not just know everything about everything, but I could be everything. If I were immortal then my basic drive for the exploration of possibilities would be satisfied and my fear of making the "wrong" choices would be rendered useless.
God damn, what I would give to be immortal.
Now the second response up there is a little tougher to really rationalize/defeat. Yes, I concede, being immortal would cause everyone around you to grow old and die while you helplessly watch. Any children you may have will wither before your eyes and any lovers you have would depart and leave you with an eternal hole in your heart where they used to be and turn you into a cynical, jaded monster with very little room for empathy or positive emotions.
But it's not that bad.
To really sum up my argument ahead of time, I'll let you know it's one made by the novel/movie Never Let Me Go (I've only seen the movie, but I assume the book makes the same point)(Also I apologize for spoilers). At the very end of the movie, the protagonist reflects on her short life and the shortened lives of her friends and peers and wonders something along the lines of "Have we not lived as much as they?" With "they" meaning the normal people who live full-length lives and don't have to deal with the same shit.
And the answer to her question is yes: She has lived as much as those who might live longer. She got to experience love, heartbreak, jealousy, elation, and (most of all) she had to cope with and accept an impending death which approached her faster than she'd have liked. These are things that we must deal with and experience and they are things that even the normal people in Never Let Me Go had to deal with and experience. They may have lived longer, but they still had all of the same ups and downs.
For this same reason, I would say that immortality is not an endless stream of loss and sadness. The basic "human experience" of life is both ups and downs. Sure, you may lose a loved one and the pain will be tremendous. It will last for a long time and it will seem like there's no end. But there is an end to all pain. To all emotions, eventually; because they inevitably fade and give way to new emotions. As a child I built all sorts of emotional connections to all sorts of things, places and people. Things, places and people that I can't even remember. That I can't believe I ever was attached to. Yet at the time the thought of being separated from them was akin to the thought of dying. At the time, when I did become separated from them, I thought I was dying. But now those feelings are just the barest hint of a memory and now I have new emotional attachments and new sources of positivity. The same story could be told about one of my teachers. He lost his wife, to whom he was devoted, to cancer. It's obvious that it really left a mark on him - he talks openly about how miserably depressed he was. But he got over it, in the end. In fact, he has a new wife that he is equally as devoted to.
Emotions fade. It's foolish to think that the sadness of loss will dominate you for all of eternity.
Yes, you will lose people you love, as an immortal. But the short period of time it takes to mourn them is nowhere near in length to the period in time that they were there and that they gave to you. Ups will be replaced by downs and those downs would be replaced by new ups.
So:
What superpower would you choose if you could only have one?
And, more importantly, why specifically would you choose that power?
I don't expect anything as in-depth and rambling as my explanation was (I got carried away (in a sense I wasn't even writing that, the words were just kind of pouring out as I typed)), but I'm really interested in the deeper psychological motivations for power choice.
But that's the keyword right there. Possibility. A more accurate reason as to why I would really want immortality has to do more with the word "possibility" than it does with the word "knowledge" and I've just recently come to realize this.
It may be because, at this point in my life, I'm constantly being asked (or told) to make decisions that will significantly alter my life. Decisions that carry a finality to them that I'll never be able to undo or change if I decide the other choice was better. Or, it may be because of my very nature as a person; constantly striving to carry every possibility through - laboring eternally against the sad realization that I am stuck on a linear path of "fate" and that branches are not accessible to me.
It's probably a combination of the two. My nature as a person which becomes alarmed and exacerbated by the grim reality forced on me by my parents and councilors and classmates. I'm going to college next year and I'll be majoring in Mathematics (most probably working along the Pure Mathematics path as opposed to a more Applied route). And it scares the living daylights out of me that I've definitively put myself on a path which will result in a definite end. What if I'd be more suited in the future to be an author/writer? A politician? A chemist? Physicist? Teacher? Nurse? Professional gambler?
But if I were immortal...
If I were immortal I wouldn't have to be afraid of those choices. If I were immortal I could be all of those things and more. If I were immortal then I could not just know everything about everything, but I could be everything. If I were immortal then my basic drive for the exploration of possibilities would be satisfied and my fear of making the "wrong" choices would be rendered useless.
God damn, what I would give to be immortal.
Now the second response up there is a little tougher to really rationalize/defeat. Yes, I concede, being immortal would cause everyone around you to grow old and die while you helplessly watch. Any children you may have will wither before your eyes and any lovers you have would depart and leave you with an eternal hole in your heart where they used to be and turn you into a cynical, jaded monster with very little room for empathy or positive emotions.
But it's not that bad.
To really sum up my argument ahead of time, I'll let you know it's one made by the novel/movie Never Let Me Go (I've only seen the movie, but I assume the book makes the same point)(Also I apologize for spoilers). At the very end of the movie, the protagonist reflects on her short life and the shortened lives of her friends and peers and wonders something along the lines of "Have we not lived as much as they?" With "they" meaning the normal people who live full-length lives and don't have to deal with the same shit.
And the answer to her question is yes: She has lived as much as those who might live longer. She got to experience love, heartbreak, jealousy, elation, and (most of all) she had to cope with and accept an impending death which approached her faster than she'd have liked. These are things that we must deal with and experience and they are things that even the normal people in Never Let Me Go had to deal with and experience. They may have lived longer, but they still had all of the same ups and downs.
For this same reason, I would say that immortality is not an endless stream of loss and sadness. The basic "human experience" of life is both ups and downs. Sure, you may lose a loved one and the pain will be tremendous. It will last for a long time and it will seem like there's no end. But there is an end to all pain. To all emotions, eventually; because they inevitably fade and give way to new emotions. As a child I built all sorts of emotional connections to all sorts of things, places and people. Things, places and people that I can't even remember. That I can't believe I ever was attached to. Yet at the time the thought of being separated from them was akin to the thought of dying. At the time, when I did become separated from them, I thought I was dying. But now those feelings are just the barest hint of a memory and now I have new emotional attachments and new sources of positivity. The same story could be told about one of my teachers. He lost his wife, to whom he was devoted, to cancer. It's obvious that it really left a mark on him - he talks openly about how miserably depressed he was. But he got over it, in the end. In fact, he has a new wife that he is equally as devoted to.
Emotions fade. It's foolish to think that the sadness of loss will dominate you for all of eternity.
Yes, you will lose people you love, as an immortal. But the short period of time it takes to mourn them is nowhere near in length to the period in time that they were there and that they gave to you. Ups will be replaced by downs and those downs would be replaced by new ups.
So:
What superpower would you choose if you could only have one?
And, more importantly, why specifically would you choose that power?
I don't expect anything as in-depth and rambling as my explanation was (I got carried away (in a sense I wasn't even writing that, the words were just kind of pouring out as I typed)), but I'm really interested in the deeper psychological motivations for power choice.
