Only 33 hours remaining until Ira Glass makes his way to the Majestic Theater for his presentation of "Radio Stories and Other Stories" from This American Life. In honor of Ira’s visit to Dallas I’m going to pose the question from one of his well-known radio shows- which is better: the power of flight, or the power of invisibility?
I wanted to see what made other people choose their superpower and I found an interesting range of discussion when I googled "invisibility vs. flight".
First the rules. You need to look past the obvious problems that arise with either superpower; i.e. the air temperature with flying or whether your clothing will be invisible as well. Whichever power you choose is your ONLY superpower, you won’t receive extraordinary strength or lightening bolts to shoot from your eyes…. Assume that other normal physical attributes do exist (i.e. you can’t carry friends when you fly; you can’t pass through walls or silence yourself when you’re invisible). Ask yourself honestly what attribute best suits you and your lifestyle.
I pulled some answers to this question that I found on multiple websites:
-I would pick invisibility. I am a big fan of first person shooter games on PC. I would really love to have God mode. That would be great. Invisibility is a good choice though. I could walk down the street and observe [people] without them knowing. It would be very interesting. I could also travel for free!
-I pick flight, for the simple fact that I am an impatient person. This way I wouldn’t have to wait in traffic to get anywhere. I could just fly.
-I just can’t decide. While it would be fun to be able to take off from my backyard and zip over to a Montreal deli for take out, idle a bit over some fools to toss a dozen eggs or two, unhook a kite from a tree, woosh to Toronto to see some friends and be home in time for dinner, I’ll confess that I’m leaning strongly towards invisibility, but I’m a little embarrassed to tell you why. (Spying definitely comes into it). Plus The Incredibles convinced me that capes are a bad idea, and what fun would flying be without a cape?
-In practical terms, both would be dangerous. But flying would be extremely dangerous. If you are invisible and someone bumps into you, you might get injured. On the street you could get really clocked by a person, bike, skateboarder, or vehicle. If you’re in the sky there’s insects, birds, powerlines and flying vehicles. With flying vehicles a bump would be deadly. I’d still choose flying.
- My initial response was invisibility, even though it is kinda deceptive. I probably wouldn’t want to know every single thing that was said about me when I wasn’t around. And I would probably use it in situations such as spying on my boyfriend to see if he was flirting with other chicks, or spying on hot girls in locker rooms. It could also be used for getting into things like movies or concerts for free. I could use it for sociological experiences and see how different cultures REALLY interact. I would try to be hired by the government so that I could be a spy. Flight on the other hand also has positive and negative attributes. I think I would only choose flight if it was Super-fast flight. It would be nice to be daydreaming about New Zealand and fly away there for the afternoon. If it wasn’t super-fast, then I don’t want it. That would just take forever. Plus, I’m probably too lazy for the flight superpower. It sounds like it would be very tiring. Therefore…my answer is invisibility.
A poll conducted after the TAL story aired revealed:
Flight 50 (61.0%)
Invisibility 32 (39.0%)
Finally, here is my long-winded answer. I have to incorporate pop culture references to make my argument; the "Out of Mind, Out of Sight" Buffy episode in which a high school student wrecks havoc on Sunnydale High shows the negative impact of being invisible. Of course with the power of invisibility you assume that you would be able to turn this feature on and off at will so it wouldn’t be quite as lonely. And The Incredibles shows the upside of invisibility in Violet’s character, of course she has additional superpowers, which makes the power of invisibility even cooler. However, it seems as though more negative aspects come into play with invisibility. Many people choose they choose invisibility in order to commit crimes, lascivious acts, or perform socially inappropriate actions. Sure you can observe human interactions and discover sociological behavior but there are other ways to accomplish that feat without the power of invisibility.
As for the power of flight, it’s mythical, intriguing, powerful and dangerous. Daedalus and Icarus embraced flight and it cost Icarus his life. Flight is expansive and limitless; you can fly around the world or around the universe. Yet, we’ve accomplished so much through modern technology the idea of flight as a superpower seems unexciting when you can hop on a plane to get to your destination. But it still seems to me that you can do so much more good in the world with the power of flight; although you might not have extra superpowers you could still save people; imagine a flood or earthquake in which people are trapped in an isolated area that only someone with the power of flight could reach and bring aid. Thus, my answer is flight.
Now I ask you to play along, what would you choose- the power of flight or the power of invisibility?
