Who wouldn't want to have superpowers like one of the Avengers?
Imagine having the strength to fight off any bully, or the speed to never be late anywhere
ever again.
How about the power to read or manipulate minds?
Or maybe just be tough enough to withstand any blow.
Superpowers seem like a win-win, and you'd have to be out of your mind to pass up the
chance to be as powerful as one of the Avengers.
But maybe superpowers aren't all they're cracked up to be, and if given the chance to be bitten
by a radio active spider, maybe you should give it a hard pass.
Hello and welcome to another episode of The Infographics Show- today we're taking a look
at why it would suck to have superpowers like the Avengers.
Super Strength
Imagine having the brute strength of Thor, able to smash through just about anything
and topple the biggest baddy in one just one blow.
You'd never have to take any gruff from a bully ever again, and with your super strength
you could walk the streets at night unafraid of any petty street criminal.
Winning sporting events would be a breeze, and you could score big in Vegas fighting
as a professional boxer or UFC fighter- as long as you kept the true extent of your strength
a secret of course, nobody wants to fight a superhero.
But having super strength comes with super responsibility, and with some pretty crippling
drawbacks.
First is the most obvious- you'd have to constantly control just how much strength you exert on
a daily basis.
When you move to pick up a glass, the brain has to estimate what the correct amount of
force to apply is in order to achieve a firm, but not overly firm grip.
We've all experienced brief lapses of concentration where we definitely apply more force than
we meant to, and with super strength that might mean shattering a glass accidentally
or perhaps shattering every bone in a person's hand.
There's also moments were we react in passion, such as when we hug something we find adorable
overly tight or perhaps when we're overly aggressive with our affections.
With normal human strength this isn't much of a big deal, but with superhuman strength
you being a bit too aggressive in backing your lover up against a wall to kiss them
could end up with you putting them through the wall instead.
Hug your cat muffins a bit too tight because of the cuteness overload and you'll end up
turning muffins into sausage.
Then there's involuntary reactions or muscle movements.
A normal sneeze can exit the body at approximately 35 mph (56 kmh), but a super sneeze could
end up blowing away anyone directly in front of you.
Get into an itchy-nose sneezing fit and you could end up blowing down several walls, big
bad wolf style.
Ever go to a haunted house and accidentally flail out at an employee jumping out and scaring
you?
Too bad for that employee, cuz with your super strength you'll be knocking their head clean
off their body.
Next time a friend runs a practical joke on you it'll be that friend's last day on earth.
Super Speed
Super speed is a bit of a cliché, as it seems most superheroes have some level of super
speed- though certainly few reach the heights of say, The Flash.
But surely if super strength is a potentially lethal gift to have, there couldn't be anything
wrong with being super fast, could there?
Well, at first glance it would be pretty awesome to basically never have to use a car ever
again, no more car payments or gasoline, you could be truly green for the environment,
and of course we all know the auto insurance industry is a complete scam on the consumer.
But just how great would it really be to have super speed?
First there's the most obvious problem with super speed, and that is your brain.
Your brain is pretty elastic, and with years of training you can increase the speed of
its reflexes to the point that you could say, handle a formula one racing car with incredible
agility.
But that takes years of training to achieve, and even then formula one race car drivers
have an incredibly risky job and are always just one small mistake away from death- but
they only have to race a few times a year.
You would likely be tempted to use your super speed all the time.
The faster you go, the less time your brain has to react to any changes in the environment,
including upcoming obstacles.
Push the limits of that super speed even higher, say to a few hundred miles per hour, and you
basically would be completely unable to react to any change in your environment- you better
hope you're on a straightaway in the middle of the desert without so much as a single
ditch to stumble on, or you're going to be toast.
Being super fast is fine and dandy, but your brain simply wouldn't be able to process sensory
input fast enough to keep you from killing yourself- and that's the other downside to
super speed, because even just at 60 miles per hour (97 kmh), a slight stumble is going
to end up with you tumbling out of control and turning all your bones to dust.
Accidentally even just brush by something else and you'll be shattering the bones in
your hand or arm.
Then there's the stress super speed would put on your body, which is definitely not
designed to go super fast.
You better carry goggles with you everywhere you go, or you're going to end up getting
all kinds of debris super-stuck in your eyes, potentially causing serious damage if at fast
enough speeds.
Then there's the wear and tear to your muscles and ligaments, which will begin to form rips
from being exerted at speeds far above what they were biologically designed for.
Even if your body is somehow adjusted to super speeds though, all that rapid muscle movement
is going to generate incredible amounts of heat, and since you don't come with a built-in
radiator, you can expect to reach temperatures well in excess of 107 degrees Fahrenheit (42
Celsius) which is when brain damage begins to occur.
Then there's the simple biological need for energy- go super fast and you're going to
super burn calories, leaving you all but emaciated once you get to your destination.
Push yourself too fast for too long and you might just drop dead from sheer exhaustion,
your body's entire energy reserves completely drained.
If somehow your body is able to store enough energy, and not cook your brain, then you'd
better have a very big wallet, because going super fast all the time is going to require
a lot of calories.
Professional cyclists can eat up to 8,000 calories a day- you'll be looking at many,
many times that number.
So I guess what we're saying is, you better have a very, very big budget for food if you're
going to be super fast, or you'll soon be super broke and super starving.
Telepathy
Super speed and super strength sound like a bit of a bummer after all that, and maybe
you decide that you're ok having average speed and average strength- beats accidentally crushing
a friend to death or splattering yourself against a brick wall after all.
Telepathy seems safe then, and who wouldn't want the ability to read other people's minds
or communicate without speaking at all?
There's literally a million applications, and you could certainly abuse the power to
make a whole lot of money.
Got a job interview?
Just read the boss's mind and figure out exactly what she wants to hear!
But who needs a job when you can just travel from casino to casino, beating every card
dealer in the world by reading their mind and knowing the cards they hold?
The world is your mental oyster, and it's time to shuck it.
But you should probably ask yourself one question before you start reading everyone's mind-
just how thick is your skin really?
It's an important question, because as you go rooting around in everyone's mind around
you, you're going to start hearing their innermost personal thoughts, the things that are most
secret and personal to them and which, when you're around, are very often going to involve
you.
Sure, it'd be amazing to be able to tell that the hot guy or gal at the store is secretly
into you, but could you handle the dozens upon dozens of people you come across every
day that definitely aren't?
Can you handle hearing their innermost thoughts about your most glaring flaws- in their opinion-
and just how unattractive they find them?
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder after all, and something that one person finds adorable
about you at least a dozen other people might be completely repulsed by.
More than just laying your physical shortcomings bare, what about realizing what people think
about you personally?
We all have friends, and we all definitely have some negative qualities we've observed
about our friends, yet generally keep to ourselves as we accept that no one is perfect.
Think you got the stomach to hear all the negative qualities your various friends find
in you?
Can you handle finding out what all your perceived shortcomings are?
Maybe you've got a pretty thick skin after all, well then you'd better be ready for some
disappointment in the romance department- specially if you're in a long-term relationship.
Even the most committed, loving couples will occasionally be attracted to other people-
it's simple human nature- and while it may never lead past a mere observation, it's almost
certain that everyone has at least fantasized a little bit about somebody else.
Think you could handle finding out that your partner of years and years has been fantasizing
about a friend of yours, or maybe a new co-worker?
What about if you're making love and discover a lingering thought briefly appearing in your
partner of somebody else?
You could always make the effort to never stray into other people's minds, but let's
face it, you're going to end up doing it eventually- the temptation is just too great.
Let's say though that you instead use your telepathy to simply communicate to others,
surely that couldn't go wrong, could it?
Well, first you better have damn good control of just how 'loud' you make yourself inside
somebody else's head, because when you get over excited in normal conversation you might
raise in volume, but with telepathy you'll be increasing in intensity.
An overexcited quip or reaction to your friend could end up leaving them with a crippling
migraine and bloody nose, or, let's say you're back in that haunted house with a bunch of
friends and lose control when you get scared- congratulations, your mental scream just lobotomized
everybody in a twenty foot radius.
But even if you somehow manage extremely careful control over your mental volume, there's bound
to be the occasional slip up when you communicate when not meaning to.
After all your entire life your innermost thoughts have been completely private, but
now you've suddenly gotten the ability to channel them directly to somebody else.
Slip up and you might accidentally broadcast to the person across from you exactly how
you really, and very unflatteringly, feel about them.
Get confronted by someone and you might accidentally divulge a deeply held secret, blurting it
out mentally simply because you thought about it inwardly.
Maybe it's best that we don't have Avengers-like superpowers after all, because great power
does indeed come with great responsibility, but in the real world it also comes with a
whole slew of potential pitfalls, from breaking every bone in your body, to breaking every
bone in your friend's body, to having your ego crushed by the unflattering opinions of
every stranger around you.
Which superpower would you want, and think you could handle it?
Let us know in the comments, and as always if you enjoyed this video don't forget to
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