Let's talk superpowers (not the political kind)

[jkmcdonnell]

Requesting help, forumites!

My WIP involves some supe'd-up teens (it's kind of Heroes meets 1984). To give their abilities some specificity, I'm trying to divide their powers based on whether they are mentally-based or physical in nature (ie. telepathy vs. super-strength). However, there are a few that kind of straddle this line and I'm unsure as to how to demarcate them. Would you mind offering an opinion on these examples?

(Right about now I'm thinking this isn't your average, general plot or character 'All Things Writing' question. Apologies!)

Psychic or physical?
- teleportation
- energy manipulation (ie. of others)
- element manipulation (pyrokinesis, hydrokinesis, etc.)
- empathy/ESP/emotional control (of others - affecting them physically, but performed mentally)
- invisibility

Thanks in advance.

[Watcher55]

Requesting help, forumites!

My WIP involves some supe'd-up teens (it's kind of Heroes meets 1984). To give their abilities some specificity, I'm trying to divide their powers based on whether they are mentally-based or physical in nature (ie. telepathy vs. super-strength). However, there are a few that kind of straddle this line and I'm unsure as to how to demarcate them. Would you mind offering an opinion on these examples?

(Right about now I'm thinking this isn't your average, general plot or character 'All Things Writing' question. Apologies!)

Psychic or physical?
- teleportation Manipulation of time-space so...more mental than physical
- energy manipulation (ie. of others) mental>physical
- element manipulation (pyrokinesis, hydrokinesis, etc.) Same
- empathy/ESP/emotional control (of others - affecting them physically, but performed mentally) Totally mental
- invisibility Pure time-space mental=physical

Thanks in advance.

It looks like you need a new umbrella catagory - Time/Space manipulation with "mental" and "Physical" subcatagories (????)

[jkmcdonnell]

I know, I'm trying to be slack as possible (always a good start!) and just divide it (somewhere) down the middle. The one I'm most hung up on is teleportation, which I'm trying to shunt into the 'physical' category for plot-related purposes, but that's looking less and less likely.

Thanks for the quick input regardless.

[Watcher55]

I know, I'm trying to be slack as possible (always a good start!) and just divide it (somewhere) down the middle. The one I'm most hung up on is teleportation, which I'm trying to shunt into the 'physical' category for plot-related purposes, but that's looking less and less likely.

Thanks for the quick input regardless.

I would think you'd have to configure the meta-physics behind the ability. The medium through which the body travels is key. I have no idea what your meta-physics entail but here's a simple example of what I mean, the character has to cover the distance but through a more dense/thinner "atmosphere" that exists in a time-dialation(?) field.

[Guardian]

- teleportation - Time-Space manipulation (Partial energy manipualtion)
- energy manipulation (ie. of others) & element manipulation (pyrokinesis, hydrokinesis, etc.) - One and the very same. Pyrokinesis, hydrokinesis is also energy manipulation (Elements = Flowing or constant energy).
- empathy/ESP/emotional control (of others - affecting them physically, but performed mentally) - I also would take this to energy manipulation, because thoughts are nothing more, but pure flow of "energy" inside the brain and the body. To change empathy, gain emotional control, the character must use a constant energy to manipulate the inner energy flow of the target person.
- invisibility - Also energy manipulation, as it's manipulating the owner's body structure or the surroundings to render him / her invisible.

So, Time-Space (Psyhic) and Energy (Psyhic and Psyhical) manipulation. Oh, and these are all "mental" abilities as the will of the owner is creating all these. But basically all of them are energy manipulation on a molecular level.

[polymath]

Super powers of the comic book kind? Of the fantasy kind? Science fiction fantasy kind? Hard science fiction kind?

Questions posed rhetorically to provide a basis for approaching useful answers.

The comic book superhero tradition defies plausibility, superheroes with fantastical powers explained by a short summary of what caused them, here's the imaginative premise, then into the awe and wonder of the evolving story with a wave of a magic wand. Later 20th century comic book superheroes were given more depth through personality traits and internal complications. Yet all in all the participation mystique and exotic proxy realities trumped willing suspension of disbelief jeapordies. It's all make believe, fiction is. Give readers enough drama, spectacle, complication, opposing forces, and action and anything goes.

The fantasy superhero tradition avoided all inhibitions of power, invoking author surrogacy, which appeals to younger-minded audiences. Albeit with internal complications and external complications posing obstacles to absolute power for good dramatic effect, again favoring participation mystiques and exotic proxy realities over willing suspension of disbelief.

The hard science fiction kind plausibly, credibly answers skeptical, often older-minded audience needs for a little more grounding in reality, balancing participation mystiques, exotic proxy realities, and willing suspension of disbelief.

So more rhetorical questions. Age target? Genre target? Reinvented, reimagined archetypes? Traditional or conventional archetypes with present day complications? Technology or magic? Mundane--earthly--or metaphysical? Personalities over capabilities? External or internal complication priorities? Achlle's heels of vulnerabilty or mortal limitations?

[Louise Curtis]

I reckon teleportation is physical, because it's the equivalent (in deeply oversimplifed terms) of physically walking from one place to another - just really really fast.

[jkmcdonnell]

Wow, thanks guys! I'm gonna come clean: I haven't done science since Year 10, and am struggling with the basics of this kind of stuff. All your help so far has been awesome.

If I introduced a new electrical/energy category, could teleportation theoretically fit in here? Like by travelling along telephone/wifi lines? Also, where would phasing/intangibility fit in?

[Watcher55]

Wow, thanks guys! I'm gonna come clean: I haven't done science since Year 10, and am struggling with the basics of this kind of stuff. All your help so far has been awesome.

If I introduced a new electrical/energy category, could teleportation theoretically fit in here? Like by travelling along telephone/wifi lines? Also, where would phasing/intangibility fit in?

The natural electrical charge of the nervous system would be a "logical" basis - so yes.

You could also fit phasing/intangibility into the new category - plasma fields, matter to energy - all that kinda stuff.

[Fenris]

Psychic or physical?
- teleportation
- energy manipulation (ie. of others)
- element manipulation (pyrokinesis, hydrokinesis, etc.)
- empathy/ESP/emotional control (of others - affecting them physically, but performed mentally)
- invisibility

Thanks in advance.

Well, personally I agree with a lot of people here; most of these are most likely mental. But, for the purpose of adding something besides a pretty but useless statement, I'll do my best to deconstruct these into each category and see which works better.

-Teleportation: Mostly physical, since, as Louise said, it's basically just moving from one place to another in the physical realm instantaneously. Mental powers tend to have more to do with the manipulation of energy than that of matter. However, if the character were harnessing some kind of other power in order to achieve this (electricity, aether, magic, whatever you have going for you) it'd be more mental, since they'd have to concentrate on that source first. If you were to introduce a new energy source to do so, they'd still have to concentrate on it to teleport through it unless it was involuntary, in which case it might revert to physical in terms of their body's automatic reaction to danger (you'd be surprised how much fun a randomly-teleporting character can be. It seems like it'd be an obvious problem, and it does kind of turn the character into a woobie after a while. But it's so much fun to write).

-Energy Manipulation: The "of others" is throwing me off here. Are you saying they can manipulate the energy within others? Since that's what you appear to be saying, that's what I'll go with, but let me know if I'm wrong. Anyway. Physical: doubtful, but possible. If your character has some kind of receptor or medium physically within their own bodies that allows them to manipulate such energy, then it's physical. If they don't, it's mental. It really depends on the methods used to achieve this power--for example, if they're made of metal, they'll physically conduct electricity (though controlling it is another matter). If they aren't, and in every respect they appear to be an ordinary human, then the power must be manifested mentally.

-Element Manipulation: I agree with Guardian here; this and the above are pretty much the same thing, as (especially if you look at it through a Hermetic perspective) the two spring from the same base.

-Empathy/ESP/Emotional Control: There's really no way this could be physical. If your character were a raging a-hole who insulted everyone he came across, people would be stirred to anger against him, but he'd still (hopefully) be making a conscious, and therefore mental, decision to do so. As for a wider range of emotions, it's definitely mental rather than physical. I think the only way such emotional control could be physical is if you took Edward Cullen and put him in the middle of a boarding school for teenage girls.

-Invisibility: This one could be a bit more balanced. We have the mentally-triggered examples (the Invisible Girl from the Fantastic Four, can't remember her name though), and we have the physical examples, such as Harry Potter's invisibility cloak. This one really depends on the circumstances and the characters.

-Phasing/Intangibility: This one would be mental if it was voluntary, physical if it were involuntary. If it were a natural, automatic defense system, like a kind of super-immune system, it would be physical, but just as we have no real control over our immune systems the character wouldn't have much control over this ability. If it were a consciously triggered ability, on the other hand, it would be mental.

Hope this helped.

[polymath]

If I introduced a new electrical/energy category, could teleportation theoretically fit in here? Like by travelling along telephone/wifi lines? Also, where would phasing/intangibility fit in?

Skeptical readers might not go for traveling along transmission lines or Wifi because of bandwidth limitations. Incredulity would jeapordize their willing suspension of disbelief. More imaginative readers able to engage in fantastical participation mystiques shouldn't balk though.

What is the data quantity and resolution quality of any given amount of mass? Might it be somewhat comparable in values to the E=mc^2 equation? Energy in joules, mass in grams, velocity of light in meters, squared. Just for comparison purposes, a 24-bit jpeg photograph is able to capture and map approximately 16.7 million different colors in two dimensions, exactly 2^24 colors. An 8-by-10, 300 dpi, 24-bit, standard compression algorithm monotone photograph would be at least 128 Kb. But we all know digital photos are much more resource intensive.

I imagine a credible teleportation device would have to capture an appreciably higher resolution image of a person's whole being in order to be practical. Maybe at the quantum level of subatomic resolution in order to preserve intact a person's memory. Say, somewhere approaching infinity.

A little touch of a handwavium wand though and Bob's your uncle. It's fiction. Make believe is a dialogue between readers and writers.