Sharing A Blog Post

[r0ckyreed]

Hello. I just wrote a blog post, and I felt called to share it and hope it gives value and joy to those who read it.

Teleportation or Knowledge? Which Superpower Would You Choose?

If you had the choice to pick a superpower of being able to instantly travel to anywhere you wanted in the world or to be able to instantly read and comprehend all the knowledge in a book at the snap of your fingers, which would you choose? This question, although hypothetical, can be a thought-provoking way of helping you to discern your priorities in your life at the moment. Go ahead and think about your answer and your reasons for justifying it.

Before I give you my answer, I want us to first analyze these two options in-depth. So what would it look like to have instant travel? I imagine that you could instantly teleport to any place that exists in the physical dimension. This means that you could instantly travel to New York, Ireland, Japan, the Moon, Mars, and the sun. Of course, we have to recognize that if you traveled to a place unsuitable for life such as the sun or Saturn, you would die. But you could literally travel to anywhere in the known universe with this power. I say known because how can you visit a place you don't know exists? The only way you can visit a place you don't know exists is by traveling to a place you already know exists first. If I don't know about The Petra in Jordan, then I could never visit that place except on accident.

What would you do if you had the power to instantly travel anywhere you wanted? What would you do? Where would you go? I imagine myself traveling to all of the places in the world, going to all the hotels, go kayaking on the lake, seeing the majestic sights of the Northern Lights, camping at a national park, climbing up Mount Everest (yes, I said climb), and go scuba diving in the ocean. One thing I want to note is that having this power can be very deceptive and can defeat the joys and purpose of traveling. Part of traveling is the thrill of adventure. If I just snap my fingers, and I am up on Mount Everest, it is not as rewarding if there is no difficulty or risk associated with it. This power, while quite appealing, can be very self-defeating because something is lost when you can gain it at the snap of your fingers. It is like watching only the highlights of a movie and missing out on the rest. You miss so much of the world if you only focus on what you believe to be the highlights. But some might argue differently that this ability would set them up to have more time to go places.

The other option is to be able to instantly read/comprehend a book and gain all of the knowledge instantly. I find this very appealing to me because reading has been something of a challenge to me. Reading is something can be very boring, but the rewards of acquiring knowledge can be quite worth it. But imagine that you have the ability to read a book at the snap of your fingers. This means that in 10 minutes, you can read and understand 600 books! In 1 hour, you can 3,600 books! In one hour, you could read more than what the average person will read in their lifetime! Just think that you read a book at a pace that a person reads a word. Think about all the knowledge and personal development you can gain from such an experience. You can instantly comprehend a book in any field you desire from philosophy to gardening to politics to business to music. It is endless!

Even though I love being active and love to travel, I feel like being able to instantly gain knowledge from a book is quite appealing. I imagine I would use this hypothetical ability to feed my insatiable curiosity, to learn about history, and to learn from all the authors and brilliant minds throughout history. With this power, I imagine that it would help me to write an excellent book of my own, having read all the sources I need. I can see that I would know all the traps of business, all the scams, I could read a news article with a single snap and know the latest AI laws being implemented. Heck, there would be no AI taking my job! I would be putting AI out of business! Just think of all the patterns you would be able to see if you were able to read, comprehend, and retain all the sources you read. You would be unstoppable! Or would you?

One of the issues with this superpower is that of course, you are human! Your brain can only process so much information. Even if you could somehow process an endless amount of information, you would be considered closer to an AI than you would a human. Part of being human is having the limitations of being human. At some point, too much information does not become helpful. In fact, too much information can take an emotional toll on you and your relationships with others.

Brilliant characters like Einstein and Sherlock Holmes were very great, but everything has a cost. The cost of being brilliant is also being secluded. It can be an isolating experience to be so brilliant that you feel like the only adult among kids. I know I have personally felt this way, and I am not a genius. My insatiable curiosity and interest in philosophy alone makes me feel alone because most of the people I interact with do not seem to be at all concerned with existential matters (at least until crap hits the fan). I imagine that this superpower would only multiple my experience a billion fold.

So, what is my final answer to the question? None. No superpower. I know. Sounds nuts right? Well, when I had this insight, I fell to my knees crying in gratitude and awe. The Universe is absolutely amazing, and there is a joy in accepting the powers that the Universe has already given us. The real superpower is realizing that you are super, and that you are inseparable from the entire Universe! The human being is one costume and one character that the Universe is wearing and playing right now. The Universe is also playing as a squirrel, a dog, an ant, etc. The Universe is one big song in complete harmony with itself.

I realized that the Universe designed life in such a way that having any kind of superpower like time travel, strength, teleportation, or infinite knowledge would take so much away from you. There is power in being vulnerable and in enduring the challenges of the human experience, which of course include suffering and the resilience that follows. If you are invincible, what is the point? Without growth, where is the meaning in life? Of course, that is for you to decide. I would say that the real superpower is in resilience and in the desire for growth and expansion. I believe that we appreciate things the most when we have to work for them. Like anything else, the human mind becomes to accustomed. We can see our limitation as a positive because inside our very limitations lies the greatest potential for our growth.