Google Engineers Argue Over Superpowers - ComicsAlliance.com

The Comics Alliance blog has posted an article about engineers at Google seriously discussing which Superpower is the best:

1. Invisibility
2. Flight
3. Teleportation

Apparently, this is something that the Google engineers have been trying to hash out amongst themselves, and like any good nerds, they have taken a silly, theoretical question and analyzed it in quantifiable, serious, empirical ways.
A traditionally short conversation ("Would you rather have the power of invisibility or the power of flight?") rapidly spins off new and philosophical threads enumerating hidden caveats and analyzing cost-benefit scenarios. Under the black-markered "The power to move you," someone uses a blue marker to replace "you" with "anyone." "What do you mean by move?" asks a red marker. "You made this no fun anymore," complains a blue marker, underscoring that point with a frowning face.

Does this surprise me? No, when I was doing engineering at Berkeley I found myself drawn into such conversations. I mean a lot of my peers in Engineering loved science fiction, horror, and comics as much I do. I found that it was the inspiration for getting into science/engineering. One friend told me, "I want to build 'Robocop'!" I wholeheartedly concur - now and then. It doesn't surprise me that Google would have engineers friendly discussing such things. I often still wish I was still in an environment like that sometimes (No, I don't want to go back to University).



Google Engineers Argue Over Superpowers