The confusion of super-powers

[squirmelia]

I no longer know what super-power I would like if I could have a super-power.

Comments

[squirmelia.livejournal.com]

Kind of like wishing to have more wishes, I suppose, but then it may go wrong (and have hilarious consequences), as the wishes in books such as 5 Children and It seem to.

[fridgemagnet.livejournal.com]

I really have to read the E. Nesbit books again, I remember my mother reading us them...

...but yes, I'm sure it could be worked around. I just thought that the power to know what power would be best could result in the answer "the power to know what power would be best" i.e. itself. Wanting to have the power to know the _next_ power would then tell you "the power to know the next best power", and knowing all of the best powers in order would give you an infinite number of "knowing the nth best power" powers at the start.

Of course then you could want the power to know the best powers that didn't involve knowing which powers were best. In which case, your best power would be the power to know the best powers that didn't involve knowing which powers were best. And so on.

Given that if you look at it like this, there are an infinite number of best powers that you could have which involve knowing which best power you could have - and come to think of it, a high order of infinity, not just any old infinity - perhaps statistically you could say that the best bet is to go for one of those. Or just settle on being able to turn things into bees, or something.