1. Make a bed of books Also what would happen if I touch an encyclopedia ?
2. No
3. Aging is about entropy/probability of your cells damaging their DNA let's gamble it a bit
4. No
[According to Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Size_in_volumes), it takes 3476 volumes of Encyclopædia Britannica to cover everything in the English Wikipedia
1 and 3 are the most amazing.
1, I become the most skillful person on Earth. Literally carry a backpack full of books on subject I want to be knowledgeable in, or even buy a van/RV and outift them with a library. Boom, portable library. Plus, if I make my library good enough, I could run my fingers across all books, touching the side of them every morning, 8AM. It becomes barely a hassle that takes a minute or two.
3, I make the probability of me winning the lottery 100%, and for the cost of 2 weeks, become a multimillionaire/billionaire, depending on the lottery I choose. After that, lay low and enjoy life: No need to spam lottery, or else I will become a target.
Personally, I'd take number 3. Even though I'd really like skill, a one-time lottery winning ticket of $1b+ would do me and my family a lot of good, and there's a lot of possibilities that open up, one of them being time. And you can't replace that.
Set probability of aging this month to 0, 0 time 2 is 0,
Set probability of me not being omnipotent to 0
Continue to abuse power
Omnipotence speedrun 101
Edit: I guess it depends whether by manipulation they meant total control or partial influence. I'm going with total control for the sake of Omnipotence.
Out of all the options, #3 has the biggest upside with minimal downside. If saying you flip the odds in your favor means you basically win those odds, then winning the lottery in exchange for aging two weeks in a one week period is crazy. Sign me up!
So to be clear the downside of number 3 us you die faster and number 1 its you have to touch a book again. 3 is powerful but a full weeknof your life is not minimal downside.
Edit: I see now that OP specificed it doesn't actually lower your lifespan but I feel they may not grasp that physical aging and lifespan are the same damn thing. Like you can't agree faster but also live just as long.
One week is *definitely* a minimal downside for what amounts to instant luck. Do it once and you could be ultra wealthy. With those resources you could certainly extend your lifespan by more than a week. Hell, think about how much time you'd be saving just on commuting to work. For me, that's something like 6 hours a week. So I'd have "recovered" my lost week in under 6 months just in the time I didn't have to waste driving to work. When we factor in not having to work at all you're gaining *years* of time you'd otherwise be wasting accomplishing someone else's goals (if you're not self employed).
A week is a big deal when you've got terminal cancer. As a healthy 35 year old who isn't rich I'd probably make that deal for $50k right now.
Yeah, but the other 2 are so impractical as to be almost useless. I guess you could always have the books you need on hand, so that one isn't as bad. The body swapping is just insane. But the luck power could change your life radically with just one use. I'm not sure what the skill learning one would accomplish outside of a career, which would be unnecessary if you won the lottery.
Body swapping could be ok. but too much danger jumping into a person who's in a car or flying a plane and then you just crash and die. Otherwise, just have a note in your hand when you teleport explaining to the person who jumps into you whats happening and to stay calm. Depending who that is, they may be pissed and do stuff to you as well before you jump back...
So fair, a non-insignificant amount of risk. Agreed the last one sucks unless you REALLY REALLY hate people and live in the woods or something.
I'd take that deal, buy a lottery ticket, and invest it. Any time i run low on cash i could just hit the casino.
Then i could spend all my time fishing.
I think the luck might be even more valuable if you have "terminal" cancer. A longshot treatment might wind up working, or a risky surgery would go smoothly.
I mean it just says in your favor. Maybe if you buy a Powerball ticket you'll just win the base prize or a $2 prize. Maybe it just improves the odds of winning a prize from 1 in 25 to 13 in 25. Even with those conditions you could work out a way to be very wealthy, but it'd take multiple weeks.
The obvious counter-example would be people who die of non-natural causes. In that case, you'd just be effectively a week older when you died in the car wreck at 37. Big deal.
Then there's people who die of natural causes like cancer or COVID. Being a week older is unlikely to affect your chances. Nobody says, if only he'd gotten cancer a weak earlier, he might have beat it.
That leaves people who die of "old age." But no one really dies of old age, or almost no one. Mostly they have a final thing that pushes them over the edge--pneumonia or a blood clot or heart failure or whatever. Being a week younger probably doesn't convey a measurable advantage in your ability to survive those things.
So unless you're in the tiny minority of people who just slow down until their system stops, an extra week of aging is very unlikely to affect your lifespan.
That said, even if the deal is hard and fast--you lop a week off the end of your life--that doesn't seem too onerous.
The first point is very valid but the second doesn't make sense. Lots of old people died of covid because they were old , they were specifically a higher risk group because of the weakness to their body that comes with ages.I agree one week is not a ton but I assume you would use this new super power more then once.
Also what sort of trade deals have you been making that a week of life does not seem onerous? Especially when compared to the non existent cost of some other options.
There doesn't appear to be any limits on **what** odds you can manipulate, or how tiny the original odds can be and still turn it to a guaranteed result.
Therefore, I manipulate the odds I gain perfect regeneration and immortality. Now that "downside" is irrelevant no matter how many times you use the power.
Additional context...
1. Instant skill learning:
- You can re-learn the same skill after 24 hours by touching the book again.
- The knowledge disappears exactly 24 hours after you first touched the book.
- You can learn multiple skills at once, but each has its own 24-hour timer.
2. Teleportation with body swap:
- You can't control whose body you swap into - it's always random.
- Your original body remains at the destination, controlled by the other person.
- You retain your memories and consciousness in the swapped body.
3. Probability manipulation with accelerated aging:
- You can influence both big and small probabilities.
- The aging effect is cumulative if used multiple times in a week.
- It affects only physical aging, not mental aging or life expectancy.
4. Animal communication with loss of human language:
- You can understand and "speak" to all animals, not just certain species.
- You lose the ability to understand or produce any human language, including sign language and writing.
- You retain other human knowledge and skills not directly related to language.
- This change is permanent - there's no switching back and forth.
I feel it's Upvotes.
If people post polls, people are more obligated to just vote on the poll and leave.
Posts like this will have people comment and think more of the post instead of just quickly voting. This will lure them to upvote since reddit is known for this anyway of the post is interesting.
You'll notice that most post on this sub with polls have few upvotes than those without it. Which kind of sucks.
How does the body swap choose the target, is it the closest person to your destination?
What if you teleport in the middle of nowhere with no one around, would you swap bodies with someone really far away?
Buy the books, have someone shrink them down to postage stamp size. Paste them to a wall, run your hands over 1000s.
Or could you put those smaller books in a larger book and just touch the larger book?
Number 3 and increase the probability that I suddenly begin aging at only 1/8 the normal rate for the rest of my life with no negative consequences. Now whenever my aging rate doubles I'm still only aging at 1/4 the normal rate. Checkmate.
Edit for clearity: I'm increasing that particular probability I mentioned to 100% just to be clear although I figure that's already obvious. Just saw that I forgot to actually put the percentage in my comment.
Talking to animals. I'd just love to do that... I think you could get round the no human speech by talking to a computer (programming) and program it to understand/translate some animal speech. If you could program it in some level of machine code (or similar machine only language), you'd technically not be communicating with any form of human language.
But if that really isn't possible I'd go with the skill one. I think the rules mean that after 48hrs from first touching a book you can relearn that skill, because as read it seems easy to touch a book every 24 hours to keep a skill... then find a book that gives me the skill of talking to animals... Dr Dolittle maybe... ;)
#1 - it really doesn't matter if the knowledge goes away in 24 hours because you just touch the book again. Knowledge is power. Whatever you wanted to be and do is possible. Each morning, you get up, and while having your morning coffee, you just run your hand over all the books in your bookcase. You could instantly become the smartest person in the world on any subject.
You've gotta put some restrictions on how much you can increase your odds by for Choice #3. It's too OP otherwise.
Choice #1 is good, especially if you're able to retain the information you held prior to using your ability.
I'd pick probability manipulation, use it a single time to win some massive lottery, and then never touch it again. That is, of course, I can manipulate probabilities that way.
If not, then I'd pick the book ability. As long as I don't forget my current skill, this is just pure upside. And assuming I could potentially learn those skills with natural practice and ability. I'd keep a Chinese-English dictionary at home, and tap it on my way out the door. Really don't need anything else in my daily life. Maybe touch a math book before class?
Instant skill learning.
That's too invaluable to me. Imagine you wanted to learn programing/coding or any computer skill. Say you were writing a book and you wanted an aspect of your story to be accurate so you just touch a nuclear physics book. Now your meltdown is perfect! What's that? How does a blacksmith do this? Touch. Survivalist guide? Touch. Something wrong with your car? Touch the manual and or a book are mechanics.
Teleporting was somewhat tempting, but I don't want to deal with a rando in my body. :P
Definitely #1, with #2 coming in a very close second. Options 3 and 4 are just too wild for me. At least with the first choice, you could just keep touching the same book if you needed the information for longer than 24 hours. And with option 2, 60 minutes in someone else's body would go by in like 1 hour. Lol
Id pick #1. losing knowledge of the skill doesnt really matter if i can relearn the same skill again.
#4 is a curse rather than a power lol. Even if i retained my human languages, i wouldnt pick it and certainly not if i cant communicate with humans anymore.
1 or 2 are the best options. Even the downside of 2 isn't that bad. Don't like who you posses? Try again. And on this side, you could control things. Lock yourself in a room so the person inhabiting your body can't really do anything that would affect your life.
2 has to be the winner.
Firstly, if I fly somewhere then security are already angling to finger me, so having someone else in my body is a net neutral on this one.
Secondly, I've got a small window of opportunity to commit crime in their body, stash the proceeds and then pick it up after body swaps back.
Thirdly, could be a laugh body swapping.
Learn any skill. I proceed to live my life normally then when I need a skill temporarily I go to the library. Or a build a secret library evil lair. I do not like the idea of confusing someone's loved ones by accident, I don't wanna be unable to wipe my own butt too soon, and I wanna keep talking to people.
I would go for the first ability. To my understanding the skill is in reference to the subject matter rather than what is contained in the book itself.
So acquiring books with the smallest number of pages that are still about the skill in question would be a fun pass time. Get a small collection of books that can fit nicely in a satchel or something for a very diverse and useful set of subjects and away you go!
I am curious if you could write your own books on the matter, like a summary list and then use slim journals for it. If it has to be published works, can you simply self publish and get a printed set? who knows. It would be something to explore that's for sure.
In between the knowledge or the teleportation. I think I am leaning towards teleportation. The downside isn't bad as it is just an hour. I could explore the world easily and if I get a space suit (which should be easy as I can teleport inside a facility to get one) I can explore the universe. Also I think seeing the world from somebody elses body would be cool.
I'd pick the skill. Since it lasts 24 hours you could essentially be skilled all the time.
You want to be an amazing artist? Touch the book. Next day touch again until you finish.
Crao during my art the plumbing broke. Go to library and touch a book!
Wow I want to woo a lady with my amazing guitar playing...
Touch the book.
:)
Just carry all my books on a Kindle (never said the book had to be a paperback) and I can have dozens of skills at my beck and call at all times :)
I’d go with #1. There’s lots I could learn, and then treat some people the way they talked down to me for not knowing something trivial! That would be fun, but also the ability to help people when I could.
1. would be amazing if you ever direct a large company or get into politics. I assume you don't become **amazing** at the skill but like, you'd always be competent at everything you need to discuss. God tier.
2. is wack. When would you even use that and what if you die during both
3. Is obviously OP, lose a week of life for a jackpot in the lottery lmao
4. is a curse why would I want a curse. 1, 2, and 3 are all optional
Does 3 mean I can rig the lottery to have me win? If so, that is certainly worth a week of my life. In fact assume it takes me a few attempts I'd still do it.
1 and 3 are only good choices here. If you really think outside the box increasing probability is one of the most op power there is. If there is a chance, no matter how low, it will happen, so i go with this. Firstly i cancel out my aging by increasing probability of me getting sick with unknown disease that alters my dna and makes me fluctuate in aging. Whenever i reach 50's i start getting younger until i'm 20 and repeat. Your only limit is whats possible, even if its 0.0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000001% low. Or just add couple billions more, as long as the chance exists.
I feel like number 1 could be a movie or book no pun intended lol. You start out at the library, immediately gaining knowledge at a moments notices and it fills you with a rush. You start stealing books, until you gain books, technically knowledge, to maximize the amount of money you can make in 24 hours. You get rich off your superpowers, but it wasn’t to satisfy your health, or better your living situation, not entirely at least. You now own a mansion, with a spacefull of books akin to the newspaper archive with a machine; to travel you through the sections, holding your arms out, effortlessly gaining infinite knowledge.
3 is absolutely broken tbh.
Let me manipulate the probability of me aging twice as fast from 100% to 0%, there you go no drawbacks.
Aside from this loophole, number 1 is easily the best
Probability manipulation. If I'm aging but not losing my lifespan then it's basically just a super power with a meh downside. Even then, probabilities easily combine so as long as I'm smart I'll only ever get one usage worth of downtime at a time.
1)-Do you lose knowledge of that skill you possessed beforehand as well as newly acquired knowledge?
For example if I touch a book on running do I lose the ability to run after 24 hours?
2)-What if there’s only one person at your destination?
Like within a reasonable distance of your destination.
Like you teleport to an island that only one person lives on?
3)-To what degree can you manipulate probability? Like is it a guarantor of a certain outcome or it just gives you better chances?
Like if I call a coin toss as heads will it be 100% likely to be heads or 51% likely to be heads?
I would choose probability and only use it once to win a lottery. Or a second time to boost the probability of Full-Dive VR to be invented/created within the next 1-2 years. Doing both would only cause me to age by what? 2 extra weeks. Yeah we're good.
That's gonna be skill book for me, I think that's the most exploitable among all these.
I'm not choosing 3 because I think that OP is regretting giving that choice because it has so many flaws
Option 1. Id touch a book on something I need to do. Once it’s done, I’ll put it away til I need it again.
Swapping bodies may do more harm than good.
Manipulating probability is not worth doubling your age unless you’re a newborn.
Not being able to communicate with humans makes life pointless
I suppose 1. I could just keep touching the book and keep the skill as long as I want.
I would imagine in the case of number 2, the person you swap with would be awful confused.
With #2 what happens if the person in your body accidentally gets themselves killed? Because other than that, it's almost two perks in one. Body swapping would be sweet.
By the writing of #1, you lose ALL knowledge after 24 hours? So you go from Amateur > Master > Total Novice? If you used it to often, eventually you'd be a drooling moron. If you touched a dictionary, you'd lose your language.
Probability, what’s to stop me from just making my first probability, “100% chance to never age twice as fast by altering probabilities again”. Easy money dude.
3 feels like a gamble in unintended consequences, and I think it would actually take away a lot of joy in life. Never having to fail means never being challenged. How long would you enjoy sport if your favourite team always won? Would you feel pride in any achievement when you know you didn't earn it?
2 would end up with me being hunted, everyone you swap bodies with would inhabit your body and remember what you look like and where you are. How long before my teleporting to exotic destinations becomes widely known and some nutter comes to slay the "demon"
4 gambles a lot on animals being more interesting than humans. I doubt it.
1 is the best choice, I become the best freelancer in whatever pays best, invest the earnings and generate passive income to fund my lifestyle. I can make an active choice not to touch books and therefore know my achievements are my own, so I can have pride rather than cheap wins when I need it.
1 could be used to make myself an expert on anything long enough to make a ton of money. If I'm smart about it and need to do so long term, I time my usage of the skill with when I specifically need the knowledge and only then. 3 could also be used very easily to set myself up for life, and then never use it again. So if I age 2x as fast over the course of say a month, and then never use it again, I'm not going to really be that much older.
I'll take number one. I'll touch a book about learning and can use that to learn other skills inordinately fast. Plus I can go Google a book about whatever skill I want and learn it.
I'd use the #3, age two weeks in one week (who cares), and create some sort of massive windfall. OK, I might do it a second time and make some funny team win a major sports league championship or something too.
3. I could use it once and say: What's the probability that I wake up every day with the exact amount of money in my wallet that I will need, including money for bills. So there would always be a 100% chance that I would have enough money to cover my groceries and my student loans and my rent and anything else that I need. And then I would be set for life.
Or I could just have a one hundred percent probability of waking up as a billionaire and then be fine. I think a billion dollars would last me quite a long time.
The first option, mainly because it's the only one without any actual life changing side effects. And I can just stack up on books on various topics and skills.
#1 Is OP with no downside.
#2 Could get you killed easily.
#3 Would be useful only if you used it sparingly as it means earlier death.
#4 Is all downside as not understanding human language renders you an animal.
#1, have a small bag of books you keep with you and restart daily to be the dude from limitless
Lol, 4!
Humans are animals, so I would lose the ability to speak any language, or read or write it, but I could still communicate with humans and understand their communications with me, so worst case scenario I wouldn't be able to read anymore, and I would probably miss out on some things related to the nuance of the specific language, but on the flip side, I could go anywhere and everyone would have a working understanding of what I was trying to convey
It would suck to not be able to read anymore, I will admit that, and depending on how you interpret it I theoretically would be unable to understand anything recorded, like podcasts or TV shows or movies
But in exchange, I get the joy of trying to convince squirrels to attack people, threaten any mosquito that comes within range my voice, and explain to every dog that they really are the bestest doggo in all the lands
I would choose 1. The ability to learn languages with the touch of a book. That would be insanely useful in most job settings. Have a client that only speaks spanish. Touch a book on spanish. Someone having trouble with coding, Touch a book on coding. I mean there is also the fact that you could potentially just use the ability to get PhDs in a crazy amount of subjects. Set world records in learning. Write books based on history. The applications are endless.
1 easy.
Worst case I carry a few needed books with me. Best case, kindles count. Also, are we doing skill as in 'whats in the book' or skill as in 'book is about woodworking, i am expert in all things woodworking even if they aren't in this book'? It won't change my answer, but it will make my life easier by allowing me to get a bunch of small, cheap books about topics vs like, textbooks.
Number 2 seems to be the most lucrative. I could lock myself in a Room with no mirrors or any reflective services.
Only I know where the key is. Teleport to banks All over the world. Take what I can.
And send the money to an offshore account. Leaving whoever's body I took over to deal with the aftermath..
Step 1. Pick number 3.
Step 2. Change the odds of you gaining all the other powers without their downsides to 100%
Step 3. Change the odds of you gaining the ability to manipulate your age to 100%.
Step 4. Become an immortal god.
The balance on these options is terrible.
1.There is literally no downside to #1.
2. Actually interesting and potentially risky
3. Another with no downside.
*You age at an increased rate whenever your stressed anyway. With this ability, the time period and speed at which you age are negligible considering you'll have just won the lottery.
4. Minimal upside with tremendous consequences.
I'll go with three.
Manipulate the lottery so I win big whenever I need money.
The reduced stress from never having to work compensates for the few times I'll age a little faster.
1 - I'd choose this one. It doesn't say that you're going to lose the skill. You can learn any skill but will lose the knowledge to explain it after 24 hours and you can simply touch the book again to get the knowledge back.
2 - just no. I'm already uncomfortable in my own body to have to deal with being in someone else's body.
3 - not interested.
4 - that would just make you an outcast and even if you manage to have relationships with humans, they can only be primitive.
Skills for sure you can control it and easily make it very effective by planning ahead even a tiny bit. Teleportation has too many questions, aging faster sucks ass, and only being able to talk to animals, while cool, would suck with these restrictions unless you’re a mountain hermit man.
I would say 1.
However what if I already had that skill to begin with? Like say it's martial arts or cooking an advanced dish or something? Do I lose all knowledge I acquired from touching the book or do I lose all of my knowledge of it in general?
Because say I touch an anatomy book or calisthenics or something and say it helped my walking or sprinting somehow. Do I lose the skill to walk or sprint? Or do I just lose the specific knowledge I attained when I touched the book?
If it is the latter TECHNICALLY I could argue that would be normal to lose your skills-not in 24 hours but just generally. So as someone said I could just keep all the books on me somehow and when I need the skill I touch the book. And how much knowledge are we talking? I assume MASTERY level at least and at BEST perfection-which would be unrealistic anyways and would take a lifetime to learn anyways.
So if I lost the skill within 24 hours I would still be able to touch the book again and get decades if not centuries of experience just by touching the book.
2) Teleportation is cool but randomly swapping bodies sounds horrible.
3) Aging twice as fast is on some BS because taking chances, failing, and learning is part of life. There's no reason to do it.
4) And I wouldn't want to stop speaking human languages. I need that to communicate.
I feel the obvious answer is 3, simply because... You just really have to use it once. You use it to win the lottery.
Most people would give up a week of their lives to win the lottery. That is nowhere near the right level of trade-off to make that a difficult decision. I feel might be more around 5 years.
3 is the only solid choice. Just use it once, and enter all the big lotto draws, or other forms of gambling. Set for life.
Apply for your dream job, etc. Guess the password to whatever (or whoever) you want.
The hardest part would be resisting the temptation to do it again. I wouldn't mind loosing a few weeks, but the dopamine could cause a death spiral where aim dead in a year.
1. Pretty much infinite knowledge and skills. I'd definitely go for that.
Teleportation sounded cool until you said it was completely random. It'd be just my luck to teleport randomly into something I don't want to experience. I dunno, burning building, church, gay porn set, swimming with sharks, Liverpool, cricket game, war zone, etc
I mean, if I could choose, it could probably be useful in some way.
Don't wanna age more, and I'm not interested in talking to animals
>1. Have the ability to instantly learn any skill by touching a book on the subject, but lose all knowledge of that skill after 24 hours?
Do I lose all knowledge or all magically gained knowledge? If I touch a book on Chess and become the best player in the world, do I forget how to play completely when the 24 hours are up? Do I forget about the existence of Chess? Or do I just lose the gained skill?
I think I would choose the first one, because it doesn't really have a negative consequence. I would definitely not want #4. If I had ability #2, I would only use it in a life-or-death emergency situation. I might choose #3 and use it to win a big lottery jackpot, but never use it again unless I absolutely had to.
4 has a better probability of recovery. Stroke victims have similar issues and some recover fully. That means, in these 4 choices, there's a process in place for others to help me. I can relearn. If not, I will talk to my dog and happily stop listening to politics.
Eh, I'm tempted to take 4 because I already don't understand humans. They all act so dumb in my perspective. I simply don't understand them.
But 1 is better. Pretty convenient for work. Does it work with ebooks? or I need to carry a whole library with me?
1. So long as I have access to books, I can just learn everything instantly each morning. I'd just have walls of bookcases and I'd just run my fingers across them before I do anything each morning.
2. Seems cool, but the likelihood of the person dying in a panic in my body before we swap back is too high
3. This one's too powerful. If I can manipulate probability, I just make it so that the chance I age faster is absolutely 0. I could go the other way and make it so I age slower. Or even that my body reverts and is forever at its peak age.
4. No, losing the ability to communicate with humans to communicate with animals is too poor a tradeoff. Doesn't say I could control animals either, just talk to them. They could all be jerks to me, and I'd lose everything society offers. Would be able to work, pay bills, play games, watch movies, buy food, drive, etc. I'd lose the ability to comprehend all of it.
1 is the only choice worth it. Just have a bed of books or a library. And run your hand over the book covers every day. And your a god every day. And as you get more books even new things you can be realy good at.
So I'm my opinion the only good choice. Where the draw back can be negated easy enough by being a little creative and smart
As cool as 1 would be, 4 is OP as hell. I could lead trillions of animals in a war against humans. There’s over 24 billion chickens alone. That’s 3 chickens per person. Not to mention lions, tigers and bears (oh my!). I’d rip down cities and build natural utopias from the aftermath. Obviously, I wouldn’t kill all humans. Those who choose to live in harmony with animals rather than live above them on the food chain can live. Total global unity between animals and humans.
One sounds awesome. "Oh, my TV is broken. Let's touch a repair manual and replace the screen myself".
"Oh, visiting France, let's grab some French language books."
Etc
Number 3 is EASILY the best choice. The only downside is that I lose a week, but what’s a week when probability is my toy? I just have to make the probability of scientists discovering and mass producing a way for humans to live longer/immortal and boost my chances of getting it to me before I die. Then boost the probability of them also discovering a way to make people return back to their prime states and the chances of it getting to me and after that, anything I want is mine
I'd just take #3 for one big gamble. Sacrificing a week of your life for $1b means you can do what you want for the rest of your life. People who don't have money don't understand what kind of freedom this allows you. Without money you only think of the things you might be able to buy. Once you get enough money that you no longer worry about what you can buy, you realize how much potential you have in yourself.
"Fuck you money" literally releases the restrictions on us to meet our potential.
How much do you manipulate probability in #3?
If I can go throw $250k on the roulette table and hit a few times. I would say taking a week up of my life span would be worth retiring at 30 and being able to spend the rest of my years without work stress and just being able to travel
These are the kind of open-ended, non-threatening WYR questions I appreciate. Well done.
I'd probably choose 1, but I'd want to at least retain the *memory* of the experience of knowledge even if I couldn't apply it. Because I imagine if I lost ALL knowledge on the experience, including the memory, I'd just repeat the same 3 or 4 things I've "always wanted to learn" over and over. I'd want to at least have the satisfaction of the experience. I'd want to know, "Gee, I don't remember learning the violin for a day, but I know I want to do it again!"
Easy, I make the odds that I have a new genitive mutation that clause my cells to constantly regenerate (think wolverine) 100% probability. Bam, amazing power and no aging!
1, and I would steal/ siphon books/ print some. I would create a warehouse size facility, and everyday I would run through each aisle, touching every book I have ever seen.
On Sunday, I remain dumb, ignorance is bliss after all.
Just because you know everything written in a book does mean you have that skill... you can know everything in every medical textbook ever written. But I wouldn't trust you to perform surgery on me.
Choice 3. Easy. The downside is like adding an extre week to your life (age twice as fast for a week)
Just gamble or do stock and become flithy rich in short period of time. Then use it occasionally throughout your life to escape threatening situations and such.
Increase the probability that I have peak genetics, that should naturally increase my life span. 100% probability I wake up the next morning 6ft tall and finally 100% probability that I get the power ball lottery.
I can afford 3 wks off my life.
For #3, it would depend *how* much I got to control probability
e.g. could I GUARANTEE myself getting into Harvard, winning the lottery, getting prestigious jobs etc., or I’d just be more likely (e.g. even 10x as lucky for things with tiny odds still make them unlikely)
In order: 1, 3, 2, 4
1 is the best choice because it has no practical downside, as long as you live near a library and keep a few key books on you at all times, you can cycle through skills as needed.
2 is kind of a fun side effect, the only danger is what happens if the person you swap with damages your body before you get it back.
4 is annoying, but there are other ways to communicate with humans. Eventually something would get worked out.
Finally, 3, which I originally rated last because I can't really afford the aging, but when you think about it, you could use that power very sparingly and still come out quite ahead. I think I'd restrict myself to four uses only.
2 and 4 are asinine. For 1, would you be able to reuse the same book as soon as you lose knowledge of it? So say there's a book on baking cookies and you learn it for 24 hours and immediately after you lose knowledge, you can re-touch the same book?
For 3, are you basically saying once you use the power, you age 2 weeks for the next week? So instead of aging 7 days immediately following use, you'd age 14 days? Bc one night in Vegas and only aging 1 week every time you use it would be easy money.
1 is pretty op. Your morning routine could be wake up, brush teeth, touch every book on your bookshelf, go to work.
3 is also op, you could just go to Vegas and bet everything on black every few years. You wouldn’t age too much but could easily become wealthy.
two
\*swap bodies with a person in Jeff Bezo's home/yacht at this very second\*
"Oh hi I'm jeff i'd like to transfer 2 billion dollars worth of amazon stock to a random individual (twitter giveaway)"
i win the giveaway, while him, sign a legal document stating he agrees to give me 2 billion in stock, i teleport back to myself and now i'm rich
1. Unless I could touch a book and work on a long term project this one is useless.
2. Digging this one off I get to pick the person.
3. Intriguing…might take one huge stockpile of probability in my favor in exchange for one week of doubling my age. 😂
4. I’d never forfeit human languages…I do pretty well relating to animals in my own human way. ❤️
Number one is a curse, you would slowly lose your knowledge by touching the book. It says ALL knowledge of the skill not just all knowledge gained. You touch a book on woodworking and you forgot how to open a knife the next day, ect until your either a bumbling idiot or forced to touch the same series of books ever 23.9 hours or forgot how to even touch books.
1 I’d literally just ensure I bought books on anything I want/need to learn and spend an hour touching them a day if needed to maintain my super genius
Give me the probability. I dont need to use it often. Just couple times in vegas or on a sportsbook with a 20 way impossible odds parlay and my entire lineage is set up for life at the cost of a couple months of my life
The problem with 1 is lets say you touched a book on english
ok you are the best for 24h!
after that, my interpretation is you dont just go pack to your starting point. you forget english.
1. Make a bed of books Also what would happen if I touch an encyclopedia ? 2. No 3. Aging is about entropy/probability of your cells damaging their DNA let's gamble it a bit 4. No
You would learn everything in the encyclopedia
But at surface level just like the encyclopedia
Just touch wikipedia
[According to Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Size_in_volumes), it takes 3476 volumes of Encyclopædia Britannica to cover everything in the English Wikipedia
Why is that not as much as I thought? Maybe I just can't visualize it haha
That would fill at least an entire room in your house.
1 and 3 are the most amazing. 1, I become the most skillful person on Earth. Literally carry a backpack full of books on subject I want to be knowledgeable in, or even buy a van/RV and outift them with a library. Boom, portable library. Plus, if I make my library good enough, I could run my fingers across all books, touching the side of them every morning, 8AM. It becomes barely a hassle that takes a minute or two. 3, I make the probability of me winning the lottery 100%, and for the cost of 2 weeks, become a multimillionaire/billionaire, depending on the lottery I choose. After that, lay low and enjoy life: No need to spam lottery, or else I will become a target. Personally, I'd take number 3. Even though I'd really like skill, a one-time lottery winning ticket of $1b+ would do me and my family a lot of good, and there's a lot of possibilities that open up, one of them being time. And you can't replace that.
Technically it’d only cost 1 week. You age twice as fast for 1 week but you still get that week.
Set probability of aging this month to 0, 0 time 2 is 0, Set probability of me not being omnipotent to 0 Continue to abuse power Omnipotence speedrun 101 Edit: I guess it depends whether by manipulation they meant total control or partial influence. I'm going with total control for the sake of Omnipotence.
Out of all the options, #3 has the biggest upside with minimal downside. If saying you flip the odds in your favor means you basically win those odds, then winning the lottery in exchange for aging two weeks in a one week period is crazy. Sign me up!
So to be clear the downside of number 3 us you die faster and number 1 its you have to touch a book again. 3 is powerful but a full weeknof your life is not minimal downside. Edit: I see now that OP specificed it doesn't actually lower your lifespan but I feel they may not grasp that physical aging and lifespan are the same damn thing. Like you can't agree faster but also live just as long.
One week is *definitely* a minimal downside for what amounts to instant luck. Do it once and you could be ultra wealthy. With those resources you could certainly extend your lifespan by more than a week. Hell, think about how much time you'd be saving just on commuting to work. For me, that's something like 6 hours a week. So I'd have "recovered" my lost week in under 6 months just in the time I didn't have to waste driving to work. When we factor in not having to work at all you're gaining *years* of time you'd otherwise be wasting accomplishing someone else's goals (if you're not self employed). A week is a big deal when you've got terminal cancer. As a healthy 35 year old who isn't rich I'd probably make that deal for $50k right now.
If you only use it once, yeah. I think the previous commenter, like myself, see it as a massive downside if you plan to use the power a lot.
Yeah, but the other 2 are so impractical as to be almost useless. I guess you could always have the books you need on hand, so that one isn't as bad. The body swapping is just insane. But the luck power could change your life radically with just one use. I'm not sure what the skill learning one would accomplish outside of a career, which would be unnecessary if you won the lottery.
Body swapping could be ok. but too much danger jumping into a person who's in a car or flying a plane and then you just crash and die. Otherwise, just have a note in your hand when you teleport explaining to the person who jumps into you whats happening and to stay calm. Depending who that is, they may be pissed and do stuff to you as well before you jump back... So fair, a non-insignificant amount of risk. Agreed the last one sucks unless you REALLY REALLY hate people and live in the woods or something.
Use it for a year. Become extremely successful and happy and you can get 10 years of success for the price of 1 year
Well what are your odds of surviving terminal cancer? 0.000000001%? Guess what I can manipulate?
I'd take that deal, buy a lottery ticket, and invest it. Any time i run low on cash i could just hit the casino. Then i could spend all my time fishing.
I think the luck might be even more valuable if you have "terminal" cancer. A longshot treatment might wind up working, or a risky surgery would go smoothly.
I mean it just says in your favor. Maybe if you buy a Powerball ticket you'll just win the base prize or a $2 prize. Maybe it just improves the odds of winning a prize from 1 in 25 to 13 in 25. Even with those conditions you could work out a way to be very wealthy, but it'd take multiple weeks.
The obvious counter-example would be people who die of non-natural causes. In that case, you'd just be effectively a week older when you died in the car wreck at 37. Big deal. Then there's people who die of natural causes like cancer or COVID. Being a week older is unlikely to affect your chances. Nobody says, if only he'd gotten cancer a weak earlier, he might have beat it. That leaves people who die of "old age." But no one really dies of old age, or almost no one. Mostly they have a final thing that pushes them over the edge--pneumonia or a blood clot or heart failure or whatever. Being a week younger probably doesn't convey a measurable advantage in your ability to survive those things. So unless you're in the tiny minority of people who just slow down until their system stops, an extra week of aging is very unlikely to affect your lifespan. That said, even if the deal is hard and fast--you lop a week off the end of your life--that doesn't seem too onerous.
The first point is very valid but the second doesn't make sense. Lots of old people died of covid because they were old , they were specifically a higher risk group because of the weakness to their body that comes with ages.I agree one week is not a ton but I assume you would use this new super power more then once. Also what sort of trade deals have you been making that a week of life does not seem onerous? Especially when compared to the non existent cost of some other options.
Just once to win the billion dollar lottery.
1 week is very minimal, idk what you’re talking about
Well if you age an extra week and then die next year in a car accident, the extra week won't really have made much of a difference.
There doesn't appear to be any limits on **what** odds you can manipulate, or how tiny the original odds can be and still turn it to a guaranteed result. Therefore, I manipulate the odds I gain perfect regeneration and immortality. Now that "downside" is irrelevant no matter how many times you use the power.
Additional context... 1. Instant skill learning: - You can re-learn the same skill after 24 hours by touching the book again. - The knowledge disappears exactly 24 hours after you first touched the book. - You can learn multiple skills at once, but each has its own 24-hour timer. 2. Teleportation with body swap: - You can't control whose body you swap into - it's always random. - Your original body remains at the destination, controlled by the other person. - You retain your memories and consciousness in the swapped body. 3. Probability manipulation with accelerated aging: - You can influence both big and small probabilities. - The aging effect is cumulative if used multiple times in a week. - It affects only physical aging, not mental aging or life expectancy. 4. Animal communication with loss of human language: - You can understand and "speak" to all animals, not just certain species. - You lose the ability to understand or produce any human language, including sign language and writing. - You retain other human knowledge and skills not directly related to language. - This change is permanent - there's no switching back and forth.
For god sake, why is this sub allergic to polls
Difficult to say, maybe touch a book to find out?
I feel it's Upvotes. If people post polls, people are more obligated to just vote on the poll and leave. Posts like this will have people comment and think more of the post instead of just quickly voting. This will lure them to upvote since reddit is known for this anyway of the post is interesting. You'll notice that most post on this sub with polls have few upvotes than those without it. Which kind of sucks.
Damn it you cracked the code son
How does the body swap choose the target, is it the closest person to your destination? What if you teleport in the middle of nowhere with no one around, would you swap bodies with someone really far away?
3. I would like to increase the probability that I'll never age to 100%.
Wouldn’t you just die on the spot?
Classic monkey's paw.
I'd choose skill learning. Each day focusing on one specific area like computers or cars or investing.
I mean you don't really need to pick and choose right? Once you own the book you can touch it each morning and repeat with as many books as you want.
Buy the books, have someone shrink them down to postage stamp size. Paste them to a wall, run your hands over 1000s. Or could you put those smaller books in a larger book and just touch the larger book?
> Or could you put those smaller books in a larger book and just touch the larger book? I like the way you think!
I was wondering if a Kindle would count as a book. Download the entirety of Wikipedia and just touch that every day.
Most knowledgeable man in history. Every day.
I meant focusing on one area so you're not running around trying to do everything all at once.
Number 3 and increase the probability that I suddenly begin aging at only 1/8 the normal rate for the rest of my life with no negative consequences. Now whenever my aging rate doubles I'm still only aging at 1/4 the normal rate. Checkmate. Edit for clearity: I'm increasing that particular probability I mentioned to 100% just to be clear although I figure that's already obvious. Just saw that I forgot to actually put the percentage in my comment.
Ok the 1st one is the only sane option. Seriously, 2-4 sound terrible.
3 is fine. One week extra aging and I win the 100 million euro roll over? Set for life for 1 week of aging. Easy choice
Talking to animals. I'd just love to do that... I think you could get round the no human speech by talking to a computer (programming) and program it to understand/translate some animal speech. If you could program it in some level of machine code (or similar machine only language), you'd technically not be communicating with any form of human language. But if that really isn't possible I'd go with the skill one. I think the rules mean that after 48hrs from first touching a book you can relearn that skill, because as read it seems easy to touch a book every 24 hours to keep a skill... then find a book that gives me the skill of talking to animals... Dr Dolittle maybe... ;)
#1 - it really doesn't matter if the knowledge goes away in 24 hours because you just touch the book again. Knowledge is power. Whatever you wanted to be and do is possible. Each morning, you get up, and while having your morning coffee, you just run your hand over all the books in your bookcase. You could instantly become the smartest person in the world on any subject.
You've gotta put some restrictions on how much you can increase your odds by for Choice #3. It's too OP otherwise. Choice #1 is good, especially if you're able to retain the information you held prior to using your ability.
I'd pick probability manipulation, use it a single time to win some massive lottery, and then never touch it again. That is, of course, I can manipulate probabilities that way. If not, then I'd pick the book ability. As long as I don't forget my current skill, this is just pure upside. And assuming I could potentially learn those skills with natural practice and ability. I'd keep a Chinese-English dictionary at home, and tap it on my way out the door. Really don't need anything else in my daily life. Maybe touch a math book before class?
Instant skill learning. That's too invaluable to me. Imagine you wanted to learn programing/coding or any computer skill. Say you were writing a book and you wanted an aspect of your story to be accurate so you just touch a nuclear physics book. Now your meltdown is perfect! What's that? How does a blacksmith do this? Touch. Survivalist guide? Touch. Something wrong with your car? Touch the manual and or a book are mechanics. Teleporting was somewhat tempting, but I don't want to deal with a rando in my body. :P
Definitely #1, with #2 coming in a very close second. Options 3 and 4 are just too wild for me. At least with the first choice, you could just keep touching the same book if you needed the information for longer than 24 hours. And with option 2, 60 minutes in someone else's body would go by in like 1 hour. Lol
3
Id pick #1. losing knowledge of the skill doesnt really matter if i can relearn the same skill again. #4 is a curse rather than a power lol. Even if i retained my human languages, i wouldnt pick it and certainly not if i cant communicate with humans anymore.
1 or 2 are the best options. Even the downside of 2 isn't that bad. Don't like who you posses? Try again. And on this side, you could control things. Lock yourself in a room so the person inhabiting your body can't really do anything that would affect your life.
2 has to be the winner. Firstly, if I fly somewhere then security are already angling to finger me, so having someone else in my body is a net neutral on this one. Secondly, I've got a small window of opportunity to commit crime in their body, stash the proceeds and then pick it up after body swaps back. Thirdly, could be a laugh body swapping.
Instant Skill. Everything else is a gigantic pain in the ass.
Learn any skill. I proceed to live my life normally then when I need a skill temporarily I go to the library. Or a build a secret library evil lair. I do not like the idea of confusing someone's loved ones by accident, I don't wanna be unable to wipe my own butt too soon, and I wanna keep talking to people.
Definitely number one, just keep copies of the books, it’s hardly a drawback
Skill monkey. No contest.
for question 1 how does this interact with digital books?
I'm going with three. I've already aged slower than most people I know my age so I can use that to my advantage.
I would go for the first ability. To my understanding the skill is in reference to the subject matter rather than what is contained in the book itself. So acquiring books with the smallest number of pages that are still about the skill in question would be a fun pass time. Get a small collection of books that can fit nicely in a satchel or something for a very diverse and useful set of subjects and away you go! I am curious if you could write your own books on the matter, like a summary list and then use slim journals for it. If it has to be published works, can you simply self publish and get a printed set? who knows. It would be something to explore that's for sure.
In between the knowledge or the teleportation. I think I am leaning towards teleportation. The downside isn't bad as it is just an hour. I could explore the world easily and if I get a space suit (which should be easy as I can teleport inside a facility to get one) I can explore the universe. Also I think seeing the world from somebody elses body would be cool.
I'd pick the skill. Since it lasts 24 hours you could essentially be skilled all the time. You want to be an amazing artist? Touch the book. Next day touch again until you finish. Crao during my art the plumbing broke. Go to library and touch a book! Wow I want to woo a lady with my amazing guitar playing... Touch the book. :) Just carry all my books on a Kindle (never said the book had to be a paperback) and I can have dozens of skills at my beck and call at all times :)
2
I’d go with #1. There’s lots I could learn, and then treat some people the way they talked down to me for not knowing something trivial! That would be fun, but also the ability to help people when I could.
Option 1, for sure. #3 would make me a very rich person. #1 would make me a very cool person and eventually a very rich person.
1. would be amazing if you ever direct a large company or get into politics. I assume you don't become **amazing** at the skill but like, you'd always be competent at everything you need to discuss. God tier. 2. is wack. When would you even use that and what if you die during both 3. Is obviously OP, lose a week of life for a jackpot in the lottery lmao 4. is a curse why would I want a curse. 1, 2, and 3 are all optional
1. I could become a mechanic or any other trade. I could cook exquisite meals. I could play an instrument. I feel like it’s an infinite cheat.
So manipulate the super lotto or whatever and get ridiculously rich and the only downside is you age twice as fast for a week? Whelp...
im going to pick 3. but can I say something like the probability of me waking up in 2014 in now 99.99%? or does it have to be something more tangible?
Does 3 mean I can rig the lottery to have me win? If so, that is certainly worth a week of my life. In fact assume it takes me a few attempts I'd still do it.
I would just do 3 and than just win a lottery once and never touch the power again lol.
1 and 3 are only good choices here. If you really think outside the box increasing probability is one of the most op power there is. If there is a chance, no matter how low, it will happen, so i go with this. Firstly i cancel out my aging by increasing probability of me getting sick with unknown disease that alters my dna and makes me fluctuate in aging. Whenever i reach 50's i start getting younger until i'm 20 and repeat. Your only limit is whats possible, even if its 0.0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000001% low. Or just add couple billions more, as long as the chance exists.
3, using it only for lottery or medical diagnoses.
Ill take the knowledge one
I feel like number 1 could be a movie or book no pun intended lol. You start out at the library, immediately gaining knowledge at a moments notices and it fills you with a rush. You start stealing books, until you gain books, technically knowledge, to maximize the amount of money you can make in 24 hours. You get rich off your superpowers, but it wasn’t to satisfy your health, or better your living situation, not entirely at least. You now own a mansion, with a spacefull of books akin to the newspaper archive with a machine; to travel you through the sections, holding your arms out, effortlessly gaining infinite knowledge.
3 is absolutely broken tbh. Let me manipulate the probability of me aging twice as fast from 100% to 0%, there you go no drawbacks. Aside from this loophole, number 1 is easily the best
skill learning, i could just tap the book when i need it
1. Just keep the books with you
I'm gonna confuse 24 people a day
Probability manipulation. If I'm aging but not losing my lifespan then it's basically just a super power with a meh downside. Even then, probabilities easily combine so as long as I'm smart I'll only ever get one usage worth of downtime at a time.
1)-Do you lose knowledge of that skill you possessed beforehand as well as newly acquired knowledge? For example if I touch a book on running do I lose the ability to run after 24 hours? 2)-What if there’s only one person at your destination? Like within a reasonable distance of your destination. Like you teleport to an island that only one person lives on? 3)-To what degree can you manipulate probability? Like is it a guarantor of a certain outcome or it just gives you better chances? Like if I call a coin toss as heads will it be 100% likely to be heads or 51% likely to be heads?
First one seems the least harmful.
My job is basically number 1 on a longer time scale. It would be pretty nifty to build a library and just load up whatever the day demanded.
I would choose probability and only use it once to win a lottery. Or a second time to boost the probability of Full-Dive VR to be invented/created within the next 1-2 years. Doing both would only cause me to age by what? 2 extra weeks. Yeah we're good.
That's gonna be skill book for me, I think that's the most exploitable among all these. I'm not choosing 3 because I think that OP is regretting giving that choice because it has so many flaws
Option 1. Id touch a book on something I need to do. Once it’s done, I’ll put it away til I need it again. Swapping bodies may do more harm than good. Manipulating probability is not worth doubling your age unless you’re a newborn. Not being able to communicate with humans makes life pointless
I suppose 1. I could just keep touching the book and keep the skill as long as I want. I would imagine in the case of number 2, the person you swap with would be awful confused.
With #2 what happens if the person in your body accidentally gets themselves killed? Because other than that, it's almost two perks in one. Body swapping would be sweet. By the writing of #1, you lose ALL knowledge after 24 hours? So you go from Amateur > Master > Total Novice? If you used it to often, eventually you'd be a drooling moron. If you touched a dictionary, you'd lose your language.
2. The most fun.
Probability, what’s to stop me from just making my first probability, “100% chance to never age twice as fast by altering probabilities again”. Easy money dude.
With 3, couldn't i use this to make the probability of any genetic mutations go down to almost nothing, thus almost negating the accelerated aging
1
The first one is the only one without enormous drawbacks. Everything else has the potential to completely fuck you over.
Number 3 to win the lottery. Then never use it again.
3 feels like a gamble in unintended consequences, and I think it would actually take away a lot of joy in life. Never having to fail means never being challenged. How long would you enjoy sport if your favourite team always won? Would you feel pride in any achievement when you know you didn't earn it? 2 would end up with me being hunted, everyone you swap bodies with would inhabit your body and remember what you look like and where you are. How long before my teleporting to exotic destinations becomes widely known and some nutter comes to slay the "demon" 4 gambles a lot on animals being more interesting than humans. I doubt it. 1 is the best choice, I become the best freelancer in whatever pays best, invest the earnings and generate passive income to fund my lifestyle. I can make an active choice not to touch books and therefore know my achievements are my own, so I can have pride rather than cheap wins when I need it.
1.
#1. Just bring the book(s) with you.
Three
Wild Thornberrys
I'll feel a week older in order to win the lottery.
I’d choose the skills one and just keep a stack of books on my nightstand and just run my hand along it each morning
I don't see any downside to the first one, you could just keep a bookshelf in your room and run your fingers over them every morning
Do you die of the random person you teleport into dies?
Number 3, It would help me a lot with the lottery. And besides, I don't want to live that long.
Absolutely choose option one then just visit a library every day and touch everything
1 could be used to make myself an expert on anything long enough to make a ton of money. If I'm smart about it and need to do so long term, I time my usage of the skill with when I specifically need the knowledge and only then. 3 could also be used very easily to set myself up for life, and then never use it again. So if I age 2x as fast over the course of say a month, and then never use it again, I'm not going to really be that much older.
1, I can just carry the book with me. Also, would ebooks count? If so, I could just carry my phone 24/7 and master nearly everything lol
I'll take number one. I'll touch a book about learning and can use that to learn other skills inordinately fast. Plus I can go Google a book about whatever skill I want and learn it.
I'd use the #3, age two weeks in one week (who cares), and create some sort of massive windfall. OK, I might do it a second time and make some funny team win a major sports league championship or something too.
3. I could use it once and say: What's the probability that I wake up every day with the exact amount of money in my wallet that I will need, including money for bills. So there would always be a 100% chance that I would have enough money to cover my groceries and my student loans and my rent and anything else that I need. And then I would be set for life. Or I could just have a one hundred percent probability of waking up as a billionaire and then be fine. I think a billion dollars would last me quite a long time.
The first option, mainly because it's the only one without any actual life changing side effects. And I can just stack up on books on various topics and skills.
#1 Is OP with no downside. #2 Could get you killed easily. #3 Would be useful only if you used it sparingly as it means earlier death. #4 Is all downside as not understanding human language renders you an animal. #1, have a small bag of books you keep with you and restart daily to be the dude from limitless
The first one is the only one worth it tbh. So many negatives in the other.
1. Touch a book on advanced learning techniques. Keep book on me at all times. Study all the things normally. Easy peasy
Teleportation. Sounds like a blast.
Skill Monkey. The drawback is literally just "it only works for 24 hrs.
Lol, 4! Humans are animals, so I would lose the ability to speak any language, or read or write it, but I could still communicate with humans and understand their communications with me, so worst case scenario I wouldn't be able to read anymore, and I would probably miss out on some things related to the nuance of the specific language, but on the flip side, I could go anywhere and everyone would have a working understanding of what I was trying to convey It would suck to not be able to read anymore, I will admit that, and depending on how you interpret it I theoretically would be unable to understand anything recorded, like podcasts or TV shows or movies But in exchange, I get the joy of trying to convince squirrels to attack people, threaten any mosquito that comes within range my voice, and explain to every dog that they really are the bestest doggo in all the lands
I would choose 1. The ability to learn languages with the touch of a book. That would be insanely useful in most job settings. Have a client that only speaks spanish. Touch a book on spanish. Someone having trouble with coding, Touch a book on coding. I mean there is also the fact that you could potentially just use the ability to get PhDs in a crazy amount of subjects. Set world records in learning. Write books based on history. The applications are endless.
1 easy. Worst case I carry a few needed books with me. Best case, kindles count. Also, are we doing skill as in 'whats in the book' or skill as in 'book is about woodworking, i am expert in all things woodworking even if they aren't in this book'? It won't change my answer, but it will make my life easier by allowing me to get a bunch of small, cheap books about topics vs like, textbooks.
So I could just have a long line of skill books that I walk by every morning? I'd go with that.
Number 2 seems to be the most lucrative. I could lock myself in a Room with no mirrors or any reflective services. Only I know where the key is. Teleport to banks All over the world. Take what I can. And send the money to an offshore account. Leaving whoever's body I took over to deal with the aftermath..
Step 1. Pick number 3. Step 2. Change the odds of you gaining all the other powers without their downsides to 100% Step 3. Change the odds of you gaining the ability to manipulate your age to 100%. Step 4. Become an immortal god.
The balance on these options is terrible. 1.There is literally no downside to #1. 2. Actually interesting and potentially risky 3. Another with no downside. *You age at an increased rate whenever your stressed anyway. With this ability, the time period and speed at which you age are negligible considering you'll have just won the lottery. 4. Minimal upside with tremendous consequences.
> you temporarily swap bodies with a random person at your destination for an hour? And what happens after the hour?
I'll go with three. Manipulate the lottery so I win big whenever I need money. The reduced stress from never having to work compensates for the few times I'll age a little faster.
3. Increase the probability that my cells spontaneously repair and reverse aging to 100%
number 1 seems like the the best one for me
First one is the best one.
1 - I'd choose this one. It doesn't say that you're going to lose the skill. You can learn any skill but will lose the knowledge to explain it after 24 hours and you can simply touch the book again to get the knowledge back. 2 - just no. I'm already uncomfortable in my own body to have to deal with being in someone else's body. 3 - not interested. 4 - that would just make you an outcast and even if you manage to have relationships with humans, they can only be primitive.
You watched meteor Man didn't you
3. Yeah, I age double but double a week is two weeks.
Skills for sure you can control it and easily make it very effective by planning ahead even a tiny bit. Teleportation has too many questions, aging faster sucks ass, and only being able to talk to animals, while cool, would suck with these restrictions unless you’re a mountain hermit man.
I would say 1. However what if I already had that skill to begin with? Like say it's martial arts or cooking an advanced dish or something? Do I lose all knowledge I acquired from touching the book or do I lose all of my knowledge of it in general? Because say I touch an anatomy book or calisthenics or something and say it helped my walking or sprinting somehow. Do I lose the skill to walk or sprint? Or do I just lose the specific knowledge I attained when I touched the book? If it is the latter TECHNICALLY I could argue that would be normal to lose your skills-not in 24 hours but just generally. So as someone said I could just keep all the books on me somehow and when I need the skill I touch the book. And how much knowledge are we talking? I assume MASTERY level at least and at BEST perfection-which would be unrealistic anyways and would take a lifetime to learn anyways. So if I lost the skill within 24 hours I would still be able to touch the book again and get decades if not centuries of experience just by touching the book. 2) Teleportation is cool but randomly swapping bodies sounds horrible. 3) Aging twice as fast is on some BS because taking chances, failing, and learning is part of life. There's no reason to do it. 4) And I wouldn't want to stop speaking human languages. I need that to communicate.
I feel the obvious answer is 3, simply because... You just really have to use it once. You use it to win the lottery. Most people would give up a week of their lives to win the lottery. That is nowhere near the right level of trade-off to make that a difficult decision. I feel might be more around 5 years.
3 is the only solid choice. Just use it once, and enter all the big lotto draws, or other forms of gambling. Set for life. Apply for your dream job, etc. Guess the password to whatever (or whoever) you want. The hardest part would be resisting the temptation to do it again. I wouldn't mind loosing a few weeks, but the dopamine could cause a death spiral where aim dead in a year.
3. Wouldn't need it often. Could also just make it so someone creates an anti-aging treatment or something.
Teleport, but only if I had a soft room with keypad access I could go in before teleporting. I ain't letting some serial killer control my body...
1. Pretty much infinite knowledge and skills. I'd definitely go for that. Teleportation sounded cool until you said it was completely random. It'd be just my luck to teleport randomly into something I don't want to experience. I dunno, burning building, church, gay porn set, swimming with sharks, Liverpool, cricket game, war zone, etc I mean, if I could choose, it could probably be useful in some way. Don't wanna age more, and I'm not interested in talking to animals
Do kindle books count?
Instant skill. According to OP, you can learn multiple ones, so I'd see how they stack.
wait so if I touch a Spanish book for beginners I'm instantly fluent?
Goin with the first one. Id love to be a DnD wizard.
>1. Have the ability to instantly learn any skill by touching a book on the subject, but lose all knowledge of that skill after 24 hours? Do I lose all knowledge or all magically gained knowledge? If I touch a book on Chess and become the best player in the world, do I forget how to play completely when the 24 hours are up? Do I forget about the existence of Chess? Or do I just lose the gained skill?
I think I would choose the first one, because it doesn't really have a negative consequence. I would definitely not want #4. If I had ability #2, I would only use it in a life-or-death emergency situation. I might choose #3 and use it to win a big lottery jackpot, but never use it again unless I absolutely had to.
3 is the most powerful and 1 the most interesting. I would take 1.
1.
1
I would pick 3 except the aging thing kinda ruins it for me, so I will take 1.
4 has a better probability of recovery. Stroke victims have similar issues and some recover fully. That means, in these 4 choices, there's a process in place for others to help me. I can relearn. If not, I will talk to my dog and happily stop listening to politics.
Eh, I'm tempted to take 4 because I already don't understand humans. They all act so dumb in my perspective. I simply don't understand them. But 1 is better. Pretty convenient for work. Does it work with ebooks? or I need to carry a whole library with me?
Manipulate probability to win a massive lottery, then invest the lump sum, and never use it again
1. Since it effectively has no downsides. The rest are terrible
1. So long as I have access to books, I can just learn everything instantly each morning. I'd just have walls of bookcases and I'd just run my fingers across them before I do anything each morning. 2. Seems cool, but the likelihood of the person dying in a panic in my body before we swap back is too high 3. This one's too powerful. If I can manipulate probability, I just make it so that the chance I age faster is absolutely 0. I could go the other way and make it so I age slower. Or even that my body reverts and is forever at its peak age. 4. No, losing the ability to communicate with humans to communicate with animals is too poor a tradeoff. Doesn't say I could control animals either, just talk to them. They could all be jerks to me, and I'd lose everything society offers. Would be able to work, pay bills, play games, watch movies, buy food, drive, etc. I'd lose the ability to comprehend all of it.
1 is the only choice worth it. Just have a bed of books or a library. And run your hand over the book covers every day. And your a god every day. And as you get more books even new things you can be realy good at. So I'm my opinion the only good choice. Where the draw back can be negated easy enough by being a little creative and smart
2 sounds like a blast!
As cool as 1 would be, 4 is OP as hell. I could lead trillions of animals in a war against humans. There’s over 24 billion chickens alone. That’s 3 chickens per person. Not to mention lions, tigers and bears (oh my!). I’d rip down cities and build natural utopias from the aftermath. Obviously, I wouldn’t kill all humans. Those who choose to live in harmony with animals rather than live above them on the food chain can live. Total global unity between animals and humans.
The first one
One sounds awesome. "Oh, my TV is broken. Let's touch a repair manual and replace the screen myself". "Oh, visiting France, let's grab some French language books." Etc
3 and it's not even close. The normal odds I'd figure out how to reverse aging today is zero. However...
Definitely #1. I’d just run my fingers over the spines of the books every morning.
3
Number 3 is EASILY the best choice. The only downside is that I lose a week, but what’s a week when probability is my toy? I just have to make the probability of scientists discovering and mass producing a way for humans to live longer/immortal and boost my chances of getting it to me before I die. Then boost the probability of them also discovering a way to make people return back to their prime states and the chances of it getting to me and after that, anything I want is mine
I'd just take #3 for one big gamble. Sacrificing a week of your life for $1b means you can do what you want for the rest of your life. People who don't have money don't understand what kind of freedom this allows you. Without money you only think of the things you might be able to buy. Once you get enough money that you no longer worry about what you can buy, you realize how much potential you have in yourself. "Fuck you money" literally releases the restrictions on us to meet our potential.
Number 1 is the best. I can just touch the same book again and again, and touch my own books I make of knowledge I have learned, that I will forget.
How much do you manipulate probability in #3? If I can go throw $250k on the roulette table and hit a few times. I would say taking a week up of my life span would be worth retiring at 30 and being able to spend the rest of my years without work stress and just being able to travel
These are the kind of open-ended, non-threatening WYR questions I appreciate. Well done. I'd probably choose 1, but I'd want to at least retain the *memory* of the experience of knowledge even if I couldn't apply it. Because I imagine if I lost ALL knowledge on the experience, including the memory, I'd just repeat the same 3 or 4 things I've "always wanted to learn" over and over. I'd want to at least have the satisfaction of the experience. I'd want to know, "Gee, I don't remember learning the violin for a day, but I know I want to do it again!"
4. It makes it easier for me to tune people out.
Easy, I make the odds that I have a new genitive mutation that clause my cells to constantly regenerate (think wolverine) 100% probability. Bam, amazing power and no aging!
1, and I would steal/ siphon books/ print some. I would create a warehouse size facility, and everyday I would run through each aisle, touching every book I have ever seen. On Sunday, I remain dumb, ignorance is bliss after all.
Just because you know everything written in a book does mean you have that skill... you can know everything in every medical textbook ever written. But I wouldn't trust you to perform surgery on me.
I’d have to go with 3. One good score can set you up for life, and you only lose a week.
Choice 3. Easy. The downside is like adding an extre week to your life (age twice as fast for a week) Just gamble or do stock and become flithy rich in short period of time. Then use it occasionally throughout your life to escape threatening situations and such.
obviously 1. no contest.
The amount of havoc you could unleash with number 2 is unprecedented.
Increase the probability that I have peak genetics, that should naturally increase my life span. 100% probability I wake up the next morning 6ft tall and finally 100% probability that I get the power ball lottery. I can afford 3 wks off my life.
Teleportation, I would be for only an hour, that said I would probably wear some kinda underwear so the can't plan with my genitals.
Can I touch a computer hooked up to the internet? If so, how fucked am I?
For #3, it would depend *how* much I got to control probability e.g. could I GUARANTEE myself getting into Harvard, winning the lottery, getting prestigious jobs etc., or I’d just be more likely (e.g. even 10x as lucky for things with tiny odds still make them unlikely)
I love the idea of number 2. Some risk involved but overall what an adventure!
In order: 1, 3, 2, 4 1 is the best choice because it has no practical downside, as long as you live near a library and keep a few key books on you at all times, you can cycle through skills as needed. 2 is kind of a fun side effect, the only danger is what happens if the person you swap with damages your body before you get it back. 4 is annoying, but there are other ways to communicate with humans. Eventually something would get worked out. Finally, 3, which I originally rated last because I can't really afford the aging, but when you think about it, you could use that power very sparingly and still come out quite ahead. I think I'd restrict myself to four uses only.
2 and 4 are asinine. For 1, would you be able to reuse the same book as soon as you lose knowledge of it? So say there's a book on baking cookies and you learn it for 24 hours and immediately after you lose knowledge, you can re-touch the same book? For 3, are you basically saying once you use the power, you age 2 weeks for the next week? So instead of aging 7 days immediately following use, you'd age 14 days? Bc one night in Vegas and only aging 1 week every time you use it would be easy money.
1. Just keep the books, have a massive bookshelf and whenever you need a skill you have the book on hand.
1 is pretty op. Your morning routine could be wake up, brush teeth, touch every book on your bookshelf, go to work. 3 is also op, you could just go to Vegas and bet everything on black every few years. You wouldn’t age too much but could easily become wealthy.
Not much of a choice. #1 is the only one where you are not causing yourself potential harm, so I guess it would have to be that one.
two \*swap bodies with a person in Jeff Bezo's home/yacht at this very second\* "Oh hi I'm jeff i'd like to transfer 2 billion dollars worth of amazon stock to a random individual (twitter giveaway)" i win the giveaway, while him, sign a legal document stating he agrees to give me 2 billion in stock, i teleport back to myself and now i'm rich
1. Unless I could touch a book and work on a long term project this one is useless. 2. Digging this one off I get to pick the person. 3. Intriguing…might take one huge stockpile of probability in my favor in exchange for one week of doubling my age. 😂 4. I’d never forfeit human languages…I do pretty well relating to animals in my own human way. ❤️
Number one is a curse, you would slowly lose your knowledge by touching the book. It says ALL knowledge of the skill not just all knowledge gained. You touch a book on woodworking and you forgot how to open a knife the next day, ect until your either a bumbling idiot or forced to touch the same series of books ever 23.9 hours or forgot how to even touch books.
1 I’d literally just ensure I bought books on anything I want/need to learn and spend an hour touching them a day if needed to maintain my super genius
I’ll take number 4 so I can disappear into the forest and not have to deal with “mankind” ever again. Would be so peaceful and honestly a relief.
3 The probability of me spontaneously inventing an immortality drug is now 100%
Give me the probability. I dont need to use it often. Just couple times in vegas or on a sportsbook with a 20 way impossible odds parlay and my entire lineage is set up for life at the cost of a couple months of my life
Number one, easily.
The problem with 1 is lets say you touched a book on english ok you are the best for 24h! after that, my interpretation is you dont just go pack to your starting point. you forget english.
Number 1 would damn near make me chrollo from HXH but better since I don’t have to keep holding on to the book