Would you rather...?

Yesterday I asked twenty of my co-workers a series of hypothetical questions. Everyone was eager to answer these questions, and no one really deliberated very long over which answer to choose. I presented these questions in a “column A or column B” format, bringing whatever choice they made from the previous question into the next one (as indicated below with the dotted lines). Without further ado, I asked:

Which ability would you rather have?

The ability to become invisible, or the ability to fly?

__________ or the ability to turn back the clock?

__________ or the ability to teleport yourself anywhere?

__________ or the ability to read other people’s thoughts?

And finally:

__________ or the ability to control other people’s minds?

Let me share some of their answers with you.

My favorite answers were the rarest ones. Both Robert and Malakai wanted to be able to teleport anywhere. Malakai said:  “According to metaphysics, if you can teleport, you can probably do all of those
other things already.” Robert thought it would be convenient l to be able to pop around wherever he wanted.

Wes and Jason both said that turning back the clock would be their choice. Wes said he would keep track of what stocks to invest in, go into the past, and then put all of his money into the security he wanted – smart guy! Jason said that it would be noble to go back in time and try to prevent wars and diseases from taking place.

Perhaps my favorite answer was from Jose. He just wanted to be invisible. Not much of an explanation, but then, I don’t know Jose that well and he appears to be a pretty humble guy.

No one chose to read minds, but then again, I think that everyone who wanted to read minds jumped to controlling minds as the better of the two options.

Here’s what astounded me, however: the majority of interviewees wanted either to fly or to manipulate others.

Six people out of twenty wanted to be able to fly. They gave myriad answers as to why, the most common of which was, “because it would be cool.” Flavio had a great answer. He said he wouldn’t quit his job as manager, he would just float above everyone and shout, “Don’t forget to prebus that table!” When I asked him why he didn’t want to control minds, he said, “I already know how to do that, papa!” Funny, but perhaps a little too close to home.

The other nine people desired to be able to manipulate people. When I asked why, most people were a little guarded with the specifics, which leads me to believe that perhaps their motives would be sexual or sadistic. Daniel wanted to force people to fight in a real-life version of Street Fighter II, where he could manipulate them as though he were holding a video game controller. Others just wanted people to do their bidding: have random people chauffeur them places, tell them secrets, get free plane tickets, take off their clothes, hit themselves, etc. It was a little shocking to me that roughly half of the people I asked wanted the sort of power that would almost invariably corrupt them.

The most interesting comparison came from these last two groups. Everyone who chose to fly showed a bit of innocence in their demeanor, as though they were children again. On the other hand, regarding those who chose to control minds, each answerer had an impish, almost diabolical look in their eye. The bifurcation between these two groups was amazing to look upon, and it said a great deal about the choices people make (in my opinion, at least).

What did I choose, you may be asking? Why, to teleport, of course! I should like to teleport into the vaults Fort Knox and take some gold bars, zip over to Dubai to spend/exchange them, pop in to London for a late afternoon tea, enjoy the night-life of Moscow, and then wake up in Paris. How could I choose anything else?

Which ability would you choose?

Draw your own conclusions.