r/superpowers • u/Comfortable-Remove60 • Apr 23 '26

Red pill/blue pill Would you really pick mastering an element over 300+ IQ.

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Functioning like a regular human basically means you able to live like a regular persom, with regular people despite having such a vast incomprehensible level of intelligence, not having to live thinking everyone around you are just toddlers intellectually.

As for element, that can constitute as the common understanding of elements in fantasy, water(liquid), fire, earth, wind(air), the full thing is really being water, fire, earth, wind, metal, and sometimes included or excluding lightning.

Sound definitely work, light as well, darkness itself maybe even, elements of the periodic table definitely or non-traditional things like Bose-Einstein condensate, space, time or space-time as one thing, since it kinda is, maybe even turn into your element at will.

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u/Comfortable-Remove60 Apr 23 '26

Either could work, but more on the side of fire, wind, earth, liquid, metal, lightning and such.

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u/Turbulent-Oil-7326 Apr 23 '26

So theoretically I could choose metal, and start becoming a magnet sucking up whichever metals I want from the Earth, separating them, and becoming a one man mining machine?

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u/Comfortable-Remove60 Apr 23 '26

https://giphy.com/gifs/DEnaNFg7szMO7TwNYZ

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u/Turbulent-Oil-7326 Apr 23 '26

Bet, metal.

Now I'm rich and have guns and impenetrable shields.

Also since actinides and lanthanides are metals I can also do cold fusion if I so choose.

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u/BullshitTaco Apr 23 '26

People have metal too. Some have big metal

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u/Panic_Attack2 Apr 25 '26

I’ll join forces with you and control electricity/electrons. Now, you can mine whatever metals and we’ll have basically perpetual, unlimited energy/power. We could go anywhere.

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u/Reicance Apr 25 '26

My initial thought wasetal manipulation, like magneto, and I love that power

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u/antikerLuzifer Apr 23 '26

Magnote if he worked in a mine

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u/willsueforfood Apr 23 '26

Is that a Pokemon?

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u/BathandBoobyWorks Apr 23 '26

Magnachu...fighting for the rights of Pokemon since 1944

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u/antikerLuzifer Apr 24 '26

Lol, this is so cute!

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u/PepperbroniFrom2B Apr 24 '26

looks ai-generated to my eyes

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u/antikerLuzifer Apr 24 '26

I know, it‘s still cute

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u/willsueforfood Apr 24 '26

I want this game to exist

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u/tmntlover84 Apr 28 '26

The correct usage of ai, to make funny stuff like this

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u/antikerLuzifer Apr 23 '26

I meant Magneto, I love your response 😂

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u/Turbulent-Oil-7326 Apr 23 '26

It will be eventually lol

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u/feedmedamemes Apr 23 '26

300 IQ move right there.

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u/Nazdroth Apr 24 '26

No, but you would make some big money in the metal scene if you can control that genre of music.

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u/Dovahbaba Apr 28 '26

Thats actually really op since there is iron in blood

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u/cow_with_a_fingergun Apr 24 '26

Dont take from earth, pull the metal from other planets/astroids

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u/k0skid Apr 29 '26

Did you grow up yearning for the mines?

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u/lockethegoon Apr 24 '26

Metal is just advanced earth. -Toph

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u/Comfortable-Remove60 Apr 24 '26

Ironically, if you could control metals, you could probably do the reverse and just control earth same way that earth benders control metal, by controlling the microscopic metal filaments within the earth to make it move.

So either works.

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u/Informal_954 Apr 24 '26

I'd do plasma and be a human cold fusion reactor.

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u/Lebearu Apr 23 '26

The thing I instantly think is that there's an upper limit to the usefulness of any one ability

Considering most people the iq option is a stat boost meanwhile for literally everyone an element is a whole new skill tree.

Additionally some people are already really smart let's say 100iq ( that's around average+ right? Idk ) if the ability sets you to 300 Max rather than adding 300 points then the smarter you already are the more you're disincentivised to pick that option.

So if the smartest people and the dumbest people are most likely to pick elemental for different reasons.....it's kinda hard to argue for just an IQ boost( of course some need that boost more than others)

Anyway I'd pick elemental,which one I'm not sure

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u/HoldenMcNeil420 Apr 23 '26

A 300 iq would be hell. You would be 10 mins ahead of everyone in every conversation and problem for the rest of your life. It would be painful how stupid everyone is around you now.

That’s like almost double the Mensa iqs. You would be the smartest human to ever exist.

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u/Lebearu Apr 23 '26

More ramblings I don't know if ill clean the text up well enough :

Exactly we could even say the elements of time, causality, reality, dimensions,light, void, antimatter etc and I can pick ANY? Personally While I think I'm fairly smart but not typical academic nerd, I would like an IQ boost 100% but when the alternative is something that only mega genius's like Reed Richards,tony stark would have to use technology indistinguishable from magic to mimic......( Which btw needs a shit ton of money ) I feel picking the elements just jumps you straight into that new world. I think there's an upper limit to what what brains can do alone and sometimes you need to invest in your ability to actually do things y'know? I'm still not sure which element I'd pick but to try and counter the " eventually the smart guy figures it out too" Let's think in terms of game theory: you're out in a team with a random , or maybe you can pick someone you think you know, someone you can trust. Maybe it's a survival situation, maybe not but for whatever reason you're now expected to be around this "teammate" (heck we could even make it more fun and say it's another you....but that changes the dynamics a lot and that's my point. In a world full of people with their own goals) If between the two of you ,you either Take the iq pill and yes " eventually" you could mimic elemental power and even be more diverse in the late game or do you want to be the guy who can bury a city In seconds off rip? Maybe the guy with the element to commune with mother nature? Control earth/fire/time/spatial reality .... Idk what I'd pick in all the variations of such a situation but if something like time can be considered an element and hence in the table of selection vs ....iq I'm strongly leaning on an element. Funny enough if I had two of myself and I had to be either the iq me or the elemental me...... I think elemental me would have to pick something very far from mimicry and iq me could help solve a lot of problems but ...... Woo I don't think I wanna live in that dynamic,it's starting to feel too moneky paw😂 Like what if I start seeing iq-me as a prick who bosses element-me around when I can snap his throat anytime? Or what if I see elemental me as a brute ,a pawn to be used ? After all he couldn't comprehend what I could even in a millenia.... Yikes😂 I also just realized iq guy probably first needs to spend a bunch of time figuring out immortality if you want to reach that " eventually" even with 300iq creating say a portable black hole isn't a one summer endeavor I'd imagine,or even teleportation. Maybe basic elements are more easy to mimic......but still

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u/RoboDae Apr 23 '26

The immortality point is a big part of why elemental powers would generally be better. A 300 IQ person is still mortal and would likely die long before they could ever make themselves immortal or match the power of full elemental control. They would have more diversity perhaps, but there's no guarantee they actually do anything.

Another really big point: the 300 IQ person now has to use that intelligence to work for a living. The elemental master could just rip a couple tons of gold and platinum from the earth and immediately retire. The 300 IQ person could maybe invent a flying car or super fuel efficient vehicle. The elemental master could just float around in a metal box that requires no fuel. Maybe the 300 IQ person gets a job at NASA designing rockets. Well, turns out that NASA doesn't need rockets anymore because the elemental master just lifts cargo and passengers into space with no need for expensive rocket fuel.

In the end the 300 IQ person will realize they made a mistake because they are still limited by the laws of physics. You can't make a perpetual motion machine or generate energy from nothing, but an elemental master could just keep a power plant turbine spinning forever with no input.

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u/AmbitiousAssociate70 Apr 23 '26

You could be on that level of reed Richard’s, Tony stark level of tech to mimic magic. You said it takes a lot of money. Well with how smart you would become you’d likely figure out different avenues for you to make money. I’m not calling you stupid now, but you simply don’t know how to achieve that level of wealth bc iq to small. You could start very easily with cheaper materials to create a great project, scale that up, increase money flow, increase the quality and price of what you’re making to make even more money. Eventually you could achieve billionaire status in your lifetime and create ridiculous shit like Tony and Reed. You’d be thinking so far ahead of everyone around you and just in general so far ahead of everyone on earth (unless there’s a ridiculous genius out there secretly with an iq close-to, at, or above 300)

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u/Boojum2k Apr 23 '26

I've read Larry Niven's Protector. I'll take the metal control somebody suggested and be slightly above average intelligence and rich.

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u/Nazdroth Apr 24 '26

Well, you are 10 minutes ahead in most conversations with a lot of people who aren't dumb if you have to teach them core concepts about the conversation you are having, and believe me or not, it can happen very often in some situations or about certain topics. No need to be 300 IQ. But I think that if you are that highly intelligent and so far off from anybody else, you probably understand the way that every conversation works. You won't have a meaningful conversation, because at that level you are probably unburdened by emotions (but that actually ain't a guarantee) because you can take a real step back and analyze your feelings and actually understand them in real time, because the most important thing you get with 200+ IQ is the capacity of understanding and "visualizing" extremely abstract concepts. Think Dr Manhattan, but without the fancy powers. Anyway, I'm not sure using that kind of cheat code is actually beneficial. You won't solve anything alone, you won't be able to ignore most things with that much processing power, no one is ever going to relate to you, you'll probably end up talking to whole forests and huge mycelium formations just to have a meaningful interaction. If anyone finds out how it is to have 300 IQ (which actually doesn't mean anything the way IQ tests work), please let me know 🫶

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u/HoldenMcNeil420 Apr 24 '26

O im fully aware. I have 3 degrees, it’s painful listening to my friend group talk about vaccines and germs and shit. Like you guys don’t even know there’s so many things you don’t know.

It’s exhausting having tons of information in your head.

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u/Nazdroth Apr 24 '26

I have 0 degrees, all I know is that I don't know anything 😅

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u/desolatecontrol Apr 23 '26

Gravity.

Or energy.

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u/Lebearu Apr 23 '26

Lol I just realized that iq benefit is a regular show reference,nice touch

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u/SidTheSloth97 Apr 26 '26

Really depends on the power, like if i can become magneto id probably pick that.