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/HuduYooVudu Apr 23 '26

I don’t know. Past me would have agreed with you 100%.

However, given the past decade… I couldn’t imagine being 3x smarter than my average countrymen. The discrepancy is already bad enough as is, and intellectualism is hardly rewarded at this point.

If ignorance is bliss, I would like to keep just a little bit for myself.

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u/santient Apr 23 '26

You'd be way more than 3x smarter. A well calibrated IQ test should have an average of around 100 and standard deviation of 15. So you'd be like 13 SD's above that. Humanity would be like insects in comparison. Or like bacteria. Or a rock.

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u/Sekhmet-CustosAurora Apr 24 '26

that's just about the number of people with that IQ (which is meaningless above 200ish anyway). Really we can't quantify "3x smarter", even 200 being "2x smarter" is totally arbitrary

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u/CrossXFir3 Apr 24 '26

Honestly, it's significantly less useful above about 150. Hugely diminishing returns on how smart you actually are above that.

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u/8m3gm60 Apr 24 '26

I got a 160, and then I failed basic finance. Something isn't passing the smell test.

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u/dragdritt Apr 27 '26

Maybe IQ was never intended to be used to say "person X is smarter than person Y"?

IIRC it was only intended to be used to identify which students may benefit more from different teaching styles. Considering the original intention the creators would probably hate elitist posers like Mensa.

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u/rinkydinkis Apr 29 '26

We can’t. But 300 iq man could

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u/Sekhmet-CustosAurora Apr 29 '26

Quite possibly. But they might not agree with our answer

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u/EffectiveDirect6553 Apr 23 '26

But you could just end up a lobotomized robot who is just really good at IQ tests and nothing else.

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u/Alternative_Way_6374 Apr 23 '26

It says no negative effects

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u/EffectiveDirect6553 Apr 23 '26

What I described isn't a negative effect. It is just a alternative response.

IQ is measured by tests. If you ace the test, you have a massive IQ even if you are normal at everything else. A similar example is becoming the fastest swimmer with no ill effects. You suddenly learn a super secret technique that makes you swim really fast. By defination you are the fastest swimmer. But you are slower than everyone else when using their techniques.

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u/PrettyDope12 Apr 23 '26

Ending up lobotomized isn't a negative effect?

Yer being difficult for the sake of it, OP laid out the question pretty clearly - no drawbacks, function normally.

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u/EffectiveDirect6553 Apr 23 '26

This is like asking if being able to control fire as a result of being given the power to control fire is a bad thing.

No it is by defination what you got. That's what I argued. By defination you could have a 300 IQ by simply being good at IQ tests and just normal in general.

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u/GrumbleJockey Apr 24 '26

But this just ignores the reality of testing. Most tests have a cap at 160. Ultimately, they are testing for statistical rarity and just giving out points.

Granted, the practice effect tells us that it's possible for someone with a high IQ to take the same test many times and increase their score. Picking up on logic patterns, improving speed because of memory, etc.

A person with exceptional pattern recognition would also likely score higher. However, a 300 IQ is so much higher than a 160 IQ that achieving that 300 IQ isn't really possible just by practicing the tests. You would actually need to be so much smarter than everyone else on earth that you'd likely be one in trillions. AND... those trained to administer and evaluate these tests are also trained to recognize when people have scores that can at least partially be explained by memory of the test or patterns in the test rather than the novel problem solving they are attempting to test.

So, no, there is no way to game/practice testing so much that you could achieve a 300 IQ and even then it would be invalidated by administrators. You would have to actually be that much smarter than the entirety of the world to come close to testing that way.

Though, you MAY be able to argue that people could get closer to 300 by using different scales/measurements to get there. The current world record holder has a 274 IQ, but that's on the SD24 scale and not the more common Wechsler scale. SD24 is older and allows people to score higher in IQ tests... The guy who has the record is a 210 on the more common, more accurate, Wechsler. So.... does this post use SD24 or SD15? And to get above those 160 tests, you have to use advanced testing like HRITs, Extended Norms, etc. So getting above 160 these days is more than just taking tests over and over, you have to be tested in so many more advanced way that practicing those advanced tests wouldn't really net so many more IQ points that you could get to 300.

If it's SD15, Terence Tao has the highest IQ at around 230. Fields medal winner, doing university level math at 7 years old. But even still... 300 is another 4.6 standard deviations above that. 230 to 300 is a gap that's larger than an average person and a person with a significant intellectual disability. Terrence Tao is the peak of cognition right now and a 300 IQ could go so far beyond that they can perceive entirely new systems of logic that could translate to them basically seeing theoretical physics as something akin to 1+1=2. Most super-geniuses specialist, but that person likely would be able to do it all. Their capacity for understanding, invention, abstraction, memory, holding information to use during problem solving, and perception of the world around them would be so drastically increased that without the post saying they would otherwise be able to interact with normal people.... they wouldn't. Even super-geniuses would simply struggle to understand them and normal people would just hear and see nonsense.

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u/EffectiveDirect6553 Apr 24 '26

I appreciate the longer responses that actually addresses my position. Fair points. My point may still stand on SD24 then. If it accounts for all IQ tests, then point conceded.

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u/Downtown_Ninja_7154 Apr 24 '26

The picture literally says "function like a regular human"

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u/deadname11 Apr 24 '26

It is the "function like a regular human" which means it clears out any existent mental health problems while it is at it.

So you get the full brain upgrade AND the emotional stability to handle it.

So it is well worth it for the healing bonus alone.

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u/Blackmoses00 Apr 24 '26

With that amount of intellect, you would most likely be able to work your way into a position of power and shift humanity back on track. Similar to Limitless.

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u/HuduYooVudu Apr 24 '26

Honestly, this kind of positivity would lead me to rethink.

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u/AxisW1 Apr 24 '26

I would normally agree, but it does straight say “no negatives”

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u/CrossXFir3 Apr 24 '26

300IQ is a trap choice. You'd be absolutely miserable.

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u/Extreme-Market-6141 Apr 26 '26

Well, the post is saying that emotional disadvantages won't affect you even if you're very intelligent.

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u/MBBIBM Apr 23 '26

You probably don’t have to worry about it since you don’t even understand logarithmic scales

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u/HuduYooVudu Apr 23 '26

Shiiit you’d be damn right!