At the Heels of Gods

I was recently watching many superhero shows like “The Boys” and “Invincible” and boy…the are crazy shows! These shows truly show the brutality of what it means to be a hero. Not a benevolent saviour, but a man cursed to live forever with his powers.

Let me start with a simple question….

What happens when you get everything you ever wanted?

Well, it is not so simple, is it? The sheer magnitude of personal goals and dreams on this planet is more than enough to saturate one’s mind. One might want to live a quiet life on the Himalayas, isolated from the rest of the world, whereas another person might be thinking of living dangerously on Proxima b ( a planet of Alpha Centauri AB, our nearest star), to live life at the edge and push human boundaries.

Well, to satisfy most goals of the world, what if, I ( the thunderous lord! xD) gave you complete power that made you a “super” human. You would have great strength ( rationally, I would say….good enough to lift the weight of Mt. Everest) , super speed ( maybe up to the speed of electricity at the most, which is almost the speed of light), super brains ( maybe not too much, but maybe an IQ of 240 on human scale) and super attractiveness. And immortality.

Yeah that….without that last part, life would be too short yeah😂?

Now I didn’t go into great technical detail and nuances of each of these powers, so here I’m assuming that one day you wake up and have these powers. Now, having bestowed upon you the gift of eternal domination over the rest of your species, I walk away....

After this, what would you do? Now you have to throw out your “get old and live till age of 100” plan and devise a new one…. are you competent enough to do that? Imagine being cleverer than most of your species, stronger than anyone you can ever meet. Won’t your life get a little….boring? Well, sure.... this is what current culture has taught us to think of. Look at Superman, look at Goku ( from DBZ), look at any powerful superhero! 

But I don’t think most people will understand the consequences of what this "gift" brings. First of all, …you are immortal! Did you realize the magnitude of that….once you live long enough, everything gets boring… at least for humans? I mean EVERYTHING. Money, sex, power, knowledge….everything crumbles. “Time is a tide that can weather down a mountain.....but try to hold it, it slips like water.....”

Look at our own mythologies. Take for example Ashwatthama and Cain. Both men are ‘condemned’ to walk the earth. We like the ‘thought’ of living forever, but never the ‘act’ itself. Such fickle mindedness is a nature of humans.

Secondly, you would be lonely. Yes, you might have good friends, and lovers and you might build  a family over time. But everyone is not you. No one can reach up to your levels of intellect or your strength. As there is a famous clichéd quote ‘ It is always lonely at the top’.

As we can see from the above mentioned shows, Homelander or Omni Man are exactly the kind of heroes who humans would make. All humans are not as morally superior. Time corrupts everyone. And also....absolute power corrupts absolutely.

There are many other aspects of being super human. But I'm going to tell what I would do if I were to have this power.

I would become the '10,000 books man'. That would be my goal for a 1000 years for my existence. I could see, be, think do anything I ever wanted to do. Conduct scientific experiments hitherto undreamt of. Meaningless as my existence would be.....I would build meaning for myself and write 10,000 books.

Ranging from science to philosophy to history. I would have it all. I know, meaning will still elude me, but at least I did something "worthwhile" in the sense of humans.

Of course, using my physical strength and omni potency to help the world would also be my priority. But I dunno how long it might last. I definitely won't be a superhero as depicted in our current culture😂.

Anyway, that was it for this rant. Do mention in the comments what you would do if you were immortal. And also ….if you are a nerd like me, check out those shows. They absolutely rock!