Ask Lemmy

Teleportation every time. It's just too useful. Invisibility is really only useful for mischief and security. And both can also be done with teleportation.

I'm struggling to think of any situation in which invisibility would benefit me personally. Teleportation would save me over an hour a day of driving to/from work alone, plus hours at work itself, fuel & vehicle maintenance costs just about disappear, world travel becomes something possible to do any time of any day on a whim, you could do anything.

Teleportation. There's the obvious advantges like no commute. The biggest, however, is that I would just feel so much safer (as a woman). Dodgy situation? Just teleport away.

I seem to be alone in that I see teleportation as a great way to travel all the time without ever having to set foot on a plane again. The time and money saved would allow me to visit with distant friends on the regular.

Most of the things you want to do with invisibility you can do with teleportation, but likely better. The only exception being hiding in the lockerroom of your preferred gender but bruh, c'mon this isn't a 80's movie. Also maybe faking a haunting since the invisibility lets you make stuff "float".

Wanna be rich or just have loot? Teleport somewhere you know has it. Grab and go.

Wanna kill somebody? Teleport to their bedroom while they sleep and shoot them. Or for the less messy alternative, teleport in, grab them, teleport a hundred feet above Point Nemo, drop 'em, and dip.

Wanna live a life unbothered by anyone? Teleport to the middle of nowhere and slowly bring in supplies. Pop out and back in whenever you feel like it.

Yeah, teleportation solves way more real life problems than invisibility does.

Invisibility in the real world, for a civilian, is really only good for pranks and crime. Which isn't exactly a bad thing, but teleportation can do all of that and more.

Teleportation by a long shot, though I would be afraid it would make me fat and unhealthy (never walking just teleporting everywhere).

If you are saying I can hold another person and teleport us both? Abso-damn-lutely teleportation, can you imagine the savings on travel?

Teleportation is the queen of all powers. Invisibility can be basically mimicked with quick teleportation work if needed.

Although my legs would probably atrophy from lack of use, lol. Why walk to the kitchen when I could blink there and get a sandwich and blink back in no time at all?

Teleportation would be so much useful. I spend 80% of my time alone. People already can't see me.

Teleportation solves the world energy crisis, invisibility does not.

Does the teleportation come with a bampf noise or do I have to carry my own bluetooth speaker and a button? This is make or break for me.

Not even a question for me, absolutely teleportation.

I wouldn't need to own a car, never need to pay for plane tickets or any sort of transportation.

I can go anywhere at any time. Live anywhere and then just blink where I want/need to be.

Invisibility doesn't provide nearly the same practical applications. The only useful thing I can think of for invisibility would be to hide inside a bank vault and steal money, but that could technically be achieved via teleportation too.

Teleport. I could be running late to something important but in the blink of an eye be there right on time. Plus, absolutely no need for any form of transport when you can just teleport.

Do I keep my velocity relative to earth if I teleport? Because if would really suck if I teleported from one side of the equator to the other one and am suddenly moving at 3300 km/h

Teleportation. Doesn't matter if you can see me when I can just pop in and out in an instant.

Teleportation, hands down.

Teleportation would be neat assuming you can just totally disregard basic laws of physics like conservation of momentum - otherwise you end up either as a red smear somewhere, or accidentally turn yourself into a kinetic energy weapon

My first instinct would have been to pick invisibility - I'm a total introvert and I do NOT enjoy having to deal with people, so knowing that noone sees me anyway sounds tempting.

... but then again, teleportation sounds even more tempting for the same reason. Need groceries? Teleport into a store after hours, grab some stuff, teleport back and enjoy the rest of the day undisturbed (and with a still full wallet) without having interacted with anyone. Need to run an errand, like sending a letter? Who needs the post office anyway when I can just teleport wherever the letter was supposed to go and stuff it into the recipient's mailbox, then quickly teleport back...? I could sell the car since I would never need it again - no more traffic jams either. I would be on time for every appointment without having to rush. And there are a million smaller things too, like never having to worry about locking yourself out of the house.

Definitely teleportation for me.

As others have said, invisibility versus teleportation is way too lopsided in favor of teleportation. Even if we're talking perfect 'you cannot be detected unless you bump into something or otherwise reveal your own presence' invisibility, it's still not good enough to compete with teleportation. Especially with S-tier teleportation like described there.

You'd have to really beef up the invisibility side to make it more fair. Maybe instead of just invisibility, go full incorporeal, with the ability to have gravity affect you (or not affect you) however you want, relative to whatever reference frame you want (be very careful with this) and the ability to make any part of yourself incorporeal or corporeal without it being all of you. Even then, I'd have a bit of a hard time picking this over teleporting.

Or go with the Invisible Woman's powerset, that'd be a pretty solid other option versus that teleportation. At that point I would actually have a hard time choosing, cause that is some nice teleportation, but Sue Storm's powers are pretty high tier as well.

If I could somehow be assured that the world wouldn’t immediately turn in me when they discovered my super power and try to capture me for its own ends, teleportation. If not…definitely invisibility. Much easier to hide the power, not just myself.

Invisibility. Ever been the only person in a friend group who owns a truck?

"Oh, I guess the family and I will need to book some expensive flight tickets... unless PowerGloveSoBad wants to just give us a ride"

"Oh, I guess my administration will need to invest billions in foreign aid... unless PowerGloveSoBad wants to just carry all the boxes"

Teleportation, because the only upside to invisibility is subterfuge. Not that I am some saint who denies ever wanting that, it just seems like teleportation would be just as good at any use case invisibility has. It would also have lots of very life changing above board benefits too.

Invisibility.

I don't know why but I love the feeling of being able to watch people without them knowing about my presence. I spend a lot of time in nature and intentionally dress to blend in and I love that often when I hear/see people near me I can just stand there in plain sight and they still often don't notice me.

awesome for pranks "and stuff"

Myeah 😏

Teleportation. Invisibility is a nice gimmick (until you accidentally leave it on and get hit by a car, that is).

Teleportation isn't just incredibly convenient, depending on the distances you can travel in one hop it'd also save you a lot of time (skip your commute, instantly travel to a nice vacation destination and back), and it'd be a money maker (fastest courier in the world).

Even if it was just line of sight, being able to easily reach places that are normally hard to reach or require extensive detours would be helpful. Even just crossing a busy street without having to wait for the traffic light would be a nice thing.

Invisibility is cool and all, but teleportation is simply way better

With the stipulations given here (no limits on where, and ability to know if it's safe) you could teleport to what astronomers speculate are earth-like planets. Grab some samples, head home, repeat. Maybe win the Nobel Prize for discovering extraterrestrial life.

Given that, it feels a bit one sided against the other option that would let you perv a locker room or get trapped in a bank vault when you trip a non-visual sensor.

Teleportation, especially if you can take anyone with you. I'll be traveling the world without passport and go back home anytime I want.

Teleportation. I would pick it for the friends and family visits alone but the travel and science stuff would be amazing.

Even for those who inevitably want to use their power to commit crimes, teleportation is still more useful than invisibility.

I'm already invisible.

Teleportation 100%. I could be anywhere on Earth, at any time. Invisibility is super cool but its most practical applications are kinda weird tbh. Being there without people knowing is basically always a privacy violation.

Even better, portals.

All the benefits of teleportation, plus you could slap a portal to the sun in front of people you don't like.

Teleport. Could make so much money. Could advance science, depending on range.

Ha, I'm already invisible for all non nefarious purposes, I choose teleportation.

Teleportation even if it was line of sight based like in the Dishonored games I think it still wins.

I think this depends on what invisible means. Does it mean no detectable signature - IR/thermal, scent, sound, etc.? Or just not on the visible light spectrum for humans? If not detectable at all, I think it would hold greater value for information gathering and have a lot of useful applications in hostage and other criminal situations, as well as state security through a very useful means of tradecraft. All that's out the door if a couple of rottweilers can sniff me out though.

It's a bit of a monkey's paw question as having either power puts a huge burden of secrecy as well as the threat of danger on yourself and whomever you choose to share knowledge of it that with.