Telekinesis or Gravity manipulation? Which is the best super power?

[Mojo]

Both can be used to move stuff.

But they also have their pros and cons.

Which one do you guys think is better?

[druid91]

Depends on the variant of telekinesis honestly. If you could get enough fine control and equivalent power, there's literally no reason why you would want gravity manipulation over telekinesis.

[golentan]

Depends on the variant of telekinesis honestly. If you could get enough fine control and equivalent power, there's literally no reason why you would want gravity manipulation over telekinesis.

If telekinesis would trigger an accelerometer, gravity manipulation might have a leg up in terms of inertiics.

"I realize this fall would kill me, so I will negate the acceleration on point of impact."

[BananaPhone]

Depends on what type of "gravity" you're talking about. It's been a while since I sat through a physics lecture so someone more in the know will probably correct me, but gravitation was one of the weakest of the four foundational interactions. My arm is more powerful than the gravitational pull of the entire planet, something that's demonstrated by simply lifting up a pen.

However, gravity is also powerful enough to give us black holes, something from which not even light can escape. And it's been proposed as an element in time travel and worm holes that can transport people across galaxies near instantaneously. On the other side of the scale, if your control over gravity had enough precision and finesse I see little reason that you couldn't replicate Telekines's finite control over things, whether on an atomic level or better.

So with gravity control...depends how powerful your control over it is, really. If it's powerful enough, you could become a time travelling, galaxy venturing telekinetic, something a "normal" telekinetic couldn't even dream of.

[Mojo]

I guess with Gravity Manipulation you can lift stuff no matter how heavy they are since you are manipulating the gravity around it not the object itself.

Telekinesis allows you to move stuff but it is a strain in your brain if it is too heavy but it gives you a more fine control of it... You can use to type in a keyboard or maybe make a sandwich or something like that.

So basically gravity, move more an unlimited number of stuff and don't care about the weight. But no fine control over it.

Telekinesis, move less stuff but in a more detailed and controlled manner.

[Ruslan]

This being a D&D site, I feel compelled to mention that Telekinesis gives the enemy a save, and Reverse Gravity does not.

[Frozen_Feet]

Both are too broad concepts to actually give a meaningful answer.

Let's put it this way: telekinesis is exerting force over a distance. Force is energy. Sufficient amount of energy has mass. Mass generates gravity. So, sufficiently powerful telekinesis allows for gravity manipulation by default.

The reverse is true for any version of gravity manipulation which can be projected over a distance. Gravity alters topology of space, and topology of space alter movement of objects, so sufficiently powerful gravity projection allows for telekinesis.

[Kalmageddon]

I would personally go for Telekinesis. It gives me the idea of having finer control over what it manipulates.
When I think of telekinesis, I thinki of being able to manipulate objects like with my own hands but far stronger.
When I think of gravity manipulation, I think of simply making things fall in the direction I want, or collapse stuff by increasing gravity.
I'd say that gravity manipulation is scarier and potentially more powerful, but telekinesis sounds more useful in everyday life.

[factotum]

Either ability can cover a whole range of power levels, though--the character "Gil the Arm" from some of Larry Niven's short stories had telekinesis which was so weak he could just about pick up a glass in the low gravity of the Moon using it. As for gravity manipulation, if we look at the webcomic Schlock Mercenary, they use gravity manipulation all the time (albeit created technologically rather than a superpower), and they have some seriously fine control of it--they can crush a starship into neutronium at one end of the scale, to immobilising a single individual aboard a ship. One particularly insane ship AI used gravity manipulation to twist a man's head off without damaging his brain, which actually requires a lot of precision if you think about it!

[Jormengand]

Because telekinesis provides a force, it can be used to counteract or emulate gravity anyway. Because gravity is a force, it can be used to emulate telekinesis anyway. So I'm not sure what the point really is in the question.

[Xefas]

So, we've covered why the two powers, in terms of direct use, are practically equivalent. But there's one dimension that hasn't been touched on at all. This is asking what the best "super power" is, which is to say that whoever has it will be a superhero. If the effects of the power are the same, then what we have left to decide on is which aesthetic is cooler for a superhero.

Telekinesis and Gravity both lend themselves to different costumes, different theme music, different personas for interacting with your fans, and perhaps most importantly different super hero names.

i.e. Would you rather call yourself Graviton or The Psion?

[Gravitron5000]

Telekinesis and Gravity both lend themselves to different costumes, different theme music, different personas for interacting with your fans, and perhaps most importantly different super hero names.

i.e. Would you rather call yourself Graviton or The Psion?

Ooh! Ooh! I know the answer to this! Pick me! PICK MEEEEEE!!!!

[gooddragon1]

Gravity is an an attractive force (from what I understand anyways). Telekinesis is both pulling and pushing as well as other things. I think you wouldn't need to get nearly as creative with telekinesis as you would with gravity to accomplish complex tasks given that you don't have to think about which direction to pull in order to "push". Telekinesis also strikes me as implementing what you think about directly as a result whereas you'd have to think carefully about how to use gravity.

[Eldan]

Gravity control makes me think of space travel applications. Gravity-free cylinder from launchpad to geosynch (at an easterly angle) or even up to lagrange.

Then, of course, there's the perpetuum mobile of endlessly falling weights in a turbine.

[Tvtyrant]

Gravity probably has greater potential, like breaking up a black hole to destroy a space quadrant.

[tomandtish]

So, we've covered why the two powers, in terms of direct use, are practically equivalent. But there's one dimension that hasn't been touched on at all. This is asking what the best "super power" is, which is to say that whoever has it will be a superhero. If the effects of the power are the same, then what we have left to decide on is which aesthetic is cooler for a superhero.

Telekinesis and Gravity both lend themselves to different costumes, different theme music, different personas for interacting with your fans, and perhaps most importantly different super hero names.

i.e. Would you rather call yourself Graviton or The Psion?

I suspect RedFel would beg to differ with you. Evil is much more fun.

[Knaight]

If telekinesis would trigger an accelerometer, gravity manipulation might have a leg up in terms of inertiics.

"I realize this fall would kill me, so I will negate the acceleration on point of impact."

With fine enough control it wouldn't though, and fine control was specified. If a uniform velocity is maintained across the entirety of a person (internally and externally), they'll be fine. It's when the velocities are different and the tissue starts getting stretched or squished that things get messy.

So, we get back to the issue of the question being underdefined. For instance, can gravity manipulation be used to set up a permanent gravitational field over an area, which is then abandoned? That would be incredibly useful, and telekinesis couldn't do it. Is gravity manipulation limited to basically simulating a point mass somewhere, and thus lacking in fine control unless you simulate a whole bunch of them simultaneously and move them precisely? Telekinesis gets an edge for precision work there, unless the gravity manipulator also has some side powers in the form of intuitively being able to handle multiple simulated point masses and their effects (or just some sort of sufficiently good math related hypercognition). Is telekinesis limited to interactions with discretized "objects", whereas gravity manipulation can be used for atmospheric effects?

So, to the OP: How, exactly are we defining both of these powers?

[AvatarVecna]

I think I'd prefer Telekinesis. Applying psychic force to an object seems less inherently dangerous than screwing around with gravitational forces (or more terrifyingly, gravitational constants).

[Norrefve]

If I were to continue with normal, everyday life; Telekinesis. It just seems too darn useful not to have. Imagine how fast you could pump out research papers if you could type on a keyboard with your mind.

If I were to become a superhero; still Telekinesis. I like the idea of having to be smart with my powers and not just walking out and destroying everything.

If I were to become a supervillain; definitely Gravity. Nothings screams villain like hurtling large things at people and destroying monuments. Plus robbing banks would be really easy.

[Tyndmyr]

There's no difference. They are the same power.

[gooddragon1]

There's no difference. They are the same power.

If you want to hold a vase together that has been broken how do you do it with gravity? How do you do it with telekinesis?

[Frozen_Feet]

Gravity is an an attractive force (from what I understand anyways). Telekinesis is both pulling and pushing as well as other things.

Basic mechanics: if you want to "push" a thing away from you via gravity, you put a gravitic body on the far side and let it pull the thing away from you.


I think you wouldn't need to get nearly as creative with telekinesis as you would with gravity to accomplish complex tasks given that you don't have to think about which direction to pull in order to "push". Telekinesis also strikes me as implementing what you think about directly as a result whereas you'd have to think carefully about how to use gravity.

This is only true if you assume a load of secondary superpowers for telekinesis while not assuming the same for gravity control. In order to even begin settling it, you would have to posit which fundamental force other than gravity your form of telekinesis is using.


If you want to hold a vase together that has been broken how do you do it with gravity? How do you do it with telekinesis?

You project a number of attracting points in the right configuration to pull the pieces of the vase to such a shape where the pieces will support each other while orbiting the attracting points.

In order for the answer to be different for these abilities, you again have to establish what other fundamental force than gravity telekinesis is manipulating.

[Jormengand]

Basic mechanics: if you want to "push" a thing away from you via gravity, you put a gravitic body on the far side and let it pull the thing away from you.

This puts an interesting spin on things, actually: telekinesis is probably easier to use than gravity manipulation because you can just apply forces to objects rather than setting up gravitational fields which do affect the villain, but don't affect the dog, the street, or your own nose, and also the field has to be centred in the right place.

[Tyndmyr]

If you want to hold a vase together that has been broken how do you do it with gravity? How do you do it with telekinesis?

Apply force to the various shards such that the broken ends are connected. Exact details will depend on the precise nature of the break.

[Frozen_Feet]

@Jormengand: again only applies if you presume specific secondary superpowers for telekinesis and that it controls a fundamental force other than gravity.

In any case, inverse square law is your friend.

[AvatarVecna]

I'm not seeing why the act of defining how telekinesis functions requires a secondary superpower. Am I just missing something incredibly obvious?

[Fable Wright]

If I were to choose? Gravity. For one simple reason:

This side of the waterwheel now flows upward. The other side can continue flowing down just fine.

Sure, there are ancillary benefits to gravity manipulation as well, like a good working relation with NASA, getting to experience life in zero Gs whenever I want, being able to exercise by just walking in incrementally higher gravity levels, but the main thing is that one of these powers lets me fundamentally change the world for the better, and the other is more convenient for everyday life. I know what I'm picking, please.

[Jormengand]

I'm not seeing why the act of defining how telekinesis functions requires a secondary superpower. Am I just missing something incredibly obvious?

No, you're not. FF is just making things up on the spot.