Polyglotism. Being able to speak every language would be practically a superpower.
This is a neat idea until you’re in a situation where you remember 38 different words for a thing, just not the one in the language you need
I only speak one language fluently and one language extremely poorly.
The number of times I’ve been able to come up with the word I want in my second language and completely blanked on it in my native language baffles my mind.
This is why I learned the shit out of English: If I forget a word, there’s like 6 more words that are close enough to the one I forgot.
This is why Spanglish is a thing.
If I could ‘cheat’ and say ‘I know every language in the world’, and that included programming languages and things like scientific notation as a language, I’d take that in a heartbeat. If not, I’d take programming, as at least then I can create things and make money.
If speaking every language included dead and forgotten languages too though, then it would be a very tough choice.
This is probably super pedantic (bloody programmers right?) but I really feel like it would depend on what is meant by “know every programming language”. Like being able to remember every syntax and construct is sort of useful but not all that practical. Understanding how to implement the language in a useful way is the valuable part, not just knowing the keywords.
I guess I would kind of compare it to the difference between being able to read Shakespeare and being able to write Shakespeare,
Correct. Learning a programming language is trivial. Far easier than a foreign language.
If we think of it in terms of learning a language, what matters is the grammar and ability to use it to struct prose to create a coherent story.
There’s also a lot of reuse which requires knowing what’s available. The closest analogy there is how music sampling is used.
If we’re being pedantic, in The Matrix, Neo says ‘I know kung fu’ to explain that he both knows what all the moves are, and how to use them. As that was the topic of the post, I used the same sentence structure to mean the same thing about all languages, including programming 😉
Since we are being pedantic, I think maybe you mean “apply” not implement?
If it was just one language and writing system as a choice, I might say Japanese.
There are so many different characters in their writing as symbols instead of phonetic sounds, that bookstores in Japan are divided into sections, in which one has books that use… say 500 characters, then another section with books that use 1200 characters, or 5000, or 10,000, or more!
To read Japanese or Chinese with a mastery of over 10,000 symbols might be my choice. The richness and depth of those writings must be something incredible.My second choice, for shits ‘n’ giggles, might be something like Sumerian or Akkadian, in the original Cuneiform!
This sounds very useful until you realize you still don’t want to talk to people in any language.
I can’t even imagine how powerful I would be if I could be ignored in every language.
I’d make tens of dollars as the scholar to decode the Harrapan/Indus Valley script!
Or I make makes millions as a YouTuber decoding the Voynich manuscript…
Our society is broken:(
Yea, the best option.
This is a back up power to me. The best power is the power to control time however you like.
You could learn every language ever created with the ability to control time. As you would also live as long as you wanted.
You also would be able to timelock any object making it unmoving and indestructable.
You can heal anyone from anything by rolling them back to when they werent injured
No end to what you can do with controlling time
You also would be able to timelock any object making it unmoving and indestructable.
Technically, if you stop something in time and space, it would disappear before your very eyes if it was on Earth, as the Earth would keep on going on its orbit around the sun, around the Milky Way Galaxy, etc. and your object would be floating somewhere. Against what reference point would you lock it?
Against what reference point would you lock it?
Depends on what you need it to do (or not do)
Top comment and still underrated.
“I know how to make myself do the thing I planned to do.”
Universal language module. Not to translate all into English but to understand all of them.
Just put this fish in your ear.
You’re now a protocol droid.
Ok I think - except that I am absolute shit at protocol so now I’m gonna get someone killed.
I want the entirety of mathematics indellably etched into my mental model. I want to see the math behind everything in reality the way Neo saw the matrix code in the walls of the grubby apartment buildings.
What if that just drives you insane due to the problem described by Gödel’s incompleteness theorem? Maybe you’d become susceptible to someone telling you “this statement is false”.
Ideally, I wouldn’t have to see the proofs for everything, just recognize the observable math.
The problem with the “This statement is false” could simply be coupled by something akin to imaginary numbers. Paradoxes can be described mathematically without being solvable.
Oh, brother, no. Godel’s incompleteness theorem is a problem much bigger than imaginary numbers. Imaginary numbers are just something we initially didn’t account for but we can (and did) fix. Godel’s theorem means everything may just be broken and we just don’t know.
I’ll do the same for physics. Together we shall reign.
11:15, restate my assumptions: 1. Mathematics is the language of nature. 2. Everything around us can be represented and understood through numbers. 3. If you graph these numbers, patterns emerge. Therefore: There are patterns everywhere in nature.
And when you discover that free will is an illusion because of deterministic patterns, what will you do then?
Whatever it is physics demands they do, obviously.
Honestly finding out the lack of free will exists would be the most liberating thing ever. I could just let autopilot take its course.
But also the ability to turn it off at will. Otherwise life will become incredibly tedious.
Ability to complete a household project with only 1 trip to the hardware store.
Impossible… that would break some fundamental law of physics or something
This skill can be learned once you defeat the final boss of Home Projects https://youtu.be/vu2j62M-ndc
When I was driving instacart between jobs or what not I had one for just that. Pick up 4 items from Lowes. Called them and she said they just left there and weren’t going back, haha
Download more RAM. My working memory is shit (ADHD).
I thought the issue there was the processor not being able to run a single core long enough.
Or maybe it’s just how the operating system works?
Have you tried Linux? I use Arch btw.
If I had to liken ADHD to computer terms, I think I would blame a faulty task scheduler. That’s what issues the threads to the CPU. When Ryzen came out and also when Intel moved to Performance and Efficiency cores there were issues with efficient task scheduling.
You will just be more (less?) Efficient and being efficient.
I might be a little obsessed with efficiency. Possibly due to my issues making me inefficient by nature, I tend to seek efficiency wherever I can, like some mirage in the desert of my mind.
Did I write this comment? I used to think I just did my best to deliberately waste as little time as possible to balance out all the time I waste involuntarily. Now I realize that I just can’t tolerate being idle, so the moment I initiate some automated process that will take more than a few seconds to complete, I start yet another task while waiting. This looks a hell of a lot more efficient on paper than it does in reality, though…
How to people.
I have great ideas and am horrible at explaining them.
Rizz download complete
I’d upload a few languages. Instantly being able to speak and read an array of languages and traveling the world would be fun.
This is a good one. I interact with a lot of East and South Asians in my spare time, and I would love to speak all of their languages. Especially since their English is not the best (in my circle, that is).
Speaking Korean, I live here for 4 years already and despite pushing moderatelly to learn it, I don’t speak it at all. Everything I learn I forget very fast again.
The ability to upload any ability into my mind that I can think of and be amazing at it.
Shashahshaaa!
Runs away and throws pocket sand
Found the guy that wishes for more wishes
Musical ability — perfect pitch, great rhythm. I’m an okay musician after years working at it, but I’d love to me better.
Ability to fold a fitted sheet.
I know it’s a thought experiment but try to be a little realistic.
Ok, that would also be a great mundane wish for me!
Poke your hand until you hit the corner of a seam. Do the same with the other hand on an adjacent corner.
Bring hands together so both corners touch.
Now unfold the corner in one hand onto the other hand.
Smooth it out. Repeat with the untouched corners.
You can do it one more time or just fold from there
You say that but when you put the four corners together you get a trapezoid or triangle instead of a square or rectangle. I’ve even watched videos and tried to copy but failed at this.
That’s all seems pretty complicated.
Im just gonna stick with the tried and true half fold mostly ball method.
If I could have something magical: I’d like to be able to accelerate my thinking so I can have as long as I want to think things through
If it’s gotta be real: easier to use memory, I feel like I have no idea what’s going on bc I forget shit, but it’s not forgotten I just didn’t remember that memory at the right time even though I had it…
Talking to people hasn’t been going well lately
Following your lead: mystical/magical healing abilities, for self and others. Mundane, photographic memory.
Psychotherapy
“he’s been going all night, he’s a machine!”
“…I know healthy emotion regulation”
“…show me”
“I know how to understand and speak every language with the proper accent. Wöáh.”
Monkey’s paw curls: You understand the literal meaning of all the words, but not the context.
Willsch fei ebbes von dä Buabespitzle?
