Nice suit. (it fights crime, too)

To begin, I'll put it simply. I want superpowers. Badly. No, so badly I could tear my eyes out with pencils, and I really don't want that. (After all, Superman's X-ray vision wouldn't be so great with Bics sticking out of his sockets).

As far as tech goes...

A company called Spyder developed a flexible suit for skiiers that becomes soild when a force is exerted on it, protecting would be pancakes from certain doom on the slopes. Now, instantly this reminded me of MIT's research for the government that we've all probably heard of. They're implenting a similar technology for the super soldiers of tomorrow. It contains a liquid sewn into fabric that solidifies upon impact. Not to mention their plans for strength augmention, which Wired magazine claims will increase the users strength a hundred fold. Wow... that's awesome.

Ski Suit: www.newscientist.com...

I wonder how strong this ski suit actually is. Hmmm... and with genetic engineering, (which I plan to double major in) we could really breed some super heroes.

Also, and I can't remember the url, but a university is studying the gecko's ability to adhere to sheer surfaces (they are the only animal that can stick to walls in a vacuum). They reproduced the ability artificially, kind of a "gecko glove." I don't remember how strong it was, but if they could further the tech, then slip on some mittens and you're a wall crawler.

My private, and rather naive goal is to create technology that will mimic the feats we see in comics. I reject the idea that more mass equals less proportional strength (if you double your size, four times the strength, eight times the mass). I know; I'm a bit eccentric, but I figure many people here are like-minded.

Here are some other interesting facts I gathered from the animal world.

Adult male Orangs are 8 times as strong as an adult human male. They are closer to us in size, especially arm length, than say chimapnzees who are also said to be very strong.

A Klippspringer, relative of the antelope, can manage a vertical leap of 25 feet while only being a few feet tall (2-3 ft I believe). True, this is a result of their specialized leg muscles which create enough tension to propell them upward like that. But still, does that not inspire some hope for us and that idea of leaping tall buildings in a single bound?

Anyways, these are my tidbits, but does anyone here have stories of amazing feats they could share. Or maybe someone has links to technology this post pertains to?

What about super vision. Like an eagle. They can see soooo much better than us. The distance that they can see is astonishing. Also the frame rate that their brains process vision is something like 80-90 fps. In humans its like 20 something? Imagine the reflexes you would gain from being able to process information that quickly. Everything would be in slow motion. Also they can see ultra violet. I have always felt ripped off that we can't see all the colors available. Would it be possible to alter humans to be able to achieve these qualities? Would it be done genetically or with cybernetics? I would imagine it would involve more than just upgrading our 'eyes', more probably our brains and nervous systems too.

Also what about the other senses like super hearing or smell?...well maybe not smell all the time

Originally posted by Toasty
What about super vision. Like an eagle. They can see soooo much better than us. The distance that they can see is astonishing. Also the frame rate that their brains process vision is something like 80-90 fps. In humans its like 20 something? Imagine the reflexes you would gain from being able to process information that quickly. Everything would be in slow motion. Also they can see ultra violet. I have always felt ripped off that we can't see all the colors available. Would it be possible to alter humans to be able to achieve these qualities? Would it be done genetically or with cybernetics? I would imagine it would involve more than just upgrading our 'eyes', more probably our brains and nervous systems too.

Also what about the other senses like super hearing or smell?...well maybe not smell all the time

Advanced Eyesight probablly isnt far out of reach, through fiber optics I believe it could be achieved, we know whic lobes recieve images in the brain, and I know that my fairly cheap camcorder can zoom in and read papers better then my eyes, so if we changed our eyes with lenses and figured out how to transfer the image through the brain its entirely possible...

Last year they took a quadropaligic (SP?) and put a microchip in his brain, which attached to a device out side his brain so he could control a computer (type words, move a cursor) and he was also able to open and close a bionic hand.

They claim that when technology gets more advanced we will be able to wear a suit that will have motor in them and when we need extra strength a signal in our brain will engage the motors in the exoskeleton suit to help aid in lifting.

Also the have already implanted chips in the eye to help inhance vision in people with macular degeneration (a disease that effects vision in older people).


Here is a link.

science.nasa.gov...

Hey foxglove what's your e-mail? I have dozens of docs, websites, pdf's, news stories that are relevant to your post. I share a similar goal.

Well talking about strength, i read that actually humans, pound for pound, are one of the strongest animals

at least more so then a horse

ill look for info

Originally posted by tiddly54
Well talking about strength, i read that actually humans, pound for pound, are one of the strongest animals

I have some serious doubts about that even other primates like Chimps outclass us big time in the strength department pound for pound. A 100 pound chimp could put a @#$ whopping on a 200lb human without a doubt. Then things like cats outclass us even more things like a 90lb Mountain lion is so much stronger then us able to jump amazing distances.

Thats ofcourse not even getting into bugs which make us look like weaklings in the pound for pound department.

Besides the human brain we are outclassed in just about every department without technology which is a direct result of brain power.

Agentdemon, my E-Mail is [email protected]. I'd very much like to see what you have.

I'm sorry I haven't responded to everyone's posts, my chances to access the internet are sometimes impeded.

About strength, which I'm really interested in, humans can lift normally between the ranges of half to twice their body weight. As far the ape family goes, we're pretty outclassed. These creatures depend upon their massive strength to haul themselves up and remain in trees to obtain fruit and protection from predators below. The orangutan is especially known for their strength, given they spend almost their entire lives in the canopy.

The (technically) strongest animal in the world is the rhinoceros beetle, which can lift 850 times it own body weight. But remember, if he grew to our size, his strength would increase, but his mass would increase quicker. This means that rather than 850 times his own weight, it would be a number much smaller.

Cats, like the tiger for instance, can perform feats that would require the strength of twelve men. A lion in standing positon can leap nearly 15 feet (if you've been to the zoo, notice that lions have 18 foot dividers between them and you for your protection).

As far as leaping goes, humans are pretty well up there. Olympic class athletes can run and jump 29.5 feet. The highest recorded vertical leap was eight feet. However, there's always room for improvement.

I've read the breakthroughs regarding superhuman vision and I have to say they are amazing. 20/10 vision is a dream I can now finally realize. Not only would everything appear crisper and with more detail, but at night you would see twice as far and as clear than a normal person would.

By the way, humans see on average 50-60 frames per second. If one were to increase this number, I do not think it would yeild a speed of thought or some sort of "time dialation." Rather, the fluidity of the image your mind creates would increase, creating clearer picture. I imagine that in order to achieve the type of effect you desire, if at all possible, the brain itself would have to process the data it receives faster, more effieciently, being able to analyze each "frame" individually and all at once. Otherwise, I'm afraid only what we see would be improved, but time itself would not change.