Invisibility. Absolutely.

A few years ago I heard a great story on This American Life. It was about superpowers - two specifically. Flying and invisibility. When people were asked to choose one, they were often pretty passionate about their choice. They couldn't imagine choosing flying over invisibility, and vice versa.

I felt pretty passionate too. For me it was flying, no contest. What's not to love? You could just step outside in the middle of the night and jump up into the air. You could soar over everything, have this private place (the sky). It would be exhilarating. Invisibility would come with too many temptations - the main one for me being the urge to spy on people. Aren't some secrets better off kept? Do you really want to know the secrets of exes, strangers, and the famous? Flying. Hands down.

The years have passed though, and the more I think about it the more I want to change my answer. Invisibility. Absolutely. I could board planes and go anywhere in the world - for free! I could go into places and see things that are currently off-limits to me for one reason or another. I've often preferred observation to participation, and this would be my chance to go into homes all over the world and see how people live. They would be themselves; they wouldn't be polite for their guest. They would talk the way they normally do, do their normal things.

I know there are a lot of logistical questions to work through. Would my clothes be invisible? Could people still touch me and if so, how would I handle crowded streets and airplanes? Would my invisible feet make impressions when I walked on carpets, leave footprints in the dirt? Would it be possible to get some sort of translation device that enabled me to understand the language of any country I went to?

I do not have answers for these questions. All I have is a desire to see the following things (among others), invisible: