Superman versus the speed of thought

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Dreampanther

Xplosive

long pig
Are you trying to define "consciousness" with words?
It doesn't work, no one really knows what it is.

But, I do know what you are saying.

But why does any of this matter?

Dreampanther
Because people are arguing that Superman is faster than the speed of thought. Now, while I think Superman is awesome, I do think that this is overstating his abilities somewhat.

And the problem is, because the rules say the speed of thought has been measured at 30 meters per second, people are using that to substantiate their arguments

long pig
"Thought" is more of a concept than a true science. It's impossible to unbiasedly judge thought unless you are void of it.

In comics, there have been times when magic users have actually entered peoples brains/minds and saw little "Though capsules" as they were being formed and was able to go faster than them.

MatchesMalone
Superman wins.

I have no idea how to measure the speed of thought. More than likely, there is no way to measure it with exact certainty. However, a human's speed of thought is not limitless and I know Superman is faster than any non powered human's thought.

Try getting a book and open it to page one. Then, flip through the pages. Flip through the pages so fast that it only takes approximately two seconds to finish the book. Do it again and try reading the book at the same time you are flipping through the pages. Its impossible. No matter how hard somebody focuses, its impossible. The pages are moving too fast for you. Someone would be lucky if they recognized a couple of words in the book. There's no way that they think fast enough to see the words, comprehend them, and effectively read the story.

Superman attacking you would be a great deal harder to see and comprehend than trying to read a book at super speed.

Juntai
In Superman Red Sun, he stated he was faster than thought. And that was a powered down nazi version.

Khellendros
Yeah, even I've seen Superman tackle a woman before her brain could process the sight of him busting into her hideout, and I very rarely read Superman. Whatever the speed of thought is in real life, in the DCU, it's slower than Superman.

stormfront13
someone here posted a link here saying that the speed of thought was 170 miles per hour. they provided a link of scientists doing expirements and such to prove it. i didn't go to the link, but is this really true? it just seems kinda slow for the speed of thought.

jplatinum
Superman if fast er than the speed of reaction or reflex.
Reaction is the response to stimuli, not how fast the brain thinks.

"Try getting a book and open it to page one. Then, flip through the pages. Flip through the pages so fast that it only takes approximately two seconds to finish the book. Do it again and try reading the book at the same time you are flipping through the pages. Its impossible. No matter how hard somebody focuses, its impossible. The pages are moving too fast for you. Someone would be lucky if they recognized a couple of words in the book. There's no way that they think fast enough to see the words, comprehend them, and effectively read the story."


Okay, This is true of the conscious mind,but the brain is also being overloaded with multiple stimuli at once, so this argument is bogus.
Hell, if that's the case then I could argue that the sub-consious brain would pick up just about all the info from the book...Because it would.

What we are getting at is the speed of thought, while there is no exact number.
We can estimate or use an educated(reasonable guess) to come up with a decent answer/sensible.

That 30 m/s crap is a piece of shit balony.
It is stupid for someone to actually think that.
It is even more stupid for someone to with a straight face use it in an intelligent discussion, such as this.

Superman is as fast as the speed of light(186,000 miles a second ).
The speed of thought is suggested(reasonably) to be near-instantaneous.
We know that the thought impulses travel through the brain at phenomenal speeds.

What people are arguing is that reaction time is thought.
Reaction time in most normal humans is said to be about 0.1-0.2 seconds. Since the nerve impulses are about 100 m/s.
The reflexes are possible are 100 mph or more when actually put to limb movement like jerking back from a hot stove(on pure reflex speed alone).

However, this is a conscious movement of the body. The brain's electronic pulses actually work much faster than the conscious awareness of the human body can pick up on and react to.

Which means that your sub-conscious mind is much much much much much faster than you can pick up on.
That is why your sub-concious mind can pick up subliminal stuff while your conscious mind doesn't even know what is going on.

To put it in simple terms, the experiment was wrong, even the response time should have been way faster, unless they were using retarded people, third and finally, reaction time is not the same as speed of thought.


Its simply the speed at which you can react to a situation, your subconscious portion of your brain is assessing information way faster than the rest of your brain can pick up and send to the nerves impulses that cause your reaction to stimuli.

Quite frankly, I believe that the "real" speed of thought to be near-instantaneous.

As for the conscious speed of reaction(0.1-0.2 seconds)
superman is much faster than this.
True.

My I.Q. was tested several times and I am 130 so I pretty much am no
run-in-the-mill- dumbass.

Dreampanther
Thank you all for participating, I highly appreciate your contributions. Thanks especially to jplatinum, for a well-thought out, clear and rational argument.

To all those who tried to substantiate their arguments by quoting from a comic book - I would rather not comment.

My final thought on the subject - consider the phenomenon of savants.

Just, THINK about it. Try not to let a comic book writer do your thinking for you. And try not to confuse reality with fantasy.

We all enjoy fantasy, that is why we are here. But that is all it is - fantasy.

Whirlysplatt
Reaction time is actually slower than the speed of thought, due to chemical messengers invloved like acetyl choline which are secreted and broken down much slower than axons are depolarised.

Glad I could help, nothing is left to say except supes system is super and his responses are far faster than a humans, hence "super speed" and superman.

Whirlysplatt
Originally posted by Whirlysplatt
Reaction time is actually slower than the speed of thought, due to chemical messengers invloved like acetyl choline which are secreted and broken down much slower than axons are depolarised.

Glad I could help, nothing is left to say except supes system is super and his responses are far faster than a humans, hence "super speed" and superman.

Only 130 laughing

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