To fly? Or to be Invisible? The never ending argument

The other day at Microsoft, one of my close friends overheard a few coders who work on an XBox game argue for 10 minutes about what was better- to fly, or to be invisible?

How do you answer this? These two guys, who looked like they were end products of 10 straight years of Dungeons & Dragons games, SciFi conventions and Lord of the Rings fan clubs were quite into the discussion. They were taking their individual sides personally and passionately.

So just out of curiosity, this very question has been posed to others in a man-on-the-street way. Just throw it out there and see what sticks. "Hey, we have a question for you". Surprisingly? This works.

From responses we have received, here are some insights into what the benefits of each are:

To Be Invisible:

- You can help people who do not know you are there
- You can listen in on conversations
- You can sneak up on OBL and take him out
- You can get into places without paying
- You can go to the Louvre and steal the Mona Lisa

While the last one wasn't followed up with any explanation on how no one would see a painting floating down the hallway unnoticed, there were some interesting aspects of each.

To Be Able To Fly:

- You can save money on airfare
- You can save people on a sinking ship
- You can jump off a building and fly down the center of a street above cars
- You can wave in the windows of a plane at people in-flight
- You can get to the Louvre to steal the Mona Lisa, and then get away while the invisible guy is still wandering around down below.

So clearly, the Mona Lisa came up in a discussion about this and what would be the best way to steal it.


What about this? If you could fly, why not just put on one of those Harry Potter invisible cloaks and then you have the best of both worlds. When you want to be invisible, you throw that thing over your head. Problem solved, right?

I think I had it all summed up for me in one joke I heard a few years back.

Superman is flying along at the speed of light. As he's flying, he thinks to himself, "man, I'm horny!" and starts looking around.

Using his telescopic vision, he spots Wonder Woman, laying naked in the grass next to her invisible plane. "Oooh!" Superman thinks. "Here we go!"

So he swoops down on Wonder Woman and at the speed of light, humphumphump! Then a microsecond later, off he goes! Back up at 20,000' and feeling good about himself.

Back down on the grass, Wonder Woman says "hey, what was that?"

The Invisible Man says "I have no idea, but my ass really hurts."

And to me, that joke in a nutshell spells out the two, and why it is best to be able to fly.

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