x men powers are unrealistic. but...

heroes, less so.

i guess it's not as famous as x-men but heroes is much more realistic. in terms of superpowers anyway. when you look at how people and superpeople would interact, x-men may not be far off.

you may think this is a set up for a joke, or at least hope that's what it is because the alternative is that i sound mental, but this is a serious science.

for those that don't know, heroes is a show with people who have superpowers. superpowers are cool. everyone wants them. i would like mind reading or invisibility. though as i said recently i think i would choose being able to control space time. but those aren't realistically going to be the first ones we get. realistic ones are perfect memory, calculator minds, perfect drawing abilities or having perfect pitch. these aren't actually too different from heroes powers. and imagine being able to choose ones you see in other people! (eg peter petrelli)

you may have noticed that these realistic 'powers' i mentioned are those that savants have. now imagine you could temporarily give yourself those powers? well, a scientist has already done that. ('testing' his theories on his PhD students no less!)

currently, this requires the use of a 'thinking cap'

commercial devices have for some time existed which allow you to control your computer using your mind (eg the now discontinued 'neural impulse actuator' or intendix)

imagine if you could learn these skills without the need for an external stimulus!

and that is really the only step required to superpowers.

once you've learned to control your mind to such an extent, the 'savant' powers are surely available. some of the more remote heroes powers are potentially viable, such as regeneration - after all, many animals can already do so. telekinesis which is very cool may be slightly problematic even at that stage.

the next step however, could be the most interesting. if you can focus your mind, and the em waves that are used, you may be able to 'see' other peoples minds due to their em waves. after all, em waves interact with each other. and that leads to the slightly more remote possibility of being able to affect others without the use of anything external, simply(!) using your own mind. and then the possibilities of what you can do are both scary and seemingly endless.