Superhuman Thread

The Emperor's Lounge
#62

I’ve always found this one interesting:

At a young age it is possible to train your eyes to see underwater:
“Normally when you go underwater, everything is so blurry that the eye doesn’t even try to accommodate, it’s not a normal reflex,” says Gislen. “But the Moken children are able to do both – they can make their pupils smaller and change their lens shape. Seals and dolphins have a similar adaptation.”

The article says anyone is able to do it with practice, but as you age you loose the ability, even the kids in the tribe would.

#63

Interesting

The sea-nomad children are brought up to off the water. It’s hard for them to live on the land engaging in agriculture or hunter-gathering since they don’t have the skills.

Their population died down when the governments in the region wanted to take control of their lives and have them resettled on land.

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#64

I know I was very sad for them when I read that in the article at the end. Their home on the beach looked like a cozy place to live and the kids looked so happy in the pictures.

#65

Having said that, in many cases there is an evolutionary basis for the presence of certain superpowers.

Some groups in the past may have had better need for superhuman abilities due to the lack of technology helping them survive in harsh conditions.

We ordinary humans most likely have become weaker as time passes, relying more and more on technology (computers, mobile phones etc) to solve our problems and therefore find it difficult to make use of our extra-sensory abilities.

If you read about cases of the feral children, they probably developed some traits of the animal foster parents that are superior to those of us ordinary humans, such as an enhanced sense of smell or an enhanced eyesight.

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#66

With due respect, this thread is about superhuman abilities and not governments depriving people of power.

Can we please keep the subject in focus?

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#67

Yeah that’s true, even with the sea-nomad example when they tried to get European kids to do it, they were able to see, but their eyes would get all red by the end of the day. Meanwhile the sea-nomad kids don’t get that. So maybe a genetic trait was passed down in their tribe for that, or that part takes longer for the body to adapt.

#68

Precisely - we are after all products of evolution.

We may very well possess that DNA in us that enables us to see clearly in water. However, due to a long period of evolution and natural selection, that DNA has been locked in 99.9% of the human population because we humans have become land creatures and do not require that abilitiy to see clearly underwater.

Have you heard of hysterical strength? Hysterical strength is a display of extreme strength by humans, beyond what is believed to be normal, usually occurring when people are in life-and-death situations. Common anecdotal examples include parents lifting vehicles to rescue their children. That in a way shows that we actually we as humans are not as weak as we think and there is actually something inside all of us that our subconscious will only unlock during certain periods of time.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hysterical_strength#:~:text=Hysterical%20strength%20is%20a%20display,vehicles%20to%20rescue%20their%20children.

Perhaps the amazing things people can do under hypnosis is another good example.

#69

That reminds me of the aquatic ape theory. I believe it involved a population of people stuck on an island, hairlessness is more efficient for swimming/fishing.

#70

Yeah I’ve heard of those stories before, I’ve always thought it was from a massive release of adrenaline, but there could for sure be more to it. If I remember correctly, some people broke bones while doing the activity because the body wasn’t able to physically handle the load.

I also remember a story on the TV where a young girl was able to drag her grandfather through the forest to their truck after he passed out from a stroke or heart attack. I think she drove the truck after too.

#71

Was this a trick? I remember this a long time ago.

EDIT

oops

#72

Harold Williams is one of the most famous polyglots in history. He was born in Auckland, New Zealand in 1876, and from childhood was interested in languages.

Over a lifetime, he possessed 58 languages, including English, old Irish, Russian, Czech, Albanian, Serbian, Romanian, Swedish, Basque, Turkish, Chinese, Japanese, Tagalog, Coptic, Egyptian, Hittite, and others.

This guy is the real deal when it comes to language learning. He must have had some sort of innate talent.

Anyway personally, I am not impressed by a Frenchman who can understand speak and write fluently Spanish, English, and Italian (and of course French) since these are similar languages. I met a couple of such people in my life, nothing to boast about since there are so many of such people around.

For a Frenchman to be able to understand and speak fluently Arabic, Finnish, Chinese, Japanese, Swahili, Tagalog, Russian rather than other Western European languages, ah that’s much more impressive and those are the real polyglots.

#73

SM is a woman without fear. She doesn’t feel it. She has been held at knifepoint without a tinge of panic. She’ll happily handle live snakes and spiders, even though she claims not to like them. She can sit through reels of upsetting footage without a single start. And all because a pair of almond-shaped structures in her brain – amygdalae – have been destroyed.

Possible subliminal used to eliminate: Limit Destroyer? Mind’s Eye?

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#74

Developmental anomaly (Savant). Had to take Keppra as a child for epilepsy.

Minds eye? :slight_smile:

#75

Probably lacking something in the brain? Did he get a cure for epilepsy? My brother is an epileptic and all the medicine he has to take daily has affected his cognitive abilities a little bit.

#76

I just did a quick glance in Keppra, which tammet was using. It increases GABA activity, so I assume his seizures are related to too much glutamate activity.

I imagine if someone has epilepsy in a region of the brain for too long, can cause lesions, but raised glutamate activity also raises LTP (Long term potentiation).

only treatment is with keppra right now for tammet. There may be some sort of electrode you can put into the brain to stop some seizures, I remember seeing something on that.

#77

[quote=“King, post:73, topic:4648”]
SM is a woman without fear. She doesn’t feel it. She has been held at knifepoint without a tinge of panic. She’ll happily handle live snakes and spiders, even though she claims not to like them. She can sit through reels of upsetting footage without a single start. And all because a pair of almond-shaped structures in her brain – amygdalae – have been destroyed.

Possible subliminal used to eliminate : Limit Destroyer? Mind’s Eye?

Discover Magazine

Not a superhuman, but relevant to this post.

EDIT

Buddhist monks who do compassion meditation have been shown to modulate their amygdala, along with their temporoparietal junction and insula, during their practice.[42] In an fMRI study, more intensive insula activity was found in expert meditators than in novices.[43] Increased activity in the amygdala following compassion-oriented meditation may contribute to social connectedness.[44]

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#78

I remember hearing about her. I think it may have been on the NPR show Radiolab.

Scientists have to keep her identity secret for her own protection, because it turns out that ‘fear’ and amygdalar function is intimately tied up with the ability to analyze risk. It’s not just that she feels no fear, she also has an inability to assess risk. So if anyone got her contact information and asked to come to her home, she would likely just say yes.

#79

A similar double-edged ‘superpower’ is the condition known as CIPA. Congenital Insensitivity to Pain with Anhidrosis. People with this condition literally have no ability to generate pain sensations. A life without pain.

But most people with this (thankfully rare) condition live short lives because pain is a valuable signal about damage occurring to our organism. Damage still happens to these people, they just aren’t able to perceive it.

#80

Well, there is a biological reason for pain and suffering.

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#81

yep.

and fear.