Could humans evolve to have super powers?
Before we can answer that question, we must define what a super power is, and that’s where we get into trouble because there are hundreds of superpowers that have been depicted in fiction, both comic books, movies, TV as well as novels.
One can categorize super powers into superhuman, supernatural and paranormal. Unfortunately, there are lots of sub categories that indicate how the superpower was acquired. An example of this would be the X-Men. They gained their powers from mutation. Iron Man’s power is acquired from an object--his suit. Many of these super characters derive their powers from magic, energy or even Chi. Mutation is the source of power of the X-Men and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
How super powers are manifested come in many varieties. Powers can be mimicked as in the case of Rogue. Powers can be absorbed or lessened as in the case of Leach.
Powers can involve generation of energy like magnetism in the case of Magneto or the ability to convert electromagnetic energy into microwaves to manipulate molecules as in the case of Firestorm.
There are more kinds of superpowers than most people would ever imagine. I could write an entire book on this subject, but I want to answer the question: can humans actually evolve to have super powers?
The answer is, as in many of my posts, maybe. Humans are still evolving, and it’s difficult to predict where this evolution is going.
There are some powers that some humans have now, namely telekinesis, mind reading, and Clairvoyance are powers that some humans can display that are credible. Duke University experimented with what is known as Parapsychology to determine if extrasensory perception is even possible. The results were published in a Journal of Parapsychology, but they were controversial because no one else could verify or duplicate them.
Take telekinesis or what some people call Psychokinesis. There have been many claims of the ability to manipulate matter with only the mind, but most of these demonstrations have been criticized for not being scientific. The main reason that scientists don’t accept it is because of the second law of thermodynamics, which says that a natural process involves increases in entropy, and the inverse law, which states that the intensity of a physical power is inversely proportional to the square of the distance. In other words, if the mind of an individual were projecting physical power, the power level would drop off too quickly to be of practical use.
The problem with this criticism is in the belief that telekinesis power is a natural process. It could be a form of life-force projection, and there’s little known about that. The soul’s power may not obey the natural physical laws. Mind reading and Clairvoyance fall into this same problem. They are probably due to spiritual processes that we have no way of experimenting with.
I could see how humans could evolve mentally to become much more powerful both in intellect and the power to project parapsychological powers. I’m assuming here that parapsychological powers are not natural and involve supernatural processes.
I doubt that humans could evolve to become super-men or women. I’m sure that humans could become much stronger and more athletic, but evolving to have the power of flight is a stretch. Whether genetic mutations could turn us into X-Man-like people is questionable because evolution requires a change in environmental conditions to force a genetic change. The human race is going in the wrong direction for that. We’ve become used to soft living conditions and employing technology to do things.
But, you never know. Maybe some future apocalyptic event could push human evolution into a superhero direction or science could come up with a genetic change that would force the acquisition of super powers. Hey, that would make a good story! Wait a minute; I think it has!
Thanks for reading.