Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

How to become Batman

quora.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 83 posts

Re: How to become Batman

#11

Post by redfloatplane »

stcredzero wrote: post #2

Wasn't there a woman on This American Life who tried to become as close to a real life superhero as possible? EDIT: Found it. She calls herself Zora. (Which is the name of a character in Powers.) http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/178/s...

There are a fairly large number of "real life superheroes," actually (http://reallifesuperheroes.org).

None of them have magical superpowers that let them control the tides or have Adamantium skeletons, but hell, it's something. My particular favourite is Life: http://reallifesuperheroes.org/wiki/index.php?title=Life

Re: How to become Batman

#12

Post by olalonde »

ErrantX wrote: post #9

Pfft, no vision! However, this thesis seems mostly sensible. I think the crucial answer is that the "Skillz" of Batman are attainable, and there is a reasonable proportion of people in the world with potential to attain them, BUT the problem of being Batman is not in the technology. The problem, as highlighted, is that there is no role for Batman in our current society. Vigilantism is frowned on, and, practically spe…

What's most unrealistic to me is that Batman doesn't use lethal weapons. Good luck fighting armed criminals unless you have a kick ass body armor.

Re: How to become Batman

#13

Post by ErrantX »

olalonde wrote: post #12
ErrantX wrote: post #9

Pfft, no vision! However, this thesis seems mostly sensible. I think the crucial answer is that the "Skillz" of Batman are attainable, and there is a reasonable proportion of people in the world with potential to attain them, BUT the problem of being Batman is not in the technology. The problem, as highlighted, is that there is no role for Batman in our current society. Vigilantism is frowned on, and, practically spe…

What's most unrealistic to me is that Batman doesn't use lethal weapons. Good luck fighting armed criminals unless you have a kick ass body armor.

I'm not sure that's so unrealistic. Batman utilises "shock" tactics (i.e. appearing in the middle of a group before they can react). He also promotes a fear factor; where he is viewed as being generally invulnerable - which means criminals psychophysically expect him to be able to avoid/take/survive gunfire.

Then on the practical aspect he works at night or in the dark and has technological advantages (as well as ranged non-lethal weapons) over his enemies.

Speculating you could imagine he is pretty good at reading people and their reactions, and so has a rudimentary ability to avoid (not quite dodge) gunfire.

Sure, I think it is unrealistic that in, say, the films he avoids all the gunfire period. But it seems reasonable that he can avoid most of it with these advantages.

Such things are all possible in real life, but I expect you are right - you would end up shot.

Re: How to become Batman

#14

Post by michael_dorfman »

JCB_K wrote: post #10

Very entertaining and funny, but could people please stop saying "Quora is different because of the crowd and it's serious and bla bla bla"?

I have to say, my first reaction on reading this was "Quora? You see that thing you're jumping over? I hate to break it to you, but that's the shark."

Re: How to become Batman

#16

Post by ErrantX »

stcredzero wrote: post #2

Wasn't there a woman on This American Life who tried to become as close to a real life superhero as possible? EDIT: Found it. She calls herself Zora. (Which is the name of a character in Powers.) http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/178/s...

Wow. I found this account of her: http://www.audiojournal.com/zora.html

She sounds amazing; having achieved an amazing amount (academically a PHD by age 21!). The rest of "The List" is mad.. weapons, vehicle training, politics, history, herbology, various extreme sports.

Re: How to become Batman

#18

Post by nhebb »

michael_dorfman wrote: post #14
JCB_K wrote: post #10

Very entertaining and funny, but could people please stop saying "Quora is different because of the crowd and it's serious and bla bla bla"?

I have to say, my first reaction on reading this was "Quora? You see that thing you're jumping over? I hate to break it to you, but that's the shark."

It's kind of inevitable, isn't it? Atrophy rules the web, just as the rest of the universe. I don't know what their business model is, but I imagine that advertising will play a big part. In order to scale up ad revenue, they'll need to scale up traffic, which means scaling down quality.

Re: How to become Batman

#19

Post by cturner »

My biggest niggle about Batman is how he'd get to and from the scene, particularly roads near his house. Locals would see the batmobile on the same road repeatedly. Lovers in the bushes would see/be squashed by the car pulling into the tunnel. Word would soon get around.

Re: How to become Batman

#20

Post by stcredzero »

michael_dorfman wrote: post #14
JCB_K wrote: post #10

Very entertaining and funny, but could people please stop saying "Quora is different because of the crowd and it's serious and bla bla bla"?

I have to say, my first reaction on reading this was "Quora? You see that thing you're jumping over? I hate to break it to you, but that's the shark."

When did HN jump the shark?
Post reply on HN