# Complete and Total Invulnerability... what do you do with it? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [February 2, 2012, 6:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/complete-and-total-invulnerability-what-do-you-do-with-it/611517 "2012-02-02T06:25:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Phnord\_Prephect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/df705f/32.png) [@Phnord\_Prephect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Phnord_Prephect)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2012, 6:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/complete-and-total-invulnerability-what-do-you-do-with-it/611517/1 "2012-02-02T06:25:13Z")
I dunno, I get weird ideas sometimes. Imagine for a moment that alien space bats endow you with total, complete, 100% [Superman](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FLN3dPMyXeg&feature=related) style invulnerability. Nothing, absolutely nothing, can harm you (unless you want it to, so you can still get haircuts or whatever.) Whether or not you can feel pain, I’ll leave up to you, as there could be reasons you’d want that but I don’t know what they might be. Point-blank bullet to the eyeball? No problem. Ground Zero of a nuke? Bring marshmallows. Dropped out of the space station? Re-entry is fun! Whatever. Not a scratch on you, you get up and walk away. Of course, you don’t have any other benefits. Can’t fly, can’t run really fast, can’t bend steel bars with your bare hands, you’ll age normally, etc. The only benefit is that you absolutely cannot be harmed in any way. What would you do? Serious and Fun answers are both welcome. For myself, serious answer is that I’d go into either police or firefighter work. Burning building full of babies and puppies? Yeah, you go get the hoses ready, I’ll be right back. Pull over a car full of heavily armed drug dealers? Let 'em shoot, they’re still gonna get arrested. I would avoid military service, most likely, unless a really important war happened. I may consider covert operations to take down a single enemy leader, but only if I were completely convinced that they were really that bad. Fun answer? Either crash-test dummy or suicide bomb tester. I’d also probably have some fun as a suicide jumper, just to mess with people. “I can’t take it any more, I’m gonna jump! Aaahhhhhh… THUD! Hmm. Damn, I can’t do ANYthing right!” 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Namkcalb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/c89c15/32.png) [@Namkcalb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Namkcalb)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2012, 6:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/complete-and-total-invulnerability-what-do-you-do-with-it/611517/2 "2012-02-02T06:39:41Z")
Anything which doesn’t involve me being tossed off a boat attached to a boulder ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2012, 6:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/complete-and-total-invulnerability-what-do-you-do-with-it/611517/3 "2012-02-02T06:56:26Z")
> [@Namkcalb](#): > > Anything which doesn’t involve me being tossed off a boat attached to a boulder Or standing near a nuke; I recall a short story where a guy tried to demonstrate an invulnerable force field by standing near a nuke as it went off. The shield worked, but it didn’t keep him from being flung off the planet past escape velocity. ---
**Author:** ![Oakminster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/77aa72/32.png) [@Oakminster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oakminster)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2012, 10:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/complete-and-total-invulnerability-what-do-you-do-with-it/611517/4 "2012-02-02T10:06:30Z")
I’d go work for Jake Stonebender at The Place. Because it’s time. ---
**Author:** ![Pine\_Fresh\_Scent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/43a26b/32.png) [@Pine\_Fresh\_Scent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pine_Fresh_Scent)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2012, 10:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/complete-and-total-invulnerability-what-do-you-do-with-it/611517/5 "2012-02-02T10:55:17Z")
Hire myself out to work at ground zero at Fukushima and Chernobyl. Forklifts and other power equipment still work normally in high radiation environments, don’t they? It’s the human operators that are the weak link, right? I’d ask for a modest salary, since the opposite could be spun as taking advantage or even blackmailing Japan and Russia. To make big bucks, maybe fix satellites sans spacesuit? I could freefall home and sell the footage to IMAX. ---
**Author:** ![kjckjc](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e36b37/32.png) [@kjckjc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kjckjc)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2012, 1:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/complete-and-total-invulnerability-what-do-you-do-with-it/611517/6 "2012-02-02T13:14:49Z")
First, curious what “aging normally” means in this context. I take most signs of aging as the body slowly losing it’s ability to heal. Loss of collagen, maybe tooth decay, etc. I am not sure you would really age with this type of ability. I usually worry about falling into the wrong hands and being tortured forever (like dropped into a large amount of molten metal which is then allowed to cool), but you offer the “unless you want it to” clause, so I guess I could end my life if I needed to rather than being trapped forever. But what would I do? My daydreams about such things would fill volumes. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2012, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/complete-and-total-invulnerability-what-do-you-do-with-it/611517/7 "2012-02-02T13:29:14Z")
I’d probably dive down the Mariannas Trench. For 21 minutes. But yeah, serious answer, and assuming that “death by drowning” counts as something harming me, then deep sea diving for stuff that we don’t have the technology to explore or recover yet. Scouring archeological wreckage, deep abyss marine biology, that kind of stuff. Any schmoe can be a cop, a firefighter, or kill Hitler. Only I can further Science! and History!, all they need to do is design me a flashlight than can take a thousand bars of pressure. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2012, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/complete-and-total-invulnerability-what-do-you-do-with-it/611517/8 "2012-02-02T14:15:11Z")
Sit around on the couch and watch “Law & Order” reruns. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2012, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/complete-and-total-invulnerability-what-do-you-do-with-it/611517/9 "2012-02-02T14:25:01Z")
> [@Pine\_Fresh\_Scent](#): > > Hire myself out to work at ground zero at Fukushima and Chernobyl. Forklifts and other power equipment still work normally in high radiation environments, don’t they? It’s the human operators that are the weak link, right? I’d ask for a modest salary, since the opposite could be spun as taking advantage or even blackmailing Japan and Russia. Make sure you still wear some sort of anti-contamination suit to keep loose radioactive materials out. _You_ might be invulnerable, but that won’t keep you from getting contaminated to the point it’s dangerous for normal people to get near you. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2012, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/complete-and-total-invulnerability-what-do-you-do-with-it/611517/10 "2012-02-02T14:49:12Z")
> [@Oakminster](#): > > I’d go work for Jake Stonebender at The Place. Because it’s time. It’s past time. Hmmm…I wonder what Fast Eddie would do if a _regular_ asked a snoopy question? To the OP: Keep my freaking mouth **shut**. Without other powers, invulnerability is not an asset. ---
**Author:** ![Illuminatiprimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/illuminatiprimus/32/11520_2.png) [@Illuminatiprimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Illuminatiprimus)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2012, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/complete-and-total-invulnerability-what-do-you-do-with-it/611517/11 "2012-02-02T15:38:17Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > It’s past time. > > Hmmm…I wonder what Fast Eddie would do if a _regular_ asked a snoopy question? > > To the OP: Keep my freaking mouth **shut**. Without other powers, invulnerability is not an asset. Indeed - being buried alive under a ton of concrete would keep you out of trouble. Sure you wouldn’t be dead, but I bet you quickly wish you were. ---
**Author:** ![TruCelt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trucelt/32/523_2.png) [@TruCelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TruCelt)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2012, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/complete-and-total-invulnerability-what-do-you-do-with-it/611517/12 "2012-02-02T16:16:09Z")
I’m guessing the best money would be in oil field firefighting. Red Adair would have nothing on me! I’d also probably want to climb everst, but I’m wondering if that works? Could I be knocked unconscious by the lack of oxygen and just lay there “unharmed” byt the cold? Or would I be safe from suffocation as well? I’m sensing a difference between being “harmed” and “temporarily disabled.” Like I couldn’t be injured, but I could be incapacitated? So I could just lay there for the rest of my natural lifespan but be unable to regain consciousness? ---
**Author:** ![Scumpup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce73a5/32.png) [@Scumpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scumpup)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2012, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/complete-and-total-invulnerability-what-do-you-do-with-it/611517/13 "2012-02-02T16:28:45Z")
Circus freak. I’d be a circus freak. ---
**Author:** ![randomface](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/5fc32e/32.png) [@randomface](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/randomface)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2012, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/complete-and-total-invulnerability-what-do-you-do-with-it/611517/14 "2012-02-02T17:05:39Z")
Get some lead shoes and walk the seafloor. ---
**Author:** ![TruCelt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trucelt/32/523_2.png) [@TruCelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TruCelt)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2012, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/complete-and-total-invulnerability-what-do-you-do-with-it/611517/15 "2012-02-02T17:44:32Z")
Ooh! Scumpup made me think of it - Rodeo Clown! You’d be the greatest ever! Or bullfighter, if you’ve got the stomach for it. I couldn’t do it.