You wake up one day and realize that whatever deity grants superpowers has given you the ability to stop time, but has placed limits on the ability. Here’s how it works and the limitations that come with this superpower.
You can stop time for however long you like. You have a special watch that appears when you do so to keep track of how long you have stopped time for the rest of the world since all other clocks are frozen.
You are not allowed to interact with other people or objects* while time is frozen, or do anything that would affect the course of events that are already in progress.
You can’t use this opportunity to go snooping or exploring places you’ve never been.
While in general you can’t interact with other objects there is an exception for some things in your immediate surroundings. This same diety has somehow kept services like electricity and water on in whatever location you happen to be in. You can do things like showering, using the bathroom, preparing and eating food, etc. the same way you do normally. You can do things like read, sleep, listen to music, watch recordings on TV (off a DVD, tape, or downloaded movie, the internet is also frozen). You are even allowed to do things like laundry or cleaning if you want to do those, but not major renovations or building things. If you chose, you could even stop time for a longer period, months or even years, to go on diet or exercise, and then reap the benefits immediately (as perceived by the rest of the world when time starts back up).
You continue to age normally during this time, so if you decide to stop time for 10 years and then restart things your body will be 10 years older.
If you were to wake up one day with this power, would you use it? How often would you do so and what would you use it for?
I think I would use it on days that I felt I needed extra sleep. I would stop time just after waking up in the morning to get a few more hours of sleep while still having a full day to do all the things that need doing. I’d probably use it once in a while to read a book I just hadn’t gotten around to reading.
I volunteer at the rescue squad, and sometimes I have to go in to the office and work on about four hours of sleep. I would absolutely freeze time to make up the rest of the night’s sleep. Maybe freeze it in the middle of the shift to get my sleep, so that if we get a call at, like, 3:00 AM I don’t feel sleep-starved.
On mornings when I have something planned earlier in the day than usual (say, an 8:00 AM meeting, for instance), I’d freeze time so that I could still be able to work out before I needed to get where I needed to be.
At times when I’m out with a group of people (say, a group dinner), I’d freeze time when I got sick of being around everyone else but it wasn’t yet socially appropriate to leave. Like if you wanted to leave but hadn’t paid the bill or something.
And I’d probably freeze time to relax with a book any time life got busy, since reading is one of my favorite things to do.
My biggest issue would be not over-using this privilege so much that I start to look older than I am since the aging process would continue in time-freeze mode.
I wouldn’t want this power, but if I had it, I’d probably use it all the time. To everyone else, I’d basically rot away like the dude at the end of The Last Crusade, as I spent all my time procrastinating. That’s really all I see the limitations you’ve placed as good for. Time freezing would really only be fun or worthwhile for me if you could use it to interfere with stuff, which you ruled out. With all due respect, your limitations make it a pretty stupid superpower.
With all the restrictions, this “power” doesn’t seem much good for anything. As far as using it to catch up on sleep, read a book, etc, I don’t think the added aging that would result relative to everything else would be worth it.
The asterisk was meant to explain the exceptions to the limitations. As far as rule 3, the superpower granting diety put that in place to prevent things like entering other people’s homes or going through private or classified documents while time is frozen.
Just seeing blackjack dealer’s cards would be sufficient, or being able to place a roulette wager. I don’t know, the rules didn’t seem that consistent but I figure there’s got to be some way to take advantage.
The idea behind it is that it could be useful for a busy person that feels he or she never has enough time to get everything done and still get enough rest for the next day. The idea started out with my thinking along the lines of “what if I had a 28 hour day but everyone else still had a 24 hour day?”
ISTM that the “non-interference clause” has a bit of a loophole. I go to the casino and sit down at a high-stakes poker table. Every time cards are dealt and looked at, I stop time, get up from my seat, and take a stroll around the table, behind each opponent, and taking a look at his cards. Then I sit back down, restart time, and use my knowledge to guide my wagering.
Every time a project was going off the rails at work, I’d be using it to slow things down and fix the problem. The idea of using it to catch up on sleep during the week when things are going wrong would be great as well. I would definitely be using it a few hours a month.