Why isn't Super Intelligence the most desired superpower?

So you have been granted a super power of your choice. What do you choose?

What's that, flight. No, invisibility. No, super strength. Or super speed.

All the usual suspects, but why not super intelligence? Why not have the brain of many Einsteins all rolled into one?

Well...apart from the fact it would seem to make you very nerdy and without extra enhancements you would be at the mercy of all the other people who are stronger, faster, tougher than you. In fact, every bully who loves to torment nerds. And that's before you start with the super powered folk.

And to clarify, this matters in writing superhero fiction as it begs the question how a super intellect will cope and respond to the sheer power of the mind and deal with others they are likely to see as beneath them, if that is their power.

On the flip side to being a nerd, you could build anything you want. You can make obscene amounts of money simply by being better at everything, than everyone else. Better at predicting share prices. Able to manipulate the futures market. Able to create new gadgets to sell for profits. Billionaire status beckons. Move over Tony Stark.

Actually though, one of the issues with being super smart may be that you lose empathy for humanity, becoming remote and possibly heedlessly cruel in the process. Why would that happen? Well, how easy would it be to develop contempt for the imbeciles who you deal with (this is comparative to your towering super intellect of course)? How hard is it to kowtow to fools who simply have more power and influence than you because they are charismatic (why should those politicians rule over you when you can see they are doing something wrong)?

Overwhelming intellect will make dealing with ordinary people difficult at best.

How do you cope with the panoply of thoughts that race and cascade with ideas. Can you act on them in real time, when you have already thought of something better as you picked up pen and paper? Will you be paralysed by indecision as the next better thought replaces your last?

Looking at comics as a good guide for these issues, lets look at Reed Richards of the Fantastic Four, who is a super intellect. He is very much the hero, working to help others. Yet a lot of times he is distracted by thoughts and work he is undertaking; experiments he is doing. And he is the best of us. But he has the advantage that he has other super powers. If he didn't he would fail against supervillains much of the time.

Doctor Doom - another towering super intellect, but cruel, driven, power hungry to control others. Some might say mad, but definitely sort of evil in his behaviours. He regularly defeats hordes of superheroes, only falling at the end to greater power or prepared adversary.

Both of these, though diametrically opposed in style and behaviours, are super intellects. Both are remote from the polulace. DD because he is ruler of a kingdom he has taken over. RR because he works in a multi-story tower (Baxter Building) away from people.

So, you have the super powers, are you able to tackle other super-powered folk? Preparation will help. Build that robot to fight for you. Find that achilles heel of your enemy (like Lex Luthor, using Kryptonite to tackle Superman). It all helps to take you to a top spot as a powerhouse, but it almost certainly won't bring you THE top spot.

Take the animated film Megamind as an example. No matter how clever he is, he still cannot beat the ultimate hero, whose powers are just too much. The same goes in the book "Soon I Will Be Invincible" by Austin Grossman (somewhat similar plotline to Megamind, though it came out before that film). In both, the villain is unable to win in the end, against overwhelming power.

Would having hyper intelligence lead to madness? If the brain whirls that quickly with endless cascading ideas, how hard must it be to maintain focus? Or does super focus come with super intelligence? Do you become detached from reality as your mind moves to a 'higher plane' of thought?

All tough considerations. Now for the Harbinger Six bit (spoiler alert). As yet, there are no Super Intellects in the world of Harbinger Six. At least as far as is known and identified. An obvious thought may occur to you - would a true genius of geniuses advertise their brilliance, or work from behind the scenes, hiding their mind to avoid scrutiny and allow maximum freedom?

Until next time...