Would you rather have: Super Smell or Object Knowledge (neither can be turned off, they work all the time except when asleep)

Super Smell... Object Knowledge sounds like it's too overwhelming.

Hehehe you probably aren't considering strong smells...

Object Knowledge is known as psychometry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychometry_%28paranormal%29

Personally I would prefer psychometry. But it could be too overwhelming.

Why would you want super smell? That sounds horrible. There are lots and lots of really unpleasant smells. For example, I imagine that toilet time would become especially bad...

"the more you touch the object the more you know".

*zip*

"Great. I shook hands with this woman I work with and now know her entire sexual history. And, within the context of this affliction I see women as objects."

With great power comes great ... something.

Other Motherfucker

The first thing I thought about if had a super smell was that I can smell shit everywhere I go. I don't want that. WIth object knowledge I can wear gloves to negate those powers right?

Object knowledge. Super smell doesn't sound very awesome.

Object knowledge the world smells bad enough without supersmell.

Object knowledge. Easy.

I'd wear gloves any time I don't want my touch based power to trigger. And I'm not the type of person who goes around touching shit I don't own. What's the book on the shelf at my local book store going to tell me? Who put it up on the shelf?

Super smell sounds terrible. Have you ever smelt some really bad things?

If I can smell like a bloodhound and bloodhounds could live with their super smell, it seems like the safer option. Being able to smell cancer and bombs sounds pretty handy. Psychometry sounds too vague and useless in comparison. What am I gonna do with that power? Find out where a wasp lived by touching a fig?

I'd imagine it'd get pretty weird when the improved smelling starts to affect my food preferences though. But if that means I would prefer to eat more healthily since I can smell what's in my food more, even better!

@audiobusting: This guy makes a good case for smell, hell, if you train yourself you may even be able to figure out when someone is about to do something bad, detect the fear sweat coming off of them or something like that.

Buuuuuuuuuuuut I would want the touch one. Imagine going through a museum with that ability, oh shiiiit, you could touch dinosaur bones!
And even if it is unreliable at times it could still be used for good, touch a murder weapon, hope you flash to the person who did it. That kind of thing. So I would go with that, but smell doesn't seem so bad either.

AS someone who currently has limited to no sense of smell on a good day, I think the smell thing might fry my brain and I can really imagine existing with it.

The object knowledge things sounds pretty cool and I would open a detective agency immediately.

I have an above average capability to detect smells, and it causes more confusion and awkward conversations than it could possibly do me good.

Do not recommend, even at normal human levels.

Object Knowledge

Super Smell is a massively double edged sword if I can't turn it off at will.

I agree that object knowledge is way better. Plus you may not be able to control your ability, but if it's triggered by your hands touching stuff you can probably prevent it going wild by simply wearing a pair of gloves.

So does object knowledge apply to human beings?

@fredchuckdave: If it does, does that mean it's ok to objectify women?

The smell thing would be bad. Farts would become inescapable.

I already have a very strong sense of smell, and let me tell you it sucks. I'd rather smell less than more at this point. The other one seems kind of like whatever, could be useful, could be annoying.

I like DeadZone so Object Knowledge. I have a strong aversion to smells already (I used to have a good sense of smell, but smoking has made that lessened) so no thanks to that.

Except, I would change the rule so that even when you're asleep it doesn't "turn off." It "turning off" ever doesn't make sense- even if you're asleep- for either of these options.

I don't want either of these things if they can't be turned off. I don't want to get flashes of an object's history every time I touch anything. The smell doesn't seem much better either, especially if you could smell stuff like disease. Neither seems especially beneficial, too. If I had to take one I guess it'd be the object permanence.

Object knowledge may be a pain in the ass. Imagine if your using your keyboard then you are constantly having flashbacks and flashforwards of every time you'll be using the keyboard. Can I wear clothing with this choice? I don't want distorted creepy images when I'm trying to put on socks.

Grandma! Not the hairbrush!!

I'm not sure I would want my food's history when I go out to eat.

Seeing as how I tend to just touch the same objects, on a daily basis (computer, keyboard, glasses, water bottle, etc.), I think, at a certain point, I'd reach the point where I'd know everything about said specific objects and it wouldn't really be a problem.

Not that it'd be a problem away, because facts are cool and I'd probably get a better understanding of/appreciation for the aforementioned objects and the work that went into them, I guess.

@jesus_phish: I totally didn't mean it that way, might just delete my own post if the mods are feeling ban happy. Still made me chuckle though.

One is a nuisance, the other is good for spy shit. Object Knowledge all the way.

Basically the premise of the comic Chew. It's pretty good.

If you want super smell you have never lived in a large city.

That's an unfair advantage for object knowledge. It's usefulness can't be understated. Unless it's a thing that can overwhelm you and you can't control, there is no reason not to take that one.

Edit: Or is it overstated? Anyway, it's hella useful :P

Object Knowledge. I have enough hatred for the level of smelling that I already possess to know I wouldn't want it drastically magnified.

With Object Knowledge you would never be able to use any kind of public bathroom again. I'd be wary of using even my own bathroom. That being said I would still go with Object Knowledge.

Best post ever

See folks object knowledge has an easy work around...gloves.

Like you would assuming you've had it for awhile either A-go completely insane..but for sake of this we will assume B-be able to become accustom to some things over time. This would include objects in your immediate home, the clothing you wear, the car you drive and so on.

And so, all you have to do is limit your physical contact with other objects. Gloves.

I admit of course that such an idea comes from many many various other sources, and not my own.

I've read Chew. I know better than to take object knowledge. That shit's gonna haunt you for the rest of your days.

I'll take super-smell.

And everyone here's talking mess about super-smell and I think it's being too vague. I interpreted it as your smelling gets better as well as your tolerance for smell. So smelling a flower wouldn't murder you because the Scent's too strong.

For some reason I'm inclined to go with super smell.

Being able to sense a wider range of odors doesn't mean the stuff you can already smell would be overpoweringly intense, necessarily-- but it would allow you to make millions of dollars as the world's best chef, or a miraculous cancer detector who can diagnose literally hundreds of people per day for a couple hundred dollars each, thanks overpriced health care system!

Having to smell every bad smell in the world around you wouldn't be that bad, either, as eventually your brain would tune them out, the same way it does for the bad smells we already live with.

Object knowledge seems cool, because it's literally magic, but ultimately, there just isn't that much practical use to being able to touch Abe Lincoln's hat and definitively know what his voice sounded like. On top of that, no one would ever believe you! So It'd be frustrating.

But ultimately, what it all comes down to is that I would rather be forced to know that someone has pooped, in a general sense, than be forced to see a vision of them pooping.

Clothes. People touching you. The bed you sleep in. The thin layer of dirt that gets on you over the course of a day.

Somehow I think that super smell can make me a social god. While the other one won't really make me a knowledge god... more like a history/process buff. I think Social god can be used to achieve more.

edit: by social god I mean that you can probably tell everything about a person and get perfect reads with proper inference. Like smell who touched their dress lately or if they cried or lots of random things like that.

In my mind I think both are super useful.

I would want the knowing touch and I would spend all day in museums. The only huge issue is you would know things you might not be able to prove. For example you could touch George Washington desk and know he was bisexual, but how do you prove that? That might be the hardest bit of that ability, you would know things that is many cases might be IMPOSSIBLE to corroborate with other evidence. Also you would know more about family or friends that you really should for you own sanity.

The sense of smell might be useful in ways we simply cannot understand until we have it. Imagine when you shake someone hand sensing what sort of physiological response they are having. It maybe be possible to smell anger, fear, arousal, or the lack of those things. So you could sense contentment, confidence, or disinterest by the lack of smells coming from someone. We can use Bloodhound dogs, but we use them crudely. Having a senses of smell with a human mind attached might prove shockingly useful in ways we cannot imagine. Imagine walk into your bedroom, sense your kids have been in there near the closest where you hid their Christmas gifts, so you KNOW you have naughty children.

Supersmell is more practical, and I would assume that over time one would grow accustomed to the increase and ambient smells, like how smokers grow used to the smell of smoke but when a non-smoker comes into their house it practically knocks them down. Being able to sniff out bombs, drugs, cancer, all sounds like they could offer important useful skills that be used reliably; whereas psychometry would be a crapshoot. Touch a murder weapon and learn of the murderer, or just get a flash of some guy putting it into packaging and shipping it off, not to mention you could plug your nose but you cannot stop touch. The whole gloves idea? Imagine how often you are going to get flashes about those damn gloves, and it isn't stated it is limited to hands. So I hope you enjoy your daily insights to the history of your underwear, and everything you brush up against or touch.

So you walk about once more looking into the life of inspector 5b as he tries on the underwear you are wearing, I'll be hiring out my services to law enforcement and medical centers across the globe.