Does the World Need the Return of Superman Today?

How Superman scored against today’s technology

I saw this on my Facebook feed. –Superman reboot in the making at Warner Bros.

My first thought is YES! with a fist punch in the air.

My favorite superhero is coming back with Henry Cavil as the man. Handsome deliciously chiseled like a Greek god.

But then I started thinking,

“Would superman powers work in this coming century?”

A brief background of Superman — Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster created Superman as a fictional superhero in 1938. He was born on planet Krypton with the name Kal-El. His parents sent him to Earth in a small spaceship. On planet earth he was adopted and was called Clark Kent. On earth he developed various superhuman powers.

So, I thought it would be interesting to list Superman’s powers and compare them to today’s technology. 🤭

Superman has four distinct superpowers.

Power No: 1 — Speed

Superman can fly at incredible speeds. He is known to break the sound barrier. He flies faster than light to distant galaxies.

Today, we have Google search engine, which processes 3.5 billion searches per day.

If I search for ‘Superman’ on Google, I will have 253 million results in 1.10 seconds.

Now, if we take that as the average search time and multiply it by 3.5 billion searches, I am confident even Superman will feel dizzy if he must answer that many searches at that speed.

Looking at the numbers, we could conclude the winner is Google.

Score Result:- 1 point to Google and 0 to Superman for speed.

Side Notes: In case Superman feels the need to post his accomplishment on social media, we all know at most he will have 10–15 mins of fame per post.

But he could improve by doing a music video collaboration with a Kpop group or a prank like — Rings Prank video. He could garner more than 200 million views in 24 hours. That’s the power of speed with a viral post — A new KPI for speed for Superman.

Power No: 2 — Tracking / X-ray Vision

Superman has the power of X-rays eye vision, which allows him to see through objects.

Here is where I think Superman is losing big time.

Today with AI- Artificial Intelligence running in the background, watching us like a hawk, makes Superman’s X-ray vision feels like kindergarten.

AI sees/watches where we go, what we search, what we say even what we eat, or hide our money. It collects so much information and learns so fast. It is even recommending what we should wear, where to invest or where our next holiday could be.

Superman’s X-ray vision, at most, tell us there is a broken bone. But it’s not capable of advising us where to find the best doctor or the nearest doctor.

Google AI will do this for you with a few simple instructions and have an appointment ready for you.

Oh, we can forget about Superman’s heat vision too. We have enough global warming issues already.

Score Result:- 1 point to AI and 0 to Superman for tracking power

Power No: 3 — Superhuman Breath/Energy

Superman can inhale or blow vast amounts of air to the point of freezing targets.

Okay, maybe he could be helpful with global warming issues.

But remember, we have AIs and we have robots. These robots do not require any breath. They are designed to run on clean energy 24/7.

They adjust my house air conditioning to the way I like it including my fridge temperature. Some robots are deployed to turn on sprinklers/fertilizers at farms. Industrial robots are used from mining to health care — all without any use of human breath. Just watch robots in Alibaba’s warehouse.

Today in the service industry, we have the self-drive car, robots as hotel reception, and even robots for companions- boyfriend, girlfriend, and dogs. No need for super-human breath or to deal with bad breath. 🤭Plus they are easily replicated.

If Superman ever needs a date, he would have to strip off his cap and dress like Clark Kent first. Unlike a robot, you just need the power switch. Convenience at its best. Again, with no breath.

With robots and a bit of programming, you get to organize your life the way you want it. Hot or Cold, it’s up to you.

Score Result:- 1 point to AI+Robots and half-point to Superman for Superhuman Breath/Energy

Side note: half-point — because there is a chance Superman could reverse global warming.

Power No 4: Listening

Superman can hear sounds at frequencies outside the human hearing range.

To exist in the 21st Century, Superman needs to have a virtual presence. He needs to look into his branding/social presence. The Good news is, he has a good solid brand.

But he would need to have the power of social listening.

Social listening is the process of tracking mentions of certain words, phrases, or even complex queries across social media and the web, followed by an analysis of the data — extracted from https://marketingland.com/social-listening-267175.

That means on top of answering 3.5 billion queries a day. Superman will need to listen to his social media — track hashtags, mentions, remarks, questions, comments, trends, web pages, blogs, articles, videos, photos, forums, news, website, competition, chat groups, advertisement and even host a few sessions in the clubhouse to champion world issues.

According to Hootsuite Insights, their tool searches 1.3 trillion social posts in real-time. This would be Superman’s new social metric for his listening power. Lucky for him, there are tools to help him.

Score Result:- 1 point to Social Media and half-point to Superman for Hearing Abilities/Listening

Side note: half-point— because he is a classic old brand that lasted for decades.

Conclusion

— Superman needs a serious upgrade to operate in the 21st Century.

— His direct new enemy today is Social media, Robots, Google & AIs, but if he is willing to collaborate, these tools will take him to new heights beyond galaxies by going viral.

— As an online writer, social technology is our double edge sword — a friend and foe at the same time. We use social media and technology to help us with our research and promotion of our articles.

— At the same time, each of these technology tools takes up as much time as we do in writing, so much so that we have writers writing about switching off phones or the internet to stay sane. (including yours truly)

— It takes resilience (beyond superman effort)to be relevant in this 21st century. Be mentally prepared to tie yourself to your phone/laptop once you decide to move into virtual space. Be sincere and realistic in your expectations. Otherwise, don’t go online.

This ends my scoring exercise of Superman. Meanwhile, I look forward to Superman Reboot. He might not have scored that well in this 21st century, but he is what I called a brilliant evergreen material that lasted beyond decades.

Something a writer like me aspires to do.