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Post by Eligecos on Apr 29, 2010 6:18:33 GMT
REVAMP.
After much deliberation, I have decided what the best guidelines for Telepathy and TK should be.
1. Only species of the same kind may telepathically communicate with each other, not with other races.
2. Telekinesis or PK is not allowed. However, technological means to emulate such abilities is acceptable.
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haseri
Satellite Scribe
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Post by haseri on Apr 29, 2010 7:27:11 GMT
Also: No precognition. That sets up all kinds of problems like predestination and the nature of free will. Some thing like Spider-Man's Spider Sense, where you can sense something is about to happen in the immediate future, should be OK, but it shouldn't lead to godmodding.
Of course you can have a character say he/she/shkle/it is a prophet, but the writer should be prepared for that prophesy to maybe not go as expected.
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Flisch
Satellite Scribe
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Post by Flisch on Apr 29, 2010 10:13:03 GMT
If I might throw my two cents in here:
I'm against telekinesis in general. If you want your character to have floating things or that they can manipulate matter without touching it, you could still explain it with anti-gravitation technology, but there shouldn't be a biological way of telekinesis.
Telepathy is OK, even though I have to disagree with Gec here. Having it limited to only a few individuals makes less sense than having it shared across the whole race. In the end even sonar is some kind of telepathy if other races aren't able to hear it. The only restriction I would say is that it shouldn't be too long-ranged. That means, they can't telepathically communicate between two different solar systems.
Oh, and precognition is a no-go. Seriously, it's so hard to handle it that I don't think anyone here is competent enough to use it properly without destroying the RP. In the best case it's just vague oracle prophecies and hinder the flow of the RP and in the worst case it's godmoding, simple as that. Plus, it makes absolutely no sense.
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yuu
Celestial Castellan
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Post by yuu on Apr 29, 2010 12:30:13 GMT
I'm same with Flisch here, almost.
I think that T&T can be handled in the same way that consciousness is. The method of obtaining it varies between different forms of life. And the specific method should be the determinant of their level of ability.
For example, a human-sized telepath that uses waves of minor spatial distortion would mostly have an effective range of several dozen kilometers, at best. But for creatures that possess miniature wormholes inside their bodies (the same wormholes that ships use except smaller), they can theoretically have a very, very, very long range depending on how good they are at bending/compressing/bypassing the fabric of space.
So basically, the quality of T&T is only as good as the creature's infrastructure.
And that's my two cents.
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crazen
Satellite Scribe
glue
Posts: 74
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Post by crazen on Apr 29, 2010 13:38:10 GMT
yea, it wouldnt make much sense for only some members of a species to use telepathy to communicate. thats like if only half of all people could ever learn to talk.
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KrakowSAM
Satellite Scribe
You know whats coming.
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Post by KrakowSAM on Apr 29, 2010 16:14:23 GMT
Ok, see, this is already getting fractious.
Really, with all points taken into consideration a compromise is the best way to go.
Say there are no 'natural' psionic type powers like the force or reading the minds of any intelligent being regardless of circumstances. But there are technologies that can produce the effects.
A race could be modified from birth with a chip which lets them communicate with radio waves, or the soldiers of a civilisation could have access to suits which give them a gravity-based telekinesis or something.
What it boils down to is there can be powers like that but they have to have some sort of reasonable explanation (no saying "A mystical precursor race genetically engineered the Examplians, giving them telekinetic powers which no-one understands") and there should be a way to circumvent or defend against these powers. (Radio jamming and interception in the example of telepathy I gave above).
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Post by Eligecos on Apr 29, 2010 17:29:55 GMT
Well I'm pretty open to suggestions. So if you guys can pull together a reasonably good explanation, we can set up the rules and go from there.
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Flisch
Satellite Scribe
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Post by Flisch on Apr 29, 2010 18:04:30 GMT
What Sam said, even though it's basically what I said. :3
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Clarke
Celestial Castellan
Posts: 116
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Post by Clarke on Apr 29, 2010 19:56:17 GMT
Telepathy via implanted chips, I'm okay with, but telekinesis seems a bit much. When would one really need telekinesis in an RP, anyway?
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Post by Josasa on Apr 29, 2010 20:41:23 GMT
I know this was brought up in some other thread, and the way I saw to use it best would be to have it as a 'communication' device between only members of their own species. I saw this telepathy as being used mainly for hive-minded creatures as a way to keep the masses of brainless slugs under control. Other than that, I didn't really see a point to having telepathy besides the select few that were born with defects or something.
As for telekinesis, I really don't think there's a place for that in the RPs. That's just my opinion though.
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Post by Razonatair on Apr 29, 2010 22:36:26 GMT
I am not in favor of including telepathy.
However, seeing as how I sparked this whole conflict, I do think limited telepathy should be allowed. I'm not hugely in favor of any form of telepathy beyond basic communication, which is as that used in the Tunmu. I don't really approve of clairvoyance or bending of matter, basically.
The Tunmu, while every Cell is telepathic, cannot initiate contact. A member of another species may initiate the contact, but it is entirely up to that member to maintain the contact as well. If anything, the member could be considered as "listening in" on the Hive in a way, as the Hive would not directly respond to questions, it would be up to the telepath to scan for the response. Essentially, the Tunmu are nothing more than extremely limited telepaths, if only to balance off the great connectivity(across essentially infinite space) that telepathy provides them.
I do agree that every race should have the ability to randomly access the same or similar method that Tunmu communicate with, or that any race can be based around telepathy.
I don't think being modified with chips should be classified as true "telepathy," nor should any artificial means of achieving "telepathy" be known as "telepathy." Telepathy should always remain purely a biological connection, and artificial means should be known as something else, if only to avoid confusion. A true telepath is born a telepath, in my opinion, not made one.
I also think it's best that any form of telepathy, biological and whatever we wish to call artificial "telepathy", remain mysterious. Devices that can artificially initiate whatever we wish to call their "telepathy" should be something which works practically but how it works theoretically should be vague.
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DarthGrievi
Satellite Scribe
He's watching...
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Post by DarthGrievi on Apr 29, 2010 23:30:51 GMT
Telepathy, in my mind, all boils down to two issues; sending and receiving between members of the same species, and sending/receiving to other species.
In general, for most of the explanations I can think up, receiving is far, far easier than sending. The former is somehow picking up the brainwaves of another, the latter is somehow influencing their brainwaves. If they can't read you themselves, then you've got to "shout" pretty damned loud to be able to make an impact in their mind.
For intraspecies communication, like with the Tunmu, the best explanation would be that they are all highly in tune to each other's thoughts, with every last cell working as a highly sensitive antenna. If another race possesses the sensory capabilities to also detect these messages, then they have effectively tapped into the hivemind. However, the Tunmu would not recognize his own "messages", as he would, not being a Tunmu himself, not be able to produce a message within the "frequency" or in the "language" of Tunmu thoughts.
This leads to the next problem: one species receiving the thoughts of another. Like with language, its logical that the telepath would have to learn exactly what the brainwaves he was picking up meant. A certain signal for his own race might signify something totally different for another, simply because their brains are set up differently.
In summary: Sending thoughts: Difficult, if not impossible Receiving thoughts: Easy, probably the least troublesome power Communicating telepathically between two species: Possible, after a period of "translation" Telekinesis: Strongly against Premonition: Only as the "Spidey Sense" mentioned earlier.
The key here is making sure it's limited, to prevent godmodding with it.
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Post by Razonatair on Apr 29, 2010 23:38:54 GMT
Really, it's like the ultimate form of espionage against the Tunmu; being able to listen in to entire Hives. And I pretty much agree with Grievi. It lends credit to the "Call" theory, where telepaths which routinely experience the Hive begin to make sense of the chaos, as if learning the language.
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Clarke
Celestial Castellan
Posts: 116
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Post by Clarke on Apr 29, 2010 23:44:54 GMT
Just wanted to point out that natural telepaths won't arise in a single generation out of member-species that are non-telepathic. Any telepathy would have to be performed by built-in computer chips, which should be common among races anyway.
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Post by Razonatair on Apr 29, 2010 23:46:19 GMT
Again, computer chips are not true telepathy.
I think latent telepathy could possibly be intrinsic in most brain designs, and that it might be activated in the extremely rare individual.
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