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View Full Version : Social PSI: an alternative approach to psychics in hard(ish) Sci-Fi.



Geordnet
2013-05-22, 11:57 PM
So, I was thinking about if I could make psychics work in a hard-ish sci-fi setting. (As in, I can tweak the laws of physics and add 'black box' technologies, but stay as close to real-world physics as possible for what I want to do.) I came up with a few ideas, and implications for the limits of psychic-ness based on those ideas. I've also realized that what I've come up with is probably just the scientific community's best guess for how it really works, so I can not only bend but break the rules a bit.

I think I've stumbled on a unique concept, and would like to know what the forum thinks.


In any case, here were my basic ideas:


Psionics is primarily a socio-psychological construct. In fact, it is very widely believed that all forms of social interaction are low-level psychic exchanges. (It's not that a psychic connection aids in social exchange, it's that social exchange is itself a psychic connection.)

Humans actually have many forms of sensory input (and even output) that they themselves don't know about,(including, at the least, the ability to determine the relative local EM field); it's just that these inputs are usually taken in on a subconscious level.

The human brain, already the most efficient computational engine known to man, does a lot more work "in the background" than we give it credit for.

Likewise, the primary limiting factor of the human athleticism is in most cases conditioning, not physical ability. (This is in place for a good reason, though: it keeps people from totally ruining their bodies through over-exertion.)


So, the first implication is that all psionics is limited to mental effects, although the line between perception and reality can become very blurred at times. (Delusions may be of arbitrary complexity and pervasiveness, forced cardiac arrest is the #1 psionic-related cause of death, etc.) So, no TK, PK, force lightning, et cetera -although you can make someone think you're killing them with these methods, and they will really die.

The second implication is that its effectiveness depends entirely upon the degree to which the subject can perceive the psychic. Being able to see, hear, smell, even feel the subsonic vibrations and sense the EM emissions of the psychic precisely are of crucial importance to receiving the message.

Third implication: multiple independent levels of psychic communication (although any given exchange may happen on multiple levels simultaneously):

Low-level would occur through very subtle body language and verbal cues, even situational details and the flow of information. All forms of charisma, persuasion, hypnosis, indoctrination, incitement, manipulation, familiarity, facial recognition and even language itself are expressions of this.
Mid-level transmits via the audial (including sub/ultrasonic) and EM spectrums, with highly complex signals only distinguishable from background noise by the most powerful of computers (such as the human brain).
High-level would be means that are utter mysteries to science, with little to no limitations. "Best guess" theories involve neutrinos, tachyons and/or entangled pairs, although nobody knows how the **** the human brain could ever pick any of these up.


Implication number four is that it would be possible to record and play back psychic powers, as well as design machines to emulate them.

This one is troublesome. To "fix" this, I'll now stipulate that all but the most basic of psychic connections require responsive communication; that is to say, a limited form of feedback is required. That is enough to keep basic recordings from "breaking the system", while the complexity and required precision makes it nigh impossible to replicate. (Note that it's only nigh impossible... :smallwink:)


While I'm at it, I might as well stipulate that the larger part of psychic talent is developmental, not genetic -this explains why nobody just clones an army of psychics. And since development starts in the womb, a maternal psi bond would make it difficult to institutionalize as well. Hm... This would mean that psychic sensitivity is a trait carried down mainly matriarchal lines. Another interesting tidbit to add to the pot. :smallbiggrin:


Next few implications are for individual psychic powers:

Empathy/Telepathy: Ever been able to guess what your friend is feeling/thinking? This is just the same as that, but more so.
Clairvoyance: works on the same principles as SONAR/RADAR, using other peoples' senses as well, possibly; with access to best memories and a computational engine that's very good at interpolating data.
Precognition: mostly just data modeling, only using a computer so efficient it makes AIs green with envy, and with potential access to all data known to everyone. Also, there may be some high-level precognition that uses tachyons, but that's just speculative and has never been (officially) documented.
Psi healing/Psi conditioning: advanced diagnostics and control of physical functions, hormone levels, etc.


The last thing of notice is how many "mundane" activities can be attributed to psionics. Bluff? Confusion. Intimidate? Dominate Mind. Persuade? Suggestion. Small talk? Lesser Mind Meld. Got a hunch? That's precognition. Sleeping off a cold? You're in a healing trance. Playing poker? Good mental shielding practice. Real-world hypnosis is a psychic power too, of course. Slight of hand? Psychic power. Throwing a rock? Taking a snap headshot in CoD? Psychic powers.
Bladder control? Psychic power.



So... What do you guys think? Am I on to something big, or am I just rambling? :smalltongue:

TuggyNE
2013-05-23, 12:16 AM
Awesome! Do want!

There's a lot of fascinating stuff you could do with this, reinterpreting current marginal science/pseudoscience in the light of "yeah, most of that actually does work in some way", and so on. I want to see the whole system. :smallamused:

Grinner
2013-05-23, 12:22 AM
So Tibetan biofeedback plus "brain = radio transceiver"?

Geordnet
2013-05-23, 12:29 AM
There's a lot of fascinating stuff you could do with this, reinterpreting current marginal science/pseudoscience in the light of "yeah, most of that actually does work in some way", and so on.

Especially when you consider that by this point, science will have isolated the parts that do work from those that don't, and figured out how to industrialize it. :smallbiggrin:



So Tibetan biofeedback plus "brain = radio transceiver"?

Not the brain, actually; it has its job cut out for it already crunching the numbers. It's probably a function of the entire body, with subdermal nerves the most important. But you'd literally "feel it" in your bones/guts, too. :smallwink:

Grinner
2013-05-23, 12:39 AM
Not the brain, actually; it has its job cut out for it already crunching the numbers. It's probably a function of the entire body, with subdermal nerves the most important. But you'd literally "feel it" in your bones/guts, too. :smallwink:

Interesting. You've put a lot of thought into this...

I'd recommend that you read over this paper (http://psycnet.apa.org/journals/bul/115/1/4/), but it's behind a paywall...

Friv
2013-05-23, 12:40 AM
It's certainly an interesting idea. How would that relate to interaction with non-psychic things?

For example: Right now, people are capable of one-sided social interaction with machines that don't even pretend to be able to respond. How would that interact with psychicness?

Geordnet
2013-05-23, 12:51 AM
It's certainly an interesting idea. How would that relate to interaction with non-psychic things?

For example: Right now, people are capable of one-sided social interaction with machines that don't even pretend to be able to respond. How would that interact with psychicness?

I'm not certain exactly what you're referring to, but I would think that these cases would be examples of machines that are not "non-psychic".

For instance, take the screen you are looking at right now. It is able to convey information to you, is it not? :smallamused:

Grinner
2013-05-23, 01:21 AM
I'm not certain exactly what you're referring to, but I would think that these cases would be examples of machines that are not "non-psychic".

For instance, take the screen you are looking at right now. It is able to convey information to you, is it not? :smallamused:

I think he meant something more like "How would these abilities interact with technology?"

Anyway, also check out the Mind Hacks chapter of Eclipse Phase (http://robboyle.wordpress.com/eclipse-phase-pdfs/). It had some pretty good stuff as well.

Flickerdart
2013-05-23, 01:33 AM
How does it work when a psychic is broadcasting his image across a million TV sets? Maybe you should add a requirement that a psychic must perceive the target to the same extent that the target perceives him, and the power is only as effective as the weaker of the two connections, kind of like a circuit.

Also, would this setting contain psi-enhancing implants? It seems like augmenting natural psionic ability with machines to, say, convert psychic energy into lasers (or at least heat, the easiest energy output) would be a thing someone (even if it's fringe scientists) would research.

TuggyNE
2013-05-23, 02:03 AM
I think he meant something more like "How would these abilities interact with technology?"

Besides the recordings mentioned in the OP and similar?


How does it work when a psychic is broadcasting his image across a million TV sets? Maybe you should add a requirement that a psychic must perceive the target to the same extent that the target perceives him, and the power is only as effective as the weaker of the two connections, kind of like a circuit.

Pretty sure that's covered by the proposed adjustments for the fourth implication in the OP, isn't it? I.e., very basic capabilities are possible with no feedback, but advanced techniques aren't possible. Things like talking, singing, and so forth, basically.

Geordnet
2013-05-23, 02:08 AM
I think he meant something more like "How would these abilities interact with technology?"
Well, that's a good question. We've already got basic voice recognition programs, but the little we have took decades to develop and we're still far away from autotranslators and nowhere near systems that are capable of interpreting body language or verbal cues. And that's just for low-level psionics, mid-level stuff is generally precise and complex enough that it's what controlled fusion is to us now: hypothetically possible, but beyond our means to accomplish.


Interesting note: in this setting, AIs would be extremely limited in social interaction due to the capability of available technology. All AIs would have prosopagnosia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prosopagnosia), and wouldn't be able to read cursive or mangled text, text viewed at an angle, in the shade et cetera.


Anyway, also check out the Mind Hacks chapter of Eclipse Phase (http://robboyle.wordpress.com/eclipse-phase-pdfs/). It had some pretty good stuff as well.
The mechanics seem close to what I want, but not quite. (Actually, it might be closer than I thought. I need to take a closer, more thorough look at this later.) The fluff is definitely off, though.



How does it work when a psychic is broadcasting his image across a million TV sets?
Just ask politicians. :smallbiggrin:


Maybe you should add a requirement that a psychic must perceive the target to the same extent that the target perceives him, and the power is only as effective as the weaker of the two connections, kind of like a circuit.
I already did something like that:

Implication number four is that it would be possible to record and play back psychic powers, as well as design machines to emulate them.

This one is troublesome. To "fix" this, I'll now stipulate that all but the most basic of psychic connections require responsive communication; that is to say, a limited form of feedback is required. That is enough to keep basic recordings from "breaking the system", while the complexity and required precision makes it nigh impossible to replicate. (Note that it's only nigh impossible... :smallwink:)
So, with television you only have basic transmission, and a relatively low-quality one as well. Hypothetically there is no limit to broadcasting/recording psychic powers, but for story and gameplay's sake the line has to be drawn somewhere. I'm not sure where, though...

Also, it is important to note that there is no "power" involved in a psychic exchange at all. Psionics is basically just pushing other people's buttons, giving their bodies (and minds) different instructions.



Also, would this setting contain psi-enhancing implants?
Your brain is already more efficient than any man-made computer, so what are you trying to gain? :smallconfused:


It seems like augmenting natural psionic ability with machines to, say, convert psychic energy into lasers (or at least heat, the easiest energy output) would be a thing someone (even if it's fringe scientists) would research.
Um, Social PSI isn't about energy, it's about patterns. I suppose you could consider the power of the message itself, but that would be in the microwatt, milliwatt range at most. Besides, it's in forms that are already known to science; sound waves, EM waves and such. It would be like trying to get energy from shouting, but using a calm voice instead. :smalltongue:



Pretty sure that's covered by the proposed adjustments for the fourth implication in the OP, isn't it? I.e., very basic capabilities are possible with no feedback, but advanced techniques aren't possible. Things like talking, singing, and so forth, basically.
And persuasion, conveying emotions, and (with long-term exposure) "brute-force" brainwashing. And probably other "blunt" applications of Social PSI.

Spuddles
2013-05-23, 08:21 AM
I think Dune did this extremely well with the Bene Gesserit witches- the Voice, matrineal memories (pretty bogus IRL, though), Prana-Bindu muscle control, Imprinting, and being able to read people so well that you can tell if they're carrying a concealed weapon, etc.

Even more out there stuff, like throwing around mind bullets that actually exist, not just convincing someone you are doing it (conjuration vs enchantment in dnd speak) isn't too far out there. You just need a sufficiently large energy source.

Humans have largely transcended biological energy demands, so things that would be ridiculous in an evolutionary sense- fire breath, laser eyes- aren't in a "we graft and nanobot and feed you, and a for a short amount of time you can do magic" sense.

Very small creatures are capable of some pretty extraordinary things. I think my favorite is the pistol shrimp. It kills prey by firing a sonic lance at it, using acoustic cavitation. The collapsing bubbles reach 5000K, nearly the temperature of the surface of the sun. The same principle guides research into bubble fusion- cavitation used to fuse hydrogen nuclei.

Hormones can also be used to prime people to have certain reactions to differing stimuli. There is a very solid body of research supporting mate attractiveness and MHC differences expressed by sweat, from wolves to humans. It would be entirely plausible that an airborne chemical, when presented with certain sociological ques, could inhibit or provoke aggression, solicit trust, distrust, or loyalty.

Friv
2013-05-23, 08:45 AM
Well, that's a good question. We've already got basic voice recognition programs, but the little we have took decades to develop and we're still far away from autotranslators and nowhere near systems that are capable of interpreting body language or verbal cues. And that's just for low-level psionics, mid-level stuff is generally precise and complex enough that it's what controlled fusion is to us now: hypothetically possible, but beyond our means to accomplish.

That was a big part of it, yeah. The secondary part was - "If, in your setting, social interaction has a psychic component (which is cool), what happens if someone attempts social interaction with something that does not have the ability to reproduce psychic interaction?"

Let me use an example. Have you read Embassytown, by China Mieville? The following isn't much of a spoiler, but I'm putting it in tags anyway just in case. It relates to language.

The main alien race in Embassytown, the Hosts, have what is known as Language, which has a strong psychic component. When machines talk to them, in their own language, they literally cannot understand what is being said, because the machines have no intent. It's just empty noise. Humans can learn to speak the words, but they have to also understand them; if they just mimic sounds it doesn't work.

So, presumably psychic interaction, especially as technology advances, is going to have some of that too. We already get people complaining that talking on the phone or writing to each other doesn't feel quite as "real", in real life. You could extrapolate on that, make some interesting societal offshoots of the fact that personal communication is actually different than interacting through a machine.

Geordnet
2013-05-23, 10:08 AM
Note: One interesting SocPSI ability I've forgotten to mention is absolute direction. This one actually what started my train of thought down the line of sensing EM in the first place, because I was thinking about how lots of animals have been shown to sense magnetic north, and...



I think Dune did this extremely well with the Bene Gesserit witches- the Voice, matrineal memories (pretty bogus IRL, though), Prana-Bindu muscle control, Imprinting, and being able to read people so well that you can tell if they're carrying a concealed weapon, etc.

Even more out there stuff, like throwing around mind bullets that actually exist, not just convincing someone you are doing it (conjuration vs enchantment in dnd speak) isn't too far out there. You just need a sufficiently large energy source.
The "more out there" stuff definitely doesn't fit in this model, but most of the rest seems to work quite nicely. Even the matrilineal memories.



Humans have largely transcended biological energy demands, so things that would be ridiculous in an evolutionary sense- fire breath, laser eyes- aren't in a "we graft and nanobot and feed you, and a for a short amount of time you can do magic" sense.
In this setting, even if this were possible (hard sci-fi, remember?) it wouldn't be considered a part of Social PSI. Social PSI is all about interpreting patterns in certain ways, not about energy.



Hormones can also be used to prime people to have certain reactions to differing stimuli. There is a very solid body of research supporting mate attractiveness and MHC differences expressed by sweat, from wolves to humans. It would be entirely plausible that an airborne chemical, when presented with certain sociological ques, could inhibit or provoke aggression, solicit trust, distrust, or loyalty.
Oh yes, hormones and pheromones would definitely play into this. :smallbiggrin:




That was a big part of it, yeah. The secondary part was - "If, in your setting, social interaction has a psychic component (which is cool), what happens if someone attempts social interaction with something that does not have the ability to reproduce psychic interaction?"
I think you're missing out on how it works. Everything special about Social PSI happens on the receiving side*: it's all about reading into things.

A psychic signal is just a signal. It transmits through known mediums, and follows known physical laws**. And any signal can and often will be interpreted psionically.

Take, for instance, clouds: people have been seeing shapes in them for millennia. Does that make the sky psychic? Of course not! It's all a function of the person doing the watching, interpreting what they see as having intent despite it being merely random.


*Well, I suppose you could count sending these signals as "special", but the point is that it doesn't matter to the receiving party where the signals come from, since the human body can't track them back to their source.

**Except for High-Level PSI, but that's supposed to be more like how PSI is viewed in real-life: unsubstantiated reports of the unexplained. It's also a sort of 'safety net' for realism, too, since it can be used to patch SocPSI-related plot holes.


So, presumably psychic interaction, especially as technology advances, is going to have some of that too. We already get people complaining that talking on the phone or writing to each other doesn't feel quite as "real", in real life. You could extrapolate on that, make some interesting societal offshoots of the fact that personal communication is actually different than interacting through a machine.
That feeling is how it's different; Social PSI merely explains why. :smalltongue:

I'm not sure what other effects could extend from this, anyways. The 'problem' is only going to be lessened as higher-fidelity communications are developed.


Actually, this would be a reason for avoiding increasing quality in communications. If people fear some PSI-terrorist breaking/hacking into a television relay station, or even subliminal messaging from the government, they'll be wary of buying a TV set which could potentially affect their mind. Actually, TV as we know it today might disappear for all but the lower classes, especially if it's proven that advertisements have a SocPSI element to them.

Flickerdart
2013-05-23, 11:28 AM
Um, Social PSI isn't about energy, it's about patterns. I suppose you could consider the power of the message itself, but that would be in the microwatt, milliwatt range at most. Besides, it's in forms that are already known to science; sound waves, EM waves and such. It would be like trying to get energy from shouting, but using a calm voice instead. :smalltongue:

What's not awesome about a shouting-powered laser?

Geordnet
2013-05-23, 11:32 AM
What's not awesome about a shouting-powered laser?
Nothing; but this is supposed to be hard sci-fi, so it needs to be practical. :smalltongue:




Anyway, also check out the Mind Hacks chapter of Eclipse Phase (http://robboyle.wordpress.com/eclipse-phase-pdfs/). It had some pretty good stuff as well.
Upon further review, I've found that Eclipse Phase has lots of concepts I'm looking for. Of particular note is that of a "Basilisk Hack", for all of SocPSI is founded upon an extension of this concept.

Most of the mind hacks have a place in SocPSI, too. Most of the passive psi-chi slights correspond to cases where I attribute "normal" human mental functions to PSI, for instance. From a rules mechanics point of view, though, these wouldn't be tracked explicitly as psychic powers. The rest of the slights would be examples of deliberate psychic activities. I'm not sure about the precise mechanics behind them yet, though.

Psi surgery surprisingly has an analogue as well, although the fluff behind it is radically different. That would be the "brute force" PSI which was mentioned earlier. Basically, continual repetition of signals reinforce their patterns in the subject's psyche, over time wearing it down and remolding it. Just like real-world indoctrination. :smalleek: :smallamused:

Flickerdart
2013-05-23, 11:48 AM
Nothing; but this is supposed to be hard sci-fi, so it needs to be practical. :smalltongue:
Not practical, just explainable. :smalltongue:

Geordnet
2013-05-23, 01:21 PM
Not practical, just explainable. :smalltongue:
Some technobabble-y excuse might be sufficient for softer works, but for this everything has to stand up to thorough examination. Every piece of technology needs to be explained not only in terms of physical plausibility, but in terms of why it is used, instead of anything else. In other words, it needs to be the most practical tool for its intended purpose, for otherwise why hasn't it been abandoned in favor of something better suited to the task?

Flickerdart
2013-05-23, 01:23 PM
Whether or not there's anything better depends entirely on the author of the setting.

Geordnet
2013-05-23, 03:11 PM
Whether or not there's anything better depends entirely on the author of the setting.
Not in hard sci-fi. :smalltongue:

In hard sci-fi, anything which makes logical sense within the physics of the setting is itself a plausible line of research in-setting. So unless there is a specific reason as to why that tech didn't pan out, it is assumed that it would work -and therefore, be used.


In either case the point is moot, because I'm the author of this setting and I say it's impractical. :smallannoyed:



Anyways, to get this thread back on track I'd like to ask people to post their ideas for how to adapt technology with SocPSI in mind.

For instance: military, security, and police forces will undoubtedly take counter-measures to limit psychic compromisation of their troops. How would they do this? The field of medicine could definitely use PSI healing techniques, but exactly how would they be applied? How would a universal acceptance of SocPSI theory impact religion and politics? Marketing and the media? And how would psychic skills fit into the education system?


I'll start, I guess. I think that the first thing that would happen is for armed forces to widely adopt dehumanizing full-face helmets and sealed uniforms, in order to stymie the psychic feedback needed for advanced manipulation methods. HUDs which actively apply "blur" and minor distortion to detected human faces and voices could be activated to great effect whenever a psychic threat is suspected. A full-body suit designed to reflect, absorb, even drown out mid-level PSI would probably help too, although it would probably be difficult-nigh-impossible to nullify it completely, just like wearing earplugs doesn't perfectly prevent you from comprehending speech.