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View Full Version : A Question I'm pretty sure only the Playground can answer (about a character)



AgentofHellfire
2013-11-13, 08:04 PM
So basically, a while back, I wrote up a bio for an antiheroine to play in this one superhero game, and her general thing was Knight Templar--she viewed her powers as a divine blessing, and thought that accordingly, she had been given authority to bring the ultimate justice upon anyone she perceived as evil.

In keeping with her theme as a self-styled paragon of Good, one of her main powers was Light Manipulation--not simply shooting rays or anything, but full-on ability to change any wave of the electromagnetic spectrum to any other wave of the electromagnetic spectrum (although she could also do lasers). And of course, what she could manipulate, she could also see.

This meant, and it was actually somewhat relevant to the character as she had a slight artistic streak, that she had access to an entire color palette we couldn't even conceive of. In addition to the usual color wheel, she could see infrared, ultraviolet, X-ray and even gamma. She could also see, oftentimes, radio waves.

Which leads me to the question at hand! Which is this: Would my character be able to see the transmissions made by satellites in the night sky, or the information cell towers beamed out, or would those not reach her because they aren't directed her way?

A Tad Insane
2013-11-13, 08:14 PM
She would notice a slight distortion, but nothing too major (probably). The 'visible light spectrum' is really really tiny compared to the whole thing. Radio waves have a period several times longer (forgetting exact numbers, but it wouldn't surprise me if it was over 100 times longer). Though it would probably be up to you. Also, they radio waves are going out in e'ery direction, they are rarely, and only if pointed intentionally, not directed at e'ery thing in e'ery direction, so long as it can reach

Science Officer
2013-11-13, 11:26 PM
Bear in mind, there is a difference between seeing and interpreting. Communications signals will be encoded, and transmitted very fast.

Slipperychicken
2013-11-13, 11:42 PM
The waves would need to hit her eyes directly in order for her to see them. Just like with normal light. That's the reason why you can't see the the ray of light emitted by a laser pointer until it hits something (and bounces off of it, into our eyes), and why it looks like a dot rather than a line.



This meant, and it was actually somewhat relevant to the character as she had a slight artistic streak, that she had access to an entire color palette we couldn't even conceive of. In addition to the usual color wheel, she could see infrared, ultraviolet, X-ray and even gamma. She could also see, oftentimes, radio waves.


Wait. Human art and design is only made for the visible light spectrum. Wouldn't she "see" all the other wavelengths (i.e. ultraviolet) which artists don't account for, making those new colors screw with how art is supposed to look, and wouldn't that make all our art (all our everything, really) look like a huge ugly mess to her?

Can she turn off her ability to perceive the other parts of the spectrum, or is she constantly stuck looking at ultraviolet light and radiation in addition to "normal" frequencies? Because it's not like I can just say "I don't like pink, I'll stop perceiving it".


EDIT: Assuming she had this power her whole life, how would she even know that she's perceiving different colors from the rest of us? When she's growing up and people point at a stop sign and say "this is red", then that's what she comes to accept as "red", even if "her red" looks nothing like "our" version of red.

tomandtish
2013-11-13, 11:52 PM
Microwave transmissions can be tightbeam focused, so she'd only see them if she had LOS on them. Other radio wave transmissions are generally widespread so A Tad Insane is right that she'd certainly see some indication of them (how much is dependent on how specifically the power works).

Actually, when it comes to radio waves that could be a big problem. There's going to be so many in the air at any one time that the power has to be more than just seeing. I could easily see information overload being an issue when it comes to radio waves. At anyone time you have:

Any cell phone that is communication with a cell tower and vice versa (doesn't have to be a call, could be internet, an app, or even the phone's GPS)

Satellite phones

Wi-Fi networks

TV broadcasts (network and satellite)

Radio broadcast (local and satellite)

CB traffic

...and that's just off the top of my head. I'm sure there's a few obvious ones I missed.

Cell phones would be relatively week, but in a city the size of new York you probably have thousands of them communicating with any given tower at any given time.

So how does she filter this information? Can she track them?

Character seems similar to Gary from Alphas who had the ability to see all electromagnetic radiation/electromagnetic wavelengths and process information as fast as any computer. One thing they handwaved though was how he could always seem to see just the signal or signals he wanted to see.

I bring this up because your GM will probably be looking for weakness so best to think about it.

Slipperychicken
2013-11-14, 12:00 AM
I bring this up because your GM will probably be looking for weakness so best to think about it.

The first thing which comes to mind is that one could, assuming it works like normal vision, blind her (at least temporarily) with intense ultraviolet light or other radiation. Maybe one could modify a flashbang's design to emit an even broader spectrum. Then when she's blind, you just shoot her like anyone else.


EDIT: As for interpretation, there are people who have learned how to understand similar things. I once read a semi-biographical book about a guy with Asperger's syndrome who, among other things, learned to look at tubes used to transmit music (it was a few decades ago, so they had a side effect of changing colors slightly when the data moved through them), and could actually tell what music would sound like based solely off the colors changing. I feel like interpreting radio signals is similar enough that it should be within the grasp of someone with the ability to perceive them, the kind of mind which can do such things, and the time spent learning how to process the signals themselves.

AgentofHellfire
2013-11-14, 06:59 AM
Wait. Human art and design is only made for the visible light spectrum. Wouldn't she "see" all the other wavelengths (i.e. ultraviolet) which artists don't account for, making those new colors screw with how art is supposed to look, and wouldn't that make all our art (all our everything, really) look like a huge ugly mess to her?

Might be, or she might develop a different aesthetic based on what she sees.


Can she turn off her ability to perceive the other parts of the spectrum, or is she constantly stuck looking at ultraviolet light and radiation in addition to "normal" frequencies? Because it's not like I can just say "I don't like pink, I'll stop perceiving it".

She can't exactly turn it off, but she could, in principle, just remove all the UV/radiation in a given area. Since she can manipulate light.





EDIT: Assuming she had this power her whole life, how would she even know that she's perceiving different colors from the rest of us? When she's growing up and people point at a stop sign and say "this is red", then that's what she comes to accept as "red", even if "her red" looks nothing like "our" version of red.

1. Most likely (I still have to flesh this out a tad, I think) she didn't have it her whole life, it was latent till her teens. So she'd notice the difference between how she saw things before and how she does so now.

2. Even if she were to have the altered perception bit since she was little, if she later was to understand the nature of her powers, understanding that her colors are different would kind of naturally come with it.
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As for sensory overload/blinding, I actually kind of figured she could get around that a bit--since she can actually bend the light reaching her eyes a little if she needs to. Basically, if it gets to the point where it could blind her, she automatically filters it out, and she has to perceive way more information to be affected by sensory overload in the first place.

(She's got another weakness already, so...:smalltongue: )

Sith_Happens
2013-11-14, 07:14 AM
Depending on how sensitive her eyes actually are to radio, she could find large cities uncomfortably or even impedingly bright.

The benefits of seeing infrared are fairly well-known.

Scow2
2013-11-14, 09:29 AM
I avoid characters with supernatural sensory ability simply because it would be an absolute headache.

Given how much stuff we have bouncing around in all wavelengths, you wouldn't even be able to see where to begin pruning the excessive visual noise.

ustus
2013-11-14, 01:40 PM
I avoid characters with supernatural sensory ability simply because it would be an absolute headache.

Given how much stuff we have bouncing around in all wavelengths, you wouldn't even be able to see where to begin pruning the excessive visual noise.

I'm seeing a lot of this in this thread, and I'd like to offer a counter-concept to it.

There are a lot of sources of light in our world as well, including objects simply reflecting that light. Depending on how she perceives the intensity of the various signals we use, it might be no more excessive than, say, a bunch of stores with neon advertisements all right next to each other. visually loud and distracting, sure, but nothing you can't get used to.

Of course, if you want to play this aspect, all of the people pointing it out *do* have a point. I just think there's a lot our minds already filter out visually, so it's not much of a stretch to lump this into that category.

Knaight
2013-11-14, 01:51 PM
Another counterpoint: Yes, there are a lot of radio and microwaves around at any given time (Cell phones are in the microwave spectrum). However, they are extremely low energy compared to visible light. Microwaves are on the order of 10^8 times weaker. Long wave radio are on the order of 10^12 times weaker. Even lower energy IR gets much weaker. It might just be like the light equivalent of background noise, unless amplified somehow.

That said, the spectrum higher in energy than the visible spectrum could be a problem - but, said spectrum isn't around nearly as much. Even most of the higher energy UV gets blocked somewhere in the atmosphere, and when it comes to things like gamma radiation there really isn't much around.

Bucky
2013-11-14, 02:41 PM
Which leads me to the question at hand! Which is this: Would my character be able to see the transmissions made by satellites in the night sky, or the information cell towers beamed out, or would those not reach her because they aren't directed her way?


Radio towers, and certain signals from cell towers would basically look like radio frequency lighthouses. But I don't think she could decode the transmission - you can try this yourself by hooking an LED up to an audio feed, you'll see that it flickers, but won't be able to make sense of it except for very low constant tones.

Satellites probably wouldn't be visible unaided, but she should be able to use light manipulation to mimic lenses, binoculars or a telescope to spot them.

WarlockLord
2013-11-14, 03:45 PM
You want to go read The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester, it's got a character in there with the same abilities you describe (at least with the sight).

Said character is viewing radar beams and whatnot, but it's not necessarily backed in actual science...