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  • 📅 July 2024 is YE 46.5 in the RP.

Restrict 'telepathic' races

Should we allow more Telepathic Races:

  • Yes

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • No

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    0
And we have a tie. So far.

Come on people, we need some people for a Tie Breaker.

Oh very very good post Kotori. I agree - the Phodians are a great race.

Edit: And the No's are out front.
 
So, hi. I'm new here, but from what it seems to me that's a lot of races that do have access to telepathy. Assuming that's over half of the availiable playable races, that's quite a lot. But, that's not the point of the poll as it stands right now.

As far as the poll goes, my vote goes to no - I would say to focus more on elaborating the telepathic abilities of the races that already exist rather than start creation on a new telepathic race.

And, as far as using telepathy as an out to make a race unique, you have to further define that ability. I don't know how well defined many of those races are in terms of telepathic ability (not to mention I didn't know that Nepleslians had access to telepathic-enablers), but it can still be made unique in such a way that still keeps things original.
 
Cora, I know that Wolf fears death. He fears something going wrong with the ST tech or someone purposefully deleting his back-up. Not to mention the whole dying experience in general. If he died and came back he'd never forgive himself for dying in the first place and he'd beat himself up over it for the rest of his artificial life. I should think that more than one character would feel that way. If characters don't fear death then I think it's the player's fault, not the fault of the ST technology. I know that's not the point of your post, however so I'll not pursue that matter any further.

Restriction of telepathic abilities in new races should be on a case-by-case basis. I don't like the fact that everyone and their dog has telepathy at the moment but for continuity it should remain in those races that already possess it. I'd really rather there not be so many more new races in the first place, but since there will be I don't think a blanket rule is very fair, especially regarding people who actually waited a time until they were experienced enough to create a race. They shouldn't be restricted because some people who all created telepathic races beat the concept to death, to the point where it's not even a special ability anymore but a standard one (I'm speaking in general terms here, and I don't mean to accuse anyone of anything, if that's how it sounds).

I think the rules of telepathy are set up. If anything, telepathy in currently existing races should be toned down, not elaborated. We don't want that explorations in psionics should lead down the road to more advanced and generally outlawed subjects like -kinesis, and that's really the only place left to go I think.
 
Vesper said:
A blatant example was in the last Sakura mission (I might be thinking of the Yukika's last one, not sure) where one of the crew members was commenting on making sure to get telepathy 'installed' on his next leave. How can it be special when it is as simple as getting it installed?
that was me, on the Yukika...I'm a Yamataian, though, and telepathy's one of the optional features of a Yamataian body, so...yeah. But the fact that a Nepleslian (or any race, for that matter) can install a cybernetic telepathy module definitely reduces the 'specialness.'

I'll agree that inborn telepathy is getting overused, but I voted that it should still be allowed (and judged on a case-by-case basis). A blanket-ban would prevent submission of races with a hive-mind, or empaths, or stuff that I'm not creative enough to think of.
 
Here is an article that helps explain telepathy

It generaly says that there are certain cells that produce a biomagnetic field. This means that if you can geneticly modify someoneto have these cells(and they can controll the magnetic effects) then they can use them to interact with other magnetic fields. Every human has these cells in some degree. So if you had said cells that allowed you to change your magnetic field than you can 'imprint' onto their magnetic field. You should read the article, I suck at explaining things.

http://www.affs.org/html/biomagnetism.html
Biomagnetism and Bio-Electromagnetism:
The Foundation of Life

by H. Coetzee, Ph.D.

Originally published in Future History, Volume 8

Throughout the past 30 years, scientists have been extensively researching organisms that have the ability to produce the ferromagnetic mineral magnetite. Magnetite is a black mineral form of iron oxide that crystallizes in the cubic or isometric system, namely all crystals which have their crystallographic axes of equal length at 90 degrees to each other. It is a mixed Iron (II) Iron (III) oxide, Fe3O4, and is one of the major ores of iron that is strongly magnetic. Some varieties, known as lodestone, are natural magnets; these were used as compasses in the ancient world.

The discovery of a biogenic material (that is, one formed by a biological organism) with ferromagnetic properties and found to be magnetite was the first breakthrough toward an understanding as to why some animals have the ability to detect the earth's magnetic field. Searches for biogenic magnetite in human tissues had not been conclusive until the beginning of the 1990's when work with high-resolution transmission electron microscopy and electron diffraction on human brain tissue extracts of the cerebral cortex, cerebellum, and meninges (membranes surrounding the brain and spinal cord) identified magnetite-maghemite crystals

These magnetite crystals were found to be organized into linear, membrane-bound chains a few micrometers in length, with up to 80 crystals per chain. Furthermore individual crystals have their {111} aligned along the length of the chain axes (the "easy" direction of magnetization). The {111} crystal alignment has been interpreted as a biological mechanism for maximizing the magnetic moment per particle, as the {111} direction yields approximately 3% higher saturation magnetization than do other directions. This prismatic particle shape is also uncommon in geological magnetite crystals of this size, which are usually octahedra. The crystal morphology was found to be cubo-octahedral with the {111} faces of adjacent crystals lying perpendicular to the chain axis.

All the magnetite crystals that have been examined to date are single magnetic domains, which means that they are uniformly and stably magnetized and have the maximum magnetic moment per unit volume possible for magnetite. Elemental analysis, by energy-dispersive X-ray analysis, electron diffraction patterns, and high resolution transmission electron microscopy lattice images, showed that many of the particles were structurally well-ordered and crystallographically single-domain magnetite. This means that the production of this biomineral must be under precise biological control.

Ferromagnetic crystals interact more than a million times more strongly with external magnetic fields than do diamagnetic or paramagnetic materials (deoxyhemoglobin, ferritin, and hemosiderin).With this finding researchers were posed with a fundamental question for biology , namely: What is the mechanism through which the weak geomagnetic fields are perceived by organisms that are able to precipitate crystals of a ferromagnetic mineral such as magnetite (Fe3O4)? Could these crystals use their motion in a variety of ways to transduce the geomagnetic field into signals that can be processed by the nervous system?

The presence of membrane-bound biomineral magnetite, which has been shown to have a biological origin, and the implication that some kind of mechanical coupling must take place between each compass magnetite particle and a mechanoreceptor, or at least a functionally equivalent mechanism allowing the position of the particle to be monitored by a sensory organelle in the body, is unique. Research has also found that the magnetite is produced by the cells of the organism when needed. Forms of advanced physical intelligence can directly tap into this information if they have a crystalline network within their brain cavity.

Scientists are now asking the fundamental question: What is magnetite doing in the human brain? In magnetite-containing bacteria, the answer is simple: Magnetite crystals turn the bacteria into swimming needles that orient with respect to the earth's magnetic fields. Magnetite has also been found in animals that navigate by compass direction, such as bees, birds, and fish, but scientists do not know why the magnetite is present in humans, only that it is there.

We have also seen in research done in the late 1980s that proteins, DNA, and transforming DNA function as piezoelectric crystal lattice structures in nature. The piezoelectric effect refers to that property of matter which may convert electromagnetic oscillations to mechanical vibrations and vice versa. Studies with exogenously administered electromagnetic fields have shown that both transcription (RNA synthesis) and translation (protein synthesis) can be induced by electromagnetic fields and furthermore that direct current in bone will produce osteochondrogenesis (bone formation) and bacteriostasis, as well as affect adenosine triphosphate (ATP) generation, protein synthesis and membrane transport.

In the human brain, pyramidal cells are present and arranged in layers in the cortex of the two cerebra. The pyramidal cells act as electro-crystal cells immersed in extra-cellular tissue fluids, and seem to operate in the fashion of a liquid crystal oscillator in response to different light commands, or light pulses which, in turn, change the orientation of every molecule and atom within the body. Biogravitational encoded switches present in the brain allow a type of liquid network to release ions that induce currents to the surrounding coiled dendrites. Electron impulses from a neuron, on reaching the dendrite coil of the abutted cell, generate a micro amperage magnetic field, causing the ultra thin crystal, or liquid crystal in the pyramidal cell to be activated --- in a very unusual way. On flexing, this ultra thin crystal becomes a piezoelectric oscillator, producing a circular polarized light pulse that travels throughout the body, or travels as a transverse photonic bundle of energy.

According to Einstein, matter is to be regarded itself as part, in fact the principle part, of the electromagnetic field, and electric energy is therefore the fundamental origin of our entire physical world.

Consequently, in work published by The Academy For Future Science it has been cited that "under present biological conditions, evolutionary development in living bodies from earliest inception follows unicellular semiconductivity, as a living piezoelectric matrix, through stages which permit primitive basic tissues (glia, satellite and Schwann cells) to be supportive to the neurons in the human system where the primary source is electrical. This has been especially shown in bone growth response to mechanical stress and to fractures which have been demonstrated to have characteristics of control systems using electricity."

Ongoing research has shown that bone has electrical properties. The bone matrix is a biphasic (two-part) semiconductor, i.e. a crystalline solid with an electrical conductivity. The collagen component of bone matrix is an N-type semiconductor and the apatite component a P-type. When tested for piezoelectricity, collagen turns out to be a piezoelectric generator while apatite is not. These function as two semiconductors, one an N-type, the other a P-type forming a PN-junction, which sets up a potential barrier and acts as an efficient rectifier, i.e. a semiconductor diode.

Mechanical stress on the bone thus produces a piezoelectrical signal from the collagen. The signal is biphasic, switching polarity with each stress-and-release. The signal is rectified by the PN-junction between apatite and collagen. The strength of the signal tells the bone cells how strong the stress is, and its polarity tells them what direction it comes from.

Osteogenic (bone forming) cells, which have been shown to have a negative potential, would be stimulated to grow more bone, while those in the positive area would stop production of matrix and be resorbed when needed. If bone growth and resorption are part of one process, the electrical signal acts as an analog code to transfer information about stress to the cells and trigger the right response. Hence, stress is converted into an electrical signal.

An interesting property of PN-junctions of semiconductor diodes may be observed when current is run though the diode in forward bias, i.e. when there is a good current flow across the barrier. Some of the energy is turned into light and emitted from the surface and are therefore known as light-emitting diodes (LEDs). Researchers found that bone was an LED that required an outside source of light before an electric current would make it release its own light, and the light it emitted was at an infrared frequency invisible to us, but consistent.

With the use of an applied current of a few microamperes regeneration of the spinal cord, optic nerve and bone has been demonstrated and naturally generated electric currents have been linked to changes in developing embryos and in regenerating limbs.

During the past decades a great increase has taken place in research on the effects of non -ionizing electromagnetic radiation on biological systems. Much has been revealed about the human organisms on all levels but the question still being asked by scientists is: What electromagnetic signal might tune to a magnetic resonant energy which would alter the metabolic genetic regulation to bring about growth and repair? It has been considered by this author that tRNA molecules may play a central roll to cause cells to alter their normal properties which will then receive the original genetic transmission, given through a 'spin point' to a cell. These transmissions at the spin points, as discussed through research at The Academy For Future Science, may provide regenerating instruction for the manufacture of enzymes and proteins which are the building blocks for the 'new tissue' or the 'new organ form' which is regenerated on the physical plane. Projecting energy into the spin point allows for the formation of a blastema (mass of primitive type cells) that gives rise to the regenerated tissue. Thus, through the spin point, cells become the tissue responsible for the generation and transmission of direct current signals used in regeneration processes.
 
I've toyed with the idea of biologically created electro-magnetic fields as being a possible form of telekinesis before - but in the long run it is more trouble than its worth. Producing the electro-magnetic fields required to do ... well anything really, would most likely wreck havoc on most organisms - as well as leading to a lot of metal sticking to you.

Also if that was a quote please put it in quotation marks.
 
Here's how telepathy works in the SARP: When someone sends a thought (only telepaths can), other telepaths can hear that transmission. It's like broadcasting on a radio; it's an omni-directional thing. But, no one can tell what another character is thinking through telepathy, only what that character is saying with it. Note: Nekovalkyrja, having a computer-like mind, also have the option of encrypting their telepathic transmissions so they're just fuzz to outsiders.

Come again? ~_^
 
I think Chris means to ask what exactly a telepathic signal consists of.

In the SARP, I'd say it was a peculiar type of electromagnetism, perhaps.
 
Which would mean any old electromagnetic field would completely block telepathy. And also mean technological telepathy should be very easy to achieve.
 
Zakalwe said:
Which would mean any old electromagnetic field would completely block telepathy. And also mean technological telepathy should be very easy to achieve.

It also means that a powerful mind could produce an EM field or manipulate objects. In the SARP setting, that is a no-no. So the question is, how to explain telepathic abilities without leaving a gaping hole of "Why can't I -Insert telekenetic ability here-?"

Hmm, also there is that mention in the psionics explaination page that mentions precognative abilities. I would suggest telepathic skills being related to a subspace form of magnetic field. It would explain the speed of the transmissions, the precognitive abilities, and the fact that it does not effect objects on the physical plane.
 
I'll clarify, since I posted that before I went to sleep so I was tired.

The page you linked to Fred, explains what Psionics in the Sarp are either allowed to preform, or are restricted from preforming. Also, the part you highlighted in your rebuttle was an analogy between Telepathy and radio signals. Which technically doesn't explain what a Telepathic signal itself is, but what it's similar too in a different medium.

Just highlighting some passage in a page that explains the rules of use, does not anwser how the peticular product is generated.

Remember, only you can prevent misunderstanding. IF you give a proper anwser.
 
Is coercive/manipulative telepathy (IE altering other people's emotions, Jedi style "mind tricks", mind control/possession, messing with people's memories, illusions, etc.). currently allowed?
 
Not from the players, no.

You'll see rare, older NPCs still having those abilities for continuity reasons... but 'taking over' another person's character is something that seems very disliked here.
 
What about stuff that stops short of mind control (like altering people's emotions and feelings, like attraction, rage, calm or fear, even if it would affect everyone in the area)?
 
That'd step over another character's roleplaying of his character ~_~

Not to mention that the people whom can objectively submit themselves (their characters, that is) to mental abuse or manipulation on this forum are very very few.
 
Yeah, I suppose it might be difficult to "realistically" implement this stuff bing used on PCs, though I could imagine a telepathic agitator starting some riots as a plot element.
 
What about a flagging system? Those that don't like their characters to be manipulated could opt for optional sensitivity training or they can choose to carry around a sort of device. Those that don't mind being manipulated could choose to skip this optional training or not carry around said device.

For the telepathic users themselves, you could simply have them do some competency test (short JP) or require GM permission as to prevent metagamers from abusing telepathy. If they go to far, they could be asked to tone it down, or in extreme cases have their permission revoked. From an IC point of view, this could be some kind of international law on the use of telepathy. If they go too far too often (without the GM/player's OOC permission), they could be reprimanded both IC and OOC.

Or something along those lines. I just came up with this on the spot, so there's probably some loopholes I've overlooked. But you get the general idea.
 
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