polarization -- GFD: Those Who Crossed Over

[ Show ]

Support VoyForums

[ Shrink ]

VoyForums Announcement: Programming and providing support for this service has been a labor of love since 1997. We are one of the few services online who values our users' privacy, and have never sold your information. We have even fought hard to defend your privacy in legal cases; however, we've done it with almost no financial support -- paying out of pocket to continue providing the service. Due to the issues imposed on us by advertisers, we also stopped hosting most ads on the forums many years ago. We hope you appreciate our efforts.

Show your support by donating any amount. (Note: We are still technically a for-profit company, so your contribution is not tax-deductible.) PayPal Acct: Feedback:

Donate to VoyForums (PayPal):

[ Login ] [ Contact Forum Admin ] [ Main index ] [ Post a new message ] [ Search | Check update time | Archives: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, [10] ]

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

Date Posted: Thu April 17, 2008 17:19:17
Author: greenmann
Subject: polarization
In reply to: Comicality 's message, "Tough answer, I think...." on Tue April 15, 2008 02:37:20

hi everyone... this is my first post in here so I hope you all don't mind me jumping in with both feet, so to speak :P

And first, I have to admit I haven't (yet) read the story you seem to be referring to, so I may be a little off base with some of this, if so please forgive me. I'll read it as soon as I am able. On the other hand, I have been a fan of fantasy all my life and telepathy has always been intriguing to me, so I have thought about these kinds of questions.

So, here is my take; I think telepathy would have a polarizing affect on a person. In part it might be dependent on some parameters; is it an all or nothing proposition, or is it something limited by any of a number of parameters? IE, does it take some effort to delve into another's thoughts, or is everything instantly and implacably there front and center? If its limited in any sense, especially if it is something that could be tuned out or turned off at will, I think your reactions would be very different than if it was always implacably there.

I mean, if you can't NOT tell exactly what a person is thinking, to the very depths of their psyche, I think that would be terribly maddening, even if it was all good stuff. Truthfully I think most people would simply go nuts if they couldn't tune things out and be just in their own limited head. It would be like Chinese Water Torture, the constant barage of other's thoughts and feelings.

But even if you could delve only as much or as little as you wanted, there would always be that temptation to see all the things in someone you could, and most of us would automatically do that out of curiosity when we were intrigued (or maybe even just bored), or out of some kind of perceived need when fighting with someone or dealing with someone you perceive isn't trustworthy. I think the temptation to do so would be almost impossible for most to ignore if they knew it were a possibility. This isn't a value judgment, btw, just an observation from personal experience on human nature. For a test, put a box in a public area where lots of people congregate, and see how many people idly open the box.

So, assuming that most people couldn't help but look and look deeply if they could, how would that affect them and the way they see others? Truthfully I think that would tend to have a polarizing affect on how you perceive others. Some people naturally tend to see the good in people. These folks would likely pay more attention to the better parts of the psyche, and see how most people, even when thinking horribly evil thoughts, somehow manage to reign in those impulses and do the right thing or act appropriately to the situation.

Those who tend to focus on the negative might do the opposite and focus on all that selfishness and inward backbiting most of us probably do unconsciously. Remember, biologically we inherited a reptilian brain along with the "higher" functioning bits that supposedly make us human. Those basic fight or flight survival instincts, what keeps us alive when things go south, are as inherently a part of us as the more "human" urge to be nice, the altruism and consciousness that most religions supposedly aspire to teach us.

With the real thoughts and reactions of the people around us laid bare, I think your own reactions to what people are doing around you might almost necessarily become more jaded, and perhaps cynical in response. I don't know that that necessarily means that you would be any better at predicting how a given person is going to react to a given situation, any more than spouses of many years necessarily have any better insight into how their significant other will react to things, since people can be absurdly myopic about the people around them. The real question in this regard that intrigues me is if it would make you more compassionate toward others and their struggles, or if it would make you sociopathic or reclusive. Since I tend to be a hermit myself anyway, I think I can guess how I would personally react to it, but you never know.

But I guess that kind of hints that I really don't think that just because you could see someone's true thoughts and reactions to things, that that necessarily means you would be able to always predict how they are going to react to things. People are really complex creatures. If it were one variable in play, you could probably accurately predict the outcome. But for important things, there tends to be lots of things going on that could modify how you would react to something. And people can surprise you, there may be an epiphany moment that suddenly gets a person to see things in a different light, and change how they react to things that otherwise would have them react more predictably.

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]