Babylon 5: Epiphanies

[Nealithi]

It is. It's also a matter of personal identity, to the point that the artificial personality that takes over Talia Winters' body destroys her enhanced powers in the process; Bester implies that the body was dissected without the Psi Corp learning anything.

In the B5 universe, multiple-personality syndrome is considered to be a thing, and one personality can have different power levels of even entirely different powers than another.

So a bit of pulling punches vs. not. And achievements in ignorance? IE able to do something because you were not taught you couldn't?

[Frustration]

What it seems to come down to is that psychic powers are your 'soul' leaking out a bit more than normal, and something that kills 'you' but leaves your body alive also eliminates your powers.

Not something a rationalist would write. But then, B5 also contains elan vital. One problem when people try to go beyond science is that they end up with old, discredited ideas instead of something new. Those ideas make intuitive sense and tend to be easily generated by human minds - their being nonsense makes no difference.

[hammerofglass]

It's a setting where souls are real and technology exists to observe and store them, so that would be a perfectly rational explanation. Empirically testable even.

[clearspira]

What it seems to come down to is that psychic powers are your 'soul' leaking out a bit more than normal, and something that kills 'you' but leaves your body alive also eliminates your powers.

Not something a rationalist would write. But then, B5 also contains elan vital. One problem when people try to go beyond science is that they end up with old, discredited ideas instead of something new. Those ideas make intuitive sense and tend to be easily generated by human minds - their being nonsense makes no difference.

B5 was ahead of its time but its still 90s sci-fi. Hard science alongside actual magic and monsters was a common thing. And I kind of like that to be honest as modern sci-fi basically does the same thing but tries to explain it away using some bullshit masquerading as science. Nanomachines are a favourite, their portrayal often coming across as little more than magic spells that can do anything.

[Frustration]

Nanomachines should be about as powerful as bacteria. Do not underestimate them! But I also dislike it when they're treated as magic - at the very least, something capable of altering the physics of the observable world ought to be a femtomachine at the very largest, and likely composed of things even more fundamental.

Lazy writers, sure - but also lazy audience.

[McAvoy]

Telepathy should be treated as magic because as of right now there isn't anything that suggests anyone is capable of sending or reading thoughts from one person to another. Like somehow we will access or activate some part of the brain that can do that. Might as well say that once we activate some part of our eyes we get laser eyes.

Keeping how telepathy works in scifi vague works better than going through some bullshit psuedo science explanation which can be easily dated.

[Madner Kami]

Telepathy should be treated as magic because as of right now there isn't anything that suggests anyone is capable of sending or reading thoughts from one person to another. Like somehow we will access or activate some part of the brain that can do that. Might as well say that once we activate some part of our eyes we get laser eyes.

Keeping how telepathy works in scifi vague works better than going through some bullshit psuedo science explanation which can be easily dated.

Brains are essentially a network of electric lines and just like electric lines, they emit electromagnetic fields which can be measured and interpreted. We frequently do so already with the help of machines, though we aren't quite there yet, when it comes to reading someone's mind.
Conversely it can be argued that just like with electric lines, the brain's behaviour can be influenced by the discreet targeting of neurochemical emitters through electromagnetic fields as well. It's similar (but not the same!) to how you can induce a current in an electric line by subjecting it to an electromagnetic field. It stands to reason that it's possible or, rather, conceivable to enhance the biology of a given subject to both sense and influence the electromagnetic fields of someone's brain through the use of their own brain's (or even own body's) electromagnetic fields. Range would quite likely be a natural limiter though, as there are biological limits to the power of those electromagnetic fields (both in terms of what the body can produce and tolerate on the recieving end), but that's besides the point.

[clearspira]

The closest we will ever get to ''telepathy'' will be when Apple drill the iPhone ''brain edition'' into your skull to allow wireless communication. Several companies are already working on something similar. The youth will buy it in their millions because it allows them to access to VR gaming, oldies like me will be deeply distrustful of anything that can hack your god damn brain and never get it.

Before we know it, Youtube will be in your dreams trying to sell you products. I am not joking.

[Riedquat]

I don't mind a little bit of essentially magic that supposedly has a scientific explanation in my sci-fi - we're usually happy enough with FTL travel and artificial gravity after all. It just needs to be handled properly.

[Madner Kami]

The closest we will ever get to ''telepathy'' will be when Apple drill the iPhone ''brain edition'' into your skull to allow wireless communication. Several companies are already working on something similar. The youth will buy it in their millions because it allows them to access to VR gaming, oldies like me will be deeply distrustful of anything that can hack your god damn brain and never get it.

Before we know it, Youtube will be in your dreams trying to sell you products. I am not joking.

Well, there's a solution to that...



In all seriousness, I'm actually looking forward to the day, when man and machine become more intimate. I do not deny the problematic implications, if which you named one there though. As always when it comes to humans, there's the potential for the highest highs and the lowest lows at the same time.