| From: | Mark A Shieh SHODAN+@***.EDU |
|---|---|
| Subject: | THANK YOU!! (Re: Simsense and Astral Perception) |
| Date: | Wed, 17 Feb 1999 21:43:33 -0500 (EST) |
shaman@*******.com, runefo@***.uio.no, zmjett@*********.COM,
guilleme@******.cc.purdue.edu, Hollar@******.cc.purdue.edu,
TalonMail@***.com
Wow. That's a lot of addresses I had to snip. ;)
Anyways, I make a couple of clearly stated assumptions. I also move
some stuff around, so my apologies if I've misinterpreted your words.
Ereskanti@***.com writes:
> In a message dated 2/17/1999 9:46:05 AM US Eastern Standard Time,
> dbuehrer@******.carl.org writes:
> > I also feel that when a person is astrally perceiving that the brain
> > isn't involved at all. The perception of the astral and the processing
> > of this perception are handled by the perceiver's astral form and again
> > the brain is not involved.
>
> See above, and below...
>
> > I believe that that is why you can't record astral perception with
> > simsense. The act of astral perception and the processing of that
> > perception take place soley on the astral plane.
My interpretation of what can and can't be done: Indirect
illusion spells, and other physical spells record on simsense.
Mana-based illusions, and other mana-based spells do not record,
though their effects will record (the wound from a manabolt will
register for example (it's real hard to miss), but the manabolt may
not be visible.)
As far as actual rulings go, the only things I have seen are
that things on the astral plane don't record. All other "Magic does
not record on simsense" statements have been pretty vague.
> Okay, time for *another* thread throwback here. Anyone else remember those
> discussions a while ago about "alternative methods of astral perception?",
> meaning "smell" and "sound" and "touch", for those
magicians that were born
> "blind." Think about all of this very closely, very slowly.
I missed this thread the first time. It's always been my
impression that a blind magician, regardless of whether he was always
blind, or his eyes were sewn shut 5 seconds ago, gains the ability of
sight, as seen through the astral plane. For a blind magician, this
is the same as normal sight, but the only one available to him. It
does not, IMHO, manifest as a different sense.
> Simsense is using ASIST technology, from both the playing and recording ends
> of the business (literally in Shadowbeat's definitions).
Now, here's my big point of debate. You see ASIST technology
as recording further along than I have always seen it.
[from later on]
> Simsense is a recording of (meta)human experience, nothing else,
> nothing less.
Is it? I've always seen simsense as a recording of the input
your body receives, recorded as it enters your brain. You don't
*feel* the happiness in the person who has been recorded. You feel
the endorphin rush that the simstar felt, because one has been
triggered in your body.
> Thus, it is called "Astral Perception", because it deals with translatory
> information that is "perceived" by the individual, whatever or wherever
their
> individual POV is found.
[astral perception description follows]
> They will perceive "the aura of their subject",
> and in so doing their mind, having been trained, developed, and biased, is
> going to attempt to translate that into the one thing it understands the most.
> Visual Sight. Which then in turns fires the visual cortecis of the
> (meta)human mind. Hence, the ability to record. Simsense is NOT going to
> record the actual "light sensory" that is incoming, that is what the
"Video
> Link" or "Eye Camera" are there for. No, it is recording the
interaction of
> sensations with the (meta)human mind.
I disagree here. I see a raw simsense recording as the
sensations a body feels, as it enters the brain. IMHO, if a simsense
signal can place a signal in after it has been translated by the
visual cortex, the same recording technology could be used to scan
surface thoughts, dig through memory, or produce a
visual-cortex-on-a-chip.
I also like the idea of a more unified technology, so that a
Video Link/Eye Camera combo are the same sort of technology used in
simsense, or perhaps derived in the oppposite order. I don't see the
two technologies as being unlinked.
SR also lists the brain (and spine, to a lesser extent) as
being the big things still mysterious to science in the SR world. I
find it more plausible that simsense can reecord the input as it
enters the brain, rather than recording a brain map, and feeding the
same mapping onto the viewer of the simsense.
> Let's say I'm able to cast a spell, so I do so. I extend my concentration in
> such a manner as to trigger the event of the spell casting itself. As I do
> so, my body surges with a thrill that I cannot quite understand.
[rest of example of spellcasting and drain snipped]
So, what you're saying (I hope), is that the emotional state
of the caster and the damage the body receives will show up on
simsense. The first, to me, is a completely psychological thing, and
has nothing to do with the actual casting of the spell, except for the
act of casting as a catalyst. The second, well, that's going to show
up on simsense, it's bodily damage. However, without being attuned to
the astral, that's all it is, damage. You didn't see it coming, you
don't know how it got there, and you don't know how to instinctively
try to dodge it.
Besides, if all that shows up on simsense is the psychological
effect of "yay, my spell worked", followed by a migraine, *I* think
that's a good example of magic not recording very well. Another
magician watching the experience might recognize the effects and why
they're happening, but the recording itself is going to give none of
the how or why that a spell has been cast. You could get the same
effect with a hologram (or another actor crumpling, in the case of a
manabolt) and a blow to the head.
Mark
