Non OTU: jump and psionics

[BwapTED]

“Where we’re going, we won’t need eyes to see.”

The “monsters from the Id” dwell in j-space. The things attack vulnerable human psyches. Leaving the ship for a jaunt in j-space? That’s a terrible idea.
The good news is that a properly working jump drive and its protective field hedges out all such bad stuff. Navigation comps help filter and collate outside input so that human navigators can “move” the ship through jump space without having to spend too much time looking at what they should not see.

Early model drives had weaker protective screens. And of course some people insisted in looking with their own eyes, trying to understand more fully. Or they left the ship. Some travelers went crazy. Some of the crazy ones developed strange psychic powers. They weren't all lone madmen, either. Some created cults, criminal gangs, terrorist movements...


Now, on most civilized worlds, psionics have become inked in the popular imagination with terrorism, cult activity, subversive politics, drug abuse, criminality, and mental illness.

I’ll need to tie in psi drugs and jump space in some fashion. Maybe the early psi-drugs developed from meds used in an attempt to treat “jump psychosis.” Maybe some come from drugs used early on as j-space navigational aids, before really effective jump computers were created?


INSPIRATIONAL SOURCES/STUFF I AM JACKING:
I’m looking at Firefly and Warhammer 40K as inspirations, as well as at Forbidden Planet and Event Horizon. Also some T-4 stuff.
Reavers (from Firefly) or something along those lines may fit. Crazy bastards. Vey Warhammer.


Thoughts?

 

[McPerth]

IIRC in Babylon 5 pwionics where also affected by hyperspace, being more potent there. Not sure if this is relevant or can help in the idea...

 

[BwapTED]

IIRC in Babylon 5 psionics where also affected by hyperspace, being more potent there. Not sure if this is relevant or can help in the idea...

Sure, that seems relevant.
Thanks for pointing it out.

 

[BwapTED]

hypotheses on j-space entities:

• exist only within the minds of travelers
  
• independent existence as native creatures
  
• temporary result of the overlap between jump and realspace matter/energy caused during jump

None of these ideas has been proved or disproved. It all remains open for debate,

But since any really effective research with existing tools would pretty much require grave risks to human sanity and life, not much more has been learned.

Modern, working jump drives offer excellent protection.

Make sure the engineer gets his rest and that he double checks the drive before jump.
(This seems to mesh well with CT rules about jump drives needing maintenance/recalibration after jumps)

 

[McPerth]

You could also check (if you have access to it) Challenge 46, pages 22-25 MT adventure, specillay the part under Ghosts title (page 24), regarding to HPPE (Hyperspace Paranormal Psionic Entities), also (I guess) relevant in what you talke about...

 

[Carlobrand]

The “monsters from the Id” dwell in j-space. ...

Oh dear. You just threw most religions into a spin.

If there is a mysterious unseen "something" influencing human minds in jump space then many religions will draw the conclusion that jump space is, or draws you nearer to, the realm of the afterlife. Some will suggest jump space is in fact Hell, or whatever similar realm of demons and thingies that really really don't like people happens to occur in their religion. Some will suggest that it is the realm of the afterlife and we simply don't belong there. Some will suggest those touched by jumpspace have been touched by the Divine, and sometimes blessed and sometimes found wanting. Some will oppose, sometimes violently, any suggestion by those among them that jump space has anything to do with the afterlife or the supernatural. You've bred fertile grounds for schism and heresy.

By extension, those who go there and emerge with psionics or even just cognitive changes will be seen by some religions as agents of the devil, by others as prophets blessed by the deities, and by still others as scam artists. It's not just cult activity you need to worry about: mainstream religion is going to be profoundly affected. You'll have entire religions splitting on the issue, with some of them actively embracing the psionic while others treat them as, well, agents or dupes of the devil. History has founded or spun off major religions with much less to go on. The dark picture of the public perception of psionics that you paint is a good deal more confused and conflicted, and two issues that are going to be at the forefront are mainstream religions that actively embrace the "touched" and mainstream religions that are quite virulently hostile to them. You've set the stage for some very nasty religious conflict, and it is likely to be a dominating theme in your universe's cultures where religion plays an active role in people's lives.

 

[mike wightman]

If TNE had lasted longer it would have included meta-conscious jump space entities - extra dimensional intelligences that learn to interact with human minds via jump space and psionics. The aim would have been to show the link between jump space dimensions, psionic phenomena and the intelligences from beyond.

 

[BwapTED]

Oh dear. You just threw most religions into a spin.

If there is a mysterious unseen "something" influencing human minds in jump space then many religions will draw the conclusion that jump space is, or draws you nearer to, the realm of the afterlife. Some will suggest jump space is in fact Hell, or whatever similar realm of demons and thingies that really really don't like people happens to occur in their religion. Some will suggest that it is the realm of the afterlife and we simply don't belong there. Some will suggest those touched by jumpspace have been touched by the Divine, and sometimes blessed and sometimes found wanting. Some will oppose, sometimes violently, any suggestion by those among them that jump space has anything to do with the afterlife or the supernatural. You've bred fertile grounds for schism and heresy.

By extension, those who go there and emerge with psionics or even just cognitive changes will be seen by some religions as agents of the devil, by others as prophets blessed by the deities, and by still others as scam artists. It's not just cult activity you need to worry about: mainstream religion is going to be profoundly affected. You'll have entire religions splitting on the issue, with some of them actively embracing the psionic while others treat them as, well, agents or dupes of the devil. History has founded or spun off major religions with much less to go on. The dark picture of the public perception of psionics that you paint is a good deal more confused and conflicted, and two issues that are going to be at the forefront are mainstream religions that actively embrace the "touched" and mainstream religions that are quite virulently hostile to them. You've set the stage for some very nasty religious conflict, and it is likely to be a dominating theme in your universe's cultures where religion plays an active role in people's lives.

Indeed.


I note that the Introductory Adventure: The Imperial Fringe describes the Imperium as hostile to the Zhodani in part because they embrace ''The Psionic Heresy."

Heresy.

That implies that the Imperium's position is a matter of orthodoxy.

Later supplements stop using the aitch word, I think, probably because an Imperium-level state church clashed with the developing concept of the Imperium in some way.


But this isn't the OTU. I'm free to do as I please.
So, yeah, on some worlds, psionics will be condemned for religious reasons.




Note that the implications of this version of jump space also crush the old-fashioned 19th and 20th Century materialist ideologies even more than the existence of psionics already does.
But those may be long since tossed in the dustbin of history by the current date of this ATU, barring possible exceptions among aliens or on primitive and isolated planets.

 

[BwapTED]

If TNE had lasted longer it would have included meta-conscious jump space entities - extra dimensional intelligences that learn to interact with human minds via jump space and psionics. The aim would have been to show the link between jump space dimensions, psionic phenomena and the intelligences from beyond.

Sounds cool.

It also fits with some of the 60s and 70s stuff in Traveller pretty well, not that genre emulation is super important to me.

 

[BlackBat242]

Indeed - lots of that kind of thing in '60s & '70s sci-fi.