# Can telekinetic characters use touchscreens....with their minds? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 11, 2018, 10:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-telekinetic-characters-use-touchscreens-with-their-minds/806384 "2018-01-11T10:34:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2018, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-telekinetic-characters-use-touchscreens-with-their-minds/806384/21 "2018-01-11T23:09:02Z")
There is a Japanese character in light novels/manga/anime that has the ability to manipulate electromagnetic fields much like Magneto. [One of her fighting techniques is to form a sword/whip out of the iron sands lying around her](https://youtu.be/1qZDONRZaxE?t=139). It occurs to me that the ability to control the weapon (especially in “whip” form) is much like telekinesis, _and_ that the ability could be used on all three forms of touchscreens–pressure, conductivity, and IR beam interruption. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2018, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-telekinetic-characters-use-touchscreens-with-their-minds/806384/22 "2018-01-12T02:50:08Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > If the plot calls for it, yes. This is always the answer when magic\* is involved. \*All superpowers are magic. Otherwise they wouldn’t be super. ---
**Author:** ![Arkcon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/96bed5/32.png) [@Arkcon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arkcon)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2018, 1:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-telekinetic-characters-use-touchscreens-with-their-minds/806384/23 "2018-01-12T13:16:54Z")
One of the many non-cannon _Star Trek_ tech guides mentioned computers from Beta Zed were usable telepathically. That never appeared on the show, but really should have. Not Deanna, but Lawaxana should have been sitting down, doing her hair and transcribing her journal telepathically. It would have made Betazoids less a bunch of cartoon characters, and more members of a technologically advanced race that’s part of a union of other technologically advanced races – Star Fleet. Did Betazoids appear in _Enterprise_? That would have been interesting. They could have had their own starships, manned only by them, with very limited touch screens, just focusing on the displays, apparently driving with their minds. Meh. Might not be convincing enough to film. ---
**Author:** ![Plumpudding](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/edb3f5/32.png) [@Plumpudding](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Plumpudding)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2018, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-telekinetic-characters-use-touchscreens-with-their-minds/806384/24 "2018-01-12T13:35:42Z")
> [@Dante\_G](#): > > I think you are thinking about this too much. > > Being a telekinetic in the basic sense of it means you can move objects with your mind. Keyword being “can”. It’s totally voluntary. If you want to move the chair over there with your powers, you focus on the chair and use your power to move it. Being a TK doesn’t mean that you have no control over it or else everything you focus on or look at would be moving all over the place. So … using a touch screen device would be no different than a normal person. You touch it and it functions. You swipe right with your finger and it responds to your touch. > > Now to be fair, if a TK tried to use their TK powers to move an icon around on a touch screen, that may be difficult, but why would they? How lazy is this TK person that they can’t use their finger to move something on a screen? Let say Legion is in a coma and needs Xavier (or another powerful psychic) to get out of it. He manages to psychically project one of his telekinetic personalities (none of the others wanted to co-operate) into a powerful psychic mutant without getting detected (for fear of getting thrown out (his/her alignment is unknown or unreliable or something (or other plot-device)). He tries to telekinetically use his/her smart phone while the psychic is sleeping, but oh no, he/she has an infrared device! So he waits until the psychic goes for lunch, then finds a resistive device nearby and sends Xavier an sms asking for help! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2018, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-telekinetic-characters-use-touchscreens-with-their-minds/806384/25 "2018-01-13T01:24:32Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > An interesting variant I thought of once: In the story, the human brain would be capable of telekinesis…but only to do that which the person using it couldn’t already do physically. Flip a light switch on? Only if there was some physical reason you couldn’t reach it(laziness isn’t a good reason). The previously mentioned Gil “The Arm” Hamilton was like that; he developed TK while lacking an arm, and manifested a weak TK virtual “arm” in its place that remained after he had a new arm transplanted on. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-telekinetic-characters-use-touchscreens-with-their-minds/806384.md?page=1)