By means of an elaborate and of course internally consistent set of contrivances (which I’m too lazy to write out), you are given the opportunity to become telepathically linked to one and only one other person. Here are the rules:
First of all, the other person must consent to the linkage. If the parties take this opportunity, each will each be able to, at will, perceive the other person’s thoughts and feelings. The connection can be turned on and off like a faucet. Most of the time it’s on the level of kinesthesia; you’d know if you were in one another’s presence without having to see him or her, and you could, for instance, touch the other person’s nose with your eyes closed as easily as you can touch your own with your eyes closed, but neither of you is aware of what the other is thinking or feeling. By an act of will, either party can initiate contact with the other, rather like initiating a phone call; if the other party agrees, the parties will be able to hear one another’s thoughts; they can share one another’s senses, though again this takes an act of will to initiate, and either party can block the other’s access. The linkage is only to what the parties are thinking and feeling at any given time; for access to one another’s memories, the parties must be in the same room. Either party can turn the completely off at will; if they do that, they will not even have the joint kinesthesia until both decide to reinitiate.
The range of the kinesthetic connection is sufficient that, when it’s active, the parties would be able to feel one another as long as they were both on Earth. To share sensory impressions, the parties have to be within a hundred miles of one another, and the farther apart they are, the more concentration it takes. An effortless telepathic conversation would require that they be with ten miles of one another, and, as mentioned, exploring one another’s memories requires physical contact.
Would you take this opportunity? If yes, why? If not, why not? Who would you want on the other end of the link?
I would, because it would be really cool. Plus, you could go on game shows and win money by having the other person looking up answers. Or, enter high stakes, televised poker games or something where the other person can see everyone’s hands.
With whom? Probably a good friend I’m used to having fun and getting into trouble with anyway. You could turn your friend on and off without things getting weird. It might be too intimate to share with a lover.
I don’t know. It sounds kind of neat and I think it could be pretty amazing to have that kind of link with your lover, but there are lots of little things I don’t tell my wife and despite all your caveats about being able to shut it off at will, I think I would still prefer the inner sanctum of my mind to remain mine alone.
I would also be dead set against my wife having the link with anyone but me, we either both have it with each other or we don’t have it at all.
Skald, For once you come up with something I don’t need to think twice about!
I already have this link with someone. I swear we are telepathic. I would not mind it at all. I am a bit of an empath and have the ability to read people pretty well if I am face to face with them. It makes some people uncomfortable but those are the people I need to steer clear of anyway. My biggest problem is knowing these people for what they are and having to try and act as if I don’t.
I imagine this would make the world a much nicer place for the people with nothing to hide. For the people who are deceptive it would really make them uneasy. Well, they would never consent to doing this with another person so they would be found to be a liar.
Absolutely - with Celtling of course. If we didn’t have the option of enforcing privacy when we wished though, I wouldn’t want it. But giving her the ability to let me know anytime she needed me, and exactly what she needed would make both our lives a lot better. And I wouldn’t have to worry - ever. Which is the worst part of Motherhood.
Imagine what science could learn by studying such a thing. Imagine if we could figure out how it worked and replicate it. Imagine what it would mean to have verifiable proof that such a thing is even possible in the first place.
And even if that’s out of the question, I figure you’d have an easy win at Randi’s $1M if nothing else. Since you can block the other person out whenever you want, just split the cash and go your own way with them on mute for the rest of your life.
Would the “never” voters share a bit more of the reasons behind it? I could understand easily of there wasn’t the right to refuse to “pick up the phone” so to speak. But given that you can say no at any time and protect your privacy, what’s the down side?
Well, I don’t have a wife, but I refuse to pick up the phone all the time. In fact, pretty much every conversation with my family is them complaining that I never pick up the phone. Which is why I never do pick it up anymore. . .
But I suppose your point is that she would assume that you’re doing/thinking something you shouldn’t? (Like something unfaithful, as opposed to just not wanting her to join you while you wipe your behind. . .)
So let me ask you this, then. If you are having thoughts she isn’t allowed to know about - I mean that you don’t even want her to know you have those types of thoughts. . . does she really know who she’s married to?
OP - if this is not the sort of tangent you were hoping we’d run down, let me know and I’ll start my own thread. I’ve always wondered about this. Men seem to purposefully have an entire set of values and daily thoughts that are hidden from their wives. Do women do the same with their husbands? And would the human race die out if men didn’t so this?
I think both probably have sets of intensely private thoughts that they’d never want the other one to know about, and getting sent to the telepathic voicemail too often woul just end up causing too much anxiety and too many questions.
I’ve often imagined what it would be like if there was this overarching hive mind that you could tap into which I think is similar to the question. I would be more than happy to share this linkage with someone. I wouldn’t even really care who other than I’d want it to be someone I like.
Absolutely not. Not so much because I’d worry about what the other person (probably a girlfriend/wife) would think of me - I’d worry about what I’d learn about myself. It can be hard to accurately assess your own state of mind - but if I could (through this telepathic link) observe my SO’s perceptions of my own mind, that’d quickly turn into rather more introspection than I’m comfortable with.
We all rely on a certain amount of self-delusion to get through the day, I think. I’d rather not hold up a mirror to a my own mind.