Data File Updated: Thursday, June 30, 2011

Loroi Telepathy Primer

Confusion over the nature of Loroi telepathy isn’t surprising, since the term “telepathy” conjures up a lot of very different notions, many of which are highly mystical in nature (and probably better described as “psychic”). It would be nice to have a different term for it that doesn’t rely so much on Terran mysticism; I have been using the Loroi term sanzai, which means "sending." Wendy Pini used the "sending" term in her Elfquest series.

Anyhow, here’s a (not so short) compilation of some of my notes describing what telepathy in Outsider is and is not, for those who are interested. Loroi are NOT what we commonly refer to as a “psychic.” Examples of psychic abilities often associated with telepathy that are NOT a part of Loroi telepathy: clairvoyance, psychometry, precognition, empathy, or astral projection. Some Loroi do have psychokinetic abilities, but that’s a subject for another time.

All Loroi (male and female) have some degree of telepathic power, telepathic sensitivity, and skill in various telepathic abilities, levels of which vary greatly from individual to individual.

Basic telepathic abilities that every Loroi has:
Telesend: the ability to transmit a message to another Loroi over distance; range varies with power (and can be mechanically amplified), but is normally in the neighborhood of 100 m. Messages can be broadcast to all listeners, or targeted toward a specific individual. The content of the message is not exactly transmission of “thought” or “emotion,” but is faster and more expressive than spoken language. The amount of information carried per second via sending is about five times the information carried in normal speech, but since a lot of the bandwidth is used to add nuance and deeper meaning to the message, sending operates at only about twice the speed of speech. Think of it as if sending was a spoken message with subtitles, a music track and mood lighting. Although it is possible to knowingly send false information via remote telepathy, doing so convincingly can be difficult because of the large amount of conscious, subconscious and emotional data involved in the message. Remote telepathic sendings arrive nearly instantaneously, and are not limited by the speed of light. As such they violate physical law as we know it.

Telereceive: the ability to receive or “hear” a remote telepathic message sent from another Loroi. Most Loroi can only receive a message within its sent range, but particularly sensitive telepaths can detect messages from much greater ranges. Very skilled telepaths can sometimes intercept remote messages that were not intended for them.

Mind Shield: this is the mental discipline to shut out telepathic babble, and to some extent, to shield one’s mind from telepathic attack. Unlike words spoken at normal volume, which have very limited range and generally do not travel through walls, remote telepathic messages carry to the full limit of the sender’s range, regardless of normal physical barriers. Every sane Loroi who survives past childhood has developed some degree of mental shield, but this skill can also be specifically trained. In ancient times when conflicts between Loroi were common, this skill was very important for preventing telepathic attacks. There are several levels to this discipline, which also involves reducing or eliminating one’s own subconscious telepathic chatter. 

Signature Detection: this is the ability to detect the presence of living minds in one’s vicinity. In most Loroi this ability has a range of only a few meters, but especially sensitive individuals, enhanced by amplification devices, can detect the presence of minds at very great (read: interstellar) distances. This ability to know the location of enemies in both tactical and strategic situations is, of course, one of the key Loroi advantages. The ability to consciously hide oneself from such detection, referred to as lotai, is very rare and difficult, even among Loroi.

Physical Link: Not so much an ability as a general feature of Loroi physiology, skin-to-skin physical contact between Loroi automatically creates a direct telepathic link that is much stronger and more intimate than normal remote telepathy. Sending between individuals is faster and carries more bandwidth, nearly equaling the sharing of thoughts. Large amounts of information can be transferred quickly in this manner. Attempting to relay false information or to even conceal information is even more difficult than in remote sending because of the increased intimacy of the connection, and physical link is sometimes used as a means between individuals to verify the truth of a given issue. However, the direct physical link involves the lowering of a substantial portion of one’s personal barriers, and is normally only done between close friends. Casual touching is taboo in Loroi society, which is one of the reasons why Loroi clothing exposes very little skin.

Special Features of Telepathy in Loroi Society
Language: Because of their telepathic abilities, the Loroi do not, strictly speaking, have a "native" language. Since ancient times they have used a customized form of the Trade Language (referred to as “Loroi Trade”) for purposes of written or formal spoken communication, but for most purposes, telepathy is used. Spoken language is used for some formal communication (especially when the message must be mechanically recorded or transmitted via radio), communicating with non-Loroi, and issuing formal challenges to other Loroi. While written and spoken Loroi Trade is taught to all Loroi, those who do not have occasion to use it regularly are often poorly skilled in language, especially speech. Normally, in a casual setting, for one Loroi to speak verbally to another would be extremely rude, suggesting a lack of trust at the very least, or open hostility at worst. Spoken words between Loroi are often a prelude to a fight. This subconscious Loroi association between the spoken word and hostility may help to explain why the Loroi are usually perceived by aliens as easily upset and belligerent (and why the Loroi have developed a dedicated diplomatic caste for dealing verbally with aliens).

Translation and Archives: Because of the higher bandwidth of telepathy compared to verbal or written communication, much information is lost when translating telepathic sending into written language (for purposes of archiving). For example, the ancient heroic sagas that form the core of Loroi philosophy have never been written down; they are telepathically told stories that have been passed from generation to generation. Unfortunately, current technology cannot reliably record the full range of telepathic communications. To help reduce this loss of information, the Loroi have a specialized caste of “Observers” (the Listel) who serve as a sort of living telepathic library; their job is to receive and memorize important telepathic discussions, and to preserve and pass them on to future generations. The Listel have eidetic memories and can remember information with great precision, and by forming a physical link with another Listel, they can transfer this information at high speed. Listel serve aboard military vessels, both to record the events that transpire, but also to serve as a reference of existing information.

Telepathic Names: Loroi warriors have two names: a spoken name (or "warrior's name") and a telepathic name. In ancient times, the spoken name was the name given to an opponent in a spoken challenge (as it was dangerous to form a telepathic contact with a potential enemy). Spoken names have literal meanings that can be translated (e.g., Leinnol translates as “Fireblade”); telepathic names have complex and subtle meanings that are not easily translated, and consequently cannot easily be shared with outsiders. Loroi in civilian occupations often do not have spoken names, as they rarely come into contact with non-Loroi.

Advanced abilities (this is not an exhaustive list):
Thought Detection: a more sophisticated version of signature detection, the user attempts to passively perceive what the target is thinking about. Most Loroi can do this if they have a direct physical link with the target, but only very skilled and sensitive telepaths can do this remotely, and even then, the information gleaned is often fragmentary. But, it is often enough to provide a significant advantage in tactical situations. Range is limited compared with Signature Detection.

Mind Reading: The ability to actively get into someone’s mind and search for information. Generally this requires a physical link, and can be very difficult if the target has telepathic defenses. Susceptibility to mind-reading varies from species to species.

Blast: This is a brute-force telepathic attack. A powerful telepath can use a high-volume telepathic "shout" to attempt to disrupt, overload or confuse a target mind. Success normally causes the target to be momentarily stunned, but with very high power or a particularly sensitive mind, the target can be knocked unconscious or even damaged by such an attack.

Telepathic Warfare*: a variety of skills and subtle techniques used to get into someone else’s mind and disorient, damage, or otherwise interfere with them. In ancient times, this focused almost exclusively on telepath vs. telepath techniques, but in modern times the main focus is in the less subtle Loroi vs. Alien strategies. Most of these skills require close proximity or even physical contact. The less said about this the better for now.

Loroi vs. Aliens

Alien brain structure and thought patterns vary widely, and so alien susceptibility to Loroi telepathic techniques also varies greatly from race to race. Loroi can read some species very easily, and others hardly at all. On the extreme side, one race (the Golim) is so susceptible to Loroi telepathy that any individual within a certain range of a Loroi is essentially mesmerized and completely open to the will of the Loroi (even if the Loroi isn’t consciously attempting to influence the Golim).

In general, aliens cannot receive Loroi remote telepathic transmissions unless they are “shouted” at (exception: Golim). With only a few exceptions, Loroi can detect the presence of all alien minds. Loroi can establish direct physical link with an alien subject via touch; even resistant aliens will notice the telepathic contact. However, while the contact will enhance whatever abilities the Loroi might attempt to use on the subject, the Loroi and the alien subject will not experience the intimate two-way contact that a Link between two Loroi produces, because the alien is not itself a telepath. The effectiveness of various other Loroi telepathic abilities on aliens varies from race to race.

All aliens are uniformly susceptible to Loroi psychokinesis, regardless of their relative resistance or susceptibility to Loroi telepathy. Psychokinesis produces real forces that interact with matter in ways consistent with physical law; telepathy does not. One cannot be “resistant” to psychokinetic effects unless one is also psychokinetic, and is using one’s own abilities to counteract another source of PK.

Currently, Loroi are the only known telepathic race. While there are devices that can detect elements of telepathic use or amplify telepathic abilities, there are no known ways to artificially produce the faster-than-light telepathic effects of Loroi minds. There is also no known way to mechanically record the content of telepathic transmissions.

It seems there is no chance for Loroi to be betrayed. Their allies could not hope to deny the Loroi any form of technology. Unless, of course, they strictly control which members of their society the Loroi come in contact with. Specifically, there is supposed to be an allied race who has higher tech than the Loroi. How do they keep their technology secret? 

The Historians themselves do not routinely interact with any aliens species, and especially not with the Loroi, for this very reason. Most interaction between the Historians and other aliens is done through the medium of artificial personality constructs.  

With telepathy like theirs, the Loroi could form a society of one. They could be something that has never been seen before: A super-organism of unimaginable intelligence. Humans and Umiak would be like bacteria to a mind composed to 6-7? however many billions of Loroi exist. The Loroi would win any war with their far superior technology, and imagining the psychic power of 7 billion minds is difficult. 

The kind of telepathic "gestalt" you refer to requires that the Loroi be physically touching, so there are physical limits to this sort of "supermind." And I'm not sure how well a group of minds linked in this manner would really be able to think as a group. However, a team of 4 or 5 physically touching, telepathically liked Loroi would probably make a formidable chess opponent.

Telesend: Sound like you're basically sending a 'recording', per say, of your mind in action. 

Sending is not really pure thought. There is a grammar and conscious composition to the sent message. Loroi can still be eloquent or clumsy senders. 

Sig Detect: Is it limited to intelligent, thinking things or all living creatures? If all, then how does one (in this case) define living? For example, if i grow/create an AI, will a Loroi detect it? 

The signature is created by minds, not necessarily intelligent ones. The more complex the mind, the stronger the signal; very primitive organisms do generate signatures, but for the average Loroi trying to detect the signatures of every microorganism around them would be like trying to see stars in the daytime. In general, a mind needs to be more sophisticated than a frog or primitive reptile to be detectable. Computers (electronic, photonic, quantum or otherwise) operate in a manner that's completely inconsistent with a Loroi mind, and so don't generate a signature that a Loroi would recognize (regardless of whether the computer could "think" or not). An artificial organism or brain (a "replicant" or "bioroid") that operated in a manner similar to an organic brain might generate a signature that a Loroi could detect, but thus far the Loroi have never encountered such an artificial mind. The Historian AI constructs, for example, do not generate a signature detectable by the Loroi. 

Is there a sort of language, or grammar, to telespeak? 

Yes. 

Warfare: Will we ever get to see a mind-battle?

Yes.

Telesend seems to be a "voluntary" thing - Loroi aren't generally "leaking" psi signals into the ether.

Sending is voluntary, but there is a partially involuntary element to it. When humans are speaking, for example, their facial expressions are also expressive but mostly involuntary; some humans can control their expressions consciously, but few can control them completely, and some not at all. Similarly, some elements of the "subtext" to the telepathic message may not be completely controlled. Also, even in voluntary human spoken communication there are sometimes involuntary elements, such as a person blurting out something unintended, or muttering under one's breath, or even sub-vocalizing unconsciously, or talking in one's sleep. In the same way, Loroi who lack skill (such as young children), who are unconscious or dreaming, or whose mental faculties are impaired by trauma, damage, drugs or fatigue may "leak" telepathic signals unconsciously. Loss of mental control could also result in uncontrolled psychokinetic use, which of course could be very dangerous. This is why training in mental discipline is very important for Loroi.

As you can probably deduce from the above statement, intoxicants that impair judgment or mental faculties are either strongly discouraged or outright illegal aboard military vessels (but then, I doubt that alcohol was allowed aboard Bellarmine, either). Stimulants and mood-altering drugs similar to Prozac or Valium are probably more common. Or course, illegal drugs will still find their way on board ships, but Loroi warriors use them at their own peril; in wartime, being caught intoxicated while on duty is a capital offense.

If you are in the military under combat conditions, and one of your comrades loses control (either because of mental stress or physical injury), and becomes a danger to his own troops, then he must be dealt with by whatever means are necessary. Hopefully you can subdue or sedate him without harming him, but if the situation dictates, deadly force can and will be used. So it is with the Loroi.

Hopefully with their advanced medical technology, the Loroi will be able to treat most forms of mental illness. If the patient cannot be treated, he or she will have to be placed somewhere where she can do no harm. If someone of Fireblade's power were to become untreatably insane, the authorities would have no choice but to destroy her.  

So do the Loroi have a bunch of alien telepathic slaves following them around?

The Loroi don't have the Slaver ability [of the Thrints in Larry Niven’s Known Space milieu] to ensnare the minds of large numbers of aliens (much less entire planets), and the Loroi as a race are somewhat intolerant of other aliens; they'd rather not have them around at all. The Golim are an unusual exception, because of their extreme susceptibility to Loroi telepathy. The status of the Golim as a virtual slave-race is accidental, and is as embarrassing to the Loroi as it is beneficial.

Hmm, if the Loroi have amplifiers, then there is a detectable AND reproducible effect. This brings up two questions: One, do other races, and even the Loroi themselves, have telepathic screening tech? And two, are 'psi-bombs' used? I mean, like, bombs that create a massive physic outburst. If no, why not? 

The short answer is that it's possible to amplify an effect without necessarily being able to independently reproduce that effect. Longer answer below:

Usually the motivation for having psi in a story is as a “human” counterpoint to high technology, so if psi is mechanically reproducible or even biologically reproducible (either by genetic engineering or cloning), that kind of defeats the purpose for having it in the first place. If technology can produce psionic computers, or if you can clone vats of psi-producing brain tissue to make a hand-held “psi-blaster in a jar”… well, that’s no fun, at least within the context of this story. Psi is supposed to be an exclusive Loroi advantage; if it were well-understood and reproducible, then everyone would have it.

Granted that from a realism point of view psi is a hard sell to begin with… but as the questioner points out, the amplifiers complicate the matter, since certainly the Loroi understand the psi effect well enough to design and construct amplifiers and other psi-activated devices. The amplifiers were conceived as a story element rather than as a logical development. However, I think it's possible to be able to have a functional understanding of how an effect works, without necessarily understanding why an effect works, or even being able to reproduce the specific effect. Humans were able to put fire and various kinds of chemical reactions (and even electricity) to good use, and develop various kinds of tools around them, for centuries before they had any understanding of how electrons are transferred between atoms and molecules to create these phenomena. Tools arise from theory, but they also arise from trial, error and observation. It’s also possible that an effect can be boosted by a device without necessarily being artificially reproduced… amplification through augmentation rather than by reception and reproduction. A transformer can increase the voltage of an electrical current, but the transformer does not itself generate electricity.

The theory of how psi works -- or at least the story I'm sticking to at the moment -- is that there aren't any psi-generating "cells" or "organs" within a Loroi; rather, psi is some sort of emergent effect produced by the abstract workings of the mind. The idea that consciousness has some sort of quantifiable physical component is perhaps a bit of a stretch, though it could claim at least a smidgen of credence by some of the more loopy assertions of quantum mechanics (that things don't physically happen until someone observes them happen). Anyhow, the idea is that consciousness is not "created" when you are born, but rather is developed as you grow, and is heavily dependent not just on your genes but also on your experiences... it's easy enough to clone your brain, but very difficult (or almost impossible) to duplicate your mind. Clearly there’s something hereditary about the structure of the Loroi mind that allows telepathy (since the Loroi have it and others don’t), but there isn’t a specific “telepathy gene” or combination of genes that can be twiddled on or off to enable or disable telepathy… or, at least, one hasn’t yet been found. In a similar way, sentience or self-awareness (perhaps a bad example, as it’s hard to define) might also be described as an emergent effect… if you build a brain the right way, you might end up with something that is what we would call sentient, but you can't really identify the specific structures in the brain that are responsible for sentience, because there aren't any... sentience is a curious cumulative effect that just emerges from the system. “Genius” (also hard to define) is another concept that might fit into a similar category. Analogous to the concepts of sentience and genius: while telepathy is common to nearly all Loroi, psychokinesis (the “other” kind of psi) is relatively rare, and though again there is an element of heredity -- offspring of operant psychokinetics are more likely to themselves be operant psychokinetics -- cloning a powerful Unsheathed will not necessarily get you another powerful Unsheathed. If you were to clone Albert Einstein, would you necessarily get a supergenius? I'm inclined to doubt it... the clone would have Albert's genetic advantages, but he wouldn't grow up in the same environment that Albert did, or experience the same mind-shaping events, and it’s my view that intellect has as much to do with how your mind developed as with who your parents were.

So to get back to the point, the psi amplifier needs to either be composed of some material that boosts the psionic effect created by a Loroi mind, or that through some process produces a condition that does the same thing. I don’t know exactly what that would be, but I always had an impression that both physical size and power consumption would be factors in the efficacy of an amp. The discovery of psi-tech might have been accidental (observing an amplification effect by chance and reproducing it) or as a result of theory, if psi has a measurable physical effect. The aforementioned "Telepathic Sounding" skill certainly implies that telepathic signals interact with the real world in a measurable way... although since telepathic signals are supposed to be nearly instantaneous, this should make them useless for this sort of detection mechanism, since the main part of the function of radar or sonar is based on measuring the time between transmission and return... but I digress...

And as for the other part of the question (if you can mechanically amplify psi, doesn't it follow that you can also mechanically obstruct or damp it?), the answer has to be yes.