Discovering Your Talents: An Exploration of Anne McCaffrey's Trilogy

[Mentat]

Which "Talent". Why?

To give credit where it is due, I took the idea of the "Talents" from Anne McCaffrey's "Pegasus" Trilogy, which I highly recommend to any Science Fiction fan.

 

[Mentat]

Definitions

Now, please allow me to explain what each of the Talents mean:

"Finders" were clairvoyants, who could find any person - provided they had something that belonged to the person, to "show" them where the person was (such as a strand of hair, in one instance) - or object - provided they had some kind of indicator (perhaps the perons who owned the object) to go off of.

Kinetics can teleport objects (including themselves) and can move objects around through the use of their minds.

'Path Recievers are telepaths, who can "hear" the thoughts of others (some are also "broadasters", but not all).

'Path Broadcasters are telepaths who can broadcast their own thoughts to another person's mind.

Empath Broadcasters are telempaths who can broadcast whatever emotion they want, onto another person.

Empath Recievers are telempaths that can "feel" other peoples' emotions.

Precogs need no explanation. If someone doesn't know, please ask, I just assume that most people know what a Precog is.

"Linguist" refers to special telepaths who can translate the words of others from one language to another, and speak any language with perfect fluency.

"Micro-Kinetics" are Kinetics that work at the very small levels (such as cellular levels). These are the ones that can often be "healers", because they can kill a disease/virus at it's level. "Kinetics" does not include Micro-kinetic ability.

Re-cog is not from Anne McCaffrey's books, but from a book by Octavia E. Butler. It is the ability to tell the history of a room/object/person merely by coming into contact with that room/object/person.

 

[zk4586]

Linguist: No grand rationale here, it just sounds the coolest. Although being a Path or Empath Broadcaster sounds pretty cool too, I could really manipulate people.

 

[RuroumiKenshin]

Kenetic: Ever since I was a kid, I've always wanted to have a kenetic ability. All the sci-fi books I ever wrote involved people with kenetic abilities.

 

[Dissident Dan]

Originally posted by Mentat
To give credit where it is due, I took the idea of the "Talents" from Anne McCaffrey's "Pegasus" Trilogy, which I highly recommend to any Science Fiction fan.

Is it science fiction, or fantasy fiction?

 

[drag]

Originally posted by MajinVegeta
All the sci-fi books I ever wrote involved
people with kenetic abilities.

You mean "read", right ?

 

[chosenone]

telepathy would be cool,only if you could control it,by not trasmitting unless you really wanted to,so you would do it accidentally.look like another place to read about psychic powers is a AD&D book.maybe the psionics handbook.it has al types of disiplines of mental powers.if your into that sort of stuff mentat.

 

[Mentat]

Originally posted by Dissident Dan
Is it science fiction, or fantasy fiction?

It is considered Science Fiction. At the beginning of the first book, it (Talent) is established as a measurable, scientific, phenomenon. By the end of the last book, the author has (rather intelligently) used the Uncertainty Principle (of QM) to explain exactly how the different Talents work.

 

[Mentat]

Originally posted by zk4586
Linguist: No grand rationale here, it just sounds the coolest. Although being a Path or Empath Broadcaster sounds pretty cool too, I could really manipulate people.

Yeah, the author makes pretty full use of the possibilities for "Broadcasters".

I like the Linguist Talent too (it's not the one I chose, but I like it). Only one person in the whole trilogy actually had it (Tirla was her name) and they just explained as another form of latent Recieving Telepathy. However, none of the other 'paths could do it.

 

[Mentat]

'empaths were often used as "crowd controllers" (if they were strong enough 'empaths). They were sent to gatherings that were likely to get unruly (sometimes ones were there had been a precog of something bad happening), and they were supposed to calm the general attitude of the people in the gathering.

 

[RuroumiKenshin]

Originally posted by drag
You mean "read", right ?

no, I wrote (not published!). I like writing for fun.

 

[bogdan]

Precognition...the best...

 

[Bubonic Plague]

Path receivers. Definately. Just imagine, if i could hear everyone's thought. I could easily cheat during tests and exams. I just need to seat near the a smart and hardworking person, then just get his/her answers as he/she thinks of it. Or better, i could go gambling and win lots of games, cause i can know which cards the players have by just "seeing" their thoughts.

 

[bogdan]

Hmmm...precognition can do that too...even better...

 

[Mentat]

Originally posted by Bubonic Plague
Path receivers. Definately. Just imagine, if i could hear everyone's thought. I could easily cheat during tests and exams. I just need to seat near the a smart and hardworking person, then just get his/her answers as he/she thinks of it. Or better, i could go gambling and win lots of games, cause i can know which cards the players have by just "seeing" their thoughts.

And remember, you don't have to be anywhere near the person. Quantum Mechanics allow for a "neighborhood" universe, and thus the uncertainty principle (which is what the "Talents" are based on) doesn't need to take distance into account.

 

[FZ+]

Precog... most exploitable.
Also be able to disprove free will once and for all!
Mwhahahahaha
Mwhahahahaha

 

[Mentat]

Originally posted by FZ+
Precog... most exploitable.
Also be able to disprove free will once and for all!
Mwhahahahaha
Mwhahahahaha

Yeah, sounds cool. The only problem with precogs in the book was that they kept being confronted with the paradox of what "would have been". You see, they would warn people of impending disaster, and then the disaster would be averted. This means that it wasn't going to happen in the first place. It really messes with your head!

 

[Bubonic Plague]

And remember, you don't have to be anywhere near the person. Quantum Mechanics allow for a "neighborhood" universe, and thus the uncertainty principle (which is what the "Talents" are based on) doesn't need to take distance into account.

Hehehehe. Even better. Now if i were sitting fer a physics exam, i can just pull out the answers from brilliant phycisists around the world, i'll be guranteed straight As.