Help with a new term for gender specific telepathy please

[Noisy Rhysling]

I still don't quite get why you need new words that are gender specific given that it's the exact same ability. "He read her mind while she read his" is surely better than "he andread her mind while she gynosensed his". As others have said all you need to do is explain it earlier in text:

"So you're all mind readers?" the astronaut asked

"Not exactly" the alien explained. "Egg carriers (you call them "females" correct?) can read the minds of sperm producers and vice versa. But, bar rare cases of intesexuality, none can read their own sex"

Because that's what Our Hero routinely does.

 

[Ryan_m_b]

Because that's what Our Hero routinely does.

The hero routinely makes up needless words?

 

[Noisy Rhysling]

The hero routinely makes up needless words?

I'm expressing myself poorly, I guess.

 

[Ryan_m_b]

Why don't you outline all of the criteria you are trying to satisfy? I get that the protagonist is a visitor or to the planet and is looking to describe the natives to his colleagues back home. Why can't he simply say "the people of this planet exhibit hetero-telepathy; they are capable of reading the minds of the opposite gender"? Why does he need to say "the women have the power of man-reading and the men the power of women-reading"?

It would be particularly helpful if you could post a sample extract from this story.

 

[Noisy Rhysling]

Why don't you outline all of the criteria you are trying to satisfy? I get that the protagonist is a visitor or to the planet and is looking to describe the natives to his colleagues back home. Why can't he simply say "the people of this planet exhibit hetero-telepathy; they are capable of reading the minds of the opposite gender"? Why does he need to say "the women have the power of man-reading and the men the power of women-reading"?

It would be particularly helpful if you could post a sample extract from this story.

It's a characteristic of the character that he does things like this. "Signature move" if you will. And as I said above, nothing is on paper yet. When I start writing the story down it will be because it is complete.

 

[newjerseyrunner]

Why don't you give the telepathy some sort of physical mechanism, then name it based on that? Is it magic or does it fit with our understanding of the universe and evolution? Considering that many animals can create electromagnetic current and other animals are highly sensitive to such things, I don't see it outside the possibility of life.

I assume there is a locality limit? How far is it? They can't read each others minds across a planet can they? Do they hear everyone of the opposite gender at once and filter what they want like we do with conversations in crowded rooms? Do they have to physically touch like Vulcans in Star Trek?

I have a greater concern, how do you define genders of the alien species? Male/female biological roles may not be the same as with humans. What physically separates the genders? On Earth, I would name such telepathy as XX or XY telepathy because I define sex based on this. So how you define the biological sex, for me, would make a difference in how you name it.

 

[Noisy Rhysling]

As mentioned above they're very human, perhaps even an lost colony of Earth's. And they have to focus on a person to hear their thoughts.

 

[newjerseyrunner]

Then I'd probably use the differentiating chromosomes. It also makes sense scientifically, the gene for determining which you could listen to and be heard by would have to reside somewhere on the Y chromosome.

Jessica bent down to tie her shoe in front of Jason and his brother Alex. Jason was glad that Alex couldn't read his Y waves and hoped that Jessica wasn't listening to them either as he looked her up and down. Her X waves indicated that she was not in a particularly good mood today and he didn't want her to catch him gawking.

 

[Ryan_m_b]

That doesn't make sense as women don't have a Y chromosome and men do have an X (aside from the myriad of intersex cases). Also genes code for protein, complex traits are the emergent property of many genes working together. So a single gene is unlikely to determine something as remarkable as telepathic "frequency".

You seem to have a soft-SF setting, in which case keeping it vague: have the telepathy be a product of some synthetic, replicating organelle. Have the organelle detect sex chromosomes to calibrate its I/O frequencies. Or even vaguer: don't explain it.

 

[Noisy Rhysling]

Chi waves, gamma waves?

That doesn't make sense as women don't have a Y chromosome and men do have an X (aside from the myriad of intersex cases). Also genes code for protein, complex traits are the emergent property of many genes working together. So a single gene is unlikely to determine something as remarkable as telepathic "frequency".

You seem to have a soft-SF setting, in which case keeping it vague: have the telepathy be a product of some synthetic, replicating organelle. Have the organelle detect sex chromosomes to calibrate its I/O frequencies. Or even vaguer: don't explain it.

Just me being flakey, that's all Greek to me. :)

And I don't plan to explain how it works, Our Hero already has enough problems and this is the first Coalition ship there, so research hasn't been done.

 

[newjerseyrunner]

That doesn't make sense as women don't have a Y chromosome and men do have an X (aside from the myriad of intersex cases). Also genes code for protein, complex traits are the emergent property of many genes working together. So a single gene is unlikely to determine something as remarkable as telepathic "frequency".

You seem to have a soft-SF setting, in which case keeping it vague: have the telepathy be a product of some synthetic, replicating organelle. Have the organelle detect sex chromosomes to calibrate its I/O frequencies. Or even vaguer: don't explain it.

Right, that's why I'd call them X and Y, I'd omit the other X since it exists in both. I know things aren't encoded like that, but how they emerge from those genes. I'm not saying they'd create two different encodings, I'm saying there would be a default state and the Y chromosome simply alters it slightly. By default we are all female, we all have a clitoris. Those of us with a Y chromosome just had it transformed into a penis during development, that change from the default state is because of Y.

It may not be literally encoded, it could be (probably would be) emergent. Perhaps the receptor or transmitter is affected by the concentration of testosterone or estrogen.

 

[axiom]

Create a new language and add a narrative, to explain the origins and meaning of your new words [bit of a backstory]...Assuming your location in the universe...is the spoken language Aqorai or English?

 

[Noisy Rhysling]

Create a new language and add a narrative, to explain the origins and meaning of your new words [bit of a backstory]...Assuming your location in the universe...is the spoken language Aqorai or English?

Our Hero will eventually determine that the language is derived from Celtic. However, for ambiguousness' sake, there are indications that the language may have been imported during the Empire by separatists.

(Sorry I haven't responded sooner, I've been "enjoying" a gall bladder removal.)

 

[Bystander]

gall bladder

You will actually feel better in the long run --- been there --- done that. It IS .

 

[Noisy Rhysling]

You will actually feel better in the long run --- been there --- done that. It IS .

It was educational. I found that opiods depress my respiration to the Blue Man point. Nice to have a hospital near by.