InannaWhimsey's picture

InannaWhimsey

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As If! Fundamental grokking

Genties & ladlemen,

 

say right this very moment, everyone on Earth is in contact with everyone else's thoughts and feelings.

 

What do you think would be the short-term effects?  The long-term effects?

 

Feel free to yakk aboot it in your terms, be it history or politics or ecology or religion or experimental science or advertising or poetry or or or...:3

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MistsOfSpring's picture

MistsOfSpring

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My daughter would be upset with me much more if she knew what I was really thinking.

Mendalla's picture

Mendalla

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LOL, Mists. My son likewise.

 

I think there would some pretty hefty upheavals at first. People realizing just how little they REALLY knew about some other people and so on. We'd lose the little white lies that help keeps us sane and sociable at times. Expect some major violence in some cases, I'm afraid. Also expect some people to withdraw, unable to handle the emotional overload of dealing with others' thoughts and feelings. Dan Simmons' novel The Hollow Man deals with a telepath who struggles with this after losing the love of his life, who was also a telepath. Their love had enable him to focus on her, and filter out the rest.

 

If we survive the initial transition and if social institutions can adapt to the this new reality, then it might open the door to more open and honest communications. It could also, unfortunately, open the door to new ways of controlling and manipulating people.

 

IOW, like any change, it would probably be a double-edged sword.

 

Mendalla

 

Tyson's picture

Tyson

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I would most likely end up in a straight jacket and locked in a padded room.

gecko46's picture

gecko46

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First of all, I would have a gigantic headache.  Then, like Tyspn, I would be locked in a padded room somewhere because of the "voices".

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