Reply to Psi

Just for the sake of arguments: :)

>From Michael Glew, Tue Aug 18

>Metempsychosis as you call it, would be covered by Projection.  Projection
>is the out-of-body excursions the mind can perform as psychic phenomenon.
>It is possible for the projectionist to at the point of death, should (s)he
>be powerful enough, to break the "silver-cord" that attaches the mind to
>the body, and go in search of a new host body.  This body need not be
>vacant, as (s)he could quite easily overcome or kill a sap (aka. non-psi).

Mm... I'm not too sure about this OOBE, "silver-cord" stuff. :)   Everything
I've learned about the mind and brain up to now tells me that a great deal
of the "mind" is a secondary effect of a brain's structure; no structure, no
mind.  (Sure this is psionics, imaginary stuff, so we can make it what we
like :)
In my opinion it means that Clairvoyance/audience/othersense is not a
projection of the mind but instead a projection of the mind's eye to the
place to "sense" or the other way around.  Metempsychosis would be the only
"total" projection of the mind there is and it would be projected into
another structure.  The mind would survive if the other structure is similar
and adequate enough.

>humanoid inhabits a creature with a smaller brain volume, then the mind
>will adjust to fit.  So if you want to inhabit a mouse, then expect to
>possibly become a sap, and definately lose 80% of your intelligence and

That sounds good. :)  But I think that a difference of up to 20% less brain
volume shouldn't matter too much, as all homo sapiens don't have quite the
same brain volume but it doesn't prevent some "smaller-brained" to be
geniuses (might be caused by the smaller transmission time inside the brain)
 ...
Also there's the "theory" that we don't use all of our brain capacity,
so in theory a smaller brain would be able to perform just as well as a
redundant, bigger one...
Except that there might be some secondary effects (likelier to develop
delusions, less memory, less concentration, less capable to hold onto many
different frames at the same time...)

>new body, when you arrive.  For full rules on this, wait until the rules
>come out, either from GDW or as Public Domain material should they be
>stupid and not publish it.

I will. :)

I don't see why GDW would be really interested in an elaborate Psi system
since Psis tend to be hush-hush, pushed out of the way stuff in most
Traveller races and too much Psis can make the game less military/hard-sf
oriented.  Also there's enough complexity and possibilities as-is. :)
Good luck to him (or her) though. ":)  The rules sound like they've been
well thought-out.

   // Pierre-Louis Constantin  -- -- -- -- [email removed]
\\//  "When they ship styrofoam, what do they pack it in?"