Trying to extrapolate psionics impact in a scifi setting

[Arith Winterfell]

I'm working on a sci-fi setting, more or less space opera I think, and I'm struggling against some of my own inner limitations about sci-fi hardness, internal consistency of setting and so forth relating to psionics / anti-gravity and its repercussions in a setting. So I could use some help / suggestions on fleshing things out well.

I'm often torn over the two extremes of hard and soft sci-fi so I'm struggling to strike a balance.

So far I've decided to have anti-gravity technology and some sort of FTL travel to allow players to explore the cosmos and see strange new worlds. The anti-gravity effect is mostly for quick and easy leaving a planet's gravity well, landing safely on a planet from space, and cutting down on issues of G-force effects. Faster than light travel to again get players to strange new worlds, probably through some manner of either hyperspace travel or maybe some sort of "wormhole" gateway system in space. When it comes to psionics I know I want to have telepathy play a major facet in the setting, perhaps with other psionic powers too. They seem fun.

So anti-gravity is based on the idea of an identified Graviton particle and the ability to manipulated it. Doing so requires energy and machinery of the size that it has to be built into a spaceship or building type setup, so no personal levitating gear. So this likely means floating cities (which is cool). Gravity manipulation also means control over time dilation to a certain degree allowing stasis by dilating time through a controlled gravity field essentially allowing time freezing or near freezing anyway without tidal forces to rip you apart. I'm trying to come up with any other repercussions of gravity manipulating technology though.

Lastly I'm having trouble coming up with a solid explanation for psionics along with covering all the results of that explanation. I'll post up my current ideas for that in an post a little later. Thank you in advance for your ideas/thoughts/suggestions. :)

[Arith Winterfell]

Forgot to mention in earlier post, the general TL of the setting is TL 10. Moving on.

So my current idea is that we start with successful brain/machine interface techology with neural implants. Then computer implants in the brain result in interactions with a psionic energy field that exists throughout the universe (perhaps akin to the Higgs Field). This allowed unpredictable psionic abilities at first, with some tech refinement it leads to clear proof of a psionic energy field which had been theorized, but not confirmed by that point. However, even with the most modern brain-machine interface implants there remains (depending on brain structure of each individual) a chance they could be someone who develops the ability to harness that energy field. Doing so requires time and practice / self-training just as learning to manipulate a computer with one's brain takes time to learn the idiosyncrasies of your own interface normally.

At the same time this logically also leads to psychotronic technology (as described by GURPS) where some tech has been developed that tries to duplicate things like quantum manipulation via the psionic field that should allow technology to produce effects like chance manipulation, psychokinesis, or even small amounts of teleportation. However, human abilities remain sporadic in appearance and varied by person to person, tech prototypes alone show some promise, but remain in prototype often with issues (though it could explain cool alien artifacts). The best results seem to occur when there is both a conscious human involved combined with extended tech (psi amplifiers, other tech maybe too).

I could use this perhaps to setup an idea of setting where hyperspace FTL is accessible via a combination of human and machine interface, with psionics allowing the entrance and exit to and from hyperspace, and a combination of high-end computer combined with human (or alien for that matter) lesser precognition to set up hyperspace navigation calculations for each jump.

What sort of other repercussions of the tech/powers I'm mentioning might result from all of this. What about social and cultural repercussions?

[ericthered]

You want technobabble for telepathy? that's... a hard request.

Psionics in general is supposed to be engineering principles applied to existing "supernatural" phenomenon. It was to be the scientific harnessing of things like faith healing and mother's intuition. It rarely had a proposed mechanism, only proposed effects.

Its prominence was largely the work of John W Cambell, the editor of Astounding Science Fiction, and possibly the most influential figure in all of science fiction (He was the mentor of Asimov, Heinlein, and Clarke). Campbell in his later years pushed psionics as a successfully developed parapsychology. The answer is usually stated to be something unknown factor in the human mind.

[AlexanderHowl]

Honestly, I would not bother to scientifically justify psionics using modern science. If psionics exists, our current understanding of the Universe is flawed, and our technology would be incapable of exploiting the phenomena. As a new science of psionics evolved, it would develop technology capable of exploiting the phenomena (probably involving crystals, hallucinagins, and silver).

The primary question then becomes the limitations on psionics. You can still have a fairly hard science fiction setting with the subtler talents of Astral Projection, Fear, Dream/Nightmare, ESP, Probability Control, Telepathy, etc. Even then, the consequences are profound.

Imagine the impact that an individual with Astral Projection would have on espionage. An intangible, invisible, and silent spy that can scout out enemy targets without risk to themselves. The only counter would be another Astral projector.

[The Colonel]

You could probably justify something with "natural quantum entanglement" or something. Won't be good science, but technobabble rarely is. Some disciplines might also interact with whatever you are doing for hyperspace.

[AlexanderHowl]

That is pretty much the route that W40K took. It could be that exposure to hyperspace has a random (though very low) chance of activating psionics in any sapient individual. Perhaps the first time that people are exposed to hyperspace they have a .9% chance of manifesting psionics powers (attuning with hyperspace) and a .1% of manifesting antipsi (rejecting hyperspace).

[DangerousThing]

My suggestion is to just use whatever explanation is comfortable to you. Psionics is basically magic for science fiction. Many great stories have been written around it. I like the Telzy stories and Psi High, but there are others.

In a game, it allows science fiction characters to do things they otherwise would be unable to do.

One problem with GURPS Psionics in an SF setting is that characters who spend hundreds of points on psionic powers are often less effective in combat that a character who buys beam weapons and a laser. The GM will need to create adventures that show the usefulness of both types of characters.

Another problem for the gm is that psionics, especially telepathy, can short circuit many types of adventures.

Good Luck!

[Arith Winterfell]

Thanks everyone for the feedback so far!

I'm (at this point) thinking I won't focus so hard on explanation as some have suggested here as well.

So as part of this I think I'll try to take the sort of Star Wars-esque approach in that the setting is a space opera setting in a separate universe different from ours where some psionics just work as part of the physics of the setting.

I think originally I was really inspired by Dr. Who (the older period with Tom Baker as The Doctor) and in particular the psychic powers of figures like The Master. I'm not even sure exactly how to model his abilities in game as I can't quite remember how his powers worked.

I suppose since only a small number of beings showed up with psychic powers in the Dr. Who setting that I would model that using a "secret psi" setting in that many societies would not be able as easily to track it and so for the most part PCs with the abilities would be keeping secret they can read minds or forcibly control them with a dramatic hard stare. Mindwipe would be super necessary I think.

[AlexanderHowl]

Time Lords are dozens of orders of magnitude more powerful than any run-of-the-mill psychic. Each Time Lord is Type III civilization by themselves, as shown by the Doctor using supernova as tools, and the Master is arguably more powerful (though not quite as clever).

[Johnny1A.2]

Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl

The primary question then becomes the limitations on psionics. You can still have a fairly hard science fiction setting with the subtler talents of Astral Projection, Fear, Dream/Nightmare, ESP, Probability Control, Telepathy, etc. Even then, the consequences are profound.

This^^^. Unless the psion has hugely high level of PK, a little bit of Telepathy or ESP well used is far more dangerous. In my gaming world, the old stories of the Nazis having psychic/magical research programs were true, but Hitler applied the same obsession that led him to try and mount naval guns on land vehicles to it. He obsessed over creating powerful psychokinetic warriors, and they downplayed the quiet ESP and Telepathy talents that could have turned D-Day into a Charlie Foxtrot and otherwise done huge damage.