[Psi-Tech] Strategic Psychotronic Devices

[Prince Charon]

Originally Posted by Varyon

A while back, I read a short story in which the researcher trying to create something like sensie tech (basically, a device that records everything you experience while you wear it, and allows someone to relive this with another device) suffered a stroke and died while testing it. Having someone relive that basically turned them into a sort of sociopath (IIRC, there was some debate in the setting on if this was evidence of a soul, and that the experience tricked the soul into thinking the body was dead and leaving it).

I think I might have read that, but I'm blanking on the author, title, or other information that would let me look it up.

Originally Posted by Varyon

If you could induce something like this at range and, ideally, in an area, you could detonate such a "soul eater" in a large city, then watch as it basically tears itself apart (some people might resist it - probably with a penalized Will roll, although HT or even IQ might not be inappropriate - but they'd never know who they could trust). Unless you had a good way to detect the detonation, you probably wouldn't notice what happened in time to do anything about it, as you'd likely just initially see a sudden spike in violent crime. Use one of these in most major cities - and large military bases - and I'd imagine you'd see total societal collapse in fairly short order.

Very scary.

Originally Posted by JulianLW

Wasn't the McGuffin starship in The Hitchhiker's Guide powered by an improbability engine or something?

Infinite Improbability Drive, yes. In one of the novels, it told space to get knotted.