Creating a demi-human race and society

[Slife]

Given the current implementation of telepathy, there's nothing (other than, perhaps, projecting images) to distinguish it from just being able to hear and speak in higher frequencies.

 

[Jeremy Ackerman-Yost]

Going with "always on" and so on....

Seems to me that life would suck for the lower classes. Lower classes live in crowded conditions, so you'd have to either live with the "noise" or find some way to plug your ears.

The upper classes would value owning large amounts of real estate, where they can simply seclude themselves from the blooming, buzzing confusion, as it were. The estates of the wealthy would be grand in scope, I imagine.

 

[Kae'Yoss]

I appreciate that, given these powers, Charlemagne's people would run riot over their foes. But let's not go there yet.

Well, been there, done that, got the T-Shirt (and second-class-humanoid slaves. Noiseholes!)

Let's look at Carolingian society.
If all the Franks have telepathy (out to shouting distance, as I mentioned in my post above), how would their society alter? How would their culture alter? How would life in general alter?

Language would develop differently. Maybe communication will be a mix of spoken and mindspoken words - except for the time when you don't to make any noise.

Or maybe people will have preferences. Some like the sound of their voice better, some like their mindvoice better. They don't have to be the same. Some people might have pleasant voices but horrible mindvoices - or vice versa. Eloquency could differ, too: Some people are very fast thinkers, but their mouth can't keep up, so they trip over their own tongues. Those people would have a very eloquent mindvoice.

Other people seem to be able to talk without involving their brain. So their voice has that Eddie Murphy quality, but their mindvoice isn't so glib.

How would the subjugated peoples be treated? They do not have either Darkvision or Telepathy

It depends on the society and/or individual. Some will treat them with disdain - they're a lesser species, and so on, you have to provide light for them, you have to use your voice to talk to them - others merely with pity. Some will treat them like people despite the lack of darkvision or telepathy. The general opinion will depend on the society, but it could be anywhere between disdain and pity. I don't think they'd treat them as equals, since they don't have those awesome powers, and are slaves/occupied to boot.

 

[Cthulhudrew]

Seems to me that life would suck for the lower classes. Lower classes live in crowded conditions, so you'd have to either live with the "noise" or find some way to plug your ears.

Good point. I wonder if that might not have a general effect on socialization in the first place? Would close-knit, communal societies even develop under such circumstances, or would the need/desire to stay away from the noise keep people largely living distant from one another?

 

[Jeremy Ackerman-Yost]

Good point. I wonder if that might not have a general effect on socialization in the first place? Would close-knit, communal societies even develop under such circumstances, or would the need/desire to stay away from the noise keep people largely living distant from one another?

Personally, I can't imagine telepathy and human society as we know it co-existing at all. After all, one of the currently ascending theories of language evolution is a game theory exercise in fooling each other. I'm not really a proponent of that one. Why create language merely to lie? But then my philosophical penchant is one of the things that weakens me as a scientist.

In any case, operating from the assumption that telepathy came later (so I can wrap my head around it).... you'd probably see some decentralization. The landscape would look more like the US than Europe. Lots of people spread apart on isolated farmsteads and small, small towns rather than centralized. Darkvision would come in handy, since gathering for defense has drawbacks, you at least have fair warning when things get within 60 ft. Those who did manage to live with each other would probably be fairly close knit, or else working their asses off to control their negative reactions.

 

[Kae'Yoss]

Why create language merely to lie?

Evolution's answer is, as always: Because it works!

Of course, you can lie to people without languages. Some apes have been known to simulate spotting dangerous predators to take the choiciest morsels while everyone else was looking the other way.

 

[DogBackward]

I think it would make for both a more open and a more suspicious society. For one (as I understand it) you're constantly "leaking" thoughts, unless you make a consciuos effort to stop it. A lot of problems stem from people not communicating, from not voicing our problems. If you never say what's wrong, how are you going to fix it? This could end up in a more open and honest society, where problems are voiced "aloud", whether you want to or not. This, combined with the natural distrust of people who stay too far away (the 60ft darkvision thing) would make people tend to group together, and at the same time force them to work through their problems more often.

And after that, you get the highly suspicious outlook. You have to make a conscious effort to not leak your thoughts. So, anyone walking down the street that's not broadcasting draws immediate suspicion, odd looks and outright hostile stares. What's that guy trying to hide, anyway? What's he thinking that's so bad he can't let anybody "hear" it? Closing off your thoughts would be considered both incredibly rude and suspicious behavior.

I'm also assuming that material barriers don't prevent the telepathy. So coordinating work becomes even easier, since you can talk just as easily to a guy three floors up and two buidings over, despite the several walls in between you.

All of this together will both encourage and possibly prevent crime. People can easily lurk beyond darkvision range, and nobody uses light sources. You can communicate with your fellow thieves easily, over long distances and through walls, without anybody else "hearing". Which means that pulling off a complex and lucrative job would be much easier. But then again, you'd have to keep quite during the day, both before and after the job, so that nobody hears your plans for the job. Which means people will automatically become suspicious of you, which is a very danagerous thing. Which means a lot of crime could be prevented without anybody knowing what the crime even is.

With all this together, I think visual disabilities would be slightly more stigmatic, and oral and hearing disabilities much less so. Sight is much more valuable with darkvision, so a blind person is losing more, while a deaf or mute person is losing only the ability to communitcate with "heathen mouthspeakers". On that note, mental deficiencies are far more stigmatic, because not only does it denote a problem with the mind (where telepathy comes from) but the lightly afflicted would be forced to keep their thoughts close, drawing suspicion, while the heavily afflicted won't be able to stop sending, and what they send would be very disturbing, at the least. Which would probably end up with the mentally ill that can't control themselves being either expelled from society or outright killed, becaues nobody would be able to stand taking care of them. Alternately, those heathen mouthspeakers could be employed to do that job, since they can't "hear" their ravings.

So, yeah, this combination of abilities, I think, would lend itself to a society both far more open and honest, and at the same time very insular and suspicious. An interesting idea, actually...

 

[Cthulhudrew]

There's been some mention of how telepathy would affect crime, but how about just general laws and regulations? Offhand, I'm thinking they might be even more strict and narrow in interpretation, due to the ability to discern intent so easily.

Also, to bring in fantasy elements, spells of the Illusion school would be particularly potent. The ability to fool perceptions becomes all the more invaluable, I'd think, when so much of society is based around being able to know the truth of motivations and thoughts. Illusion is probably outlawed, or otherwise highly regulated.

 

[DogBackward]

That's just the point, though... there are no fantasy elements. It's real world, with Darkvision and Telepathy, nothing else.

 

[Cthulhudrew]

Oh, my mistake. I keep thinking that we were working up to a generally fantastic setting based around a demihuman evolution into a Charlemagnesque sort of society, and not the actual thing itself. I think this is the second time now that I've gotten off the "rules" (as it were).