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Message: <blockquote data-quote="tarchon" data-source="post: 1291741" data-attributes="member: 5990">It's really the fundamental argument that fails, the idea that infravision doesn't work because of its mechanical complexity.  Most of the examples he gives of supposed interpretive difficulty apply equally well to Darkvision, but I don't really see them as being that difficult to resolve.For example:"Displacement: Shouldn't infravision negate this, too? Even if the target's radiating heat is displaced, the target is also heating the air and ground, which shouldn't be displaced."  Thermally emitted light is still light.  A torch in hand doesn't have any weird effects on Displacement with normal sight, so if your hand is the torch, it's not any different.  All spells based on illusion should not be affected one iota by viewing the scene in the infrared.  Light is light.  Most of the arguments miss this simple fact, which makes the interpretation obvious if one keeps it in mind.The physical explanation of thermal imaging misses the important points too, and the whole thing about the "air curtain" is just wrong.  A heat plume certainly does form over warm bodies, and it can be detected from thermal emission (though usually you detect it by other means), but the thermal emissivity of air is so low that the emission from the body overwhelms the air plume signal by orders of magnitude.  The analogy to heat rippling is false as well, since the heat rippling effect comes from pronounced density variations in turbulent rising hot air.There are two simple facts that make thermal vision in humans and similar creatures highly unworkable physically:* The background light from the retina, eyeball, skull etc. will be thousands if not millions of times more intense than the image of a distant object falling on the retina.* Aqueous tissues are quite absorptive in the middle and far infrared.  This means first that the eyeball as a thermal IR optic works as well as a ball filled with rootbeer and second that the eyeball is a powerful thermal IR emitter itself.  It would be like trying to look at something through a mass of luminescent gel.So, I'd say it has the right conclusion for all the wrong reasons.</blockquote>

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