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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mordhau" data-source="post: 8509600" data-attributes="member: 7032137">Psionics sort of suffers in that it has migrated from something that may have seemed somewhat plausible as something that might exist at some point in the future if you squint your eye and don't study the science to closely.If people have some small degree of psychic ability, which was actually something being seriously studied at one point, then it would make sense that genetic manipulation or eugenics might one day enhance this ability.I don't think people take this seriously any more.  It's sort of slipped now into the same realm of magic in most people's imagination.  However, it's still viewed differently to how magic is usually viewed, because it's origins in a form of pseuo-scientific thinking inform it's use in genre.As I said earlier, think about whether psionic powers should be able to animate zombies and have them walk about of their own volition.  Necromancy assumes that death is a kind of energy of it's own that can manipulate things.  Psionics (generally) assumes that the laws of phyiscs roughly apply (except where they can be broken in the expectation the average person won't notice)* and that you can't use mysterious metaphyical forces like the power of death.There's also degrees of proximity.  Once you have a hard science fiction in space in which people have a limited form of psychic ability, the the more pulp arm of the genre which take that and stretch it past the limit of plausibility, because you are allowed to do that with the pulpy arm of the genre.  It's the more fantastical element but it exists in a kind of dialogue with the more serious.</blockquote>

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