Telepaths

[Delenn_of_Mir]

If telepaths like the ones in Babylon 5 were discovered here in our world how would you react to them? If you found out your best friend was a telepath or your lover or your son? If you found yourself working beside one or if your boss was one?

I recently finished reading the telepath trilogy, which I thought was really good, by the way, and in those books people freaked out when the telepaths were discovered. And they were really mean to them. And then after sci corp started not only did they have to fear normals (or mundanes), but they had to fear their own kind.

I don't think that I would freak out if I met someone who could read my mind. I don't have a very interesting mind, and no terrible secrets, so I would probably be okay. But, of course, until i actually met one I can't say for certain.

But I am interested in knowing what everybody else thinks?

[Trollheart]

I think we would freak out. How often do you think things about friends, co-workers, or even people you meet on the street, things you would, on the whole, prefer not to be known by that person? That's why you think it, instead of saying it.

Say you met your best friend's new girlfriend, and your first reaction is envisaging yourself in bed with her. Would you want him (if he was the teep) or her (if she was) knowing that? You may have no intention of doing the deed, but we all think things we would never act upon. That's why Orwell's Thought Police in "Nineteen Eighty-Four" was such a scary concept: if you could be jailed for what you thought, what chance have any of us?

Even take a less extreme example: your brother or sister is bugging you and you think to yourself (and it's an unconscious thought, but once it's thought it can't be un-thought) something nasty about them. Would you want them knowing that?

Also, whether you have or haven't, most of us harbour some sort of secret. Maybe it's something we did way in the past, or something recent. Maybe it's something we like to do in private, that we prefer no-one else knows. Maybe it's something we're intending to do. Either way, we all have thoughts, desires, opinions and ideas we want to keep secret, and relationship with a telepath would likely make that impossible.

Even if we were assured the teep couldnt divine our thoughts (ws for instance blocking them out), would we ever really believe it?

No, sad as it may be, I believe we would never fully trust telepaths, and they, in turn, would never trust us, as they know what's in our darkest hearts.

[Macbeth]

How about something as simple as your bank PIN or paypal password. Let alone my company's wire transfer account passwords.

[Marsden]

And what about every time I look at a good looking woman in the office there's that part of my brain that comes off with something that would be offensive if I said it out loud, not that I would, but it just pops in there, like the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man. Any telepath that heard that would either be embarrased or a perv.

[Delenn_of_Mir]

Those are all really good points that I hadn't thought of. Poor telepaths!

[BabylonRebel]

We probably would end up with something scarily akin to Psi-Corps.

[Trollheart]

I'd agree with that. People (Mundanes/us) would no doubt clamour for some sort of protection from privacy invasions, companies would be unwilling to hire them as they could take secrets out of the office in their heads and use them either for blackmail or corporate espionage --- look at how so many firms these days have disabled their employees' computers from using flash drives, as a security concern!

EVentually the outcry would get so loud and so politically threatening that "the People" would demand something be done, that the telepaths be controlled in some way. This would surely lead to the setting up of the Psi Corps or something similar, or even the forced adminsitration of the drug Edgars was working on.

Either way, it would not look good for telepaths!
And as you said, Delenn, poor telepaths? Well, what about poor us, who would have to guard our thoughts, our secrets, suspect everyone (assuming no-one HAD to declare they were a teep, wear badges or something) and never truly feel safe or secure?

[Delenn_of_Mir]

In a world where all of this did happen a great deal of patience and understanding would go a long way. Classes would be a good idea where normals could ask questions and learn more about how exactly a telepath works, how their mind works. Can they hear every thought? Can they block them?

A form of sci corp would be needed, but just not the horrible kind we had in B5. (I am speaking of an ideal world, okay?) Telepaths would be trained how to use their talents, and most importantly how to control them. I believe that identifying badges would still be necessary as well as registering, but families should never be split up, and children should never be taken away from their parents. If telepaths needed a safe place to live then teeptown would be a good idea, but no one should be forced to live there against their will.

Special training centrers would be like day schools. Telepath children should be allowed to attend public schools but only after it has been established that they can control their abilities.

No work should be withheld from them, but they are required to disclose their abilities, their P rating. Maybe some sensitive occupations would have to be closed to them, but telepaths are people too, and as such deserve the same rights as normals, as long as they prove they can be trusted to abide by the rules, control their abillities and not to tell any secrets they may inadvertently learn without trying.,

One of the things that I really like about Crusade is the character of Matheson. It shows that telepaths can enter the military and that they can be trusted and valued crew members. One of the things that endeared me right away to Gideon was his open trust and loyalty to Matheson. He was not like Sheridan (as much as I love him he never really trusted the telepaths, and in his own way he used and abused them almost as badly as sci corp.)

Anyway, my point is that Crusade showed how it could work out for telepaths since apparently the good ones won the war? Bester and sci corp lost I know that much, and then things got a little better for telepaths. They will never be treated exactly the same as normals because they are not the same, and some things will always, of necessity be unfair, but I believe that as a world it would be our obligation to do whatever we could to make sure that telepaths were treated as fairly and kindly as possible.

I also think it's funny that other races have telepaths and they don't think anything of it. Take the minbari, for example. of course they were so far ahead of us culturally being ever so much older, that all minbari now had at least some telepathic ability. So maybe in another thousand years or so most humans will have some telepathic ability as well and telepathy will no longer be so feared. Just having the ability to know when you were being scanned and to be able to prevent it would probably go a long ways to helping people feel more comfortable.

Just remember telepaths are people too.

[Ranger 6 and 7/8]

If/when telepathy manifests itself as a reality there will be prejuidice like we saw in the 60's and 70's with integration in the States. This will continue for at least a century or 2. Yes there will definitely be an agency created to monitor and control them, and this would be for good reason as the aforementioned security concerns bring out.
As with the internet boom, businesses and people in general will adopt new telepath proof security measures. Kindergarten teachers will rejoice in new found higher paying government positions teaching spies to recite "Mary had a Little Lamb".
I think their existence will be a secret to the general public until the numbers of telepaths becomes too large to keep secret. By that time it would be too late to worry about exposed secrets. The worst of the prejuidice based attacks will come in the first decade or 2 after their existence is acknowledged and will be carried out by the same type of people that commit racist atrocities now.

[Spoo Junky]

That's why they're keeping the aliens from Roswell a secret

[Trollheart]

Ah, I'm with the NSA. You need to come with us.
NOW!

[Spoo Junky]

Ah, I'm with the NSA. You need to come with us.
NOW!

<Looks around quickly and beams to Mother Ship>

[Ranger 6 and 7/8]

<Looks around quickly and beams to Mother Ship>

<stares blankely for a few seconds. Then looks @ Spoo Junky>

Did you just flashy thing me?