A Thing to Contemplate: a sci-fi phenomenon

[autism-and-autotune]

It's a rather niche little trilogy, but has anyone else read the Chaos Walking books by Patrick Ness? If not, I'll give a little more info as to what I've been thinking about since my diagnosis.

I loved these books dearly during my teen years, and to me they're still moving today. There is, in this fictional world, a phenomenon called the Noise which is essentially consciousness which is thrust out into the world. Humanity migrated to this new world after the old world became too crowded. Animals have it...but curiously for people, only men produce Noise--but for the sake of my post, let's pretend we're in a world where everyone, regardless of biology/orientation, can produce Noise. Now as to the specifics, I guarantee that Noise is quite honestly someone's full consciousness---you can hear their thoughts in your head and feel what they feel (both physically and emotionally).

My question is this: do you feel this may be a help, or hindrance, from the aspect of communication? Sure, I know I'd get overwhelmed immediately from hearing words and thoughts and music and all that from hundreds of people---or anyone close to my vicinity. I feel Ness was onto something because these books came out roughly before the period where cell phones/social media really were prominent. 'Information overload and zero secrets' is a huge caveat to this universe. But from a communication aspect--no having to 'read between the lines' or guess what's really being said...plus others could feel what it's like for us to be over-stimulated and in shutdown or meltdown mode, therefore giving us hopefully more sympathy and understanding.

Am I just talking out of my elbows here?

 

[Neonatal RRT]

@autism-and-autotune, I believe you are correct in that the cons would outweigh the pros in this situation, especially if there were no mechanism to consciously turn off or filter out all the input. The human brain in it's current capacity to understand communication is relatively primative and full of cognitive biases and errors, no doubt. On the other hand, if we were to take some "magic pill" and have the ability to input and process all the communication, verbal, non-verbal, conscious, unconscious, etc., most of us would go insane. Yes, it would be "eye opening" to read another's mind, and in specific circumstances it may be useful, but just walking around in public, it would be overwhelming to the point of debilitation.

From an evolutionary/anthropological perspective, I suspect that there may have been or are human beings with some "low level" abilities. I certainly wouldn't rule that out. However, one would reason that if these abilities were important enough to our survival, it would genetically favor those with, and over time, more and more people would eventually obtain these skills. That hasn't happened.

Although there have been times in which I really could have used the ability to read another's mind, I also enjoy my "quiet time" away from "the noise" of the world, and would want to turn it off.

 

[autism-and-autotune]

@autism-and-autotune, I believe you are correct in that the cons would outweigh the pros in this situation, especially if there were no mechanism to consciously turn off or filter out all the input. The human brain in it's current capacity to understand communication is relatively primative and full of cognitive biases and errors, no doubt. On the other hand, if we were to take some "magic pill" and have the ability to input and process all the communication, verbal, non-verbal, conscious, unconscious, etc., most of us would go insane. Yes, it would be "eye opening" to read another's mind, and in specific circumstances it may be useful, but just walking around in public, it would be overwhelming to the point of debilitation.

From an evolutionary/anthropological perspective, I suspect that there may have been or are human beings with some "low level" abilities. I certainly wouldn't rule that out. However, one would reason that if these abilities were important enough to our survival, it would genetically favor those with, and over time, more and more people would eventually obtain these skills. That hasn't happened.

Although there have been times in which I really could have used the ability to read another's mind, I also enjoy my "quiet time" away from "the noise" of the world, and would want to turn it off.

I like your response a lot! In universe, there does exist a pill which one must take to silence their Noise, or in the case of the antagonist, one can (with intense training) cease their Noise--but even his comes back when, say, coming out of being stunned.

I agree with you that if we could open or close our perception of other's consciousnesses then it could be...interesting. I too would tire from it all eventually.