things that effect the mind

[Kaziarl]

This isn't trek, but I wasn't sure where else to put it. So here goes:

In my original sci fi book, the crew is being influenced by an outside source. At first it was going to be an alien entity, but the plot has evolved some. Now it's an AI that was designed by a race to get rid of all "negative" emotions.

I realize that, being my story I can say whatever I want, but I like to try and make things at least somewhat plausible. So is there anything in particular I should touch on with the way this AI works? how it effects the mind and whatnot?

 

[sojourner]

um, what would make an AI have the ability to affect emotions? does it play soothing music?

 

[Kaziarl]

Well, thats kind of why I'm asking. Of course if you ask a psychiatrist (or atleast the ones I've dealt with) just about anything can effect a persons mind. And usually for the worse.

 

[sojourner]

An AI is just an intelligent computer. Your question is like asking "how does my toaster play music?". the only answer is "I don't know, how does your toaster play music?"

 

[Kaziarl]

You're just being picky aren't you? Fine, I'll rephrase.

The AI runs some kind of system that manipulates the mind to effect people's emotions.(that better?) What I'm asking is what sort of things can do something like that? How might such a device work?

 

[sojourner]

Your best bet is probably some kind of sonic device. Though I have read about the paint colors of a room affecting behaviour, I am not sure how you could write that as a plausible device. Unless your AI captures people.

 

[T'Girl]

um, what would make an AI have the ability to affect emotions? does it play soothing music?

The turbo-lift shaft runs just behind your quarters, the alien AI would keep running the lift back and forth, playing loud "thump thump" music, all night long.

Just to record your negative emotions.

 

[Timo]

One old trick that Arthur C. Clarke put forth in City and the Stars would be that the AI is an intellect like any other - but significantly faster than the human brain. Like a trained fortune-teller, the AI reads your innermost thoughts and leads you around on a leash, simply because it is good at listening to what you say and then saying exactly what you need to hear in order to start behaving in a desired manner.

An innocent question about today's weather might then lead to a short discussion where you end up in tears because you remember your poor dead mother - or in rage because you remember that schoolyard bully and realize your Captain is exactly like him and must be a Romulan traitor to boot and simply has to be killed right now.

The AI wouldn't need any special device for that. A speaker in a computer would suffice. Your heroes might be interested in having a discussion with this thing, and it would then wrap the heroes around its virtual finger simply by being such a stunning conversationalist.

The significant challenge here is to write out these conversations... Or at least fragments of them.

If you want to, you can allow the AI to do visuals and other means of expression as well. The City and the Stars computer fooled its adversary (which happened to be another AI) by a visual that exactly matched that adversary's idea of God, simply because the adversary was a slower AI and let its innermost thoughts be revealed in a brief "discussion". It would always be a matter of feedback loops: the dominant AI makes tiny adjustments to its "story" whenever it doesn't satisfy you, but does it so fast that you don't even consciously notice anything was unsatisfactory.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[publiusr]

Persingier's God Helmet might have an AI equivalent some day...

 

[Kaziarl]

Persingier's God Helmet might have an AI equivalent some day...

Never heard of it, but I'll look that up.

And nice idea's guys, but unless I drastically change what I have so far I'm not sure they will work. The source of the influence is on a planet, and the crew is on the ship several lightyears away. Is there anything other then visual, auditory, or chemical stimuli that can effect how someone thinks?

If not, I'll probably just say something along the lines of telepathic projectors, only not so lame sounding... But I'm still hoping for something that sounds plausible.

 

[Myasishchev]

A wired network ala the Matrix. And of course this is still speculative, but the Matrix provides a good example of what isn't plausible as well--the film series jumps the shark hard when Neo suddenly grows a wireless router in his head.

There is no wireless method, that I know of, that can directly affect human consciousness. Well, there is one way. Microwaves of sufficient power can cause cognitive change, and affect emotional state. Why, sit someone in a room subjected to a microwave broadcast for long enough, and you'll eventually rid your subject of any emotion. And even quicker if you panel the inside of the room in tinfoil.

 

[Timo]

To be sure, it's a fairly trivial trick to induce electric currents in a given voxel of 3D space. And inducing electric currents inside the brain will alter its processes. All we need is a bit of precision and a bit of understanding on what affects what.

The "Spock's Brain" remote control we got down pat (only we generally need a brain inside that head): we know exactly how to induce those signals that will make the legs twitch and the fingers curl, by firing up a magnetic coil next to the noggin. Your AI could take control of some sort of an EM field generator built into the surroundings of our heroes (say, the coils from the loudspeakers of the starship's PA system) and induce the necessary currents in their brains with that, thus gaining the ability to control the heroes' coarser brain functions. Inducing nervousness or pleasure should be a breeze. But since there'd be no purpose-built EM field generator tech there, just a hijacked piece of non-optimal hardware, the control might be tenuous and temporary...

Timo Saloniemi