I really REALLY wish i was psionic.

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I wish i had telepathy and i could project my thoughts directly into someones head and not have to deal with the cumbersome mess that is language and body language. And then i could READ other peoples minds and not have to deal with reading their body language or try to get them to explain their thoughts to the degree i'd prefer.

It would be cool to read other people's thoughts. It would be helpful. But in the long run, what then would even be the point in talking to someone? You could just read their mind and find out exactly what they're thinking. You would be able to know everything that they know instantly. It would make you even more of an outcast, because now you would have no reason to talk to anyone at all, except to make your own wishes known (and then you'll be mad because they can't read YOUR mind and find out what you want). While it sounds cool, it really isn't helpful in the long run, becasue you'll never have a reason to talk to someone again, to find out how they're doing. Coversing with other people is give and take; you have to work for it, or else it just won't help you in a meaningful way. In the long run, I enjoy asking other people questions about themselves. It's part of natural conversation. If I could just read their mind, I would have no reason to even get to know that person, because I would know everything I need to know almost immediatly. While this would be helpful for avoiding certain types of people, in the end it just isn't fair to myself.

Well, even though you have the ability to read someones thoughts your attention is not omnipresent. You can still only keep a number of items in your head at once. Overall i think it would just make connections between people extremely rich, because you can think a lot faster than you can talk, and you can express yourself clearly in thought. To try and read a persons entire memory of experiances would be like trying to read a HUGE book that is extremely complex and it is continually writing itself.

But if we could all read minds, why we would we even talk to each other?

Yes, it could be helpful for us. But if we could learn all this about a person, why would we even bother to talk to them if we can just sit back at a distance and probe their mind and gradually learn everything that's essential about them that we would have to talk to them to learn?

Well, i wish i was psionic, but i only so that i can preform "normally" for every person just for their comfort. The fact that i can't work a conversation doesnt particularly bother me, but it seems to make them uncomfortable. But if everyone was telepathic then i dont think people WOULD talk to each other unless they wanted to emphasis something, or perhaps in a world of telepathics spoken words carry some meaning that in this world they dont currently have.
But i think it would make all people far more social. Simple mistakes in socializing could be explained in 1 thought, and the person with whom you are communicating would understand on the most fundamental level why you did whatever you did. You could scan other peoples minds, find someone with whom you can relate well to, and then think with each other over events that occured recently. The reason that sociality would not become barren and redundant is because the development of new thought will occur all the time.
Even if you could know everything about a person it would be rather difficult to pull all of that information together and understand it all at once. If you could pull everything together and think about it at once then anything the person could think would be obvious and boring. But peoples new thoughts will be different enough so that you can keep thinking about it. And since people think not only in words but sensations i think the whole experiance would be made to be a lot richer.

If we were all psionic we could all form into this one big hive mind.

Well, i did not actually specify the parameters of the psionic ability. I don't want to go into it, it is extensive and complicated, but depending on the KIND of telepathy people are capable of would determine what shape the culture would take.

It wouldn't matter. People aren't honest about their thoughts. They do not admit to themselves (let alone to other people) what their true thoughts, feelings, and intentions are.

If you respond to what they are really thinking/feeling, they don't react much better than they would normally. People's true thoughts are hot buttons and a tangled mess of conflicts.....

That is my opinion anyway. I do wish that I could magically *put* the picture I am seeing when I think into their heads as though it were on a movie screen. It would make communication much easier because they often dion't get what I am saying.

I don't think I'd want to know what other (possibly boring) people are thinking all the time. Or even part of the time.

I like my own little secluded world.

I wouldn't want that.

Mkay, I do not pretend to believe i know all the factors that will come into play but I know you have to think about all of them at once. If people were psionic the culture would be different. And depending on the parameters of the abilities would determine how the culture would develop, and the forms of communication that would develop between people.

How the telepathy would work could be extremely varied. Perhaps seeing into peoples minds would be as obvious to one form of telepathy as would be looking at a picture in a book, or perhaps in another form of telepathy you could observe peoples thoughts as they occur to that person and it would require a secondary skill of interpretation to even be able to read that information. Like the raw mind would appear as code from the matrix and it would require a secondary skill of interpreting the computer language to see actual images, feelings, sounds, and other information.
Also very important to how the telepathy would work is understanding the mind and brain functioning. Perhaps the telepathy would simply make obvious the chemical presences in the brain and it would require a vast expanse of knowledge of neurochemistry to make sense of it, or a sort of training that would allow you to intuitively interpret what kinds of things are going on in their head.
And if the telepathy allowed you to experiance thought as the person thought it it would not necessarily be a clean, clear image, with the sounds and feelings as coherent things. Like when i think about something sometimes i repeat the words, images, sounds, and events several times in a row, then jump forward a little bit, or perhaps i am reminded of something that is linked to the previous thing in only a very remote way and the events will seem to change scene very quickly and without reason.

Then there is the factor that peoples minds do not all work the same. Some people may be more difficult to read and understand than others. Or perhaps some people would be impossible to understand depending on the ways in which the telepathy would work.

As for reading peoples memories and feelings and other things which they may not immediately be thinking about, in one form of telepathy - which would require human brains and thought work in a certain way, this may be as easy as reading a book, but in another form of telepathy, it might be impossible to read into peoples memories that they arent currently "experiancing" in their current thoughts. It may require extensive knowledge of neurochemistry and the structure of the brain to be able to observe memories of any kind simply that exist in the brain and arent being trigger at any particular moment.

Next is the factor that peoples thoughts at any given time are far more complex than most people, especially them, are aware of. And it isn't as simple and clear cut as a consciousness, subconsciousness, and unconscious. If you study thought you will find that things can shift between these levels and even more levels you don't immediately have names for. Perhaps in one form of telepathy you will clearly see all the aspects of a persons thoughts and understand their meanings. In another form of telepathy you may see the consciousness as clear, and every lower level as less clear. In another form still you may see every level of thought as a vague "flavoring" and you must interpret the strongest and most clear feelings and derive meaning from that.

As for would this be a good or a bad thing and the distinct consequences of it if all people or a person were telepathic in some form immediately it just isn't that simple.
If A person had any form of telepathy it would depend on countless factors as to what would happen, how they would feel about it, and what the eventual consequences would be.
In most cases the results would simply be personal and not long reaching depending on the form of the telepathy. But anything from the person not caring an iota and not even USING the telepathy to them becoming the all powerful ruler controller of the entire human race is possible DEPENDING on the form of telepathy they had and dozens and dozens of other factors that are personal and otherwise.

If the entire population just had some form of telepathy dumped on them DEPENDING on the type of telepathy and once again hundreds and hundreds of factors, anything from global chaos to global unification to complete ignorence that it even happened could happen. But more likely if the entire population was affected from non-telepathic to telepathic the results would be more dramatic and far reaching.

If a population existed for a long long time as telepathic, depending on the kind of telepathy they had, dozens of cultures as mundane, wonderful, and diverse as our world would form that incorporated the telepathy as just another part of life. It may be worse, it may be better, but more likely it will just be different - always depending on dozens of factors. If a population existed for a long time with telepathy but they were either at one point all non-telepathic or they slowly developed telepathy over time the culture that developed would be different, and would reflect these facts.

I could if i wanted to, try to meticulously identify all of the factors but that sounds more like a lifetime work than a 10 minute writing project for a post on a forum. But the most signifigant factor is that it all depends.

Personally _I_ would just like to have telepathy, with parameters i have specifically worked out myself, in the interest of coexisting more peacefully and happily with normal people at large.

I have done my best trying to deal with this.