fandomhigh | The Science of Psionics, Wednesday

"An old friend of mine used to be quite concerned with issues of morality and ethics," Kerrigan began. She had no more sentimental feelings towards Harriet Jones, but the woman was an easy memory to use convincingly. "Personally, I've never quite had the time to stop and think about it."

A lift of her eyebrows that invited taking that as a joke. It... wasn't. At least not nowadays.

"We've touched on this before, of course," she drawled, "But this friend died some time after I left the island, so for sentimentality's sake I'm throwing a stick into this henhouse."

Most likely, the topic wouldn't bring her any interesting intel on these kids, but it might leak something. No matter. Kerrigan was quickly losing her interest in this island as it stood. "Telekinesis, telepathy, all the other forms of this power of the mind we've been talking about, all of it comes with an opportunity for abuse. And yet, on the other side of it - telepaths from my universe had no choice. They couldn't stay out of your head if they wanted to. So was it abusive for them to use their powers?"

Her mouth was a thin line. Almost a smile, if you looked at it wrong.

"Do we - or they, if you're not one of us - have a responsibility to keep ourselves in check? I'm not talking about just my home now. Should we hole ourselves up and wrap ourselves in bubble wrap and come with warning labels?" She snorted. "Or do we exercise the power we've been given and well, pity the poor fools, but it's not our fault they didn't come equipped with the skills to keep us out...? Do our powers make us some special category of people that needs laws pasted all over them, or can we say fuck them, you've got ears and you use them, too, no matter how inconvenient it is to me?"

She glanced over the class. "And can anyone on the outside make demands of us one way or the other? They weren't born with these powers, after all. What do they know? Can they make any accurate judgement about what we're supposed to do? Hm?"

She might have had her opinions.

She waved a hand at the class. "Talk," she said. "Just this once, there are no wrong answers."

Ahahah. There were totally wrong answers.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Actually," Spock said, "the more apt comparison would be to asking a concert pianist--or anyone else, for that matter--to not touch something, which is a logical request in many circumstances." Spock was a touch telepath. He knew of what he spoke.

Edited 2011-03-31 03:13 (UTC)

"Asking me to never use my powers is exactly like asking them to never play the piano," she replied. "Although perhaps a better comparison would be a composer."

"Think of my brand of telepathy as a radio, with the dial out of control, or standing in the middle of Times Square on New Year's Eve with your eyes closed. Could you ask them to never think of a melody?"

"No," Spock said, "it is not, and your saying it is does not make it so. And I never said you or any other psychic should never use their powers, merely that there are many circumstances where they should not use them."

Then he tilted his head and said, "Then perhaps you should attempt to find a way to...control the dial, as it were. Whether that is by learning mental discipline, or by some sort of external means."

"I find the assumption that we all automatically use our powers against people deeply problematic," she admitted, willing to engage Spock because he was 1) well reasoned and 2) unfailing polite. "Even if I overhear something, which I often do, look at the numbers. I have been here two years, and I challenge anyone to point to an instance when I used my powers against them for blackmail purposes."

Emma freely acknowledged that she was a mean bitch, but really. Besides the annoying Harper-kid, there wasn't really anyone who could claim she misused her powers with them, and she'd only really poked at him, she hadn't done anything harmful.

Raven? Did Not Count.

"Would you like to see?" she offered, turning her hands palm-up if he wanted to see inside her head. "I have no objections, and Kerrigan can come along to make sure I'm not up to shenanigans if you like."

The Science of Psionics, Wednesday

Re: Circle Discussion: Ethics

Re: Circle Discussion: Ethics

Re: Circle Discussion: Ethics

Re: Circle Discussion: Ethics