One of the things that benefits players and GMs alike is having a solid definition of how something works; or, it benefits GMs, anyway. The players are on a need to know basis. One of the mysteries in EP is how psi works; this mysterious phenomena, granted by infection with the Watts-McLeod strain of the Exsurgent virus, grants access to seemingly reality questioning powers (or, in the case of Psi Epsilon, reality bending.) As I was reading through the Rough Magicks supplement product for Trail of Cthulhu, I came across multiple explanations for what magic was in the realm of Lovecraft. Now, ToC makes no claim to be a "hard-science" game and fully embraces the cosmic horror aspect of just how small we are and how uncaring the world is, but some of the technojargon is really interesting; and makes it seem quiet plausible in some cases. If anything at all, ToC is a sister game to EP, which is also a cosmic horror game (albeit cosmic horror-lite). I've selected two of the ones that I present below:
Theory 1[collapse]
Magic is a hyper-scientific discipline of visualizing and manipulating trans-dimensional energy fields. Acoustic signals (words of power) and geometric matrices (sigils and gestures) act as control systems, which have transcended mere material technology. The energies bleed through universes through pinpoint wormholes, often dependent upon special patterns of stellar and cosmic radiation.
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Theory 2[collapse]
When the Elder Things dominated the globe, all their technology was fundamentally biological. The crinoids controlled not just the shoggoths, but their stone buildings, their metal tools,a nd their weapons and prisons and experimental power plants and everything with a vastly complex set of network and circuit protocols embedded int h very genes of their servants. The Elder Thing maintained the control codes and distributed switching relays for the system in specially design plankton fogs stored in the oceans. These relays transmitted signals and information using quantum dipole connections between certain molecules. When the shoggoths rebelled, the system crashed hard. Pieces of it rewrote themselves, gained partial sentience, went berserk, and programmed themselves to nest and reproduce. Some of them evolved into mammals, and then into humans. Magic, on Earth, anyway, consists of "tapping into" the surviving shoggoth "circuit diagram" which is in almost all terrene matter, not least in DNA, crystals and igneous rocks, and metal.
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Personally, Theory 2 is my favorite their of all time for magic. But what I aim to do is convert those three over into EP terms, as few ways to explain how Psi might work.
Psi in EP is complicated. It's not just one uniform phenomena; for instance, you could group various extrasensory powers together: mind reading, omni-awareness, forecasting the future, and things of that nature group under ESP. In EP, Psi Chi is mostly ESP-related sleights, while Psi Gamma has some Telekinetic related slights (for instance, sleight that increases the AP of a weapon) and some ESP related sleights. And then there's Psi Epsilon, which is full-blown magic in many cases (which would require a theory as to how magic works to explain it).
Because of the dissimilarities, no one uniform "theory" will work. We need several, or several convergent theories, that I'll draw from the above examples provided for us by Rough Magicks. Before I do, however, I assume three things: the ETI were at one time a biological race like transhumanity or the Factors, the ETI were responsible for the Pandora's gates, and the ETI is a singular entity rather than a collective race of entities (perhaps they merged together into one entity many billions of years ago).
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Theory 1: Explains some Psi Chi and Gamma and most Psi Epsilon
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Theory 2: Explains most Psi Chi and Gamma
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The third theory is very unsettling. In fact, I developed this theory as a partial response to one of my players, who grew up with powerful, Vancian-styled magic and D&D styled wizardry spells where you blow up whole buildings with a fireball and whined about how EP psionics are "weak," and convinced me to include things like precognition as a Psi Gamma sleight. I used the general idea of the second magic theory from ToC, but tweaked it just every so much. What I came up with is the third theory of Psi:
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Theory 3: Explains Psi Chi and Gamma, some Psi Epsilon
All three can be stacked for interesting results in any given campaign, because they work well together, and can be used to explain the different types of psi and the different phenomena associated with it.
Thoughts on the matter are welcome.
Spoiler: Highlight to view
One of the possible theories for what happens with the Watts-McLeod virus is that it transforms the ego, rewiring it so that it produces a hyper-computer like effect on the brain. This one was explored in the Aether Jabber intro to the "Mind Hacks" chapter. When infected, the ego is written so that an unconscious part of the ego is the blueprints to transform the brain into a hyper-computer once it's installed. Being a hyper-computer allows for hyper-computations, at the risk of invoking tautology - what this means is that we can make the leap that psi then becomes the hyper-computational ability to not only mentally visualize but to control on a basic level energies stored in dimensions beyond our own, 4d world (that is, whatever energies are trapped inside of the Calabi-Yau Manifolds, or inside of structures higher than 6d in our universe, as predicted by both M-theory and various different String theorems). Through the use of control words (or thoughts) and geometric visualizations, this energy can be channeled and manipulated in our 4d world, or at least intersected with our 4d world in a way that could be used to create some of the more dramatic effects of psi.
Now, for Psi Chi and Gamma, it's the unconscious mind that does most of heavy lifting here. The unconscious mind is responsible for all of it, form the visualization to the manipulation, and the only thing the conscious mind knows is that by doing or thinking "x", "y" happens. Because this completely unconscious, it forms a core part of the Ego (the largest part), and thus, will copy over, always, with the brain-mapping. It also serves to explain why asyncs feel like something is wrong with them all the time; their unconscious is a supercomputer that's visualizing 9d shapes in their full glory not even 10 feet under the surface of the conscious mind. That's enough to blow anyone's mind, and that unease and unnaturalness that some asyncs feel after developing psi is this byproduct of having your conscious plugged into a hyper-computer at all times.
For Psi Epsilon, this is different. The effects of Psi-Epsilon are far more dramatic, which means that there's more than just some unconscious effort going on here. Psi Epsilon also drains energy from the surrounding environment, meaning that they're far more powerful, and the hyper-computer is working extra hard to make heads or tails of these hyper-dimensional geometries, and the entire unconscious is probably taken up doing it. What this does is it literally undermines the unconscious part of the ego, and, for lack of a better, less legalistic term, drives the person insane. Perhaps even the conscious is involved in those hyper-dimensional computations, resulting in what is effectively a mind that's blown out like a bald tire on a stock car. However, including the conscious and more of the unconscious means that more complicated hyper-dimensional computations can be achieved, which means that there's more there that can be determined and controlled. In short, for Psi Chi and Psi Gamma users, only a small portion of the unconscious is devoted to their powers, or for users of both, a big larger. For Psi Epsilon users, however, the entire unconscious and parts of the conscious become part of the hyper-computer, and the result is spectacularly destructive to the ego.
This could also be backed up by the fact we know the builders of the gates (Assumed to be the ETI, or whoever designed the Exsurgent virus), are proficient in biological computational systems; that's what the gate is, after all. It could also explain why asyncs feel even less comfortable around gates than normal transhumans do - the hypercomputer in the brain is trying to connect to the gate network, and the gates - possibly sentient or even sapient - respond in kind. Because this is all happening in the unconscious brain, except for those rare moments when the gate seizes control over the brain, the async will feel even less comfortable than they do normally.
TL;DR - the ego becomes a blueprint for a hyper-computer due to infection. This hyper-computer allows for hyper-dimensional computations, visualizing and devising means to control and manipulate energy stored in 6d+ manifolds scattered throughout the universe. For Psi Chi and Gamma users, only a small portion of the unconscious ego is used for the computations, but enough so that, for those who haven't had to deal with it their life, or are recently infected, feel "off". For Psi Epsilon, the entire unconscious mind and part of the conscious mind is used.
Spoiler: Highlight to view
This theory maintains that part of the ego is still written as a blueprint for transforming the biological brain into a hyper-computer. However, due to a quark in the fundamental biology of life, all creatures have the potential, and some can even achieve partial status on their own, but it's only with the infection of the Exsurgent virus that one achieves their true potential. Because all biological brains are potential hyper-computers due to that quark in life, psi is basically your hypercomputer networking with the potential hypercomputer inside of the brain of a different person.
This explains why things like mind-reading and thought probe work; by making that connection, you can read the database of their thoughts and find what you want, downloading that information yourself. This also explains why psi becomes more difficult to use on things less like you; even though it's a quark of life, each species is different, and the neurology involved is different, meaning that the potential hypercomputer in question is different - and psi isn't backwards compatible, forwards compatible, and doesn't play well with different programs (much like Microsoft.)
This can also be why the gates have weird effects on people, not just asyncs. Individuals describe feeling nauseous when they see them, which could be more than just sight - it could be the fact that the gate is trying to establish a connection with their hypercomputer that they haven't fully developed yet. Of course, because it's not fully elaborated, I can't entirely be sure (do they always feel nauseous? Is it a one time deal? Is it only from so many feet? etc).
TL;DR - the ego is still a hypercomputer map, but all egos are potential hypercomputer maps, and all it takes is an infection to make it complete. This explains why Psi Chi and Gamma are so selective around species, why they only work a bit on pods (only half the brain is biological) and why they don't work on aliens or synths (different biology vs. no biology). It can also be used to explain why the gates make people feel uneasy and ill - after all, it's the gate attempting to establish a connection with your non-existent or underdeveloped hypercomputer brain.
Spoiler: Highlight to view
Once more, assumption is built around the fact that the ego is turned into the blueprints for a hyper-computer once infected. However, rather than interacting with other hyper computers, what happens instead is that you gain a much deeper insight:
Some 13.5 billion years ago, the universe came into existence. When it did, the way that the particles determined what it was they were and what it was they do out of the energy soup of creation had far, far reaching consequences. How does a proton know it's supposed to be a proton? An electron it's suppose to be an electron? An upquark it's an upquark and not a downquark?
It's simple, really. They do.
No, really. They do. This was determined the centuries after creation; history wrote itself out in those first few million years. The particles were what they were because history required them to be. Everything from that scale on down was predetermined from the moment the universe started to settle in place, with the result being these timeless particles carrying with them the code for everything that they would do or be in the future. I suppose a short phrase would be something like "quantum predetermination."
When you're infected with the Exsurgent virus - the Watts-McLeod strain, which is the original strain of the Exsurgent virus, the one that all of the other strains were developed from by the TITANs, you gain certain psi abilities. Things like mind-reading, etc. However, mind-reading isn't mind reading as we'd recognize it. Instead, what your hypercomputer brain is doing has nothing to do with the other person's mind at all. What you're doing with your hyper-computational abilities is reading the history of the universe. You don't see into that person's head at all. You see what the universe says is in that person's head.
Basically, you're reading history. Everything is predetermined. Everything you think, you do, you wish, want, or see, was predetermined by the universe in those moments when the particles that make them up decided what role they were going to play. When you use your brain to read minds, or see the future, or things like that, you're interacting with the universe and you're looking at the universe's game plan in the long run. Mind-reading is just computing what the universe says that person will think, because it's predetermined and there's no escaping it.
TL;DR - you're still a hyper-computer, but powers that are supposed to interact with others don't. Instead, you're seeing the history of the universe, already written out, already predetermined, as it was when the particles at the beginning of history chose to be what they did. Everything that happens in the universe happens because it was determined in those million years or so after the big bang. You as a psi user are just privy to the strings pulling the puppets.
It also helps to explain why Psi-Epsilon users are so unstable. After all, if nothing mattered, and everything was predetermined from the moment of your birth to the moment of your death, what purpose is anything? At the same time, however, you become incredibly powerful once you realize that. Unfortunately, you don't get to decide what you're going to do with that power, because the universe decided it for you a long, long time ago.
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"If we succeed, we're geniuses for doing it. If we fail, we're stupid for trying it. If we succeed beyond our goal and our dreams, we're insane for reaching so high and getting there."
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