scrape_r_rational/data/cache/3ce62a.md

Munchkin This Magic System: Object Oriented Telekinesis

Post:

General Description: you can telepathically impart force on objects for no energy cost, but momentum is conserved in a system between you and the option.

The specifics:

An "object" is something you perceive as an object. Additionally, objects must be specific; if there are multiple things that could be the object you're thinking of, you don't due anything.

You don't need to directly perceive an object to affect it. However, you need to know enough about that object to uniquely identify it as that object.

Momentum is conserved in a system between you and the object in question. If you try to, for example, lift your shirt up, if it moves up you move down.

You have 100 watts of telekinetic power you may apply to an object. You may apply any amount of power up to that point. However, the further an object is away, the less power you can use on that object. Your maximum power decreases by a function of 1 watt per meter, measuring from that object's center of mass.

Telekinetic power is applied on both you and the object uniformly across your entire mass.

You cannot target more than one object.

(alternate rules, if they're more interesting:

You may target as many objects as you can concentrate on and uniquely identify, although your telekinetic power must be spread so that each object receives the same amount of power.

OR

You have a power of 1000 watts

OR

You don't lose power at distance.)

1st edit: telekinesis happens instantaneously across both you and the object. You're not transferring power, per se, but instantaneously applying in on an object over a vector of your choice.

2nd edit: power may only be applied in terms of kinetic energy.

3rd edit: you only receive changes in momentum attributable to your usage of the telekinesis; if you push something up, then let if fall back down, even if you're still "targeting" it, you only suffer changes of momentum attributable to the ascent phase.

Comments:

• u/Gurkenglas:

  * Obviously, heat death is busted.
  * Divination: Attempt to move an object - measure force on yourself to determine the distance of that object to yourself if it's within 100 metres.
  * Spaceflight: Propel microscopic grains of sand to relativistic speeds to provide a constant 100 watts of kinetic energy to your rocket with minimal fuel requirements.
  * Combat: I haven't done the math, but dancing a grain of sand or a piece of string through someone's body should be pretty devastating.
  * Science: Tell those guys at CERN to pack up, you're a better particle accelerator than the rest of them combined. I think.
  

  • u/ulyssessword:

    Why bother with a grain of sand for combat?  Just push against a valve in their heart, or a piece of their brain or something.
    

  • u/Aabcehmu112358:

    Heat death is not necessarily busted. Unless, unbeknownst to us, there are other people with TK in any of the scenarios, then you're the only with it. No guarantee your children will have TK, or that it will otherwise survive beyond you. If you live a very safe life for a while, I suppose you could potentially survive until uploading, but still assumes that the TK sticks with your upload rather than your meatmind, which is not specified. And, to me at least, I get the feeling that people with TK might have a shorter life expectancy than the average, purely out of risk of sudden death.
    

  • u/Pluvialis:

    Will 100 watts of power push a grain of sand through someone's body?
    

• u/Anakiri:

  Say I have an enormously long cable. I wind most of it into a ball, enough to get its center of mass right next to me, and I leave a long tail stretched out away from me, one lightsecond long. I move the cable.
  
  If my telekinetic force is uniform in my any reference frame, I can push the far end instantly, so I have FTL communication and a time machine. Even if the telekinetic push propagates at the speed of light (not uniform), if my recoil is simultaneous with the push on any atom (conserving momentum), then I still have FTL in my own reference frame, and every other reference frame sees energy and momentum come from nowhere. If my recoil is instant and there's a light-speed lag before the object moves, I've violated conservation, but at least I don't have FTL.
  
  My limit is measured in energy per unit time. Can I apply infinite energy for an infinitesimal time? I certainly wouldn't survive, but I could do lots of fun things with that.
  
  I assume that the energy I'm applying is kinetic energy, yes? Otherwise I could do anything, not just telekinesis. But different reference frames measure kinetic energy differently; in what reference frame is my limit defined? I'd guess mine. So if I and a 1 kg object are going at 0.6c, I see the object at rest with 0 joules kinetic energy, and you see it at 0.6c with 22.5 petajoules. If I give it what I think is 100 joules, I now see the object moving at 14 m/s (and myself moving at some speed the other way). You see the object going 0.6c + 9 m/s. That's an extra 3 gigajoules! My seconds are longer, so it takes 1.25 you-seconds for me to do that, but that's still well above the nominal limit. Is this an intented effect?
  
  I put my back against a wall and push an object away lightly. I can't gain any momentum without going through the wall. What happens?
  

  • u/Gurkenglas:

    I'm not OP, just making my predictions:
    
    On the lightsecond-long cable, you only push the part at most a hundred metres away from you. The rest of it behaves as if you had simply physically shoved the adjacent part.
    
    On your last question, your body pushes against the wall, as if you held a rocket thruster out forward from your body.
    

    • u/Anakiri:

      Those would make sense, but that's not what OP said. The telekinesis affects the entire object uniformly, and I get to define the object. The distance limit is just related to how hard I can push, and it is explicitly said to be based on the object's center of mass. Having a hard cutoff makes some sense, but it is an explicit change to the stated mechanics.
      
      As for pushing me against the wall, again, that makes sense, but doesn't follow from the stated mechanics. That's what ought to happen if you sensibly think of telekinesis as imparting *force*, but OP specifies *power*. Pushing me into a wall without me moving is zero work, and it takes zero power to do it, and zero energy is used. Maybe I'm given some kind of instantaneous virtual momentum that is discharged into the wall immediately, without me actually moving...  But that's being pretty loose with the definition of velocity. Obviously I "should" be squished, but I can't see how to get that result when starting with power instead of force.
      

      • u/Gurkenglas:

        It isn't zero work - you pushing on the wall accelerates you, the wall, and the supporting planet a tiny bit, just as if you were holding a rocket thruster. I did miss OP mentioning the center of mass.
        

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