Tech Estimate Question: James White's Educator Tapes? Freelance Traveller 08 Aug 2014 14:05 UTC
In his Sector General series, James White "solved" the problem of doctors/surgeons operating on patients not of their own species by using recordings of expert doctors of the "target" species, which carried the entire personality of the doctor, as well as his skills and knowledge (the doctors were always male; White's universe accepted that females were 'too mentally fastidious' to allow this type of recording to be used). In Traveller terms, it would be like a human doctor taking a mental recording of a K'kree doctor in order to be able to operate on a K'kree. A side-effect of having such a recording in one's memory was that (for example) normal food for one's own species would become visually, olfactorily, or gustatorily objectionable, because of the equivalent life conditioning of the donor of the tape. (Incidentally, while the universe of Sector General isn't really Traveller-compatible, the stories are still good reads, and recommended.) Having explained the basics, I now pose some questions: 1. What Traveller (Classic/Mega/Mongoose) Tech Level would be represented by such recordings? 2. Assuming that the TL is low enough, would this be in use in the Imperium on any sort of widespread basis? Or would it smack too much of "evil Zho mind-raping psionics" and thus be shunned? 3. Given the generally lower TL of the Zhodani vs. the Imperium, would it be within the realm of possibility for the Zhodani, with their stronger emphasis on mind- and psionics-related sciences and technology, to have developed and deployed this? -- Jeff Zeitlin, Editor Freelance Traveller The Electronic Fan-Supported Traveller® Fanzine and Resource editor@freelancetraveller.com http://www.freelancetraveller.com http://freelancetraveller.downport.com/ ®Traveller is a registered trademark of Far Future Enterprises, 1977-2014. Use of the trademark in this notice and in the referenced materials is not intended to infringe or devalue the trademark. Freelance Traveller extends its thanks to the following enterprises for hosting services: CyberNET Web Hosting (http://www.cyberwebhosting.net) The Traveller Downport (http://www.downport.com)