On Tue, 3 Jan 2017 17:37:42 -0500, Jonathan Clark <xxxxxx@att.net>
wrote:

>FWIW (which may be nothing), I really disliked this bit. IMHO Traveler is supposed
>to be set in a more-or-less technological universe. This explanation is basically magic.
>Or, you've just invented a different sort of psionics.

Or it's that quantum-entanglement thing mentioned earlier in the
skein. Or something. The basic idea is that it's not 'prosaically'
explainable.

Many years ago, I read a Heinlein - I think the title was "Sixth
Column" - where the McGuffin was a gizmo that made use of fields and
radiation from "spectra" other than electromagnetic - the technobabble
said that there were the EM spectrum, an electro-gravitic spectrum, a
magneto-gravitic spectrum, and a electro-magneto-gravitic spectrum. I
didn't necessarily have it in mind when writing the Crystals, but
maybe that's what's going on with them - it's an effect that's not in
a field spectrum we 'know' about. Or something.

>Why not just make them both audio and psionic? That way audio recordings of the
>crystal's music can be made, but they don't have the same impact as the real
>thing, so aren't popular or useful (unless you're in withdrawal...). Also, people
>equipped with psionic shields have to turn them off to fully experience the music,
>which has its own set of downsides.

With respect to withdrawl, I should think that if you're going to go
the psi+audio route, it'd be the _psi_ component that makes them
addictive, and the audio component won't do squat for you. When you
need a nicotine fix, a picture of a cigarette just doesn't do the
trick.

>Just my 2 cents... I actually have a fully psionic musical device in my current campaign,
>so I quite like the concept. BTW I like the idea of shared meditation rooms. Could be the
>equivalent of the Roman Baths, at least for Nobles.

It's not a bad idea, just not the way I'd envisioned it. I've never
said, or even meant to imply in the slightest, that others couldn't
lift the basic idea and tweak it to fit their TU.