Subject:      Re: The Metaphysics of Correspondence...(sorta IC)
From:         [email protected]
Date:         1998/01/15
Message-ID:   <[email protected]>
Newsgroups:   alt.games.whitewolf,alt.games.whitewolf.mage

In article <[email protected]>,
  [email protected] (Donald Bachman) wrote:

>It was one of my initial problems with the presentation of the Virtual Adepts.
>Yes, they may have networks, computers, remote sensing devices, etc.
>all as foci, but there seems to be a bit of a leap between these foci and
>the results of Sphere Rank 1 sensing--which seem to take place in the
>mind's eye. Say that a VA wants to analyze a brick wall for structual
>weakness and has as his foci for Entropy his computer. If the VA has
>to actually input information about the wall and its composition, the laws
>of physics and write a program to model all of this in order to achieve an
>answer that then appears on his computer's screen, where is the magick?
>Anyone with enough skill could have done that. Further, it requires more than
>just the use of the foci--it requires knowledge of physics, material science,
>coding, and more. What if VA hadn't had all these knowledges? On the
>flip side, if the VA gains some internal feel for where there are structual
>weaknesses in the wall then what exactly is the relationship of his
>foci--the computer--to the result--his feeling that the wall is particularly
>weak at in the location of the fifth brick from the left end of the third row
>of the wall?

This is just my personal aproach:

If I were aproaching the above problem 'cold' (with no Rotes running or
available), I'd run a query based on the wall's position (relative to me,
since I keep my own offset from the correspondence point updated).  The
query doesn't search data on my computer (which just performs the
processing), rather it's searching the vast database that is the universe
of all Patterns (the Correspondence Point).  The query returns a record
that describes (completely) the wall.  The fields that define the wall's
physical characteristics are it's Pattern, in the generic sense.  Running
a binary search against these fields (now stored on my computer), I'd
find the one with the least structural integrity, taking one step back,
I'd have the location of that flaw, which I'd then plot back into
3-space, so I could point it out....  In an extreme hurry, I might be
able to get this done in a few minutes, more likely, though, I'd get
caught up in analyzing the pattern, optimizing the routines, and
double-checking my results and waste a good 3 or 4 hours on it.

OTOH, if I'm aproaching the problem 'hot,' I'll have a Virtual Imaging
Rote up that tracks and keeps data in memory for all the patterns near
me.  It's then a simple matter to select a pattern and run Target
Assesement against it, which returns a nice little dot or sighting
reticle on the image of the wall, taking maybe a second.

But, I'm a mystic-leaning Reality-Hackerish, sort of Vdept.  A more
rationalistic sort, would want his computer hooked up to sensors to
gather the data.  To me, the computer is a metaphor for the universe,
and that allows me to manipulate the universe in the same way I would
manipulate electronically stored data.

> Ultimately, I figured that no, the VA doesn't have to have all the various
> knowledge detailed above (though it certainly would help his magick if
> he does if you consider the section of M:tA 2nd that refers to Abilities
> Enhancing Magick) and that the relationship of the foci to the end result
> was that the mage would focus on how he would use the computer
> as described above to achieve the end in a mundane fashion. Of course,

Thank you, the 'Adepts in your game breath a collective sigh of
relief...

> this leaves the question as to why he would need to physically have the
> foci with him if all he has to do is think his way through the matter. Well,
> at high enough Arete, he doesn't, but at the point he still requires the
> computer he evidently is building up the outline the appropriate program
> and at some point in the process of design the solution presents itself
> to him.
>

That gets very paradigm-dependent.  The closer the Virtual is to his
Technocratic roots, the more he'll tend to push all the functionality
of his effects onto his foci (in a sense, he'll need specific peripherals,
programs, firmware add-ons, etc, for each effect he wants to evoke, but
his effects are very likely to have a coincidence built into them), and
the slower he'll be in abandoning them.  The more mystical a Virtual
Adept gets, the more he sees his computer as a symbol of his power rather
than the power itself and the quicker he abandons his foci (and the less
likely he is to have a coherent set of technology to back up his
coincidences).

The biggest problem I've had with abandoning foci isn't making the leap
from 'the computer is doing this' to 'I am doing this' - it's the loss
of control.  When you change the universe by an act of will (a thought,
as it were), then what do errant thoughts do?  Much safer to allow that
things will only happen as you program them to happen.
--
Blake 1001, Virtual Adept, Disciple
http://www.geocities.com/Area51/1317/
Click on the Virtual Adept Icon to bypass the Restriction.

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