01-22-2024, 11:58 PM
Hey folks, I'm currently doing some world-building and am trying to anticipate the consequences of a psychic power that I want to include in a book.
The idea is that the psychic power acts through some kind of pervasive, all-penetrating energy field (just like the luminiferous ether was said to do!) and by manipulating that field a psychic can alter the strength of basic forces in an area.
For instance, telekinesis is a common psychic ability that could in this case be accomplished by "turning off" or weakening gravitational forces around a specific object. This would make it easier to move a huge object, though its inertia would still have to be overcome.
I've also considered maybe intensifying gravitational force near the object to pull it.
Both applications have pretty obvious side effects, in that the object wouldn't be the only thing moving, other objects should be affected as well.
But what about other fundamental forces? What happens if you weaken the weak nuclear force, or the strong nuclear force? is it basically a disintegration trick or could you manipulate it in clever ways to transform matter?
What about giving a fundamental force a vector? This again is pretty simplistic with gravity (maybe) but my physics classes are two decades behind me and I'm having trouble visualizing what vectoring the strong and weak forces would do to something.
Any physics students more fresh or physics buffs that care to weigh in?
The idea is that the psychic power acts through some kind of pervasive, all-penetrating energy field (just like the luminiferous ether was said to do!) and by manipulating that field a psychic can alter the strength of basic forces in an area.
For instance, telekinesis is a common psychic ability that could in this case be accomplished by "turning off" or weakening gravitational forces around a specific object. This would make it easier to move a huge object, though its inertia would still have to be overcome.
I've also considered maybe intensifying gravitational force near the object to pull it.
Both applications have pretty obvious side effects, in that the object wouldn't be the only thing moving, other objects should be affected as well.
But what about other fundamental forces? What happens if you weaken the weak nuclear force, or the strong nuclear force? is it basically a disintegration trick or could you manipulate it in clever ways to transform matter?
What about giving a fundamental force a vector? This again is pretty simplistic with gravity (maybe) but my physics classes are two decades behind me and I'm having trouble visualizing what vectoring the strong and weak forces would do to something.
Any physics students more fresh or physics buffs that care to weigh in?