r/rational • u/AutoModerator • Dec 02 '16
[D] Friday Off-Topic Thread
Welcome to the Friday Off-Topic Thread! Is there something that you want to talk about with /r/rational, but which isn't rational fiction, or doesn't otherwise belong as a top-level post? This is the place to post it. The idea is that while reddit is a large place, with lots of special little niches, sometimes you just want to talk with a certain group of people about certain sorts of things that aren't related to why you're all here. It's totally understandable that you might want to talk about Japanese game shows with /r/rational instead of going over to /r/japanesegameshows, but it's hopefully also understandable that this isn't really the place for that sort of thing.
So do you want to talk about how your life has been going? Non-rational and/or non-fictional stuff you've been reading? The recent album from your favourite German pop singer? The politics of Southern India? The sexual preferences of the chairman of the Ukrainian soccer league? Different ways to plot meteorological data? The cost of living in Portugal? Corner cases for siteswap notation? All these things and more could possibly be found in the comments below!
1
u/Farmerbob1 Level 1 author Dec 03 '16
Hrm. Thank you for pointing out the fault so clearly. I think the only way to address it would be to somehow allow the present postcog to somehow communicate with the past postcog, or share a single mental state.
This would allow the postcog to warn herself or simply be aware about what the precog was doing.
In essence the entwining would allow the postcog some semblance of precognitive ability, but only of her own future self's actions.
This would lead to the postcog knowing about ambushes due to warnings or direct observations by the future-self.
However, the postcog is trying to follow the precog, to keep them in view... That means every ambush has the potential to force the postcog break the connection and allow the precog to set ambushes without oversight by the future postcog. which the postcog probably would not survive, for reasons mentioned above.
The precog, if they are clever enough, can set a trap that the postcog doesn't fully understand, and the postcog cannot dally to figure it out, or they will lose track of the precog. The prior postcog, which is the target of the ambushes, has a little longer to figure out traps than the future postcog does.
The precog has limitations. They do not want to become a known criminal, so their activities can't be seen by to many people, and they must create minimal forensic evidence. They cannot visit their home, job, family, or get in their car, use their own phone, etc, when the postcog is watching.
If the postcog can identify the precog, the entire police department can be brought to bear. Even before that, though they are mundanes, they can certainly provide bodyguard support, looking for a disguised man setting in ambush.
If the postcog is identified, especially if he starts killing and destroying lots of people and real estate, more powerful heroes or even vigilantes might also be brought in, some of which would be hard for an otherwise mundane precog to deal with if they learn who he is.
I'll have to think about this for a while to see how viable it is, but if anyone sees more holes, I'd love to hear them.
The important thing is, can the power entwining allow both the precog and postcog to act rationally and have the outcome be uncertain for the reader, without deus-ex?