Science Fiction
Dictionary
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Latest By
Category:
Armor
Artificial
Intelligence
Biology
Clothing
Communication
Computers
Culture
Data Storage
Displays
Engineering
Entertainment
Food
Input Devices
Lifestyle
Living Space
Manufacturing
Material
Media
Medical
Miscellaneous
Robotics
Security
Space Tech
Spacecraft
Surveillance
Transportation
Travel
Vehicle
Virtual
Person
Warfare
Weapon
Work
"I've been very obsessive about writing science fiction for far too many years. Anyone with an ounce of sense would have given up years ago."
- Charles Stross
 |
| Empath | ||
| A being capable of telepathic empathy with others. |
It seems fair to assume that this word is modeled on "telepath", but see the discussion below.
| "How exactly does the government use empaths?" Tim shrugged. "We can tell the level of a man's loyalty just by meeting him. We can walk around a factory and sense that there's going to be a strike." |
| Technovelgy from Empath,
by J.T. McIntosh. Published by New Worlds in 1956 Additional resources -
|
How does it work? One character explains it:
The origin of this word seems straightforward enough, but if you look, you can find it earlier. Bear with me.
John FM Dovaston wrote a long poem Fitz-Gwarine: A Ballad of the Welsh Border in Three Cantos in 1811. It contains these lines:
Science fiction fans feel right at home in these lines. In The Empath episode of Star Trek: TOS, when Scotty learns about Gem, the young woman empath, he says "Scott comments that she must have been a "pearl of great price" and they all agree. Yes, the "pearl of great price" is a parable from the book of Matthew, but is there some sort of in-joke here that I don't know about?
The Star Trek TOS episode The Empath (1968) was striking enough that I remember it from childhood. In Star Trek: TNG, one of the main characters is an empath, counselor Deanna Troi.
Compare to the Voight-Kampff Empathy Test from m Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep (1968) Philip K. Dick and the empathy box originally from The Little Black Box (1964) also by Dick.
"It isn't telepathy. No one can pick words or ideas out of another person's brain - yet. It's a sensitivity to atmosphere, to aura. To feelings... You can't tell what's going to happen, or what people are thinking. You can just feel things - and guess."
Lord, when I look upon thy starry sky
With pearls empath'd like scatter'd dust of gold,
I humble me, lost in amazement high,
To think what he thy gifted son hath told,
Far-sighted Newton; that round each are roll'd
Un-number'd worlds.
Comment/Join this discussion ( 0 ) | RSS/XML | Blog This |
Additional
resources:
More Ideas
and Technology from Empath
More Ideas
and Technology by J.T. McIntosh
Tech news articles related to Empath
Tech news articles related to works by J.T. McIntosh
| Black Fungus Blocks Radiation |
| Lunar Biorepository Proposed For Cryo-Preservation Of Earth Species |
| Let's Make Slaver Sunflowers! Engineering Plants To Reflect Light |
| Machete-Wielding Philodendron Isn't Going To Take It Anymore |
Want to Contribute an
Item?
It's easy:
Get the name of the item, a
quote, the book's name and the author's name, and Add
it here.
| <Previous | Next> |
|
|
|
Technovelgy (that's tech-novel-gee!) is devoted to the creative science inventions and ideas of sf authors. Look for the Invention Category that interests you, the Glossary, the Science Fiction Invention Timeline, or see what's New.
|
Science Fiction
Timeline
1600-1899
1900-1939
1940's 1950's
1960's 1970's
1980's 1990's
2000's 2010's
'...each of them is a neural mapping of the mind of a Tibetan monk who actually lived.'
'...there's a narrow belt where the climate is moderate.'
'The leg was to function, in a way, as a servo-mechanism operated by Larry’s brain, through the mediation of the electronic brain in the leg.'
'... every veephone on the continent would display, over and over, two propositions.'
'Completely silent, accurate up to about twenty meters. No recoil...'
'He wore spectacles with thick wavy lenses. The spectacles were intended to make him not only half blind, but to give him whanging headaches besides.'
