Alicornutopia

It is possible.

Alicorn! Pedro! Tell us more about control training and psi tech, please. ^^

Okay, stand back, I'm going to FABRICATE WILDLY.

Psi tech is electronics that does computation, and/or interfaces with brains. In theory, any tech that does just those things could be co-opted by a properly specialized psion. This works like doing things that operate on minds: psions can make minds think faster or remember better or have more attention or be generally sharper, so they can do that to computers too. This is sufficiently broken that you can use really hacked together electronics and patch with psionics, although it's more efficient to get more of the way there with the tech part. In the simplest form, virtualities are transcranial magnetic stimulation units hooked up naively to something Second Life-y (possibly in some cases literally Second Life). The state of the art has advanced since then but that's all you actually need for it to work.

Alicorn wrote:Okay, stand back, I'm going to FABRICATE WILDLY.

alicorn i love you

Nifty, I like it.

Virtuality has internet access, right? Is it otherwise like anything in particular? Customizible a la SL, perhaps only if you know or learn things about programming? If it is customizible what's the default like? Can people in theory visit? Do you get to interact with the other kids in virtuality at the same time? Can you not interact with them if you don't want to; is there pressure to even if it's technically allowed? Access to educational materials, teachers; pressure to take advantage of that, repercussions if you don't? Other activities or resources? Opportunities to meet new people aside from co-eclipsed/teachers/similar staff types? (When Denice gets out of virtuality it's going to be 80% of her experience of life outside the institution, if she's with Jean and Zari for six months and then in virtualty for two years; this is kind of a big deal.)

It has Internet access and is pretty customizable in a sort of video game interface way. Default probably varies virtuality to virtuality. People could visit; there's no reason that it would only work on recently eclipsed kids; but one psion can only handle so much and "so much" isn't "everybody's parents come by every weekend" so they discourage it unless there's some kind of genuinely special occasion. You can interact with other kids, and there is "isolation is unhealthy" sort of pressure to do so but not "let's all be friends" sort of pressure.

You're supposed to be focusing on getting out of control training ASAP, so while you can self-educate via internet and have your family send you ebooks and do Khan Academy and stuff like that you are expected to mostly be contemplating How Not To Set Shit On Fire. There are probably enrichment activities of various sorts and various requirednesses ("let's all decorate a common area in the virtuality", "you are eclipsed and therefore might want to know how to cook things you like also remember you need lots of calories to do magic here is how to put butter on everything", "mandatory federal minimum sex ed" (there are probably programs making sure they don't get naked in the same room or hit each other outside of a judo contest or something like that to minimize how often the twelve year olds can attempt to have sex), "cool cutting edge magical discoveries seminar to encourage you not to drop out"), they do definitely educate you on how Consent To Mind- or Body-Altering Stuff Is A Thing and there's a little bit of public servicey propaganda so they turn out enough eclipse-managing precogs.

People you meet are gonna mostly be co-eclipsed and some fairly cursory supervision ("where are they gonna find The Marijuana in our highly secure facility where everything they interact with is pixels?") plus special occasion visitors.

...wow Eclipse is like two steps away from wireheading being a thing huh?

Is “genuinely special” more on the level of the “birthday” or the level of “your older sister just graduated highschool and got accepted to Yale”? I imagine in the latter case most people would at least consider going on lockdown fur a day instead of an in-virtuality party but of that’s unpleasant enough people might prefer the visits.

Alicorn wrote:People could visit; there's no reason that it would only work on recently eclipsed kids; but one psion can only handle so much and "so much" isn't "everybody's parents come by every weekend" so they discourage it unless there's some kind of genuinely special occasion.

Various definitions of 'visit' - if it's sometimes literally SL, they could in theory interact with members of the general public who're connecting via computer rather than being in virtuality itself. I doubt that's allowed - maybe in a minors-only setting with substantial oversight - but if they can let the general public do it they should be able to let just family members do it, too; thoughts?

pedromvilar wrote:...wow Eclipse is like two steps away from wireheading being a thing huh?

Sounds like not even two steps, I bet there are psions who do that already. *chuckle*

"Generally available thing" then, but yes :P