Some ideas: A Technopath's abilities

Okay, I'm creating a story here where Technopaths are a threat to the world (which is set in a mish-mash of 19th/20th century, 21st century and some sort of medieval times mixed together) and they are using technology to conquer countries one by one (Better Than It Sounds, I swear, still a WIP).

I'm not a techno expert here (since not a lot of stories have Technopaths in it) so aside from controlling/hacking into computers what can they also do? Oh, and my story has a 5% supernatural touch in it (supernatural as in demons and angels), so is it wrong if they have the power to make contracts?

Please make constructive criticism, no bashing please.

well they could potentially find faults in machines and make those faults work to their advantage. Sorry thats all I got so far.

Theres sex and death and human grime in monochrome for one thin dime and at least the trains all run on time but they dont go anywhere.

I was thinking if they have malicious abilities. They are the bad guys in the story (with a few exceptions of course).

To be honest I really dont think there are such things as bad powers, just bad ways of using them. If malicious is what you after, than you could stop a pace maker work, deactivate the emergency brakes in an elevator etc. Also, it would also really depend on what your characters few as machines. It has been said that the human body itself is a machine.

Theres sex and death and human grime in monochrome for one thin dime and at least the trains all run on time but they dont go anywhere.

'Also, it would also really depend on what your characters few as machines.'

I assume you mean 'feel' when you said that.

actually I meant view. Gah, Its too late.

Theres sex and death and human grime in monochrome for one thin dime and at least the trains all run on time but they dont go anywhere.

I've got a technopath in my works who can for some arbitrary reason interface with the electrical grid in a city and use it to find people, though he just gets a general idea that this is where that person is, not "I know what color shirt you're wearing today".

He can also make himself invisible to things like cameras and motion sensors and stuff life that.

This is still a signature.

How much power these technopath's can have on this world depends greatly on the type of power computers and machinery have over the world. For example, technopath's could probably do a great deal of damage in our world today since we are so dependent on technology. We have so much personal information stored on computers, that a technopath, or a hacker, could steal anyone's identity. They could also have endless access to all the information they could need. They could probably listen in onto anyone's private conversations over the phone or e-mails. They could break into any company, or even government computer and learn top secret information that they can use against anyone.

Other things they can do is shut down airports, stall every car in a city, and turn off everyone's cell phone service. This could really upset a society today. These people could even threaten to shut off all technology unless their terms are met. I think most people would pay anything to get their technology back.

...which would result in some sort of a great war raging if neither party are able to agree with the terms. That is precisely what I'm trying to do.

Usually it's the cities that are more venerable in these attacks (the villages over the world have limited access to technology than the cities). Can't disclose too much info on the setting and story.

...wait... I'm writing a theme that is unintentional on my part.

ADD: So, do you think it's a good idea for the technopaths in my story to have one (supernatural) ability, 'cause that's crucial to the plot. As I said, 95% technology 5% supernatural elements.

edited 6th Mar '11 1:44:31 AM by MrHollowRabbit

Well, maybe they could turn anything into a deadly weapon: technically, a sharpend stick is techknology.

Here's what I came up with:

• Splicing/Technomancy is in truth a highly specialized application of Electrokinesis (you might want to rule that it is the only possible one to prevent people from expecting Lightening Gun type attacks) that circumvents most traditional security systems by directly feeding them wrong data.

(Suggestion: Make touching the system in question a requirement)

• Electropathy is the sensing of information, but requires a deep trance which makes peeping Toms highly vulnerable upon making first contact with a new system.
• The Garden of memory: A talent by which the user attains perfect recall of images, text, sound and abstract information.

Each memory has its place and representation in a location in the character's head he or she can freely customize, be it in the form of a library, a giant screen, a void with floating boxes or a an actual garden.

Um, given that technopath means communcating with technology... nothing?

It would depend a lot on how you handled technology in your setting. If you're down with some animism, then a technopath communicating with a machine would be just like a person communicating with another person; he might be able to convince the machine to do something for him, or bribe it into doing so, or the machine might decide it doesn't like him and ignore him.

If machines are just machines, then a technopath would probably be able to do anything that the machine could do, but would be subject to all the limitations of a normal user — security clearance and account permissions included. In that case, it'd be just like having a mouse/keyboard and a wireless connection to the machine in question stuck in his head.

Really from Jupiter, but not an alien.