History Headscratchers / Intercom

* Why is it called "consciousness tampering"? Tampering means "interfering with (something) in order to cause damage or make unauthorized alterations." This term has been used to refer to non-damaging alterations, but they certainly wouldn't be unauthorized. If anyone's authorized to make changes to the way Riley's mind works, it's Riley.

* Why is it called "consciousness tampering"? Tampering means "interfere with (something) in order to cause damage or make unauthorized alterations." This term has been used to refer to non-damaging alterations, but they certainly wouldn't be unauthorized. If anyone's authorized to make changes to the way Riley's mind works, it's Riley.

** Because it hadn't been installed yet. As stated in Chapter 16.

**** Chapter 16 states that the intercom was added with the new console.

* So, if the emotions have had an intercom in Headquarters, why didn't Anger, Fear and Disgust try using it to get Riley to stop running away when they couldn't give her an emotional reaction?

* From Chapter 5, Fear, Disgust and Sadness choose to take the train of thought down to Dream Productions in order to meet Riley when she lucid dreams herself into the mind world for the first time. Ok, fair enough. And Joy and Anger stayed up in HQ in order that when riley woke up, she wouldn't be emotionless. However, what this doesn't explain is something subtle you might not have caught with the funny moment about Riley changing into pajamas that night. When she asks Joy and Anger not to look at her, and when anger snarks about them never giving Riley privacy before, Riley seems to show signs of embarrassment and bashfulness. The only trouble with this is that embarrassment and bashfulness usually have an element of Fear to it. But when Joy and Sadness got lost last year, Riley seemed to shut down and become incapable of being either happy or sad. So.....how was riley able to feel the fear of embarrassment if Fear wasn't at the console at the time?

*** To clarify a bit more on the "where it is" thing, going back to the "mantle and core" analogy, think of the Mind World being almost like an energy shield that's linked to the brain—came up with that way of looking at it seeing as Brain Freeze effects them in the Mind World, when "brain freeze" really more affects the front of the head, not the brain.

*** Oh, that makes sense. I thought you were using that analogy to explain how the two worlds were connected, or "where" it is, as Riley asked.

** WordOfGod from the author here for what I was going for: Say you have a city get blown up—that would cause that part of the Earth's mantle to be devastated, but the inner core that keeps the Earth stable wouldn't be damaged at all, just keep on turning like nothing was wrong. If, however, the inner core of the Earth had something drastic happen to it, the entire rest of the Earth would becomes affected too. Using this analogy, the Islands of Personality falling were catastrophic for Riley's mind at the time of the film, but her brain was fine. If she got brain damage from an accident or something, though, her entire Mind World could be affected. Similarly there's the brain freeze thing as depicted in the film—the physical brain itself doesn't really freeze, but the Mind World experiences it as freezing, like how weather is present above the Earth's mantle. Hope that helps.

** WordOfGod from the author here for what I was going for: Say you have a city get blown up—that would cause that part of the Earth's mantle to be devastated, but the inner core that keeps the Earth stable wouldn't be damaged at all, just keep on turning like nothing was wrong. If, however, the inner core of the Earth had something drastic happen to it, the entire rest of the Earth would becomes affected too. Using this analogy, the Islands of Personality falling were catastrophic for Riley's mind at the time of the film, but her brain was fine. If she got brain damage from a accident or something, though, her entire Mind World could be affected. Similarly there's the brain freeze thing as depicted in the film—the physical brain itself doesn't really freeze, but the Mind World experiences it as freezing, like how weather is present above the Earth's mantle. Hope that helps.

** WordOfGod from the author here for what I was going for: Say you have a city get blown up—that would cause that part of the Earth's mantle to be devastated, but the inner core that keeps the Earth stable wouldn't be damaged at all, just keep on turning like nothing was wrong. If, however, the inner core of the Earth had something happen to it, the entire rest of the Earth would becomes affected too. Using this analogy, the Islands of Personality falling were catastrophic for Riley's mind at the time of the film, but her brain was fine. If she got brain damage from a accident or something, though, her entire Mind World could be affected. Hope that helps.

* How exactly does the analogy in chapter 4 work of Riley's MentalWorld being like the Earth's mantle, and her physical brain being like the inner core? Wouldn't that mean her brain is inside of that dimension, which exists physically inside her head? WordOfGod for the movie already confirmed that isn't the case. (All I can think of is that the words "mantle" and "mental" sound similar and are anagrams, but that doesn't really mean anything.)

** This of course is where WMG could come in. They could just be a manual that just covers all possible issues from the moment a child is born. Kind of like a true BigBookOfEverything that just exists. They could be connected to the collective unconscious if you're more Jungian in thinking about where all that information would come from. Or, if you want to go an alternate route, you could say that a God, when they created people, created the mind manuals as well. So that by divine power, the manuals have everything they need. It's all a matter of deciding what you think works.

* In chapter 11, one of Riley's classmates' emotions is quoted as saying "If [Riley] knows [about the true nature of emotions], she's bound to snap. Mind manuals say it's happened before." If we make the assumption that the mind manuals don't contain any false information—which makes sense, as there's no logical reason why they would—where would that information have come from? Has that student actually seen it happen to someone before? If not, does that imply some type of extrasensory perception (or ESP for short) is possible? After all, if a character's mind contains information about something outside the character's mind, and it came from a source other than that person's senses, it would stand to reason that other functions of the character's mind—such as their conscious thoughts—could get information through a similar means, at least through practice. Understanding this completely would probably require an explanation on where the manuals came from, which isn't explained in the movie, but the movie doesn't seem to imply they contain any kind of outside information.

* In chapter 11, one of Riley's classmates' emotions is quoted as saying "If [Riley] knows [about the true nature of emotions], she's bound to snap. Mind manuals say it's happened before." If we make the assumption that the mind manuals don't contain any false information—which makes sense, as there's no logical reason why they would—where would that information have come from? Has that student actually seen it happen to someone before? If not, does that imply some type of extrasensory perception (or ESP for short) is possible?

** The trouble with your visualization is that I think the author purposefully put it in a position where we COULD NOT see it from the normal front view we get of the emotions working. I think the idea is that it's placed just on the other side of where the Idea Bulbs are, by the ramp that loops up to the emotions spot. Like I said, one spot where we could never see it in the movie proper.

** Nerve Mail?[[note]]Was actually called Mind Mail in [[AllThereInTheManual the movie's concept art]].[[/note]]

** Nerve Mail?

* There's currently no WMG page for this so I'm just putting this here. I think Riley won't be able to repair [[spoiler: the cracks in Honesty Island]] without confessing she abused her power. If and when she confesses she cheated on that test, her parents and/or teacher won't just ask her how she cheated, but where she got the cheat sheets from. Riley always tries to be truthful, right? So wile she can be slightly honest and say she used cheat sheets, she can't tell the complete truth without revealing her newfound power to talk to her emotions. I could be wrong, but I'm just throwing that out there.

** The trouble with your visualization is that I think the author purposefully put it in a position where we COULD NOT see it from the normal front view we get of the emotions working. I think the idea is that it's placed just on the other side of where the Idea Bulbs are, by the ramp that loops up to the emotions spot. Like I said, one spot where we could never see it in the movie proper.

** If Joy didn't pick it up from a mail slot at the door, I'd have thought of a pneumatic system similar to the memory retrieval tubes.

* If the Train of Thought delivers most of Riley's daydreams, ideas, etc. for each day, and the recall chutes are mostly for memories, then how do the emotions get mind mail to their rooms?
** One of those two? Or something different that hasn't been mentioned? I don't see how this is confusing.
* I'm having trouble imagining where the intercom would be placed. I've examined videos of Headquarters to see where it would go and the description of where it is placed in the fic, but I still can't picture where it is.

* If the Train of Thought delivers most of Riley's daydreams, ideas, etc. for each day, and the recall chutes are mostly for memories, then how do the emotions get mind mail to their rooms?