Darksense can not possible be sonar.
There are three main reasons I think this.
The first is the Glorantha mythical thought that darkness preceeded air
and so the original darksense users were relying on something other =
than
sound, which, in the RW at least, is mediated by air. This has been
pointed out on the digest before, and the few responses seemed limited
to handwaving along the lines that Gloranthat wasn+t the real world and
so maybe sound wasn+t mediated by air there after all. That arguement
didn+t really satisfy my mythic concerns. Whatever darksense is, it
should be mediated by the element Dark.
The second argument is a RW technical qualm that sonar. or even
ultrasound, cannot possibly transmit enough detail to distinguish
individuals or support non-verbal communication. Two reasons for this:
First the wavelength for sound is quite large (longer than one meter)
and absorbtion/reflection based analytical methods can only resolve
details of about the same order of magnitude as the wavelength used.
Second, natural sonar systems have at most two receptor points, the
ears. This greatly limits the amount of information that can be
collected and therefore the detail that can be descerned. Most of us
have been treating sonar as if it were some different king of eyesight.
But there is a huge difference in the number of receptor points. It+s
true there are only two eyes, but each eye contains thousands of light
receptor cells, each of which collects a little bit of the huge =
quantity
of information that the brain integrates into a visual scene. If you
consider the RW examples we+ve bandied about as darksense analogies
you+ll realize that none of them resolve details well. Bats and =
dolphins
use sonar to locate prey against a uniform background and probably =
don+t
actually find out what it is they+ve got until it+s in their mouths.
Submarines use sonar to find very large objects like ships and subs,
have a lot of trouble with even tiny changes in the density of the =
water
their trying to sound through, and use other techniques like passive
listening to identify the blips they sound. Finally, I+ve seen a fair
number of ultrasounds carried out on my dear wife and have noticed that
even under those ideal conditions, no one could tell whether the baby
was smiling or frowning. (Let alone whether it was a boy or a girl.) =
It
just doesn+t seem plausible that such a limited information flow could
support a culture=A6er=A6.a society=A6.er=A6.Well, it would be hard to =
play
trollball and appease Mom at the same time if all you had to use was
sonar.
The third argument is cultural. While a lot of digesters (?) have postulated Uz cultural traits, especially art, that derive from the notion that darksense =3D sonar, I can+t recall any specific troll cultural traits from the primary literature that depend on sonar. Since I don+t own Trollpak or it modern descendants I+m prepared to be corrected on this.
So. If Darksense cannot be sonar then what is it?
I propose that darksense is a ranged sense of taste. This means that =
the
element dark transmits flavor. Mythically this works. (He says, =
quickly
hiding his copy of the old godlearner element to sense correlation
table). Since this sense is entirely unknown in the RW there are no
technical arguements to make. Ok, ok, for all you physiology buffs out
there, yes RW taste is probably based as much on smell as on taste. I+m
actually treating darksense as the combination of the two. Uz get the
full flavor of what ever they scan. Darksense flavor receptors would
tranmit a very large amount of data. An Uz snout has a lot of lip
surface area covered with hundreds of receptors. The length of the =
snout
means the receptors are spaced far enough apart to give depth
perception. And for more detail, to search for example, the Uz can
always stick out her tongue. Of course Enlo, with their smaller snouts,
get a weaker and grainier flavor. On the point of non-verbal
comunication, MGF suggests that darksense conveys the emotional flavor
of other Uz. In RW taste/smell is actually a way to measure chemical
composition. If darksense is taste, then Uz society relies on something
like pheremones (Think sweat analysis) to indentify individuals and
convey non-verbal information. Alternatively, since it has lots of
receptor points and can resolve depth, darksense could also read facial
expression. Whatever the mechanism, I think Uz perceive emotions as
flavors. For Uz learning the lore of another race means getting used to
how they "taste" matches with what they do.
Finally though I think the best arguements for darksense as ranged =
taste
come from the obvious correlations to Uz culture:
Cannabelism - The projected flavor of a live Uz depends on her mood, etc, but her characteristic personal flavor can always be tasted. The personal flavor fades at death, but still pervades the corpse. The Uz custom of eating their dear departed is now revealed as a joyous occasion for getting one last taste of a friend or loved one.
Light - Since darksense depends on dark, it doesn+t work well in the light. That means that all the flavors and most of the depth perception fade in the sun and the Uz is left alone in a flat emotionless world. The already sensory deprived enlo are especially disconcerted by this.
Art - Uz art would rely on surface effects or painting with essenses to
approximate the true emotions/flavor of the subject. The shape need =
only
be approximate. All those rough statues of KL are important because =
they
taste like her. An effect achieved by having the priestess magically
assume KL salivary taste before gnawing out the figure.
Writing - In hoomans taste/smell is wired directly to emotions and memory and then secondarily to logic. Uz writing would show this same effect. The written material would be perceived as "memories" rising to the level of awareness, with the emotional aspects the most easily perceived. One big difference to the darksense=3Dsonar paradigm, an Uz could read human writing if the ink were strongly flavored. She would likely do this by running her tongue over the text.
Finally, and most significantly, Once you can taste everything you =
meet,
it not such a great leap to eating everything you meet!
My nomex coveralls are hanging here behind my office door as I wait for your comments. I+m currently trying to rewrite Tinglet using this idea.
Working, as always, with tongue out.
Frank Giles
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