Now That's a Force-using Droid!

[Jessica Med-Beq]

"From a Force-charge standpoint, neutrality means that it commutes with both light and dark, and hence you could use neutral ichor regardless of what emotions come into play, or absence thereof. As for reconciling the Code's lack of emotion with the purely-light-sided's use of positive emotions, it's more about how sentients tended to struggle suppressing their emotions entirely"

Perhaps that's why I seemed to be well-appreciated by other would-be Jedi, enough for me to be on their short-list of people to train them, like Arax, even if I didn't know nearly as much about the Force as I actually do, while being aware that my knowledge of the Force has its limitations: I seem to keep my emotions in check better, even though I know I was referred to as a Force-using droid in relation to my computational power, rather than my ability to keep emotions in check, she thought, realizing perhaps that she is one of those that best embodies There is no ignorance, there is knowledge among those Jedi she worked with across a variety of factions for all those years. Although it does seem that some Jedi were sometimes treating their jobs like simply a paycheck and [member="Ultimatum"] described the Jedi Code as rendering Jedi vulnerable to presenteeism. To an extent it may explain a number of issues pertaining to Jedi, especially the more passive of the gang. Just that she knew that, these days, most Jedi want to be fighting Sith and their minions, which gave rise to the stereotypical image of a Jedi being that of a light-sided, self-righteous, Force-using bounty hunter with a lightsaber.

"Yes, there will come a point where people may have to make knowledge tradeoffs, because they have a finite capacity for absorbing knowledge, but it's more than just knowledge of the Force. To most Jedi, it usually meant combat techniques, survival skills and sometimes policing skills as appropriate for bounty hunting. To a few more Jedi that seem to be more about healing, medical knowledge will be crucial to them, but Jedi tend to specialize fast. Few Jedi have broad knowledge bases in the end" she answered the second of the four questions. "Now, as far as passion is concerned, this seemed to be a more troublesome area of following the Code, especially these days, but it seems to be more geared towards approaching issues in a dispassionate manner. What drives Jedi varies from a Jedi to another, but sadly many of them seem to be more driven by self-righteousness, more than by any real will of the Force. Finally, in death, Force-users only, in fact, partially return to the Force: it's more about their spirit and their associated Force-energies returning to the Force since their body doesn't return to the Force"

 

[Ultimatum]

An interesting concept, attempting to suppress emotions. Ultimatum could do that with the change of a single integer in his codes and Upari was cautious enough to avoid the more significant pitfalls of emotional stresses. For all this, the two had seen the impact emotions had affected situations. They drove people to greater works to fight what they hated or defend what they loved. Sometimes the feelings were useful, while at other points they stood as stumbling blocks to their owners. Sometimes Ultimatum wondered what it would be like to lack the full control of his emotions, would it change him remarkably or would he remain much the same as he was?

From the explanation [member="Jessica Med-Beq"] gave, Ultimatum decided that knowledge, as mentioned in the Code, was a broad term. What the droid understood her to mean was that each Jedi was supposed to learn about the field they planned on working in. It was a reasonably self-explanatory rule; it would probably have the effect of keeping less experienced hands from entering into those jobs or places they were unprepared for. The passion portion struck Ultimatum as intriguing. Particularly her explanation of the over high-handed approach she suggested most Jedi were beginning to take.

"A sign of stagnation?"

"Perhaps, but it sounds odd. Surely the galactic situation would keep the Jedi mentality more even."

"Logic rarely accounts for all sentient behavior."

Ultimatum nodded at the last part; the droid had concluded as much about Force users when they died. Most of them left a body behind in death, though some had disappeared as well. He questioned, "What happens to those unable to use the Force? Do they become one with the Force as well? Do both light and dark users become part of the Force?"

 

[Jessica Med-Beq]

"NFUs also become one with the Force, which can sometimes account for disturbances in the Force when large numbers of people, NFU or FU, die of unnatural causes in a short span of time, because then equally many people become one with the Force simultaneously. Because becoming one with the Force doesn't feel the same if people die from natural or unnatural causes"

She much preferred the freedoms of today's system to the system in place during the Clone Wars; [member="Ultimatum"] probably realized as much. It allowed people to operate according to their wishes and desires, and the Jedi tended to be more willing to delegate than Sith did, which allowd Jedi to get more out of themselves and the resources at their disposal, in hopes of avoiding what happened to Jedi in the Clone Wars. I hope that Upari doesn't, in its search for knowledge, or in an attempt to learn faster than it naturally can, succumb to the temptation of using Drain Knowledge on me to learn more. Patience is key here, she thought, while realizing that she has seen a dark-sider or two fall to the dark side because they wanted to learn faster than they normally can. She could probably teach Drain Knowledge if threatened at gunpoint by a dark-sider, but she is currently unable to use it. But that's as far as she know about how strictly dark-sided powers work, beyond Force-lightning, which is, for the most part, very similar to how she would go around teaching Electric Judgment, even though she knew EJ had a stigma attached to it because of its relationship with Force-lightning.

"As for alignment determining whether someone becomes part of the Force in death, I have to say that, in death, the Force is indiscriminate, so both light and dark users become one with the Force in death"

 

[Ultimatum]

The idea that the death of sentients may cause disturbances detectable by Force users struck Ultimatum as terrifying. The droid feared that such a stimulus would overwhelm him. Though billions of sentients died throughout the galaxy every day, but perhaps that had to do with those people being more spread out than more cataclysmic events. Upari agreed, hoping that they would not experience such an occurrence at any time in their future. In contrast, Ultimatum was intrigued that the Force was less discriminating about the dead users, as compared to the various Force Orders and users who were far more exclusive about what sort of alignment their members followed.

"Does that mean that the Force does not care how one is aligned? Is the Force sentient?"

The droid had known some people who have agreed with either of those statements; however, he could not recall having met anyone who would agree to both. It was an essential crux of the situation because in it lie the values of the different sentients. He wondered what [member="Jessica Med-Beq"]'s thoughts were on such a belief.

 

[Jessica Med-Beq]

"The Force, in itself, does not care about how one is aligned, precisely because it isn't a living entity; it is a collection of quantum fields"

With the Force being quantized there are implications: the Force isn't deterministic, but probabilistic. And also that what determines a specific ichor, and its resulting wavefunctions, is its quantum potential. As she understood the will of the Force, Jessica seemed to think that the process the Force undertook for choosing paths involved the Force-wavefunctions to lose coherence with one another, with the ex ante state being a superposition of eigenstates. Is Upari forcing me to use more computational power than I normally would with a padawan that isn't learning cognition-intensive powers? If such was the case, Upari would realize, while looking at me in the Force, that my brain is shining more brightly than before, she thought, while [member="Ultimatum"]'s questions forced her to think more deeply about her answers than what usually was the case with other padawans she had before. And maybe Upari would get a better feel for what kind of brain Jessica has. She was there for those paddies who wanted to become something other than a living weapon, and Upari did, in fact, fit that vision.

"According to the postulates of quantum mechanics, what some Jedi refer to as the will of the Force is, in fact, the consequences of the Force rolling the proverbial dice. In that sense, the Force is much like a random number generator that offers better randomness than the average computerized RNGs"

 

[Ultimatum]

"Then why do many Jedi claim that there is a will of the Force, or that the Force is sentient in some way?"

Surely after millennia of Jedi teachings and many generations, this sort of discovery would have been far more broadly understood. [member="Jessica Med-Beq"] was the first Jedi Ultimatum had ever met who spoke of the Force in a manner of it being little more than a random event in nature. Ultimatum could not lie that such a concept had its appeal, it made logical sense and gave more freedom to actions in a moral sense. At the same time, it did not answer many of the other questions. Where did the Force come from? Was it an artificial construct, created by some ancient race, or a natural phenomenon?

Upari had remained largely silent, pooling his thoughts and concetration into the Force. He was paying attention to what was going on around him, but his focus was on the Force within him. The Shard was trying to turn this strength to the projection of his thoughts. At this point he was experimenting quietly, barely a mental whisper, listening to himself and trying to decide what to say. He felt it was important that his first full telepathic message be something of value. He just had to find something worth saying.

 

[Jessica Med-Beq]

"I have to say that Force-orders tend to specialize in the spiritual, usually because of the desire to have a common ground despite the wide array of knowledge bases their members would have. With people coming to Force-orders later in life than in earlier eras, they usually have more background knowledge coming in than if you took the students in as children. Historically Jedi, and Sith, too, seemed to have trouble opening up to more advanced knowledge that may not be directly relevant to them"

With the consequence that today's Jedi orders were more open to embrace advanced science, even though it may well be obscured by the scarcity of the people who actually could productively use such knowledge. Jessica herself entered padawan-hood at age 35, although human/Near-Human Jedi typically began padawan-hood in their teens or early-twenties these days, quite different from the pre-Order 66 practices. Aware that her intellectual disposition may be, in fact, uncommon among Jedi, she feels that the gains of extra perspectives or knowledge are worthwhile for a Jedi order, even though they may be hard to realize. [member="Ultimatum"] would then realize that there is something happening in Upari, while Upari was collecting himself, ready to absorb the contents of this lesson. And also he seemed to be powering up for another use of the Force. Maybe it could just be my intellect, or computational power, playing tricks on me, but it's entirely possible my intellectual disposition may introduce cognitive biases that are, in fact, quite different from ordinary Jedi's biases, she thought, while she kept a close watch on her use of computational power: use too much of it and headaches can arise.

"Since the Force is, to me, a collection of quantum fields, as far as I'm concerned, it is a naturally-occurring phenomenon. However, understanding the Force as a collection of quantum fields requires knowledge of mathematics and physics few Force-users can understand"

 

[Ultimatum]

Ultimatum could believe it. Few organics mastered the science of astronavigation, much less the extremities of the mathematical and scientific fields. Those experimental limits of the sciences were often occupied by few organics, who were largely outnumbered by the vast quantity of droids and computers designed for the problems. It was a standard answer that the sentients had created, whatever problem was too big, or unpreferable for them would be answered by a droid or computer. The artificial beings had become a crutch on which the vast majority of the organic sentients had come to rely on. It was probably the reason that when droid uprisings did occur, organic society tended to collapse. It was a glaring weakness and one that most organics seemed content to overlook.

"But wouldn't the fact that they can tap into a field of power that few others can be enough of a factor to draw Force users together naturally? Why not use the vast variations of experiences that each Force user brings to the betterment of the entire Order? Doesn't the focus on spiritual elements inhibit Force users from further study in those areas that are immediately helpful?"

Ultimatum could feel that Upari was unnaturally quiet, but was uncertain as to his purpose. The Shard had withdrawn somewhat from the mental connection; something Ultimatum had not thought possible. The droid believed that Upari was merely absorbing the information and perhaps making mental notes on a personal subject.

Upari wondered if other Force users could see the light from [member="Jessica Med-Beq"]'s body as readily as he did. Even with his relatively unattuned mind, the light was a bright torch at such a close range. Part of the Shard felt some fear of the light, feeling that such power might burn him and wish that he could snuff out the light like a candle. Upari knew what that small part of him was, as with all things there was a good and evil. For all the sciences in the galaxy, morality still could not be explained away. He wondered if the mere thought of evil would be considered harmful by the Jedi. That seemed highly illogical, for thought and action are so removed from one another that many ideas never became actions. Upari believed that thought alone, temptation alone, was not evil. It was acting on it that was. Perhaps that stood in contrast to other's beliefs; there was nothing Upari could say or do that would change that. All the Shard was sure of was that he had no intention of following those parts of him that suggested one way or other without due consideration of the potentials.

He continued to reserve the Force within him, storing it within himself and trying to discern how the telepathy would work. Perhaps he could use the Force to augment his mental patterns and push them across space so that they were impressed ever so slightly onto the recipient. That sounded far too close to a mind controlling technique for Upari's taste, but until he could find a better method he would work with what he theorized.

 

[Jessica Med-Beq]

"Yes, I know that Jedi are descended from millenia of spiritual traditions, even with other bits of scholarly and scientific knowledge accumulated over the same span of time. I'm aware of the problems caused by focusing too much on the spiritual, but it's just the path of least resistance: to the extent technology is a crutch for sentient societies, the Force is likely seen as a crutch for their users, often tunnel-visioned by their power: often, rapid specialization led Jedi to tunnel vision with respect to knowledge"

From what Jessica could tell about what's happening in [member="Ultimatum"]'s body, Upari might be on to something, just that impressing a mental pattern onto somebody else was useful for performing another Force-power that required telepathy as a prerequisite: the mind trick. Also, if she was to compare the historical incarnations of Jedi orders vs. today's, she would probably liken the Jedi of today to the Jedi of the Sith Wars, old and new, until the Ruusan Reformations. The same debates were raging back then and today. Yes, even if the assumption of Force-sensitivity not affecting people's cognitive abilities actually held, there is still enough brainpower to go around in that reduced population for some ingenuity, within and beyond letters (such as history and philosophy), and maybe a few of them making advances in their areas of specialty, she thought, while realizing that knowledge and smarts don't guarantee a whole lot in Jedi. For that, she needed only to look at two padawans she took before it came to Upari. They were perhaps two of the most intellectually gifted Jedi she might have known in person, but they ended turtling up in their specialties.

"As for evil, it's about the actions taken; thought and temptations don't make someone evil until they act upon those. But sometimes people's motives can affect their thought process leading into a decision: sometimes people can do good to a party now so that they can betray that party later, while others can do good at a point in space-time because they feel it's convenient for their ulterior motives. Often people externally portrayed as evil do not see themselves as evil"

 

[Ultimatum]

Ultimatum listened and nodded, then asking, "What do you think is the proper way? How do you wish to teach me? What do you truly want me to learn?"

That stood as the most pressing thing. What was it that [member="Jessica Med-Beq"] wanted him to come out of this lesson with? He wanted to know more about her, what she believed, how she thought. She spoke of Jedi becoming blinded by their focus in a negative manner. Ultimatum deduced that she wished to avoid this. How then did she hope to teach him and in what direction did she hope to guide him? She could show him the ways of the Force, and Upari and himself would absorb all that she was ready to give, but what of those hidden hopes and preferences?

The droid felt some of his lesser processors being turned to a task, no doubt Upari was using them for some purpose. While curious, Ultimatum wanted to prove trust between them. If they were to remain in this cooperative, then they had to be able to trust one another completely. So the artificial being did not attempt to disturb his Shard ally or interfere with the use of his processors.

Upari felt as if the calculations were coming together. It was a relatively complicated solution, for he had to ensure that the message reached its intended recipient, yet was only light enough to be heard rather than forced into the mind. The projection along required a decent amount of energy, but the Force was a very efficient energy source. He also had to account for the differences in mind types; he had learned that Shards were notorious for their difference in their thought process. He still had yet to decide on a statement to send; it nagged at him. He wanted it to be important, but he knew so few quotes that he felt it might be more prudent to speak as himself. He was not ready quite yet to send out the message.

 

[Jessica Med-Beq]

"You realize by now that there is more to Jedi training than just learning how to use the Force and a lightsaber: it is also aimed at the betterment of the whole person. That is why I am open to having the discussions we are having now. Many of the topics we discussed thus far pointed at various aspects of self-discipline. Tunnel vision, and also a lack of self-awareness, can lead to overconfidence or arrogance, and just because you can use the Force doesn't mean that you're any better, as a person, than someone that cannot, and that the Force was limitless only to those whose understanding and skill are actually limitless"

To the extent I acknowledge hidden lessons are numerous in a training session, there are numerous implications to following the Jedi Code being subtly and indirectly inserted into the discussion, she thought, while common flaws of Jedi stemmed from a lack of self-discipline. In their urge to follow their self-righteousness, Jedi often fell prey to a few vices: arrogance, overconfidence and recklessness being common. While she could, to an extent, understand why younglings preferred to learn the more practical aspects of Jedi-hood, over the philosophical, [member="Ultimatum"] would follow the full monty, as everyone else she had trained at some point. Perhaps some masters may not have wanted to train the whole padawan, or perhaps those masters in question were unable to do so. But, in the end, the public tended to hold two separate stereotypical images of Jedi: that of a self-righteous weapon that mostly seek to fight Sith and their henchmen, or that of a person that has a near-perfect self-discipline and self-awareness. There was, in fact, another topic beyond the nature of the Force that Jessica wished to cover before moving on to more advanced Force-lessons: responsibility. And, with it, ethics and the associated concept of bounded rationality.

"In the end, a Force-order must answer for the actions of its members, even though they can't always control their members, so you must be 1) make sure you can reasonably honor a promise you make, and 2) not assume someone you're dealing with has actually dealt with other Jedi before, unless they previously dealt with you or another Jedi sent them to you. I have to say that often Jedi seem to act rashly, without considering the consequences of their actions on other stakeholders in a decision - sometimes it was necessary, in the heat of battle, but bounded rationality is another topic, although related, that can be troublesome to cover"

 

[Ultimatum]

It was logical that an order should take responsibility for its constituents. If it did not, then Ultimatum would have thought it a foolish order. If a mind did not take responsibility for its body's actions, then the mind was avoiding its part in the works. It was not entirely surprising though since organics were known for their less than stellar responsibility. The suggestions she made were equally self-explanatory. Ultimatum always attempted to remain cordial when dealing with unknowns. The galaxy was filled with many sentients of varying attitude, and it was essential to avoid creating enemies unnecessarily.

"What does the Jedi Code command in regards to this morality?"

[member="Jessica Med-Beq"]

 

[Jessica Med-Beq]

"Bounded rationality is what happens to rationality when limited by the actor's ability to understand and process relevant information, as well as constrained by time and resources. While Jedi were often told feel, don't think in relation to bounded rationality, it was more related to high-pressure situations where people tended to revert to their training, when they were forced to act without thinking"

[member="Ultimatum"] must have realized by now that Jessica was not your average Jedi, and not simply in terms of knowledge, or even intellect. But she realized that perhaps she could keep using that level of computational power until the lesson ended, so long as Upari didn't force her to increase her use of computational power beyond her "red-line", because then she wouldn't be able to use the Force without having to rest. Also her own knowledge and intellect and, in turn, her brain, allowed Upari to stretch the lesson out. But also that she could feel that Upari was perhaps the kind of padawan that could force her to use a lot of computational power over long periods and hence make her brain light up in the Force even more. Just that it could be possible the intensity of her Force-signature could become blinding if Jessica was, in fact, engaging in the organic equivalent of overclocking a classical CPU. She realized how important mental conditioning was to make the most out of Jedi-hood, but more cognitive capability did not help much with the use of the Force beyond the more cognition-intensive powers. Just that mental impairment (in a fortitude sense) was detrimental to a Force-user.

"I would probably teach you nothing new if I told you mental conditioning is important, and often overlooked. I am usually mindful of my own cognitive limits, and you probably have a good idea of your processing power's limits, just that often Jedi had to make do with the limits of their own mental capabilities"

 

[Ultimatum]

Ultimatum could see the flaw in such an order. To obey emotions or feelings, in a high-pressure environment, opened the opportunity for misguided thoughts and actions to create more damage than would be repaired. Emotion was too unreliable to be a safe form to fall upon in emergencies. Protocol made more sense, which was what [member="Jessica Med-Beq"] suggested most were taught to do. But in that case, the protocol was very different from emotion, and so perhaps different wordage should have been used.

The droid understood what she was attempting to suggest. The limits of a Force users powers coincided with the limits of their mental capacity. This interested Ultimatum in the implications of such a biological basis. "Does this mean that a person with greater mental composure is capable of greater feats in the Force than one with less?"

Upari felt prepared, he had decided on what to say and the exact calculations had been completed and checked several times. Within the Shard, the Force surged for a moment, projecting words as swiftly as a computer would transfer data. "My name is Upari, of the Crystalline Caverns of Orax." The thought was thrown across the small space in the form of mental stimulus. These reactions were imprinted lightly on the brain of his intended recipient, Jessica. The message would probably sound all at once and yet the mind may understand it. Upari hoped so.

 

[Jessica Med-Beq]

"Sometimes one's mental capacities will affect the methodology and also the level of precision, while other powers were unusable without a solid intellectual base. And other powers still, those that directly enhance the user's cognition, seem to be less and less effective the better a person's cognitive abilities naturally are. Of course, you could probably perform mechu-deru, and Instinctive Astrogation Control without any Force-input whatsoever, I can probably count on my fingers the non-Shards that can functionally use IAC, especially since most practitioners of IAC seemed to be using it as a meditation activity"

Speaking of Instinctive Astrogation Control, she co-wrote a textbook on the topic, alongside another person that could functionally use it for short-haul flight. For the majority of FUs that tried it, they realized that they were lacking sufficient knowledge of topology to use it effectively for even long-haul flight (defined in an IAC context as requiring multiple jumps). And said knowledge of topology required multi-variable calculus to understand. Sure Jessica was capable of doing that stuff in her head with next to no Force-energy expenditures, but she really was one of a very small number. Historically Jedi tended to label Force-using organics as geniuses when cognition-enhancing powers were ineffective on them due to Force-ceiling effects. And now that the Shard housed within [member="Ultimatum"] started replying back to telepathy, she feels compelled to do the same with him. My name is Jessica Med-Beq. By now you have realized how different I am from the other Jedi you've met thus far, she thought, while directing that telepathic message to Upari so that he could, in turn, receive telepathic messages from her.

"But mental composure is distinct from one's Force-batteries, and composure is broken down into several components in this context. Mental fortitude is more concerned with how long you can sustain the use of the Force, provided your Force-batteries will allow it, computational power is about the complexity of what can be accomplished, and of course the memory as well as the Force-batteries. To be sure, there are people who can do great feats with simple powers, and others whose greatness come from the complexity of what they can do even though they can't do it for very long or to a significant extent"

 

[Ultimatum]

Ultimatum pondered this. "What is IAC, why would Jedi use it as a meditation?" The droid was interested in the Force abilities that he could learn. Knowledge interested Ultimatum, knowledge in the archaic mathematics and arts of the Force were particularly intriguing. "As for the Force batteries, if they continue to expand with further use, then is it not possible for a person to become capable of greater and greater feats more often?"

Upari accepted the message sent to it. The Shard felt more comfortable with the calculations for mental communication. The mathematics were accomplished by the small processor, and Upari responded as the solutions were given to him, "Indeed. What makes you so different?"

[member="Jessica Med-Beq"]

 

[Jessica Med-Beq]

"IAC is an abbreviation for Instinctive Astrogation Control. While I can actually use it to calculate hyperspace trajectories in my head for short-haul flight, most organic Jedi would use IAC as a means of meditation or to enhance their cognitive abilities for other ends because they lack the required knowledge of topology. And also IAC requires a lot of concentration to perform because their Force-batteries are directly drained into their brains. Usually organics that would actually desire to use IAC for calculating hyperspace trajectories would start with long-haul flight, because mistakes are easier to fix when there are other segments to a flight"

Jessica was all too familiar with the topological demands of IAC: curvature and torsion being well-defined at one point except where one drops from hyperspace, with these two not exceeding certain values, and, from there, third-order derivatives of vector-valued functions, scalar and vector products in three dimensions, the Frenet frame. Sure, Shards, Givin and Columi were races that would usually not be using the Force for such cognition-intensive uses, and the former because they are usually housed in droid bodies, [member="Ultimatum"] containing Upari, just that topology (and upper-division undergraduate-level math, or graduate-level math, depending on the culture) can send most Jedi cowering in fear. She tries to respond to Upari: I would say that I am much more open to embrace knowledge, and also that I am not driven by self-righteousness. You also have a feel for how my brain operates by now. You will find later that, if you try to impress a line of thought into someone else, rather than just send packets of information, you may even be able to mind-trick people, but I'd rather discuss the pitfalls of the mind trick in due course, she thought, while answering Upari's telepathic question.

"To a certain extent, larger Force batteries can make people accomplish greater feats. Just that the amount of headaches a Force-power can induce in someone does not seem to depend on how much energy is expended"

 

[Ultimatum]

To use such an ability for something other than its intended purpose struck Ultimatum as questionable. It made sense that organics would need assistance with such complicated calculations. But Ultimatum did not feel the need to use the Force to enhance his mental capabilities. His answer had always been to produce a body more effective at mental capacity and mathematical skills. Perhaps the Force would be a more effective solution for short-term uses.

"But can a person continually grow in both Force battery and potency?"

Upari had guessed such was a potential use for this communication, going from mere messages to suggestions and then perhaps to control. It was a dangerous power, one easily abused. "I believe that would be a good idea. What would you rather do now? What would you wish to teach?"

[member="Jessica Med-Beq"]

 

[Jessica Med-Beq]

"Theoretically a person can continually grow in both Force-battery and potency, almost infinitely, but in practice a sentient's lifespan puts a straitjacket on that"

So Upari feels up to learning the mind trick? It wasn't a big stretch from regular telepathy the way he did it, so I suppose I could change the order in which the items are to be learned, she thought, while realizing that, if [member="Ultimatum"] could perform mechu-deru, he could probably perform the electronic equivalent of Memory Rub or Drain Knowledge on a machine. On the other hand, she knew that Memory Rub and Drain Knowledge were likened to forced data transfer from a person's mind to another, amounting to two different uses of mental slicing in her mind: the first to act upon a person's mental memory files without stealing anything, the second to steal from a person's mental memory files. She thus brought in one of those criminals caught on Durkteel, who has mostly kept quiet since he was arrested, but since he wasn't affiliated with the Ta'jar Blood Gang, there were just so many unknowns about that crime ring. Shackled and on remand, thanks to the sheer size and complexity of the affair, perhaps extracting additional information on their supposed involvement in the Refugee Relief Movement as it pertained to moneylaundering would be welcome.

"Due process, in a policing context, means that conventional interrogation techniques must be used before resorting to mind tricks since mind tricks are considered enhanced interrogation. Whereas in telepathy, you can engage in consensual communications without altering the recipients' thought patterns, with a mind trick, there are several precautions: pay attention to wording so as to not ask a leading question or otherwise unduly ruin the target's life. And even when you don't use mind trick in an interrogation context, it's best not to try impressing a thought pattern into its recipient until you are left with no choice or it's otherwise the least hurtful option you have left"

 

[Ultimatum]

Well, that seemed to be a definite advantage for Ultimatum, with an unlimited lifespan he had no reason not to continue to grow. At least, he would be able to continue to grow in the knowledge of the Force; he did not know the limit of Upari's lifespan. What little information Ultimatum had from the HoloNet did not specify a particular age at which most Shards perish, but the robot guessed that the Shard would be able to outlive most sentients if taken care of. The droid looked forward to a long time of learning and experience.

"The ability to manipulate another person's mind is permissible in a court case? Would that not be a form of using the person to convict themselves?" Upari was surprised that the Force mind trick could be used in the courts. It sounded like it would be breaking one of the laws about self-incrimination. But if the laws regarding Force usage were so seemingly so lax... "What about reading another person's thoughts? Is the testimony of a Force user acceptable in courts?"

"For that matter is a droid's?" Ultimatum had not learned much about the legal system. What he remembered was somewhat outdated so he wanted to update it if possible.

[member="Jessica Med-Beq"]