Even with those constraints, there are experiments that seem worth performing.
Experiment one: select some known object X. A confederate either puts X in their pocket, or doesn’t. Elspeth attempts to say “You have X in your pocket” to the confederate. Does Magic object to Elspeth saying that when it isn’t true?
If that doesn’t work, set up an indirect version of the same thing where, instead of saying “You have X in your pocket,” Elspeth calls up a memory of the person having X in their pocket and says “You’re in a situation like that time when you had X in your pocket.” That, at least, ought to work… it’s essentially what Elspeth did to Alice.
Either way, there’s a whole series of experiments to be performed in the same vein to establish whether this depends on someone having the knowledge, or whether it merely depends on the state of the world. E.g., experiment 1b: there are three people in the room, two of whom have a sealed box in their pocket. One of the boxes contains X. The third person in the room knows which box it is, but nobody else does. Elspeth attempts to say “You have X in your pocket” (or equivalent memory) to both people. 1c: get rid of the third person. Nobody knows which box it is. 1d: get rid of all the people; there are two boxes, left and right. Elspeth attempts to say to herself “The {left, right} box contains X”.
Another direction of experimentation… set up the same experiment, but Elspeth is in another room far away, communicating by telephone. If that works, hang up, and have Elspeth simply intend to communicate by phone. (This should work if the first one does, since we’ve seen Magic answer questions about intended communications.) If that works, throw the phone away and have Elspeth intend to communicate in some unspecified fashion… or, if that fails, have her write the answers on a piece of paper with the intention of handing the paper to the appropriate person at the first convenient opportunity. If any of this works, how far away is too far? What if she doesn’t know exactly where the people are?
Yet another variation: set up a probabilistic test case. That is, instead of “You have X in your pocket,” try it with “This coin is about to come up heads.” If it fails, try it again with Alice, after she has determined how the coin will come up.
Completely different: Every thirty seconds, Elspeth looks around the room and says “There are N people in this room.” Allirea is in the room, fading in and out. Can Magic tell when what Elspeth wants to say is false? Does it matter if Bella is in the room?
It seems like these would be useful things to know about Elspeth’s talent, not to mention useful directions to train it in if the potential exists. Some of them I expect to fail, because Word of God says she’s not an oracle, but I’m not clear on which ones as I’m not exactly clear what an “oracle” is. In any case, Elspeth doesn’t have access to Word of God, all she has is experiment.
But maybe Addy’s the only one who has an experimental mindset about this stuff.
Completely different: Every thirty seconds, Elspeth looks around the room and says “There are N people in this room.” Allirea is in the room, fading in and out. Can Magic tell when what Elspeth wants to say is false? Does it matter if Bella is in the room?
This one fails trivially. Elspeth has, in the past, without so much as a twinge from Magic, neglected Allirea’s existence verbally and explicitly:
Siobhan pursed her lips and closed her eyes. “Elspeth, how many children does Joham have?” she asked, slowly and carefully.
“Three,” I said.
“And their names are, from oldest to youngest...?”
“Noemi, Nahuel, and Iseul. Don’t you already know—”
Even with those constraints, there are experiments that seem worth performing.
Experiment one: select some known object X. A confederate either puts X in their pocket, or doesn’t. Elspeth attempts to say “You have X in your pocket” to the confederate. Does Magic object to Elspeth saying that when it isn’t true?
If that doesn’t work, set up an indirect version of the same thing where, instead of saying “You have X in your pocket,” Elspeth calls up a memory of the person having X in their pocket and says “You’re in a situation like that time when you had X in your pocket.” That, at least, ought to work… it’s essentially what Elspeth did to Alice.
Either way, there’s a whole series of experiments to be performed in the same vein to establish whether this depends on someone having the knowledge, or whether it merely depends on the state of the world. E.g., experiment 1b: there are three people in the room, two of whom have a sealed box in their pocket. One of the boxes contains X. The third person in the room knows which box it is, but nobody else does. Elspeth attempts to say “You have X in your pocket” (or equivalent memory) to both people. 1c: get rid of the third person. Nobody knows which box it is. 1d: get rid of all the people; there are two boxes, left and right. Elspeth attempts to say to herself “The {left, right} box contains X”.
Another direction of experimentation… set up the same experiment, but Elspeth is in another room far away, communicating by telephone. If that works, hang up, and have Elspeth simply intend to communicate by phone. (This should work if the first one does, since we’ve seen Magic answer questions about intended communications.) If that works, throw the phone away and have Elspeth intend to communicate in some unspecified fashion… or, if that fails, have her write the answers on a piece of paper with the intention of handing the paper to the appropriate person at the first convenient opportunity. If any of this works, how far away is too far? What if she doesn’t know exactly where the people are?
Yet another variation: set up a probabilistic test case. That is, instead of “You have X in your pocket,” try it with “This coin is about to come up heads.” If it fails, try it again with Alice, after she has determined how the coin will come up.
Completely different: Every thirty seconds, Elspeth looks around the room and says “There are N people in this room.” Allirea is in the room, fading in and out. Can Magic tell when what Elspeth wants to say is false? Does it matter if Bella is in the room?
It seems like these would be useful things to know about Elspeth’s talent, not to mention useful directions to train it in if the potential exists. Some of them I expect to fail, because Word of God says she’s not an oracle, but I’m not clear on which ones as I’m not exactly clear what an “oracle” is. In any case, Elspeth doesn’t have access to Word of God, all she has is experiment.
But maybe Addy’s the only one who has an experimental mindset about this stuff.
This one fails trivially. Elspeth has, in the past, without so much as a twinge from Magic, neglected Allirea’s existence verbally and explicitly:
True. Cool, they can scratch that one off the list.