It’s a universe with at least one full-fledged precognitive, and one in which two witches can share the same basic talent but have different suites of related “helper” abilities that control their expression (e.g., Aro’s ability to file and compress memories). It ought not be surprising to find a witch with a precognitive talent expressed as a knack for picking the right plan.
I’m fond of that notion for the same reasons that I enjoy Elspeth’s ability to learn about a target by analyzing the things she is inclined to say to that target… it allows for some entertaining thought experiments.If Siobhan is wearing a piece of cheese on her head, then it’s likely that Siobhan wearing cheese on her head is the thing to do: what does that imply about the situation? I’m reminded of the princess in Her Majesty’s Wizard.
All that said, if that is the deal with Siobhan, and she hasn’t long since chosen to go to ground somewhere where our heroes won’t find her, that implies certain things about the likely future that ought to cheer our heroes up. Belief in precognition is one heck of a morale boost, under the right circumstances.
I’m reminded of a novel I read in which at one point the protagonist — having the ability to see the future as it could happen — manages to extract information from people by just “counterfactually” asking them questions and seeing what their responses would be. Prescience let them interrogate random people without even moving.
That sort of precognition really does have the potential to be ridiculously overpowered. As its fine-controllability increases it becomes like having a bayesian superintelligence in your head, except it’s not just superintelligent, it’s (close enough to) omniscient as well. You could become one hell of an optimization process.
I vaguely recall something along those lines in one of Peter Hamilton’s Greg Mandel novels… Quantum Murder, I think… the precognitive reports to her telepath partner that in none of the futures where he read the minds of anyone in that building does it turn out that they lied about what happened, and they go on to the next thing without ever entering the building.
I’ve had an idle desire for a long time to write a story with a precog where it turns out that in the most likely future she gets whammied by an illusionist following a detailed script, such that all of her long-range precognitive visions have been scripted by the enemy all along.
It’s a universe with at least one full-fledged precognitive, and one in which two witches can share the same basic talent but have different suites of related “helper” abilities that control their expression (e.g., Aro’s ability to file and compress memories). It ought not be surprising to find a witch with a precognitive talent expressed as a knack for picking the right plan.
I’m fond of that notion for the same reasons that I enjoy Elspeth’s ability to learn about a target by analyzing the things she is inclined to say to that target… it allows for some entertaining thought experiments.If Siobhan is wearing a piece of cheese on her head, then it’s likely that Siobhan wearing cheese on her head is the thing to do: what does that imply about the situation? I’m reminded of the princess in Her Majesty’s Wizard.
All that said, if that is the deal with Siobhan, and she hasn’t long since chosen to go to ground somewhere where our heroes won’t find her, that implies certain things about the likely future that ought to cheer our heroes up. Belief in precognition is one heck of a morale boost, under the right circumstances.
I’m reminded of a novel I read in which at one point the protagonist — having the ability to see the future as it could happen — manages to extract information from people by just “counterfactually” asking them questions and seeing what their responses would be. Prescience let them interrogate random people without even moving.
That sort of precognition really does have the potential to be ridiculously overpowered. As its fine-controllability increases it becomes like having a bayesian superintelligence in your head, except it’s not just superintelligent, it’s (close enough to) omniscient as well. You could become one hell of an optimization process.
I vaguely recall something along those lines in one of Peter Hamilton’s Greg Mandel novels… Quantum Murder, I think… the precognitive reports to her telepath partner that in none of the futures where he read the minds of anyone in that building does it turn out that they lied about what happened, and they go on to the next thing without ever entering the building.
I’ve had an idle desire for a long time to write a story with a precog where it turns out that in the most likely future she gets whammied by an illusionist following a detailed script, such that all of her long-range precognitive visions have been scripted by the enemy all along.