I had a reader contact me today with a question I’ve been asked a few times now, why Adam doesn’t just “fix” his addiction or have it “fixed” by the Guild Structure people. This is a good question! And I love that my readers are thinking deeply about the world and the rules of the world. Since I’ve been asked it a few times now, I thought it was time to go ahead and answer it on the blog in more detail for everyone.
Thanks to Frank, who wrote the text of the original question from today (copied below).
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Hello,
I am reading the first book in the Mindspace Investigations book, Clean and I have a question.
Currently I am just on Chapter 11.
In Chapter 10, you describe Constructs as being able to ” If you want a criminal to literally not be able to think about molesting children again…” . If that part is correct, then why hasn’t the hero had this done to remove the ability to think of Satin to cure his addiction?
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Thanks for contacting me! Always great to hear from readers.
I’ve gotten this question a few times, and there are three major issues at play.
(1) Addiction is complicated, because it’s not just about the behavior. With an addiction to a substance, it’s usually about an emotional need or pattern as much as the substance. So the Guild has learned over time that blocking thoughts of Satin just leads addicts to seek out a new drug or new destructive behavior in the short term to meet those needs or patterns. In the long term, the patient often regresses right back to the addictive habits, often to new ones on top of old. It’s not specific enough a trigger to be adequately treated, if that makes sense. You can block the Satin but you can’t block the need that’s driving the addiction.
Even with the criminal treatment for convicted child molesters–which is to a very, very specific set of triggers and behaviors–the criminal will often act out in other ways to try to fill whatever need for control or lust he/she was getting through those sets of behaviors. The treatment and rehabilitation team will try to channel this into a form that is much less destructive, but it’s often very bad for the criminal’s mental health and future, or very bad for those surrounding the person. Sometimes with enough patience and determination, the criminal can even get around the mental block, which is also bad. For this particular set of criminal behaviors, the future society is willing to pay that price. For other situations the unexpected consequences could far outweigh the thing you’re trying to fix, and society may not be willing to pay that price. Humans are complicated, and messing with their heads is complicated.
For addiction, the Guild has by this point determined that Structural intervention just isn’t worth the trouble. Better the addiction you know about and can deal with in other ways than new addictions and new problems you can’t predict.
(2) Adam has Structural training. Any telepath who can “see” what’s been done to his/her brain has a much better shot that average of undoing what’s been done, and someone with Structural training can rarely be permanently “changed” without his or her active and ongoing participation. The problem with addiction is that Adam’s emotional needs will keep forcing him to “pick at the scab” and undo what’s been done. So “fixing” Adam isn’t really worth it if he’s fighting you, because it likely won’t work, or won’t work the way you planned.
(3) Humans don’t as a rule like having their brains altered. Like so many folks with bipolar disorder or other mental illnesses, they don’t “feel themselves” on drugs that change the brain. Sometimes the difference is worth it to the individual. Sometimes people go off the drugs as soon as they can. Sometimes it’s something in between. And drugs are a lot less personal and less invasive than having someone prodding around in your head. Not to mention that having that sort of thing done against your will–to alter who you are as a person–is traumatic. I imagine that “fixing” your brain is very much the same. If you actively consent and want the benefits from the change, perhaps it works because you’re willing to pay the price. But it’s a brain change, and is going to change how you feel overall and how you experience your mind and yourself. People as a rule don’t really like that, and will choose it only if the benefit outweighs the price.
For Adam, considering his desire for control and anger towards the Guild at the worst time of his addiction, he would be very, very wary of having anyone change his brain. He wouldn’t want a stranger poking around in his head and making wholesale changes. He fundamentally wouldn’t. So he’d have every reason in the world to fight and possibly undo what had been done, even if the Guild had somehow decided to go against their policies and intervene with the addiction.
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What about you guys? Would you choose to have someone go in and “fix” your brain? What unintended consequences do you think something like that might have?
This makes sense. The way I picture this in my head is, in order to stop a person being able to think about something, the telepath first probes the person’s memory for instance of whatever they’re aiming for and observes which neuron ‘pattern'(s) that thought corresponds to. Then it’s a matter of undoing as few neural connections as possible so that the pattern can’t occur any more. But the brain is always evolving and growing back, so I wouldn’t expect this to work indefinitely.
One question I have is, can Structure-trained telepaths do the opposite of this, as in build additional connections? I guess the thought patterns of all people are different, so you wouldn’t know what would come out of the pattern that’s been built, so for things like implanting false memories this wouldn’t work very well. However what happened to Swartz seems to suggest that building connections is possible, at least in the context of restoring the ones that have been broken, in which case the outcome is quite predictable.
What I’m wondering now is whether telepaths have tried to use this ability to improve their mental skills! After all the overall number of neural connections seems to correlate with intelligence and I can easily imagine young telepaths trying this on themselves as exam preparation… or as a very unsafe way to make money ‘in the real world’.
Anyway, random thoughts over and thanks for this post 🙂
All great points, Sarah! Structure-trained telepaths can make additional connections, or create a “detour” around damaged tissue/connections, as in the case with a stroke victim who can’t talk because of a routing area damage but whose neuro-linguistic area is largely intact. You help the mind build a workaround and reinforce the pathways with physical therapy. You can sometimes also help someone see in color, or recognize faces, depending on the nature of the damage. This kind of thing works because (1) we’ve seen the connections work in other victims, and (2) the cause and effect are very clear and specific.
Keep in mind though that the Guild is working with the mind (the software) rather than the brain itself (the neural connections), though the two are very interdependent and influence each other strongly over time. So you’re not directly building neuroconnections, you’re teaching the different software sub-routines to talk to each other. Over time, with repetition and reinforcement, the physical connections will grow to mimic the software. But it’s a process.
You ask an awesome question about using the connections for boosting brain power and other things! This had not occurred to me, but I’m so glad you brought it up :). I totally can’t imagine that students wouldn’t at least try this. It seems like you should be able to “optimize” software and/or add more memory or connections to the system. But it’s a complex system, and what happens if you break the code somewhere you didn’t plan on? I can totally picture students getting themselves into real trouble the teachers have to bail them out of!
I do see the Guild trying to improve the “numbers” of up and coming telepaths if they can, and they already have tested drug approaches, which could complement this pattern. Oooh, you’re right… as an illegal underground thing this would be an awesome moneymaker! (Thinks to self…)
Thanks for putting so much thought into this–would love to hear what you think going forward.
So are structure telepaths manipulating the neuron mapping, adjusting the brain’s biochemistry, both, or something else? Also, does this mean they’re using microscopic level telekinesis? If so, what else could they potentially do with TK at the micro level?
I picture it as a software change, at least at first, followed closely by chemistry. But the brain and the mind are very interdependent, and so one will over time drive the other. Software and chemistry, being the most interdependent and fastest to change, will move first with influence of telepath. The wetware follows more slowly with making new connections and synapses to solidify the software and chemical changes. Good points though! I can totally imagine a micro kinetic with a different approach to the same thing.