#1 Fun With: Higgs field manipulation (biotics)
Posted: Tue Dec 03, 2013 8:25 pm
As I'm preparing to write a Mass Effect fanfic to knock all the writer's dust off, there is a fairly significant idea that's going to be a running theme as I see it so far, and I want to make sure I'm not missing something significant before I do.
Which is, the idea of biotics - the ability to manipulate the effective mass of an area or object, and manipulate it thereof. The closest proper science-ish analogue I can find is basically Higgs field manipulation, just for terminology's sake.
In the games, it's shown that biotic humans (at least, don't know about the other species) go through many more calories than a non-biotic, heavily implying that all the energy necessary to generate the effects are effectively stored within the biotic, and not drawn from external sources of any kind.
As an extension of this idea, where I'm going with this is being able to draw energy to generate the biotic effects from external sources, using the self simply as a catalyst, instead of power source and catalyst in one.
1. If this is logically possible, what are some reasonable limits for doing so?
2. What are some possible direct side-effects from doing this? (For instance: ambient air temperature dropping, or nearby power sources getting directly drained, etc.)
3. What are some possible effects in-universe of this knowledge being discovered/rediscovered? (To elaborate - if this is a satisfying reason that Asari are more powerful biotics baseline than other species, versus this aspect being discovered that all species can take advantage of with proper training, and what political/societal effects this might have)
My thanks in advance.
Which is, the idea of biotics - the ability to manipulate the effective mass of an area or object, and manipulate it thereof. The closest proper science-ish analogue I can find is basically Higgs field manipulation, just for terminology's sake.
In the games, it's shown that biotic humans (at least, don't know about the other species) go through many more calories than a non-biotic, heavily implying that all the energy necessary to generate the effects are effectively stored within the biotic, and not drawn from external sources of any kind.
As an extension of this idea, where I'm going with this is being able to draw energy to generate the biotic effects from external sources, using the self simply as a catalyst, instead of power source and catalyst in one.
1. If this is logically possible, what are some reasonable limits for doing so?
2. What are some possible direct side-effects from doing this? (For instance: ambient air temperature dropping, or nearby power sources getting directly drained, etc.)
3. What are some possible effects in-universe of this knowledge being discovered/rediscovered? (To elaborate - if this is a satisfying reason that Asari are more powerful biotics baseline than other species, versus this aspect being discovered that all species can take advantage of with proper training, and what political/societal effects this might have)
My thanks in advance.