Jon_Lincicum at stream.com wrote: >>Separate issues. I'm sure the enemies' strategy meetings are >>protected. I'm less confident that all of the communications officers >>sending the encrypted orders by whichever means are protected. > >Well, that was really the point I was asking about. Is there really any >way for technology protect against clairvoyance? > > I don't know. I expect at a certain level, yes. Everything follows the laws of the universe. But see below. >>Some radio intelligence can be done without human intervention. >>Clairvoyance might find it hard to read the minds of spy satellites, for >>instance. > >Well, since the way I think of clairvoyance isn't just as "mind-reading" >so much as "remote fact-finding", the information wouldn't really have to >be in anyone's brain to find it out. > > A bunch of bits requires translation. A brain might be able to pick up a bunch of noise from a similar brain and match it with how it works and come up with a picture. I don't see that a brain could pick up a bunch of bits from a digital camera though, even if the bandwidth of the brain was sufficient. The problem occurs in reverse as well - but with enough research, that would be solvable. The digital transmission from a camera can easily use a different format, encryption, varying speeds and such to make its data unrecognizable without having a similar codec on the other side. >But can a purely technological civilization block psionics? Or sorcery? > > Assuming technology excludes psionics and sorcery, eventually. But again, it shouldn't be an either/or situation. We already know that sorcery can block sorcery. >If not, then information gathered in this manner is *not* safe from >protection. > >Say, for example, that Morrolan simply used his secret window to observe >the enemy meetings. How would a purely science-based technology be able to >stop him? > > > If magic is real, then magic *is* a purely science-based technology. But for the answer you're seeking: Eventually. The laws of the universe aren't capricious. Think Clarke's Third Law, with a melding of our technology and magic. There is a tradition that has cold iron interfering with magic. I expect some magic could be bothered more easily than others - Steve hasn't told us that he has received any scientific documents about how magic actually works, but it appears to be reliable and repeatable. That's science and technology.