On dream travellers

James Wynn · 14 Feb 2011, 21:13 · from 2011-February.txt.gz

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From: crushtv at gmail.com (James Wynn)
Date: Mon, 14 Feb 2011 15:13:09 -0600
Subject: (urth) On dream travellers
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Message-ID: <4D599AE5.4000608 at gmail.com>

>> B. But I don't see any evidence that the dream-travelers /need/
>> sustenance from _any_ apparent source. As you say they don't eat.
>
> Lee-
> Not sure if you caught it earlier, but I think there is some relationship between this
> stuff and Barbatus' explanation that eidolons need to eat, breathe etc. to replace their
> unstable matter with stable, self-sustaining matter allowing it to become real.

Another difference is that the eidolon becomes an independent branch of 
the original. From that moment, there are two of the original. This is 
not the case for the dream-traveler.

In IT terms, the astral body at first SEEMS to be a "client" of the 
corporeal body (this is the relationship Roy seems to be driving at). 
When the soul "returns" to the corporeal, the astral body and any child 
processes it has created (weapons, people, etc) are destroyed. This is 
efficient since it would other cause a lot of useless corpses to be left 
around.

It is actually more complex than that, and somewhat to the contrary. The 
astral body is not supported by the corporeal form during dream-travel. 
It is robust and self-sustaining (without the NEED to take food). During 
dream-travel it appears that actually the astral body temporarily 
becomes the parent process and the corporeal form the child process (the 
unstable dependent process). I say this because:

* If the corporeal body dies, the astral body can continue to run on its 
own without debility.

* If the astral body dies, this is a catastrophic crash: You are left 
with the astral corpse undestroyed (a "zombie" process) and the soul 
cannot "reboot" on the corporeal side. The soul on the astral side is 
claimed by the Increate.

When the soul moves to astral form, the "system" erases the version on 
the corporeal. This prevents identity confusion when the soul is 
re-integrated. When the soul successful returns to corporeal, it is 
re-written to the corporeal form before destroying the astral. This is 
why killing the astral body is catastrophic but killing the corporeal 
body is not.

Not that Wolfe was likely thinking in these terms, but the model is, I 
think, an accurate representation of the rules and limitations.

Additionally, I think the Rajan could afford to be non-chalant about 
being "not really here" during dream-travel because he could return at 
any time. This is not the case for anyone traveling with him. They could 
be marooned at the will of the Rajan and they could not bug-out at the 
first hint of danger.

u+16b9

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