Non-linear / full-2d writing systems? (Telepathy dept.)

Ray Brown wrote:

> Even if humans had evolved the ability to communicate by thought alone, I
> suspect our communication would still be a shadow of our real thoughts. I
> don't think many people would be happy with the idea that their thoughts
> could all be read by anyone within 'reading distance' - we would most
> surely still process our thoughts before transmission   :)
I suppose one would have to learn how to create a "firewall".
>
> But thinking how telepathic beings might write their 'thought
> transmission'
>   might be a way of starting - also I vaguely hoped that some other people
> might get interested because such creatures do turn up in con-worlds, I
> believe, and it might be a little more convincing if they did not appear
> to think linearly in Anglo-American   :)
>
You talkin' to me? :)  The Kash are telepathic, but I'm not, and I have no
idea how it would work. :-(  I assume they can communicate feelings and
images, but also something like messages/sentences that could just as easily
be in spoken form but that, for whatever reasons, they want to keep private.
In that case they'd probably be using the telepathic equivalent of linear
speech.

Firewall: not everyone knows how to erect one. So there are social
constraints on when, how, how much, one may touch another telepathically.

A primitive form of telepathy exists in their animal relatives (the
Cousins), and I assume it's almost entirely pictorial--

Broken-Fang and Short-Tail are out hunting:
BF sends [image of prey hiding behind a bush]
ST replies, sends [image of himself circling to the left side, and of BF
circling to right]
BF sends [image of both pouncing]
After devouring the prey, mutual [images/feelings of contentment]

Then there's the interface between the religious "monks" and the Cousins;
with practice over time the monks would learn to be more imagistic, and at
least some Cousins become capable of recognizing "words". There must be some
way for the monks to write down the results of their conversations (and some
way for them to teach new members)-- perhaps something like the arcane
symbols used by the Alchemists...but I have only vague thoughts on this.
Waiting to see what you guys come up with!!

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