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Community
General Tabletop Discussion
D&D Older Editions
So what do you guys think of 2nd edition psionics?
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<blockquote data-quote="Celebrim" data-source="post: 6539243" data-attributes="member: 4937"><p>So, if you look at the definition of bionics, it incorporates two related ideas.</p><p></p><p>First, borrowing ideas from biology and implementing them in mechanical form. And secondly, replacing or enhancing biological function using machines. The two ideas are distinct, but the first is basically a predicate for the second. If you want to replace a knee with a machine that does the same function, you first have to have some idea how a knee works. So it's pretty easy to see how the drift in meaning could occur. </p><p></p><p>When a definition drifts, a lexicographer will start appending new definitions below the original one. Over time, if the old usage falls completely out of favor, the old definition will cease to be the preferred definition and move down the list and eventually get marked with 'archaic' or 'obsolete'. Right now, as psionic is most usually used, you could have the primary definition merely 'see PSYCHIC' and nothing would be lost in the meaning. But of course, that usage obscures lots of actual specific depth of meaning particular to the word 'psionic' that 'psychic' does not have. Sadly, I think D&D is probably the #1 culprit in this, doing for 'psionic' what it has done for words like 'ranger' and 'longsword'. Hopefully HEMA will be able to eventually reverse the damage done by 'longsword'. Or maybe not. Sir Walter Scott has left us with the inescapable neologism 'chainmail' ('chain chain'), and from that 'platemail' ('plate chain'), that seems unlikely to ever go away particularly after D&D propagated it.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Celebrim, post: 6539243, member: 4937"] So, if you look at the definition of bionics, it incorporates two related ideas. First, borrowing ideas from biology and implementing them in mechanical form. And secondly, replacing or enhancing biological function using machines. The two ideas are distinct, but the first is basically a predicate for the second. If you want to replace a knee with a machine that does the same function, you first have to have some idea how a knee works. So it's pretty easy to see how the drift in meaning could occur. When a definition drifts, a lexicographer will start appending new definitions below the original one. Over time, if the old usage falls completely out of favor, the old definition will cease to be the preferred definition and move down the list and eventually get marked with 'archaic' or 'obsolete'. Right now, as psionic is most usually used, you could have the primary definition merely 'see PSYCHIC' and nothing would be lost in the meaning. But of course, that usage obscures lots of actual specific depth of meaning particular to the word 'psionic' that 'psychic' does not have. Sadly, I think D&D is probably the #1 culprit in this, doing for 'psionic' what it has done for words like 'ranger' and 'longsword'. Hopefully HEMA will be able to eventually reverse the damage done by 'longsword'. Or maybe not. Sir Walter Scott has left us with the inescapable neologism 'chainmail' ('chain chain'), and from that 'platemail' ('plate chain'), that seems unlikely to ever go away particularly after D&D propagated it. [/QUOTE]
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Community
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D&D Older Editions
So what do you guys think of 2nd edition psionics?
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