https://scripts.batie.org/index.php?action=history&feed=atom&title=Matters_of_the_MindMatters of the Mind - Revision history2026-05-13T13:21:42ZRevision history for this page on the wikiMediaWiki 1.43.0https://scripts.batie.org/index.php?title=Matters_of_the_Mind&diff=57&oldid=prevAlanBatie: New page: A gay high school senior in a small rural homophobic town discovers how to read minds and puts it to use to ensure justice prevails while learning related social lessons the hard w...2009-01-15T05:13:48Z<p>New page: A gay high school senior in a small rural homophobic town discovers how to read minds and puts it to use to ensure justice prevails while learning related social lessons the hard w...</p>
<p><b>New page</b></p><div>A gay high school senior in a small rural homophobic town <br />
discovers how to read minds and puts it to use to ensure justice <br />
prevails while learning related social lessons the hard way.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
A gay high school senior in a rural setting retreats into<br />
computers and radio (the latter needed for Internet connectivity).<br />
He is very bright, and discovers a way to merge the two to read<br />
human thoughts. It works well, but is quickly overwhelmed when<br />
he takes it into town. Eventually, he is able to get it to<br />
cope with groups of people and single out individuals.<br />
<br />
He finds it is a two edged sword, as while he can easily find<br />
other gay teenagers to befriend, he also hears what people<br />
really think of him (even friends don't like everything about<br />
you) and learns secrets and regrets of others.<br />
<br />
He goes to college in the big city and discovers that he needs<br />
a lot more computer power to be able to really handle the crowds<br />
there, but is able to use the device to get work to pay for his<br />
tech toys. In the process, he has to choose between a highly<br />
profitable use via unfair knowledge gained and barely enough<br />
for his needs, but by using the information, he would only be<br />
helping someone, and not taking advantage of others without his<br />
capabilities.<br />
<br />
Once he has the New, Improved mind reader working, he discovers<br />
that already he's been taken advantage of, and is considered<br />
pretty much a hick with few social graces by many of those<br />
around him, which sends him into something of a depressive rage,<br />
which becomes a downward spiral. While he never does anything<br />
outright evil, he does make use of his knowledge to get revenge<br />
far beyond his injuries. While he does "hear" what people think<br />
of how petty his problems are, he just feels "misunderstood".<br />
<br />
He has sunk pretty low and is on the verge of telling someone something<br />
he knows will cause them to suicide, when he does some minor good deed<br />
for another gay man about his age who's worse off than he is, and been<br />
far worse in the past, but says nothing. He learns about them from his<br />
device, as well as what they think about his kvetching about minor<br />
insults. This forces a review of himself, what he's becoming and what<br />
he could be, especially as he views things around him from a different<br />
perspective.<br />
<br />
He talks to the other gay man, learns from him and they fall for each <br />
other. He then has to "come out" about the mind reading device, and<br />
together they work out how to use the device for good and start using <br />
the device to start searching for cases of injustice and arranging for<br />
information to fall into the right hands to right the wrongs.</div>AlanBatie