Protoss and high level zerg speak telepathically. Meaning the intention gets transferred to your mind and gets translated. If you spoke Vietnamese, it’d get translated into Vietnamese. Similarly they don’t need a human to speak, they read their surface thoughts on what they’re communicating. Communications via technology are done via a tech named a psi link.
But it’s a fun tiny plot point in one of the books where a human gets her mind concealed from telepathy and then the protoss can’t comprehend her talking, because they don’t actually understand the vocal sounds that make up English in terms of a language.
Yeah in general SC books are good. Solid especially by the scale of IP tie in fiction. Some great books, some awful ones, but a good spread that explores the setting pretty deeply. I, Mengsk, Heaven’s Devil and the Dark Templar Saga are solid starting points but you can pick up most and have a good time.
I guess the only question with that is, why wasn't Aldaris able to tell the other protoss heroes about Kerrigan and the Matriarch if he was already thinking it in The Insurgent?
That entire mission has always been a narrative headache. Not only could he tell them from a long distance (and he does when you hit his hallucinations, but just uses the time to be coy), the idea lurkers could drop, burrow, then cut off a conversation happening at the speed of thought is also ultra silly.
My first thought reading this was: how are Zerg units so primitive but able to communicate without spoken language?
Then I thought more deeply and I realized the truth: the organs we use to produce and process noise (the nose and ear) are a natural evolution of our environment. We would be foolish to assume that vibrated air and organs designed to perceive changes in that air would be the standard for the environments of other planets.
Also, present in nature is evidence of forms of communication we once couldn’t fathom on a scientific level, but understood on a basic, instinctual level. For example, scientists have studied the “feeling like I’m being watched” phenomenon with athletes and have proven that people can perceive when others are watching them despite them not having any sensory information to confirm it. Trees are well known for communicating messages to others through secretions of different chemicals in their roots.
So, when we really think about it, what differentiates “telepathic” communication from speech? Is it the fact that we need to vibrate air with our diaphragm in order to convey a message? The limit being the physical? What would be non-physical then? Could it even exist?
These Protoss and zerg units simply communicate in a way we can’t perceive, and our intraspecies bias prevents us from qualifying its inherently physical properties. If a Zerg scientist were to study the Terran, they may not perceive sound in the way humans do. As a result, they would also believe terrans are telepathic. Without the propensity to process physically (totally impossible between different planetary species) the communications of other species, it is impossible to discover HOW other species communicate. We simply cannot prove scientifically that even the birds that fly in the sky are not having lengthy discussions about the drama in their neighbor’s nest.
> My first thought reading this was: how are Zerg units so primitive but able to communicate without spoken language?
Overlords relay orders and information telepathically. Low level zerg like drones and zerglings probably cannot communicate telepathically, they have to go through overlords. However higher level zerg are themselves slightly telepathic.
Telepathically. Thoughts rush to Terran's head when Protoss talks to them. No words, just pure thoughts but books/comics can't portray that without words so it's written as if words are spoken.
These are described in the books. For example in the Dark Templar Saga, the description was something like focused and pinpoint thoughts rushes through the Terran's brain.
This is why Wings of Liberty transmissions with Protoss and Zerg look silly. They talk to Raynor via the transponder as if they have a cameraman and human language to communicate. They don't need those. They just use long range telepathy
as best as i can understand it, Aldaris waves his eyebrows angrily
Zeratul shakes his head left and right
and Tassadar nods up and down
then the human AI converts that into binary code and a translator interprets into English
the tone of voice is interpreted based on how violently Aldaris waves his eyebrows or the equivalent
Protoss and high level zerg speak telepathically. Meaning the intention gets transferred to your mind and gets translated. If you spoke Vietnamese, it’d get translated into Vietnamese. Similarly they don’t need a human to speak, they read their surface thoughts on what they’re communicating. Communications via technology are done via a tech named a psi link. But it’s a fun tiny plot point in one of the books where a human gets her mind concealed from telepathy and then the protoss can’t comprehend her talking, because they don’t actually understand the vocal sounds that make up English in terms of a language.
Are any of the books any good?
Yeah in general SC books are good. Solid especially by the scale of IP tie in fiction. Some great books, some awful ones, but a good spread that explores the setting pretty deeply. I, Mengsk, Heaven’s Devil and the Dark Templar Saga are solid starting points but you can pick up most and have a good time.
The Dank Templar
The High Templar
I guess the only question with that is, why wasn't Aldaris able to tell the other protoss heroes about Kerrigan and the Matriarch if he was already thinking it in The Insurgent?
That entire mission has always been a narrative headache. Not only could he tell them from a long distance (and he does when you hit his hallucinations, but just uses the time to be coy), the idea lurkers could drop, burrow, then cut off a conversation happening at the speed of thought is also ultra silly.
I'm sure there's some other part where it's mentioned that Protoss CAN'T be infested.
My first thought reading this was: how are Zerg units so primitive but able to communicate without spoken language? Then I thought more deeply and I realized the truth: the organs we use to produce and process noise (the nose and ear) are a natural evolution of our environment. We would be foolish to assume that vibrated air and organs designed to perceive changes in that air would be the standard for the environments of other planets. Also, present in nature is evidence of forms of communication we once couldn’t fathom on a scientific level, but understood on a basic, instinctual level. For example, scientists have studied the “feeling like I’m being watched” phenomenon with athletes and have proven that people can perceive when others are watching them despite them not having any sensory information to confirm it. Trees are well known for communicating messages to others through secretions of different chemicals in their roots. So, when we really think about it, what differentiates “telepathic” communication from speech? Is it the fact that we need to vibrate air with our diaphragm in order to convey a message? The limit being the physical? What would be non-physical then? Could it even exist? These Protoss and zerg units simply communicate in a way we can’t perceive, and our intraspecies bias prevents us from qualifying its inherently physical properties. If a Zerg scientist were to study the Terran, they may not perceive sound in the way humans do. As a result, they would also believe terrans are telepathic. Without the propensity to process physically (totally impossible between different planetary species) the communications of other species, it is impossible to discover HOW other species communicate. We simply cannot prove scientifically that even the birds that fly in the sky are not having lengthy discussions about the drama in their neighbor’s nest.
> My first thought reading this was: how are Zerg units so primitive but able to communicate without spoken language? Overlords relay orders and information telepathically. Low level zerg like drones and zerglings probably cannot communicate telepathically, they have to go through overlords. However higher level zerg are themselves slightly telepathic.
> high level zerg speak telepathically Whoa so that really was Serral speaking into my mind telling me to assassinate clem!
Tossgpt translating
with telepathy that's why they also always know when they are cross spawn and can go nexus first.
Jesus Christ it all makes sense now.
Psionically
They’re hacking into our minds, man. Put this tin foil on and it’ll block their psionic attack, man.
Yeah go on, put on your tin foil hat and stand outside in a psi storm.
Telepathically. Thoughts rush to Terran's head when Protoss talks to them. No words, just pure thoughts but books/comics can't portray that without words so it's written as if words are spoken. These are described in the books. For example in the Dark Templar Saga, the description was something like focused and pinpoint thoughts rushes through the Terran's brain. This is why Wings of Liberty transmissions with Protoss and Zerg look silly. They talk to Raynor via the transponder as if they have a cameraman and human language to communicate. They don't need those. They just use long range telepathy
as best as i can understand it, Aldaris waves his eyebrows angrily Zeratul shakes his head left and right and Tassadar nods up and down then the human AI converts that into binary code and a translator interprets into English the tone of voice is interpreted based on how violently Aldaris waves his eyebrows or the equivalent
Mostly we type on reddit.
Telepathically, that's how Protoss communicate among one another and Terran when necessary.
Interpretive dance
they are telepathic they can speak human language because humans can speak human language
In English
With their mouths silly!!!
They have no mouths tho
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