How does River's brain work?
POSTED BY: ZachsMind
UPDATED: Sunday, April 4, 2004 12:15
VIEWED: 9588
PAGE 4 of 4
I think that's a really good theory. I feel relatively certain that stripping her amigdala (sp?) was meant to open up at least receptive empathic possibilities. It's interesting to think that the emotion she recieves are the very ones people are most trying to repress - and it links nicely into the 'empath' notion, which I think has been strongly proven, without the need for the 'telepathic', which I think is still fuzzy and up for debate in the context of the episodes.
It's also a very interesting explanation for why she didn't read anything off Kaylee. Not that I think Kaylee never has supressed emotions, but most times, and at that particular moment, she does tend to be quite open.
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I've stated it before in other threads, so I'll not restate my entire argument, just the short and sweet: The Alliance/BlueSun were operating on her head to remove the distraction of human emotions, and refine her genius into the perfect strategic military weapon.
I surmise that -- perhaps faced with failure in the attempt to create a supercomputer AI -- they figured to take the greatest computer from nature, a human brain, and focus it.
If correct, this means she would not be a single-target weapon like an assassin (you could strip Jayne's amygdala and get that -- if you could find it) or a spy. Rather she would be able to anticipate opponents' amassed movements on a battlefield and have a counter prepared that would not only defeat them, but demoralize them.
Take the following fictitious example, in which River would have been in charge of strategic planning for the Alliance at the Battle of Serenity:
River at command HQ: "We must kill Sgt. Reynolds. Sgt. Malcolm Reynolds, 8th Platoon, 3rd Brigade."
Commander-in-chief: "You mean wipe out the entire 3rd Brigade?"
River: "No. Only Malcolm Reynolds. If you kill the whole brigade, you'll open the flank and allow the others to escape. Reynolds is the key. His unit commander is unstable. See how the unit fell back a quarter kilometer, here? The Captain ordered a retreat without being under attack. Then they regained their ground and swept around an artillery emplacement, came up from behind it and captured it from the vulnerable side. Then they used the cannon to bring down one of our Falcons.
"That's a maneuver hunters use against (name of vicious predatory beast) on Shadow (Mal's home planet). I checked the roster of 8th Platoon. Six from Shadow. Four from urban areas. One son of a wealthy landowner. Reynolds' family are cattle farmers. Always having to weed out the (predatory beasts). This is Reynolds' move: he is leading 8th Platoon.
"Kill him and the 8th Platoon falls, but the Brigade keeps walking into our trap, and the middle of the Independent defense falls...
"Kill Reynolds and Serenity is ours within four hours. If he survives the next 12 hours, we fight on for at least three more months. We may even lose."
Just an example of how I see them using her. Similar to chess, and being able to see the mate by killing a specific pawn at midgame, even if you lose a knight doing it. Of course, the battlefield is infinitely more complex than a chessboard. That's why River's exceptional genius is required by the military-industrial complex.
I think there's plenty of evidence, but to me the most compelling is one simple picture from the end of "Out of Gas"...
River is playing jacks with Kaylee. She holds the ball before her eyes. It looks, to my eye, like it has been CGI-enhanced to resemble a world, a planet...
She says, sotto voce, "I can do this."
And drops the ball, snatching jacks as the scene slowly fades to black.
Child's play.
Respectfully,
zoid
_________________________________________________
"River didn't fix faith. Faith fixed River."
- Senator Richard 'Book' Wilkins, Independent Congress
from A Child Shall Lead Them
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As I think others in the thread said, and I agree with, River doesn't see the future. She sees what people are thinking and by extrapolation (she is kinda genius after all) where they are going. By the same weird twist of genius she has a grasp of spatial mathematics, which allowed her to kill Niska's goons.
River don't play around.
But conversely it is all play to her, she looks at all of it as a game, because, first and formost, she is a kid.
Simon said it best, "She is a kid...she just wants to be a kid."
---Keep it in the air---
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Browncoat1 wrote:
"I disagree. There is no way by simply observing a little girl physically moving around, if in fact she moved at all, that River could deduce that she had a sister and that their mother went insane & tired to kill them both."
Disagreed. Today's law enforcement personnel have established methodology for criminal interrogation and observation -- initially based upon A.C. Doyle's Holmes, BTW -- which can tell when a detainee is being truthful or not, whether they are hiding something, whether they are sensing guilt... Additionally, Children's Services psych evaluators and field operatives can tell at first glance when a child is being sexually abused, based only on the way the child moves, his or her body language.
Please try again...
Respectfully,
zoid
_________________________________________________
"River didn't fix faith. Faith fixed River."
- Senator Richard 'Book' Wilkins, Independent Congress
from A Child Shall Lead Them
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Quote:
Originally posted by zoid:
Browncoat1 wrote:
"I disagree. There is no way by simply observing a little girl physically moving around, if in fact she moved at all, that River could deduce that she had a sister and that their mother went insane & tired to kill them both."
Disagreed. Today's law enforcement personnel have established methodology for criminal interrogation and observation -- initially based upon A.C. Doyle's Holmes, BTW -- which can tell when a detainee is being truthful or not, whether they are hiding something, whether they are sensing guilt... Additionally, Children's Services psych evaluators and field operatives can tell at first glance when a child is being sexually abused, based only on the way the child moves, his or her body language.
Please try again...
I really don't think there is any need to. No amount of observation or body language is going to determine the specifics of a two year old case from a non-communicative victim. Holmes couldn't even do that because it goes beyond the realm of plausibility to, dare I say it, the realm of science fiction.
As to the ball in OiS, Joss says in the commentary that it is another "object in space," the sphere, the perfect shape. I think any secondary meaning to River's words, "I can do this," is simply, "I can interract with these objects in space." In other words, she can be a part of their world, a member of the crew. I think it is emphasized by then going to Jubal, who was so much like her but separated himself from the world, and there he is alone with no interaction with any "object in space."
All in all, I think Joss put the answer more simply in OiS.
WASH: "Psychic, though? That sounds like something out of science fiction!"
ZOE: "You live in a spaceship, dear."
It isn't breaking, but it is a bending of the 4th wall. That's what makes it funny, it's an "in joke" with the viewer. We know it's a science fiction show. If it's science fiction, psychics must be possible.
"Wacky fun..."
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I'm all for over-analysis and whatnot, but Joss is looking for a leap here. Man can fly in Space, Being Psychic is possible. How either works, he doesn't know or really gives a rats ass about. River has a different perspective on everything, River is both a threat and an asset, Blue Sun wants River and will kill everyone in their path to get it, River can kill and does it very well, River can 'hear/see' peoples thoughts, and can see into the close future. These are the things established in all the episodes, this is what he wants you to know, and this is what IS.
My perspective on it, is that there are all these "signals" in life - peoples emotions, their thoughts, the future, whatever - and there's a part of our brain which filters it all out so we can exist in this singular realm of thought. River doesn't have that so she has to distinguish between all these signals, which is why Blue Sun picks geniuses because they can absorb so much and process the information quicker than everyone else.
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BlazingBug (Firefly; I dig) & King o' da Mudders:
I agree, to most extents with both of you. Where I disagree with you, I do not do so as strenuously as Zach'sMind.
But I think in the 'real reality' (what a concept) of our world, there is a scientific explanation for everything, including psychic phenomena. I believe in spiritual energy. I believe this energy underpins our universe. I believe that there is... a lost talent? ...in humans to perceive those energies.
We feel them in church (if we are lucky). We feel them in large gatherings wherein the individual identity is released and a group mentality takes over -- I've had 'religious experiences' at sporting events and rock concerts. I was personal witness to a psychic event in which my mother, grandmother and aunt stopped their conversation, looked at each other, and all said nearly simultaneously, "(My grandfather) is dead." When we rushed over to his house, we in fact found him dead, the body still warm (I touched him).
Just because we don't normally perceive these energies -- even though, if they do exist, they must be as omnipresent as electromagnetic energy -- doesn't mean that they don't exist and can't be someday quantified by physical science.
As to the Blazingbug... er, Firefly universe of Joss' creation, who really knows? We're all just speculating; unless we're 'real reality' psychics ourselves, reading JW's mind.
For my part, I still think she's a human military strategy computer, based on the evidence I've stated. If BlueSun needs psychic assassins, they've already got 'em. They work in pairs and wear blue surgical gloves...
Respectfully,
zoid
_________________________________________________
"River didn't fix faith. Faith fixed River."
- Senator Richard 'Book' Wilkins, Independent Congress
author of A Child Shall Lead Them: A History of the Second War of Independence
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