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[Andreas]

Is it me, or is Neeann a bit more well-aware of the thoughts of others than is usual?

[Scott]

Have you ever had a girlfriend, Andreas?

[Andreas]

Not one who strongarms would-be rescuers into saving my sorry bird-watching ass :p

[customdesigned]

Neanderthals had brains quite a bit larger than ours.  Maybe they did have some "psychic" abilities of that sort.  This may not have be valuable enough to support the increased calorie cost of running a larger brain in primitive conditions, and thus the larger brain died out.  In "The Sea of Trolls" by Nancy Farmer, she has some Neanderthals surviving to the time of Beowolf, when they are known as "trolls".

[Apollo-Soyuz]

Neanderthals had brains quite a bit larger than ours.  Maybe they did have some "psychic" abilities of that sort.  This may not have be valuable enough to support the increased calorie cost of running a larger brain in primitive conditions, and thus the larger brain died out.  In "The Sea of Trolls" by Nancy Farmer, she has some Neanderthals surviving to the time of Beowolf, when they are known as "trolls".

Psi and/or magical powers, if real, are nearly useless. Over the lifetime of the human species we would otherwise have done something with them.  ~ Larry Niven

[Azure Priest]

Get out of my head

"and into my car?"

[customdesigned]

Psi and/or magical powers, if real, are nearly useless. Over the lifetime of the human species we would otherwise have done something with them.  ~ Larry Niven

In a pretechnological world, yes.  When food is not an issue, they could become much more useful.

[Andreas]

It is likely that all humans, given the correct cultural and linguistic stimulus, could achieve an absolute direction sense, and even better, be constantly subconsciously dead reckoning their precise position and heading. That ability has been observed in a number of indigenous peoples (read Stephen C. Levinson's "Space in Language and Cognition" for a thorough analysis - it's an awesome book (psst... you can read parts of it on google scholar)).
This would seem like a useful ability, right? Useful for everybody?
But it's not actualized in most people, because our societies don't happen to force us to constantly track these things (individually, meaning that every conversation overheard is also an exercise in navigation).
Same could be the case with magical or psionic abilities... or maybe I should call them "magic" abilities, since they'd likely be perfectly mundane to the ones exhibiting them.

[Killydd]

Of course, hypnotism seems to unlock some abilities also, such as card counting.  Also notable is that illiterate people seem to have a much higher ability to recall the spoken word.  Sometimes abilities that appear useful are just no longer useful enough to seem worth the training when we have tools to replace them, such as maps, compasses, and written language. 

[Andreas]

Of course, hypnotism seems to unlock some abilities also, such as card counting.  Also notable is that illiterate people seem to have a much higher ability to recall the spoken word.  Sometimes abilities that appear useful are just no longer useful enough to seem worth the training when we have tools to replace them, such as maps, compasses, and written language. 

These things would be very useful for a SpecOps soldier though.
Or an artillerist.

I think it's possible that we could develop technology to recreate these abilities in ourselves with less effort. That's not too far fetched, I think.

[customdesigned]

Of course, hypnotism seems to unlock some abilities also, such as card counting.  Also notable is that illiterate people seem to have a much higher ability to recall the spoken word.  Sometimes abilities that appear useful are just no longer useful enough to seem worth the training when we have tools to replace them, such as maps, compasses, and written language. 

I read about soldiers who could wake up at a given time without an alarm, and found that with some practice, I could do that too.  Interestingly, it only works with an open window.  Normal cloud cover doesn't affect it much, but when we had 4 days of tropical storm leftover from a hurricane, that killed it.  For important appointments, and for practice, I set the alarm, but aim to wake up a few minutes before the alarm goes off.

[Scott]

There was nothing extraordinary about Neanne's ability to know what her boyfriend was thinking. She saw him checking Mac and Nissa out. His eye movements and body language told her all she needed to know.

[wdg3rd]

There was nothing extraordinary about Neanne's ability to know what her boyfriend was thinking. She saw him checking Mac and Nissa out. His eye movements and body language told her all she needed to know.

Yup. that ain't exactly rocket surgery.  Glad I got me a wife who didn't expect me to go blind.  (As long as I leave out lines like "I'd hit that", anyway -- my thoughts are still allowed to be my own).

[Andreas]

Actually I was thinking more of the transition to page 889 : http://www.bigheadpress.com/eft?page=889
I thought Neanne was a lot more on top of things only starting to develop than I'd have expected, so the thing with the babewatching was only additional impetus...

[macsnafu]

I read about soldiers who could wake up at a given time without an alarm, and found that with some practice, I could do that too.  Interestingly, it only works with an open window.  Normal cloud cover doesn't affect it much, but when we had 4 days of tropical storm leftover from a hurricane, that killed it.  For important appointments, and for practice, I set the alarm, but aim to wake up a few minutes before the alarm goes off.

I haven't used an alarm in almost twenty years.  Even if I stay up late, I find I can still get up on time.  Sometimes, when I need to, I can take short 10-15 minute naps during the day, but I find it's harder to turn that on and off at will.