The Martial Unity

Over the next few days, Rui immersed himself in the newest idea for his Martial Art technique. A technique that could allow him to read his opponent's mind to some degree by hypnotizing them such that their non-verbal communication reflected their mind to a certain degree.

This was possible if one was in a trance, which was a state of semi-consciousness. In this state, the subconscious mind gained greater control over the body. What Rui was particularly interested in was the fact that he could read what the subconscious mind was conveying much more easily.

Thus, in regards to the catoblepas, Rui needed to develop a technique that put them in a trance where they would relive the memories of the Divine Doctor. He could trigger them into doing so by showing them the visual depiction of the Divine Doctor as he had before, except, this time, he would be doing it to them while they were in a trance.

The visual depiction of the Divine Doctor would trigger associated memories, causing them to relive them, which, in turn, would be reflected in their non-verbal communication. In this manner, he would be able to get detailed access to their memories, hopefully.

However, Rui was enthusiastic about the prospects of such a Martial Art technique beyond just the catoblepas.

"If I can put my opponents in a quasi-trance mid-battle and cause their subconscious minds to gain a stronger hold over their body such that it reflects their intent well ahead of time…" Rui could not contain the sheer excitement that he felt at the prospects of such a technique.

Reading the subconscious mind through non-verbal communication could do much more than allow him to read intent in the conscious mind.

It could allow him to read the very inception of intent that occurred in the subconscious mind!

Rui recalled a paper on a rather groundbreaking experiment that he had read back on Earth during the development of the VOID algorithm.

The physiologist Benjamin Libet once famously used an EEG to show that activity in the brain's motor cortex could be detected three hundred milliseconds before a person felt that they had decided to move.

Another lab extended this work using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI): Subjects were asked to press one of two buttons while watching a clock composed of a random sequence of letters appearing on a screen. They reported which letter was visible at the moment they decided to press one button or the other. The experimenters found two regions of the brain that contained information about which button subjects would press a full seven to ten seconds before the decision was consciously made.

More recently, direct recordings from the cortex showed that the activity of merely two hundred and fifty-six neurons was sufficient to predict with eighty percent accuracy a person's decision to move seven hundred milliseconds before he became aware of it.

In other words, if Rui could read any extent of a person's subconscious mind by placing them in a quasi-trance such that their non-verbal communication reflected their subconscious mind, he could read the very inception of intent!

He fidgeted impatiently, trying to temper his enthusiasm and excitement.

Naturally, he recognized that this could not possibly be as smooth as he had hoped.

Even if the creation of the technique went smoothly, which he doubted, the technique itself would not be able to allow him to accurately interpret the language of non-verbal communication.

While non-verbal communication was universal, that did not mean it was universally identical.

Everybody had a partially unique non-verbal communication language.

It could be thought of as regional dialects and accents to a national language. English was a widespread language on Earth, but it had its variants, different dialects, and all manners of accents impeding sophisticated communication even among its speakers. There was enough overlap for smooth general communication. But the moment Rui wanted to read something as precise as the activation of a few hundred neurons out of billions, he would need to know their language.

"Tsk," Rui tutted.

He had hoped to find a low-hanging fruit that he had somehow missed before that would give massive upgrades to his Martial Art at a particularly low price, but alas. It could not be helped.

Thankfully, the path to fulfilling his vision was not mired in mist.

"If everybody has a different language, then…" His eyes narrowed. "I'll just have to decode their language."

Linguists did it all the time. When approaching the script of an entirely unfamiliar language, they would begin looking for patterns and associations that could help them learn the language's meanings.

In the context of Rui's new idea, he could employ a pattern recognition system designed to understand the correlation between conveyed non-verbal communication and the intent of his opponent.

Thus, if he observed a particular set of physiological changes and micro-movements that were immediately followed by a roundhouse kick, then the next time he saw those very same physiological changes and micro-movements, he could infer that his opponent's intent was to throw a roundhouse kick.

Of course, this was an oversimplification. He would need a much larger dataset than a single data point. But Martial Artists threw thousands, tens of thousands, or even more kicks every second.

In other words, he had plenty of data to work with.

"In order to process that data and learn the unique language of subconsciousness…" Rui uttered, immersed in thought. "I'll need a new system of thought."

A wide smile emerged on his face at the realization. His Martial Mind was already quite large with the VOID algorithm and the Angel of Laplace. The addition of a new system of thought to his nascent Martial Mind, especially one as large and sophisticated as what he had conceived, would undoubtedly push him much closer to a higher Realm of power!

"Chief," Kane broke him out of his reverie. "Before you get absorbed into whatever it is that has caught your attention this time, do something about the catoblepas."