Mental seal
Names: Mental sealmental seal devicethe Imprintedmental stamp
First appears in Book 2: The Dark Forest, chapter 6 (Year 20, Crisis Era)
Appearances
What you know
Book 2: The Dark Forest
- Ch 6Technique discovered as a by-product of Hines's research that bypasses calculation in the brain's judgment process, making a person firmly believe information is true without thinking.
- Ch 6Implants a single belief into a person's mind that becomes rock-solid and unshakeable; Hines says removing a false one takes painful psychotherapy.
- Ch 7A preliminary result of Hines's plan used in the space forces; the proposition calls it a crime against freedom of thought.
- Ch 7The mental seal imprints a faith proposition on a person's mind; its use was later ruled a crime and the Faith Center device was stored.
- Ch 7Five mental seal devices were made, each with its own supercomputer; Hines secretly gave four to the Imprinted.
- Ch 7Hines altered one minus sign in the control software of all five devices, so they imprint belief in falsehood instead of truth; the sophons did not detect it.
- Ch 7The Imprinted were about fifty thousand military volunteers given faith in victory; about three thousand formed a tight supranational organization, and they may have survived to the present.
- Ch 7Because the devices produce false faith, the Imprinted may in fact be defeatists, and no signs of them have been seen.
- Ch 7A technologically hardened defeatist faith; those bearing it, the Imprinted, have not been found and may be hidden or gone.
Connections
- created byBill Hinesdeveloped with Yamasuki
- created byKeiko Yamasuki
Key moments
- Book 2 · Ch 6Hines tells Chang Weisi of the mental seal
On Space Command's balcony, Hines offers help against defeatism and reveals the mental seal, which can implant belief directly.
- Book 2 · Ch 6PDC hearing approves a restricted mental seal
After outrage from the delegates, Hines proposes a voluntary, supervised facility with one victory proposition, limited to space forces. The assembly drafts a motion and the facility is named the Faith Center.
- Book 2 · Ch 7Yamasuki reveals herself as Hines's Wallbreaker
Before the Joint Conference, Yamasuki exposes that Hines's real plan was Escapism via the mental seal, with a hidden negative sign in all five devices, and that the Imprinted may still exist.
- Book 2 · Ch 7Zhang Beihai assigned as acting captain
At Jupiter Fleet Command, the Asian Fleet commander explains the mental seal threat and orders the reawakened contingent to act as acting captains of centrally commanded warships. Zhang Beihai doubts this but is told refusal is not tradition.
- Book 2 · Ch 7Zhang Beihai's first onboard lesson
Dongfang Yanxu shows Zhang Beihai in simulation how to put Natural Selection into navigation mode and how an Imprinted hijacker might flee, then they talk of family and he warns he may have to kill her.