Star Wars Question

[lyore]

A question for any of my Star Wars flisters who've read the EU.



In both the movies and the EU, we see a number of incredibly talented Force sensitive/jedi pilots, starting with the Skywalkers and going on from there. Is it ever established in the EU (since I certainly can't see it in the movies) that any of these pilots are/would be equally as good on flight simulators? I see it all the time in fics, but for the life of me, I can't really think of a good reason this should be so. And, because I had a bad day at work and this always prompts me to get analytical about fictional sources, I shall now attempt to show why I think this is so.

For the purposes of this discussion, lets split the use of the force to aid piloting into the following areas:

a) Enhancing situational awareness - using the force to sense the actions of other combatants, either friendly or hostile, in situations where ordinary senses/sensors would be inadequate.

b) Enhanced reflexes - the ability to respond more rapidly to stimuli/situations once detected

c) Precognition - the ability to sense things before they happen. Often seen in the form of a 'danger sense', as well predicting specific events.

All of these uses have been either implied or directly stated in the movies or books. (At least as far as I can remember. And yes, I know that the movies tie b) and c) together, and that c) is also related to a) but for the time being lets go with these definitions, OK?)

In a flight-simulator situation, it is reasonable to assume that b) would still apply (leaving aside the whole real-life-is-different-stresses-question, the Force-sensitive pilot's reflexes would be unaffected by whether the battlespace information they are reacting to is generated by real sensors or by the simulator computer.)

However, consider a), where the physical presence of the combatants is what the pilot is reacting to. Clearly, in the instance of simulated combat, this input would be missing, and therefore the jedi-pilots superior battlespace awareness diminished.

Consideration of precognition in the form of 'danger sense' in the simulated battlespace is more difficult. Assuming the pilot was sufficiently focused, perhaps the simulated danger could trigger such a 'spidey sense' response. However, it could also be reasonably assumed that since this artificial jeopardy does not in fact pose any danger, and does not correspond to any actual entity which could interact with the Force, it would not. The same reasoning could be applied to the use of the force to predict specific events.

Right. So of the three ways Force-sensitive pilots use the Force to enhance their abilities, one would still apply, one really shouldn't, and there is a definite case for the third either being substantially weaker or non-existent as well. While their enhanced reflexes would still give Force-sensitive pilots an advantage, this must be combined with the unaccustomed absence of other Force-related input (battlespace awareness and potentially precognition). Taking into account the profound effect the removal of accustomed senses, I think there is in fact a possibility that Force-sensitive pilots would perform worse than average in simulated situations, and certainly worse than their real-life prowess would suggest.



Um, yeah. All this was is a long-winded way of saying that I think it would be really cool if there was fic where either Luke or Anakin (or Vader, for that matter) was incredibly bad at flying sims.

Comments

[fialleril.livejournal.com]

*whistles* You have a degree in physics? I'll have to be careful what I say around you. ;)

I would love to see that fic. Here's hoping you get a chance to write it!