Kotik wrote:Transwarp wrote:
Also. if as WG says, they are empaths (which I wasn't aware of), or at last touch telepaths (which I was aware of), then they could learn what you're feeling just by touching you. But they don't, which reinforces my thesis that they Don't Want To Know.
They do know, what one feels, by touching.
Kotik, on re-reading this post, I realize I was not very clear.
I didn't mean to say that Vulcans couldn't tell what you were feeling by touch (which is what it SOUNDED like I was saying). I was trying to say that even though they HAD that ability, they didn't use it (at least not in public). No shaking hands or casual touching. That's what I meant when I said "But they don't."
Touching seems to be a cultural taboo for Vulcans, which would make sense in a society of intensely private touch-telepaths who disdain outward displays of emotion. I think this supports my thesis that reading emotions from facial expressions is not likely to be a skill many Vulcans would possess. After all, the ideal is to show no emotion at all. The extent to which you can read my face is the extent to which I have fallen short of that ideal. (Not something you'd point out in polite society...)