"This particular form shouldn't work on me, if the decision is important enough to be worth thinking about for more than a few seconds.  I've been trained to ask how much I value things quantitatively, if it's at all important, instead of comparing one thing against another.  Possibly on an old-enough devil it wouldn't work even if the issue was trivial, say, and probably that's true about higher Keepers though I don't know at what rank the immunity would start."

"At higher levels of messing with people like this, there's - well, mostly, the techniques are secret, I expect, but it's known that one of them uses... what would you have here that's an equivalent phenomenon.  You'd have visual afterimages, at least, I expect?  If you look at a bright light, especially if it was dark before then, and then look away, you can see a smear of light where the - nerves that detect light, all fired, and used up some of their energy, and got tired, and now you can see something like darker-glowing spots in your vision where the brightness was."

"So if you're a Keeper, probably at least a mid-rank one, I assume, I don't think they'd teach this to a novice, you know about how to manipulate people's thoughts based on getting them to activate particular brain areas harder or more intensely and then you say something else that routes through the same brain area and it does a weird thing based on some of the nerves being tired, or other nerves around them adjusting, and so on.  We're allowed to know this is the general outline of how the technique would work, because it's incredibly hard to invent, you can't reinvent it just by knowing how it works."

"There are cautionary videos that everybody in Civilization gets to see wherein a Keeper talks to an unsuspecting subject, you can't hear or see what the Keeper is saying, but you can hear the person they're talking to, and the person they're talking to starts to agree to more and more ridiculous things and finally agrees to sell the Keeper all the clothes they're wearing for the equivalent of a copper piece."

"We get to see those videos so that we have some idea of what it would look like if a conspiracy successfully hid itself from Governance while developing advanced talk-control techniques outside of the Keeper system, and then tried to take over the world.  Which, I mean, to be clear, there are presumably other precautions in place to prevent.  But one of those precautions is, like, warning people about what that would look like?  This is a sort of thing we rehearse during the Annual Alien Invasion Rehearsal Festival, it's not literally just aliens, the theme varies by the year."

"This particular form shouldn't work on me, if the decision is important enough to be worth thinking about for more than a few seconds.  I've been trained to weigh how much I value things individually and quantitatively, if it's at all important, instead of comparing one thing against another.  Possibly on an old-enough devil it wouldn't work even if the issue was trivial, say, and probably that's true about higher Keepers though I don't know at what rank the immunity would start."

"At higher levels of messing with people like this, there's - well, mostly, the techniques are secret, I expect, but it's known that one of them uses... what would you have here that's an equivalent phenomenon.  You'd have visual afterimages, at least, I expect?  If you look at a bright light, especially if it was dark before then, and then look away, you can see a smear of light where the - nerves that detect light, all fired, and used up some of their energy, and got tired, and now you can see something like darker-glowing spots in your vision where the brightness was."

"So if you're a Keeper, probably at least a mid-rank one, I assume, I don't think they'd teach this to a novice, you know about how to manipulate people's thoughts based on getting them to activate particular brain areas harder or more intensely and then you say something else that routes through the same brain area and it does a weird thing based on some of the nerves being tired, or other nerves around them adjusting, and so on.  We're allowed to know this is the general outline of how the technique would work, because it's incredibly hard to invent, you can't reinvent it just by knowing how it works."

"There are cautionary videos that everybody in Civilization gets to see wherein a Keeper talks to an unsuspecting subject, you can't hear or see what the Keeper is saying, but you can hear the person they're talking to, and the person they're talking to starts to agree to more and more ridiculous things and finally agrees to sell the Keeper all the clothes they're wearing for the equivalent of a copper piece."

"We get to see those videos so that we have some idea of what it would look like if a conspiracy successfully hid itself from Governance while developing advanced talk-control techniques outside of the Keeper system, and then tried to take over the world.  Which, I mean, to be clear, there are presumably other precautions in place to prevent.  But one of those precautions is, like, warning people about what that would look like?  This is a sort of thing we rehearse during the Annual Alien Invasion Rehearsal Festival, it's not literally just aliens, the theme varies by the year."

"This particular form shouldn't work on me, if the decision is important enough to be worth thinking about for more than a few seconds.  I've been trained to weigh how much I value things individually and quantitatively, if it's at all important, instead of comparing one thing against another.  Possibly on an old-enough devil it wouldn't work even if the issue was trivial, say, and probably that's true about higher Keepers though I don't know at what rank the immunity would start."

"At higher levels of messing with people like this, there's - well, mostly, the techniques are secret, I expect, but it's known that one of them uses... what would you have here that's an equivalent phenomenon.  You'd have visual afterimages, at least, I expect?  If you look at a bright light, especially if it was dark before then, and then look away, you can see a smear of light where the - nerves that detect light, all fired, and used up some of their energy, and got tired, and now you can see something like darker-glowing spots in your vision where the brightness was."

"So if you're a sufficiently high-ranked Keeper, you know about how to manipulate people's thoughts based on getting them to activate particular brain areas harder or more intensely and then you say something else that routes through the same brain area and it does a weird thing based on some of the nerves being tired, or other nerves around them adjusting, and so on.  We're allowed to know this is the general outline of how the technique would work, because it's incredibly hard to invent, you can't reinvent it just by knowing how it works."

"There are cautionary videos that everybody in Civilization gets to see wherein a Keeper talks to an unsuspecting subject, you can't hear or see what the Keeper is saying, but you can hear the person they're talking to, and the person they're talking to starts to agree to more and more ridiculous things and finally agrees to sell the Keeper all the clothes they're wearing for the equivalent of a copper piece."

"We get to see those videos so that we have some idea of what it would look like if a conspiracy successfully hid itself from Governance while developing advanced talk-control techniques outside of the Keeper system, and then tried to take over the world.  Which, I mean, to be clear, there are presumably other precautions in place to prevent.  But one of those precautions is, like, warning people about what that would look like?  This is a sort of thing we rehearse during the Annual Alien Invasion Rehearsal Festival, it's not literally just aliens, the theme varies by the year."

"This particular form shouldn't work on me, if the decision is important enough to be worth thinking about for more than a few seconds.  I've been trained to weigh how much I value things individually and quantitatively, if it's at all important, instead of comparing one thing against another.  Possibly on an old-enough devil it wouldn't work even if the issue was trivial, say, and probably that's true about higher Keepers though I don't know at what rank the immunity would start."

"At higher levels of messing with people like this, there's - well, mostly, the techniques are secret, I expect, but it's known that one of them uses... what would you have here that's an equivalent phenomenon.  You'd have visual afterimages, at least, I expect?  If you look at a bright light, especially if it was dark before then, and then look away, you can see a smear of light where the - nerves that detect light, all fired, and used up some of their energy, and got tired, and now you can see something like darker-glowing spots in your vision where the brightness was."

"So if you're a sufficiently high-ranked Keeper, you know about how to manipulate people's thoughts based on getting them to activate particular brain areas harder or more intensely and then you say something else that routes through the same brain area and it does a weird thing based on some of the nerves being tired, or other nerves around them adjusting, and so on.  We're allowed to know this is the general outline of how the technique can work, because it's incredibly hard to engineer, you can't reinvent it just by knowing how it works and reading non-secret neuroscience."

"There are cautionary videos that everybody in Civilization gets to see wherein a Keeper talks to an unsuspecting subject, you can't hear or see what the Keeper is saying, but you can hear the person they're talking to, and the person they're talking to starts to agree to more and more ridiculous things and finally agrees to sell the Keeper all the clothes they're wearing for the equivalent of a copper piece."

"We get to see those videos so that we have some idea of what it would look like if a conspiracy successfully hid itself from Governance while developing advanced talk-control techniques outside of the Keeper system, and then tried to take over the world.  Which, I mean, to be clear, there are presumably other precautions in place to prevent.  But one of those precautions is, like, warning people about what that would look like?  This is a sort of thing we rehearse during the Annual Alien Invasion Rehearsal Festival, it's not literally just aliens, the theme varies by the year."

"This particular form shouldn't work on me, if the decision is important enough to be worth thinking about for more than a few seconds.  I've been trained to weigh how much I value things individually and quantitatively, if it's at all important, instead of comparing one thing against another.  Possibly on an old-enough devil it wouldn't work even if the issue was trivial, say, and probably that's true about higher Keepers though I don't know at what rank the immunity would start."

"At higher levels of messing with people like this, there's - well, mostly, the techniques are secret, I expect, but it's known that one of them uses... what would you have here that's an equivalent phenomenon.  You'd have visual afterimages, at least, I expect?  If you look at a bright light, especially if it was dark before then, and then look away, you can see a smear of light where the - nerves that detect light, all fired, and used up some of their energy, and got tired, and now you can see something like darker-glowing spots in your vision where the brightness was."

"So if you're a sufficiently high-ranked Keeper, you know about how to manipulate people's thoughts based on getting them to activate particular brain areas harder or more intensely and then you say something else that routes through the same brain area and it does a weird thing based on some of the nerves being tired, or other nerves around them adjusting to high activity.  We're allowed to know this is the general outline of how the technique can work, because it's incredibly hard to engineer, you can't reinvent it just by knowing how it works and reading non-secret neuroscience."

"There are cautionary videos that everybody in Civilization gets to see wherein a Keeper talks to an unsuspecting subject, you can't hear or see what the Keeper is saying, but you can hear the person they're talking to, and the person they're talking to starts to agree to more and more ridiculous things and finally agrees to sell the Keeper all the clothes they're wearing for the equivalent of a copper piece."

"We get to see those videos so that we have some idea of what it would look like if a conspiracy successfully hid itself from Governance while developing advanced talk-control techniques outside of the Keeper system, and then tried to take over the world.  Which, I mean, to be clear, there are presumably other precautions in place to prevent.  But one of those precautions is, like, warning people about what that would look like?  This is a sort of thing we rehearse during the Annual Alien Invasion Rehearsal Festival, it's not literally just aliens, the theme varies by the year."

"This particular form shouldn't work on me, if the decision is important enough to be worth thinking about for more than a few seconds.  Possibly on an old-enough devil it wouldn't work even if the issue was trivial, say, and probably that's true about higher Keepers though I don't know at what rank the immunity would start."

"At higher levels of messing with people like this, there's - well, mostly, the techniques are secret, I expect, but it's known that one of them uses... what would you have here that's an equivalent phenomenon.  You'd have visual afterimages, at least, I expect?  If you look at a bright light, especially if it was dark before then, and then look away, you can see a smear of light where the - nerves that detect light, all fired, and used up some of their energy, and got tired, and now you can see something like darker-glowing spots in your vision where the brightness was."

"So if you're a sufficiently high-ranked Keeper, you know about how to manipulate people's thoughts based on getting them to activate particular brain areas harder or more intensely and then you say something else that routes through the same brain area and it does a weird thing based on some of the nerves being tired, or other nerves around them adjusting to high activity.  We're allowed to know this is the general outline of how the technique can work, because it's incredibly hard to engineer, you can't reinvent it just by knowing how it works and reading non-secret neuroscience."

"There are cautionary videos that everybody in Civilization gets to see wherein a Keeper talks to an unsuspecting subject, you can't hear or see what the Keeper is saying, but you can hear the person they're talking to, and the person they're talking to starts to agree to more and more ridiculous things and finally agrees to sell the Keeper all the clothes they're wearing for the equivalent of a copper piece."

"We get to see those videos so that we have some idea of what it would look like if a conspiracy successfully hid itself from Governance while developing advanced talk-control techniques outside of the Keeper system, and then tried to take over the world.  Which, I mean, to be clear, there are presumably other precautions in place to prevent.  But one of those precautions is, like, warning people about what that would look like?  This is a sort of thing we rehearse during the Annual Alien Invasion Rehearsal Festival, it's not literally just aliens, the theme varies by the year."

"This particular form shouldn't work on me, if the decision is important enough to be worth thinking about for more than a few seconds.  Possibly on an old-enough devil it wouldn't work even if the issue was trivial, say, and probably that's true about higher Keepers though I don't know at what rank the immunity would start."

"At higher levels of messing with people like this, there's - well, mostly, the techniques are secret, I expect, but it's known that one of them uses... what would you have here that's an equivalent phenomenon.  You'd have visual afterimages, at least, I expect?  If you look at a bright light, especially if it was dark before then, and then look away, you can see a smear of light where the - nerves that detect light, all fired, and used up some of their energy, and got tired, and now you can see something like darker-glowing spots in your vision where the brightness was."

"So if you're a sufficiently high-ranked Keeper, you know about how to manipulate people's thoughts based on getting them to activate particular brain areas harder or more intensely and then you say something else that routes through the same brain area and it does a weird thing based on some of the nerves being tired, or other nerves around them adjusting to high activity.  We're allowed to know this is the general outline of how the technique can work, because it's incredibly hard to engineer, you can't reinvent it just by knowing how it works and reading non-secret neuroscience."

"There are cautionary videos that everybody in Civilization gets to see wherein a Keeper talks to an unsuspecting subject, you can't hear or see what the Keeper is saying, but you can hear the person they're talking to, and the person they're talking to starts to say occasionally more and more ridiculous things and finally agrees to sell the Keeper all the clothes they're wearing for the equivalent of a copper piece."

"We get to see those videos so that we have some idea of what it would look like if a conspiracy successfully hid itself from Governance while developing advanced talk-control techniques outside of the Keeper system, and then tried to take over the world.  Which, I mean, to be clear, there are presumably other precautions in place to prevent.  But one of those precautions is, like, warning people about what that would look like?  This is a sort of thing we rehearse during the Annual Alien Invasion Rehearsal Festival, it's not literally just aliens, the theme varies by the year."

"This particular form shouldn't work on me, if the decision is important enough to be worth thinking about for more than a few seconds.  Possibly on an old-enough devil it wouldn't work even if the issue was trivial, say, and probably that's true about higher Keepers though I don't know at what rank the immunity would start."

"At higher levels of messing with people like this, there's - well, mostly, the techniques are secret, I expect, but it's known that one of them uses... what would you have here that's an equivalent phenomenon.  You'd have visual afterimages, at least, I expect?  If you look at a bright light, especially if it was dark before then, and then look away, you can see a smear of light where the - nerves that detect light, all fired, and used up some of their energy, and got tired, and now you can see something like darker-glowing spots in your vision where the brightness was."

"So if you're a sufficiently high-ranked Keeper, you know about how to manipulate people's thoughts based on getting them to activate particular brain areas harder or more intensely and then you say something else that routes through the same brain area and it does a weird thing based on some of the nerves being tired, or other nerves around them adjusting to high activity.  We're allowed to know this is the general outline of how the technique can work, because it's incredibly hard to engineer, you can't reinvent it just by knowing how it works and reading non-secret neuroscience."

"There are cautionary videos that everybody in Civilization gets to see wherein a Keeper talks to an unsuspecting subject, you can't hear or see what the Keeper is saying, but you can hear the person they're talking to, and the person they're talking to starts to say occasionally more and more ridiculous things and finally agrees to sell the Keeper all the clothes they're wearing for the equivalent of a copper piece."

"We get to see those videos so that we have some idea of what it would look like if a conspiracy successfully hid itself from Governance while developing advanced talk-control techniques outside of the Keeper system, and then tried to take over the world.  Which, I mean, to be clear, there are presumably other precautions in place to prevent.  But one of those precautions is, like, warning people about what that could look like?  This is a sort of thing we rehearse during the Annual Alien Invasion Rehearsal Festival, it's not literally just aliens, the theme varies by the year."