Interplanetary travel via Shadesmar

[Belgarad]

From what I understand about the Cognitive Realm, it is a manifestation of the collective consciousness of all sentient(sapient?) life.  And that interplanetary travel is possible because civilizations do not yet comprehend the true scale of the cosmere. 

I'm not sure if we have seen a world, as of what Brando calls the "present" of the cosmere (which is Rhythm of War/The Lost Metal), that has studied astronomy to the extent where it is common knowledge that your sun is a big ball of nuclear fusion and all those stars you see at night are too plus that it can takes many years for that light to reach you travelling at the impossibly high speed that light does.  

So here is my question, would this becoming general knowledge cut a planet off from Worldhopping via Shadesmar?  If enough of the people on the planet understand the vastness of interplanetary scales would that subsequently isolate their Cognitive Realm from the others?

Thematically, I kind of like this inflection point as where a world in the cosmere shifts from "fantasy" to "sci-fi".  Where in the former interplanetary travel is done via a magical realm that is able to reduce the distance to something manageable and the latter it is done by spaceships using faster than light travel (albeit powered by magitek).

[Trusk'our he/him]

3 hours ago, Belgarad said:

From what I understand about the Cognitive Realm, it is a manifestation of the collective consciousness of all sentient(sapient?) life.  And that interplanetary travel is possible because civilizations do not yet comprehend the true scale of the cosmere. 

I'm not sure if we have seen a world, as of what Brando calls the "present" of the cosmere (which is Rhythm of War/The Lost Metal), that has studied astronomy to the extent where it is common knowledge that your sun is a big ball of nuclear fusion and all those stars you see at night are too plus that it can takes many years for that light to reach you travelling at the impossibly high speed that light does.  

So here is my question, would this becoming general knowledge cut a planet off from Worldhopping via Shadesmar?  If enough of the people on the planet understand the vastness of interplanetary scales would that subsequently isolate their Cognitive Realm from the others?

Thematically, I kind of like this inflection point as where a world in the cosmere shifts from "fantasy" to "sci-fi".  Where in the former interplanetary travel is done via a magical realm that is able to reduce the distance to something manageable and the latter it is done by spaceships using faster than light travel (albeit powered by magitek).

The human mind cannot truly comprehend the vastness of space, so there will be some expansion of the distances, but it won't ever be the same as what it is the physical Realm.

Quote

https://wob.coppermind.net/events/509/#e15979

Nico Bufasassa

If everyone in the Cosmere begins to understand that there is space travel, does that change the distance needed to travel around in Shadesmar considering it's made up of the beliefs of the people?

Brandon Sanderson

What's going to happen is it is going to make the travel distances longer. However, people cannot conceive the immensity of space. The amount different it's going to make it is not going to be so vast that it's insurmountable. It's not going to come one fractional piece of what the actual distance is.

@The Bookwyrm is also correct; without sentient beings actively thinking about or perceiving objects in the physical Realm, there are going to be large sections of the Cognitive Realm that don't have a large imprint on travel distance.

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https://wob.coppermind.net/events/87/#e5671

Questioner

So like as far as distance traveled in Shadesmar. So when Kelsier is in Shadesmar, he meets the Ire, who are presumably Elantrians. How far did he travel? Is that still within Scadrial's realm of the Cognitive Realm?

Brandon Sanderson

Yeah, that's within-- By the time he meets them he has slipped right to the edge of the Cognitive Realm on Scadrial and into, kind of, the darkness between planets. 

Questioner

Okay.

Brandon Sanderson

He's close enough that he can get there. But he's kind of suffused with Scadrian Investiture then, to a point that it would be harder--you saw in there--for him to get further. I would say that he's like... He has entered space between planets, but he's not out of the solar system.

Questioner

Okay, so he's still in the Scadrian system, just not--just edging a bit there.

Brandon Sanderson

Yeah, yep. That's what I'd say if I had to actually point him in that <a map>. It gets really fuzzy though, because it wouldn't be too much longer before he enters another solar system. Like, he would pass lightyears in steps as he starts getting further, if that makes any sense.

Questioner

That makes sense, because, I mean, with worldhopping in general it's like... You can only... I mean it's... I don't know how the time dilation works per se, but...

Brandon Sanderson

It's not-- there's not much time dilation. What you've got going on is... Things that people aren't around to think about, things without minds or any sort of life, don't manifest on Shadesmar very much at all. And so the space between planets gets really small, unless there's another planet out there with thinking beings or at least some sort of life on it. Like even lower lifeforms, you'll get something manifesting on Shadesmar. But yeah

Questioner

Okay. So the Cognitive Realm, in Shadesmar... It's kind of the... Any kind of sentient or cognitive life-- that's what is building Shadesmar? So like anything where there's blackness... is like... condensed or--

Brandon Sanderson

Yes, yes. Particularly if no one's thinking about it. If people are thinking about it - like, for instance, an island in the ocean that was scoured of all life and even bacteria would still manifest in Shadesmar on that planet because people are aware of it and things like this. But one on the other side of the planet, that no one ever knew about it, probably wouldn't.

Questioner

So that same island, if people just stopped thinking about it or like stopped being aware of its presence, would it...

Brandon Sanderson

It could slowly vanish, yes. And so-- But that's more of a thought experiment. You're never gonna have a planet that that happens to, you know cause-- but thought experiment wise, yes, that would eventually kind of get consumed by Shadesmar and vanish. The same thing would happen to a planet that you strip the atmosphere from--all the bacteria and life dies on it--you know, slowly going to vanish. But a moon will still manifest because people are thinking about it. It'll just not-- it won't-- it'll be hokey, it'll be weird--the moon will be. Like you might find a little patch that represents the moon. Something like that.

Questioner

That's interesting.

Brandon Sanderson

You're not gonna find the full landscape of the moon until people start visiting it. And it's gonna grow on Shadesmar.

 Hope that answers your question 

[The Bookwyrm he/him]

As far as I understand it, the reason that distance between planets in Shadesmar is so (relatively) tiny isn't because of the lack of perception of the true distance, but the fact that there isn't enough cognitive activity happening in the void between planets for that vast empty space to manifest in Shadesmar. So the perception of distance doesn't matter; it's how much people are thinking in the space between worlds, not necessarily about it.

But that's on my understanding alone. There may be other ways to look at it. Or I could be wrong.