From my recollection, this sort of thing is conveyed in Banks' novels. The minds (expecially ones attached to warships or General Systems Vehicles) can see the

From my recollection, this sort of thing is conveyed in Banks' novels. The minds (expecially ones attached to warships or General Systems Vehicles) can see the entire state of the local universe around them. It's as if we were looking at a flatland universe. They can see the thoughts forming in your head if they wish. But this of thing is mostly constrained by convention not ability. It is seen as the height of rudeness to do this rather than listen to someone speak. A Mind in one novel who does not abide by this rule is known as "Meatfucker" by the other minds. One of his books, Excession, contains lots of inter-mind conversations. They are presented in the book in a similar way to emails with headers. These include timestamps, and some are very fast (for a lot of text).