Richard's Index Updates

Re-Vision
As often happens, my creative efforts haven't gone in the direction I planned. A lot of the stuff I was planning for ETIA has gone off and invaded another story.

"The Ultimate Marty Stu, Take 2" will be about The Project, which is a small group of mad-scientist types trying to save and/or take over the world. (It gets hard to tell which, at times. If there's even a difference...) A lot of the concepts and themes I was originally planning to deal with in the ETIA stories will be treated in the new story, instead. The new story is about Transhumanism and the choices Humanity faces when it's possible to become more than human. It's about the Singularity and what happens after. It's about a small group of people taking it upon themselves to play God, and getting rather good at it, actually...

I've been working on the new story for several weeks, and it's going pretty well. At this point I find it easier to write than the ETIA stuff. I will begin posting my efforts in a few days.

I also think the ETIA material will be much improved by removing some of the extraneous themes to the other story. ETIA will be focused more tightly on the theme of Humanity having to live in the shadow of an advanced alien civilization.

In other news, the Watchmen fanfic I mentioned a while back is nearly complete. I'll be posting it in the next day or so. Just so nobody's disappointed, I'll point out now that it doesn't have any sex in it. It just builds on a couple of philosophical points from the original graphic novel.

Copyright © 2009 by Richard C. McCluney, III

Grand Unified Field Theory
Alien science from the Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence Agency setting. The Grand Unified Field Theory unifies the four naturally-occurring forces into a single force, the Unified Field. This force can be applied in ways that don't occur naturally. Basically, it allows minor, localized changes to the laws of physics to produce the desired forces.

( Sufficiently advanced technology behind the cut... )

Copyright © 2009 by Richard C. McCluney, III

Things to Come
Topics I'll be covering in the near future. Except for the Watchmen fanfic, all this is background for the Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence Agency setting.

Information Physics
The aliens' science unites physics with information theory, with some unexpected results. Subjects long treated as part of metaphysics by Earth philosophers become problems of actual physics. [Note: the theories listed below were given their English names by Dr. Benny Honjo, who is not a very serious person at all. Unfortunately, Dr. Honjo was the first person to publish a paper on these theories in the English language, so his names stuck.]

( Things Mankind may not be meant to know behind the cut... )

Copyright © 2009 by Richard C. McCluney, III

Meta^nFiction
There was a guy[1] who was writing a story. The story was about a guy[2] who realized there might be a secret conspiracy in existence. The guy[2] had no real evidence for the existence of a secret conspiracy. But, by putting together bits and pieces from here and there, the guy[2] thought he detected a pattern which could be interpreted as indicating the possible existence of such a conspiracy. The pattern also indicated some of the things the putative conspiracy might be planning to do. Really terrible things.

( More metafiction behind the cut... )
===
MetaⁿFiction 4/4

Copyright © 2009 by Richard C. McCluney, III

How to tell if you're a character in a Story
One way to tell you're a character in a Story is:
If you're trying to write fiction, and it keeps happening for real, then you are most likely a character in a Story. That kind of crap only happens in Stories.

Also note that the fact you're in a Story doesn't guarantee that it's a particularly good Story, or that you'll enjoy it.
===
MetaⁿFiction 3/4

Copyright © 2009 by Richard C. McCluney, III

Word of advice
If you see something that looks like a vicious, snarling tiger, and you're wondering if it's real or not, bopping on the nose is not a good way to find out.

Take it from someone who's been there and almost done that.
===
MetaⁿFiction 2/4

Copyright © 2009 by Richard C. McCluney, III

Just saying
Censorship is one thing. Censorship can be fought. But altering reality to make sure certain things won't get written just isn't fair.

I'm just saying.
===
MetaⁿFiction 1/4

Copyright © 2009 by Richard C. McCluney, III

Experiment: Metafiction
Over the next four days, I'm going to be posting sort of a metafictional experiment. The timing is part of the experiment. The working title is MetaⁿFiction. It has another title, which is hidden on this very page. It's somewhat inconspicuous, but if you have me in your Friends list, you see it every time I post.

In other news, I've decided to overhaul the Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence Agency material, as the First Contact story is getting bogged down in exposition. After the metafiction experiment, I'll be posting background information on the setting, as a kind of extension of the experiment. Then it looks like a Watchmen fanfic which is sort of relevant to the metafiction theme.

After that, I may be posting some information on Alternate Infinite Worlds, an alternate setting for GURPS Infinite Worlds. It depends on how much of that gets ready before the ETIA stuff does.

And then eventually I'll get back to ETIA. I'm going to move the time frame forward a bit. The aliens have had time to settle in, treaties and contracts have been signed, the humans are adjusting to the idea that they now live in the shadow of a vast and powerful Galactic civilization, and the ETIA is up and running publicly. The stories will be centered around cases the Agents are investigating. It'll be kind of like a mix of X-Files and Stargate SG-1, only set in a world where the aliens are publicly interacting with humans on a daily basis.

Copyright © 2009 by Richard C. McCluney, III

All Galactic industrial base are belong to us
"Does anyone have any relevant questions?" said Vruf.

"Can you elaborate on the reason why the Earth wasn't accepted to join the Galactic Economic Community?" said Charles.

"The short answer is, competing effectively in the Galactic economy, requires a form of rational cogitation that humans perform very poorly," said Vruf.

"What?"

"You're too stupid to compete with us," said Vruf.

Them's fightin' words, thought Charles. Vruf looked amused.

"If the galaxy is full of intelligent life, why haven't we seen any sign of it until now?" said Rex.

"Oh, but you have," said Vruf. "You know how the view of the galactic core from here is obscured by immense clouds of gas and dust?"

"Yes," said Rex.

"That's industrial pollution," said Vruf.

Charles quickly calculated the size of the industrial base needed to produce that much pollution, and boggled.

"Yes, Charles," said Vruf. "Imagine a factory the size of the Solar system, using stars for raw material. Imagine millions of such factories. That is what you hope to compete with. I also invite you to imagine what would happen if the people you've been letting run your economy were running those factories. We don't have to imagine it. We can simulate it. And the simulations show it would be a disaster of supernova proportions. No, that's not hyperbole. I'm talking about actual stars actually blowing up."

"Isn't it obvious that that's just an excuse to keep us in second-class status so you can exploit us economically?" said Janet.

"Yes, it is," said Vruf.

"Is what?"

"Obvious," said Vruf.

"What is?"

Vruf rolled his eyes. "That that's an excuse to keep you in second-class status so you can be exploited economically."

"Ah, ha!" said Janet.

"No, no, you're supposed to give a knee-jerk categorical denial," said Charles, trying to be helpful.

"It would be hypercritical of me to attempt to deceive you," said Vruf. "Deceiving pre-rationals is easy enough, but it's considered a form of abuse. However, to answer Miss Vondeau's concerns, the Galactic economy is founded on the fair exchange of value for value. You could say the Threans will be exploiting Humanity in the sense that they will be earning a profit on their dealings with you. But, if they fail to give equal or greater value in return, they will void the contract that allows them to do business on Earth."

"Sure, they'd say that, but who enforces it?" said Janet.

"This is why Galactic society is a transparent society," said Vruf. "There are no secrets. Everybody watches everybody else, all the time. Nobody ever gets away with anything. If the Threans fail to deal with you fairly, there will be dozens of groups calling them on it, because if the Threans lose the contract, then someone else will get it. They will have to make sure you are compensated very well indeed for you work."

"We'll see," said Janet.

"If you choose not to remain obdurately blind, then you will," said Vruf.

===
Notes:
The aliens use "galactic" with a small 'g' to refer to the physical properties of the galaxy, and "Galactic" with a capital 'G' to refer to galactic society. "Solar system" always refers to the system we live in. "Solar" refers to our sun, which is named "Sol." The generic term for a gravitationally-bound system of stars and planets is "star system."

Copyright © 2009 by Richard C. McCluney, III

Pressing issues
"Okay," said Vruf. "You already know the basics. M'Traan clan is a major interstellar carrier in this sub-sector. We have several reasons for setting up business in the Solar system. The one you're probably the most interested in is making space travel available to Humanity. So, are there any questions?"

"Yes. Was it your mother or father who was a human?" said Ray. Jerry chuckled silently. Janet put her hands over her eyes.

"Neither," said Vruf evenly. "What you suggest is genetically impossible."

"You're the right color, but you don't look like an alien," said Ray. "You're obviously some sort of half-human hybrid."

"By 'alien' I think you mean the Mantras," said Vruf. The wall behind him lit up, then displayed a picture of several stereotypical sci-fi aliens, the short gray ones with huge black eyes, with a flying saucer parked behind them. "Are those the ones you mean?" said Vruf, waving at the picture.

"Yeah, that's them," said Ray. "They probably abducted your mother from Earth."

"That's unlikely," said Vruf. "There has been some bootleg human genetic material circulating around the galaxy, but I'm sure I don't have any. We're biochemically incompatible."

"So you admit that aliens have been abducting humans?" said Ray.

"The Threans are investigating reports of poaching," said Vruf. "Results are inclusive so far."

"Poaching?" said Charles.

"Hunting humans without a license," said Vruf.

"You can get a license to hunt humans?" said Jerry.

"No, you can't," said Vruf. "The Threans didn't think you'd like that."

"We wouldn't!" said Jerry.

"But, don't you see the problem?" said Vruf. "That just creates an unmet demand. And where there's a demand, sooner or later there's a supply."

===
Notes:
The word sector often comes up in galactic cartography, at least as depicted in science fiction. As

dmmaus points out in the note for this Irregular Webcomic, it's not actually that useful, taken literally.

The Galactic Economic Community divides the galaxy into 24 sectors, each of which is about 1000 parsecs wide at the Sun's distance from the core. Each of these pie-wedge-shaped sectors is further divided into sub-sectors about 1000 parsecs across, measured outward from the core. These extend above and below the galactic plane as far as anything interesting is found.

A couple of points I decided not to have the characters discuss in this entry:
* There are tens of thousands of species in the Galactic Economic Community.
* The main use for human genetic material in the GEC is producing novelty food items.

Copyright © 2009 by Richard C. McCluney, III

Thoughts on what I'm doing here
Okay, I seem to be publishing a fair-sized science fiction novel, a few hundred words at a time. I've spent some time thinking about whether all the elements in the previous fragment are important to the story. It seems to me that they are.
* The fact that Grimman buildings are built like bomb bunkers is significant -- the Operatives (who by then will be Agents employed by the Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence Agency) will directly experience the reasons for this in a few story days, when they visit the artificial 'just like home' environment on the Ring. There's a reason why the Grimmans have several hundred points of GURPS Advantages.
* The Grimmans' paradoxical blasé-yet-paranoid attitude toward humans carrying weapons around their spaceports is an important plot point. The Grimmans are used to living with danger. Their attitude toward danger, including that posed by other sapient beings, is mostly reactionary.
* The fact that all alien artifacts (including buildings) have AIs built into them is significant. The Agents will be investigating cases in which random alien artifacts are important witnesses.
* The fact that the building interior is a poor copy of a human building is symbolic. What the aliens know about the humans is mainly what they've seen on our TV broadcasts, and the aliens don't understand those as well as they think they do, as shown by the microphone mistake.
* The fact that Grimmans can see most of the electromagnetic spectrum is significant. It frequently comes up in the story, often in odd ways. For instance, the Grimmans will be starting an Internal Combustion Club because human-built cars look a lot cooler to them than they do to us. (Try to imagine what a car would look like if you could see heat/infrared light and could directly perceive electrical phenomena like spark plugs sparking. Talk about Power Glows....)

Copyright © 2009 by Richard C. McCluney, III

Overbuilt
After about an hour, the Laboratory for Human Studies was complete. The humans, including Charles, Rex, Jerry, Janet, and Ray followed Vruf inside. Virl brought up the rear, acting casual, which made the Operatives suspicious. He was probably just baby-sitting their weapons. Given that the armed humans were allowed to bring them to the press conference, the operatives guessed the Grimmans had some way to stop them from being used.

"The building is not as empty as it appears," said Vruf, apparently just making conversation. "It's full of Artificial Intelligences loyal to us, built into the structure." The Operatives took this as a warning.

Charles, trained in civil engineering, noted that the outer walls of the building were three feet thick, made of what appeared to be artificial stone. The windows were six inches thick, made of some diamond-like substance.

"Probably overbuilt for this planet," said Vruf. "The building, I mean. Where I come from, the glass huts you humans live in wouldn't last a day. Large structures have to be built even sturdier than we are. 'Large structures' being anything bigger than a...tool shed, say."

The interior of the building looked like it had been copied from a human-built commercial building, but it wasn't a very good copy. For instance, Charles spotted a light switch on the wall, but when he tried it, it proved to be just a decoration. The switch wouldn't even move.

"We can adjust the lighting level and wavelength if it's not suitable," said Vruf. "This is what we understand is most comfortable for humans."

"It's fine for us," said Charles. "How about you?"

"I can see most of the electromagnetic spectrum, so I'm fine," said Vruf. "Right now I'm trying to focus my vision on that little band between ultraviolet and infrared that humans use. You call it 'visible light' because it's all you can see. We don't even have a name for it because we hardly ever bother with it. Anyway, I'm trying to see things the way you see them. You're missing a lot."

Vruf led them in to a conference room that had chairs arranged around a podium. The podium was human-sized -- Vruf had to climb up on a box (already placed there for him) to see over it. There were a number of microphones arranged on top of the podium.

"Whose microphones are those?" said Janet.

Vruf looked at them. "Oh, is that what they're supposed to be?" he said. "We thought they were phallic sculptures that indicated the power of the speaker."

Several people said "What?" and others laughed nervously.

"You must be pretty powerful, then," said Jerry.

"Me, personally? No, not at all," said Vruf. "But I'm speaking on behalf of m'Traan clan, which currently adds twelve times more value to the Galactic economy than Earth does. They figured they were entitled to a few microphones."
===
Notes: The notes ran long. I'll post them tomorrow.

Copyright © 2009 by Richard C. McCluney, III

Notes
I meant to post yesterday:

Grimmans stationed on Earth have had diurnal cycles adjusted to Earth's 24-hour day, and have localized their timekeeping system to match. They divide the day into twelve intervals, starting with Zero halfway between local midnight and noon.

There is a Galaxy-wide timekeeping system called Galactic Data Net Time [GDNT]. It counts the number of Planck time units that have passed since the Big Bang. GDNT is used internally on the Galactic Datanet, and for hyperspace navigation. However, most biological sapients find GDNT to be unwieldy for keeping track of their daily routines, so they use other systems. The Galactic Data Net easily and transparently translates between these different timekeeping systems.

Copyright © 2009 by Richard C. McCluney, III

Return to a Changing World
I'm never going to make it all the way back to town with this, thought Ginger as she walked out the front gate of the spaceport. The huge backpack she'd volunteered to carry was weighing her down. Her legs were already getting tired. Then, as soon as she'd thought that, the backpack became much lighter. She straightened up suddenly, almost falling over backward. She heard Bav snicker behind her.

There were now hundreds of humans hanging around in the grassy field outside the gate. The ones nearest to the gate started pointing in Ginger's direction and yelling incoherently. They began backing away from the gate. A few broke and ran.

Ginger turned around and saw a couple dozen monsters coming up behind her. There were two different types. One type resembled six-armed octopuses, maybe two feet tall at the top of the head and six feet across the splayed tentacles. They crawled along on their tentacles, rotating slowly as they went. The rotation revealed that each had six glassy eyes spaced evenly around its head.

The other type were squat, barrel-like creatures, each stumping along on a pair of stubby, clawed legs. Each had a huge, fanged grin on the front of its eyeless, domelike head. The heads appeared to be hollow. You could see, through the mouths, that each had second large, toothy grin on the other side of its head.

"Do not be alarmed!" bellowed one of the gate guards in a surprisingly loud voice. "Those are just our cleaning robots! They're here to clean up the mess you humans made!"

Ginger saw there was a lot of trash in the field already, mostly fast food wrappers. "I can't believe they just threw their trash on the ground!" said Bav. "Don't they know they're being recorded? Anyone on the Data Net could see them acting Entropically."

"I don't think they do know they're being recorded," said Ginger.

Ginger moved out of the way of the robots. "Watch out for the construction," Bav said. Ginger saw that the ground near the gate was steaming. "Should be the last time we have to use the...nizmolz...the...on-site melting? The big cell-tech factories should be coming online soon, and we'll have pre-fab...."

The robots exited the gate and began moving among the humans. The humans were still nervous about the robots, shying away when they got too near. Ginger didn't blame them. The robots were pretty weird-looking. She wondered what sort of impression the humans were making on the aliens watching them through the Data Net. She suspected it wasn't a very good one.

The barrel-shaped robots took up positions scattered around the field, then dug their claws into the ground as if they intended to stay put for a while. A trickle of silvery ooze flowed out of the mouth of the nearest one and spread across its chest. As it flowed, it left the words PLEASE RECYCLE etched into the surface, along with a recycling symbol. The others barrel-robots were being similarly marked.

The octopoid robots whirled around on the ground, each sweeping up trash and apparently eating it with a mouth located on its underside. Larger pieces of trash were placed in the mouths of the recycling-bin robots. As they cleaned, the robots explained to the humans that housekeeping services were not free, and that the accounts of those who had been observed littering were being charged for the cleanup. Ginger wondered what kind of 'accounts' they were talking about.

Benny, Mal, and Justin, having had to wait for the robots to pass, caught up with Ginger and Bav. "You doing okay with that backpack?" said Mal.

"I'm doing just fine," said Ginger. She adjusted it on her back, showing how light it was now. She suspected Bav had activated one of the devices inside, which was carrying most of the weight. "Let's go," she said.

"Farewell, humans," said Bav. "I've enjoyed meeting you. If you return and need escort, feel free to ask for me. My shift is from zero to four. Uh, that's six a.m. to two p.m. on your clock." He held his hand out. When the others hesitated, he said, "Um, you shake hands, right?"

They each shook hands with Bav, then headed back toward Bayerville.

Copyright © 2009 by Richard C. McCluney, III

Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For
"What happened?" said Charles.

"I don't know. I didn't understand a word of it," said Janet.

"You mean like, even though it's in English, it's still a bunch of gobbledygook?" said Rex, still wearing his helmet and looking frustrated.

"We stand upon Tiderush Point at the Solstice, and, subtending the angle between the heaving sea and the noon sun, we show that angular momentum is conserved!" said Virl in a sing-song voice. He'd been talking to himself like this for some time, gradually getting better at controlling his English-speaking voice.

"Yeah, like that," said Janet.

"That's because we don't understand the cultural context yet," said Ronnie, who'd just arrived with Mal, Benny, Ginger, and Justin, accompanied by a Grimman security guard whose name the humans had all already forgotten.

"Don't talk to me about context," said Janet.

Ronnie embraced Rex and kissed him on the cheek. Rex returned the embrace and kissed her on the lips. Janet watched the exchange with interest.

"What's that?" said Rex to Benny. Benny and Mal were holding what appeared to be a large backpack. Both of them were using both arms to hold it, straining as if it were quite heavy.

"Oh, just a few things we found lying around," said Benny, glancing at Virl and Vruf. Neither appeared to be concerned. "Looks like you picked up some loot, too," he added.

"An 'induction helmet,'" said Rex. "Gives you access to the aliens' computer network. I can't make heads or tails of it, though." He took the helmet off and plunked it on Ronnie's head. "Here, you figure out the 'cultural context' for us."

"Oooh," said Ronnie, her eyes widening.

"That's just the calibration program," said Rex. "It'll be over in a minute. Then you'll meet Thelma. She's a real female canine."

"Is that what yours looks like?" said Charles, putting his helmet back on. "Mine looks like Kali."

"Benny, can we go?" said Mal, struggling with his end of the backpack.

"Oh, for heaven's sake," said Ginger. She grabbed the backpack from Mal and Benny. Looking surprised, she nearly dropped it, but she shifted her grip and got it under control. With some effort, she hefted it onto her back. Bent over like a hunchback, she started forward unsteadily. "Okay, let's go," she said, failing to keep the strain out of her voice.

"We're going to help Professor Honjo get this stuff back to the university," said Justin, holding a smaller bag with some bluish-green stains on it. "Are you guys coming?"

Rex and Charles glanced at Jerry. Normally, covering the press conference would be Jerry's job. The others would have given Jerry a list of the questions that needed to be asked. However, that required more privacy than a spaceport full of alien telepaths could provide. Charles said, "Vruf here is holding a press conference in...."

"About ten minutes," said Vruf. "The Laboratory for Human Studies has almost cooled off enough to be safe for you."

"We need to ask him some questions," said Rex.

"Okay, see you later," said Justin. "Ronnie?"

"I think I'll wonder around here a while longer," said Ronnie. "This helmet really gives you a different perspective on things."
===
Notes:
The security guard whose name the humans can't remember is Bav. Yeah. I totally didn't have the read through the archives to figure that out. It's only been a year or so since I last wrote about him.

I was going to detail what Benny and Mal found while breaking into the Grimman buildings, but decided you didn't need to know that yet. I know it doesn't look like it, but I'm really trying to keep the exposition down to the minimum necessary at this point in the story, so I can hurry up and get to the part where people start shooting each other.

Jerry was supposed to get a line here, but it was just a bad pun about collies, so I figured I'd spare you that, too.

Copyright © 2009 by Richard C. McCluney, III

Current Music: U2, "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For"

Macrosocial Engineering
Helma put her hand up, palm forward, and the voices stopped. "Sorry to have distressed you," she said. "The human interface is a work in progress."

"What were they talking about?" said Janet.

"Contextual calculus," said Helma. "A mathematical technique for mapping different cognitive frames of reference onto one other. It's very important for interspecies communication and memetic engineering."

"What kind of engineering?" said Janet.

"Memetic engineering," said Helma. "It's like humans' use of advertising or propaganda, only a lot more formal and mathematical. It allows you to calculate how to perform cognitive transforms on your audience. How to get them to change their minds."

"Sounds complicated," said Janet. "I think I prefer the old-fashioned ways. They work fine for me."

"Yes, rhetoric and such work on humans," said Helma, "but the truly rational species of the galaxy have evolved a high resistance to those techniques. That's why all the rigmarole is necessary."

"So was that The Thing Mankind Was Not Meant to Know?" said Janet.

"Only a small aspect of it," said Helma. She glanced around at the glowing mosaics that surrounded them. "It might be easier if I give you an abstract of the discussion."

"Okay," said Janet.

"I ask you to recall the warning you were given earlier...," said Helma.

Janet waved her hand impatiently.

"You're a tool," said Helma.

"Excuse me?" said Janet hotly.

"I apologize," said Helma. "I see that in your language that could be taken as a crude insult. I did not mean it in that sense. I mean, it is suspected that others are using your role as a news reporter for their own ends."

"Who?" said Janet.

"The scope of the suspected amateur social engineering effort is uncertain," said Helma. "At a minimum, it involves your employers. At higher levels, it may involve the owners of the company you all work for, and perhaps the socio-economic class they belong to."

"And how is my work helping them?" said Janet. She didn't like being reminded that she worked for the kind of people she liked to criticize on TV.

"You work for the kind of people you like to criticize on TV," said Helma. "The wealthy, the large corporations. Your news channel belongs to a large media corporation, and makes money by selling advertising slots to other large corporations. And yet your constant criticism of the people who run these corporations doesn't seem to bother them."

"I get good ratings," said Janet.

"Yes, you do," said Helma. "But many of the people who tune in to watch you disagree with what you say. Many see you as a 'bleeding-heart liberal.' And many think that what a 'bleeding-heart liberal' says cannot be true. Thus, by constantly criticizing the wealthy, you're actually making them look better in the eyes of many people. We believe this state of affairs is not accidental."

"This sounds like some kind of paranoid conspiracy theory," said Janet.

"That's essentially what it is," said Helma.

"I don't have to take this!" said Janet. She tore the helmet off her head. Helma and the glowing, cathedral-like discussion group vanished. Janet thrust the helmet at Charles. "Here, I'm quite done with this!" she said.
---
Before logging out of the discussion group, Helma added a message-tile of her own to the tail end of the discussion. "Stage one complete," it said.

Copyright © 2009 by Richard C. McCluney, III

Out of Context
"So, I understand you've been recording our TV broadcasts," said Janet.

Helma blinked. "Your collective pronouns are rather vague," she said. "If you mean Galactic society in general, then yes. It's mainly been Threa-Light-Xenology recording Earth broadcasts, but a few assorted others have been checking their work."

"So...have people out there in the Galaxy been talking about me?" said Janet.

"Let's see...yes, there's a discussion group devoted specifically to your work," said Helma. "Accessing.... Oops!"

"WARNING!" said a scary, male voice. "The People for the Ethical Treatment of Pre-Rational Sapients have determined that the information you are attempting to access may constitute a Thing Humanity Was Not Meant to Know. This information may be hazardous to your mental or social health. If you wish to continue, you must acknowledge that you have heard and understood this warning. Note that by doing so, you are assuming full responsibility for any costs to yourself, or to others affected by your actions, that may result from accessing this information.

"Please respond:
"[I acknowledge the warning] or [Cancel access request]"

"Well, isn't that melodramatic," said Janet. "I acknowledge the warning."

"We apologize for the melodrama," said the male voice. "It is required by Galactic liability protocols."

A translucent, cathedral-sized room opened up before Janet. Floor, walls, and ceiling were covered with what she at first took to be abstract mosaics. Inspecting the "tiles" more closely, she realized they were tiny pictures of beings. Many resembled the Threan who'd appeared on TV earlier. But there were many other species represented. Many weren't remotely human-looking. Some of them made Janet want to scream. She controlled herself.

When she stared too long at one of them, it started talking. "The subject displays no awareness of contextual calculus or, indeed, any context other than the default human improper context."

This in turn, triggered a cascade of responses. "We've already noted that humans haven't discovered contextual calculus yet." "Again, the improper context that is the default human mindset is ideal for the sort of amateur memetic engineering that humans haphazardly engage it." "Yes, you can prove or disprove anything, because the improper context is internally inconsistent." "There's no evidence that the subject is consciously engaged in any kind of memetic engineering." "Just an aspect of the typical higher-primate verbal pugilism." "Yes, a semantic carry-over of the body language inherited from earlier evolutionary stages." And on and on and on, until Janet was sure she would scream....
====
Notes:
The Threan Virtue commonly translated as "Light" has no exact equivalent in English. In this context, it means approximately "Wisdom" or "Enlightenment." In practice, the Bureau of Light does most of the scientific research and technological development for the Threan State.

"Social health" is an important concept in Galactic society. The science and art of Microsocial Engineering is dedicated to helping people keep their social relationships healthy.

Copyright © 2009 by Richard C. McCluney, III

Current Music: Tool, "Schism"

Everything Is Online and Watching You
"Am I being assigned to Charles or to you?" asked the creature, who appeared to be a translucent, oversized, six-armed female Grimman.

"Who are you?" said Janet. She looked around. No one else seemed to see the creature.

"I have chosen the name Helma Bavakakik e'Alstrom," said the creature.

"Okay," said Janet. "If you don't mind my asking, what are you?"

"I am the Artificial Intelligence resident in the induction helmet you're wearing," said Helma. "What you see is my representation in Augmented Reality. I can change it if that would make you more comfortable. Perhaps something more human-looking?"

"To answer your first question, I think I'm just borrowing the helmet from Charles," said Janet. "So why don't you just remain as you are." That ought to mess with lover-boy's head, she thought.

"Very well. Next, I need your security preferences for the period you'll be accessing the Galactic Data Net through me. I assume you're not planning to buy anything?" Helma gestured, and Janet found herself teetering on the brink of an infinite abyss filled with shimmering bubble-congeries, each whispering of incomprehensible delights that could be hers for a low, low price if she acted now.

"No thank you," said Janet quickly.

"Ad-blocking enabled," said Helma. The abyss, the congeries, and the whispering faded away. "Next, we have a claim by the Threans Upholding the Virtue of Light Through Xenology that humans have a psychological need to hide personal information from others. In order to communicate with you, I must use my induction field to read your conscious thoughts and feelings. I assume you want to keep this information confidential?"

"Certainly," said Janet. She briefly considered taking the helmet off. The idea that it was reading her mind was rather squicky. But if it was the only way to access the aliens' version of the Internet, she needed to keep it on. There was something she wanted to look up.

"I have to warn you that the other beings you'll be interacting with on the Data Net will be aware that you're hiding information from them," said Helma. "This will hurt your Credibility Rating. People will assume the fact you're hiding something means you have something to hide, and they won't trust you."

"Guilty until proven innocent?" said Janet.

"Unsafe until proven safe," said Helma.
===
Notes:
Yes, I'm back and posting now that the holidays and the Seasonal Affective Disorder are out of the way

Everything Is Online in Galactic society. However, the trope is somewhat subverted here, in that the Galactic's machines are not as easily hackable as is generally the case with this trope. Helma is no more susceptible to "hacking" than you are.

Maintaining a good Credibility Rating is vital in Galactic society. That's why "Credibility Rating" is Capitalized.

Copyright © 2008 by Richard C. McCluney, III

Current Music: Alan Parsons, "Some Other Time"

On the way to the gate
Like this, sent Pak. An image appeared before the virtual discussion group, showing the row of gnarl-tree saplings he'd seen, and on the wall behind them, a mural depicting what gnarl trees were supposed to look like.

The trees will cover it up, sent Giml, joining the discussion via telepathic relay from Zdrenplunkt Irtath, the ring-shaped space station that now encircled the Earth. Giml was the environmental engineer who'd designed the landscaping of the downports. His mental voice carried a tinge of irritation at Pak's implied criticism of his design. He modified the image to show what the gnarl trees would look like when mature. The mural was hidden behind them. On Earth, they'd get a lot larger than they normally did. A number of the discussion participants found this an interesting surprise.

You can still see the mural from the perimeter path, sent Pak. A display popped up showing the relevant section of the downport. There was a broad path between the trees and the wall, to allow the security guards to patrol the perimeter. The mural display shifted perspective, showing the view of someone standing in the path. The design of the mural shifted to give a trompe-l'oeil effect, making it look like the viewer was walking between two rows of gnarl trees, one row of trees properly gnarled, the others sadly straight and tall.

The whole point of putting gnarl trees on Earth is to show how differently they grow when not subjected to constant natural disasters, sent Giml, with more than a tinge of irritation at Pak's failure to "get it."

And the mural shows the difference even better, sent Pak.

More like hitting people in the face with it, sent Giml. The majority of the discussion participants thought the idea was clever, though, and Giml conceded that it wasn't totally awful. Idai m'Traan, the Zhendovali Downport infrastructure manager, noted their approval and gave Pak the go-ahead to paint the mural.

Pak, I asked you to help Chud with the humans at the front gate, sent Lennet.

Really, it's chaotic here, sent Chud. The humans don't know what they want and they're mad at us for not giving it to them.

Pak excused himself from the discussion group and joined the other security guards at the front gate.

===
Notes:
trompe-l'oeil

I found this on TV Tropes: If I Am Ever Head Of An Alien Monitoring Agency. I think the Operatives have most of it covered.

Copyright © 2008 by Richard C. McCluney, III

Enthalpism
I'm not entirely satisfied with this, but I've spent enough time messing with it for now. Consider it a work in progress.

"Enthalpism" is the aliens' basic philosophy, that motivates most of their actions. Elements:
* Key point: the universe has no intrinsic meaning of its own. It only acquires meaning through the actions of sapient beings.
* Enthalpy The aliens use the term in a broader sense, referring to the creation of order and things of cultural value. One should seek to create the maximum amount of Enthalpy for the minimum amount of Entropy. This produces a work ethic that is a strong driver of the aliens' economic activity.
* The aliens are skeptics and never assume they know the absolute truth. The use rational empiricism to derive workable approximations of how the universe works, and use these to develop their technology.
* Empirical, quantitative approach to what humans call the "soft sciences:" psychology, sociology, and economics. These are just as "hard" as physics to the aliens, though given the chaotic nature of the sapient mind, these sciences are probabilistic rather than deterministic.
* All branches of science are unified under a single system of reasoning. Ethics is considered a branch of economics, and esthetics is a branch of evolutionary biology. Hyperspace navigation involves such topics as Applied Solipsism (a method of dealing with relativistic weirdness) and Theodynamics (the study of "God" in physics). Metaphysics is a branch of physics.

Conflict with "humanism." The term is in quotes because I'm not sure what I'm thinking of is the same as philosophical Humanism. I'm thinking more of the values associated with Western (particularly American) Liberalism and beliefs associated with "New Age" philosophy and mysticism, and values espoused by pop-culture media.
* Noble savage NOT. Sapient beings in their "natural state" are not automatically moral. Generally, the strong dominate the weak. The same is true of Galactic society, but they claim to be a lot more civilized about it.
* Sapientist: sapient beings > non-sapient beings. Note that some of the aliens don't consider humans to be "fully sapient" because humans' reasoning skills are generally poor.
* "Nature" is not intrinsically good. The aliens do not believe in preserving natural environments for their own sake.
* No mind/body dualism. Thinking is a body function. Oddly, though, there is a belief that a record of one's mind persists in the Information Field after physical death, and that this record may continue to have subjective experience after death.
* Anti-hedonistic. The aliens question whether the human concept of "happiness" even has a meaningful referent. Seeking pleasure for its own sake is Entropic (bad). Anti-consumerist.

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Copyright © 2008 by Richard C. McCluney, III

Current Music: Tool "Lateralus"

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