Latest blog post: Redraw of chapter 1 is happening (2024-05-11)
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Comments (11)
That applies to more than just first encounters.
aaaaaand title drop!
Shuru might not get a promotion after this, but she might just get her master's in philosophy.
... ah, it seems that I'm "spamming" again ...
The system autoflags any comment with a link, sorry about that.
The funny thing is, if the comment section's editor didn't have a button to insert hyperlinks (properly), I wouldn't even know what syntax to use for that.
(Lesson learnt today: When this comments system tells you that you're not allowed to post that soon after your last post, after waiting a suitably long time, reload the page and check for replies (in this case, from the mod), rather than blindly hitting the "post" button. )
... or not. Sorry for the actual spamming ...
Hm. If it's supposedly up to us to decide, you might want to look at our historic records and how they gave rise to rulings quite similar to The Directives, if not enforced as universally ...
Her argument feels less secure here.
He asks if she'd be willing to take responsibility for humanity's fate and she tells him only humans can be responsible for how they react. While I can agree to a certain extent, the contact is still a two way event and while Gharr's blunder has obviously established first contact, there's nothing to stop Zane from refusing further contact and leaving. Zane is analysing and trying to determine how humans will react so if it's believed to be negative they can avoid causing a disaster.
Shuru then asks if they'd stand back and let humans take responsibility for their own fate if faced with an apocalypse crisis which Zane points out would give exceptions to the directive and allow them to act. This makes her dismiss the directives more as being pointless. However it makes perfectly reasonable sense to me. The entire point of the directives is to prevent potentially harmful contact with a species that might cause it significant harm due to cultural shock. But if an apocalyptic event is going to do that anyway, it makes perfect sense to have a clause that lets them step in since the species would already be in a dire situation.
Finally Shuru tells Zane they can't decide when a civilisation is or isn't ready "leave the cradle" before turning around and telling him they should help civilisations "leave the cradle" if they can. Which feels like its making the decision that all civilisations are ready to "leave the cradle" and they should facilitate it.
Honestly, Shuru's better argument here is the analysis she's done and assuring him that evidence suggests they'll withstand the culture shock. The similarities between their species' cultures should only assure him that such an analysis is likely correct. With that in mind, Zane should feel confident in determining that further contact can be made, and directives breached in light of the crisis he's facing, without significant threat of cultural shock. With that in mind his real question is HOW to establish contact.
Yeah, this isn't really a page of Shuru making her good arguments, or even being consistent.
Although, the plague thing does bring up a good point. The Alliance very definitely has technologies that can save lives every day compared to what we have now, and provide clean replacements for existing technologies that are actively degenerating our planet. Providing those creates ethical incentives for contacting us that outweigh any downside short of a major catastrophe.
Shuru only notes "Apocalyptic epidemic" rather than daily life saving or early prevention of possible environmental catastrophe. This likely means that only a "major catastrophe" allows for circumvention of the directives, something on the scale of what they fear contact could initiate, which (of course) would invalidate concerns over contact since they're already in a worst case scenario.
Its very likely they haven't conducted the tests and research necessary to understand where Earth is with regards to human caused climate change. Depending on their technology and what they find, they could decide that it's still within Earth's means to halt or reverse and play it safe to see if we do that. It's likely also a unique situation since they haven't found a race as advanced as humanity while not being quite advanced enough to possess cleaner energy sources, so probably not something they're even accustomed to looking for.
I honestly have few, if any, issues with Zane's approach so far. He's been misled to believe he's dealing with a more primitive race and put potential contact with them out of mind. Now he's suddenly discovered they're a race on the very cusp of space faring and some unknown degree of first contact may already have been made. He's now in the position of needing to make a decision on first contact that goes against the directives he's obliged to follow but is performing as much due diligence as he reasonably can with a time limit from the crash, using quantum to gather intel and determine technological levels and wisely dismissed the xenophobia as fiction thanks to his own knowledge of the Raheran history. He's using his sociologist in absence of the xenopsychologist, to analyse humanity and determine if contact could cause a serious breakdown of society or negative culture shock.
If I was to point out a potential problem with first contact, it would be the division of humanity into numerous nations as opposed to being a unified planet or society. Zane would need to understand that he won't be dealing with a world guiding or controlling council, but a range of different leaders with differing tech advances, cultures and objectives.
It's all great due diligence in a rushed timeframe. We as the reader likely understand humanity enough to believe it's the correct decision to make contact, but Zane needs to figure that out.
I'm not sure I agree with her overall. But In this specific case, they have a species already on the cusp of qualifying for interaction anyway, and one which has, inadvertently or not, already been contacted.
The fact that Nea (the Raharr soldier) has managed to communicate and cooperative with a government (that it is secret is irrelevant here) means that contact has technically already begun.
So in this specific case, I would argue that it is suitable to establish contact, probably quietly at first, and working with local governments to decide on how quickly or slowly this should be made public knowledge.
Good philosophy. Though, obviously, exceptions have to be made sometimes.
Roll Credits
Ah good, no later Star Trek Prime Directive fuckery here. Where "These people are pre-warp we can't help them from their apocalyptic doom!"
She said it, she said the thing!