Empire 7 - Beautiful Daisy Bell (Event Thread)

[mystic1110]

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While industry and Isolates have come to Coresite, much of the region is still a barren watery void. A seabed of broken shells colored cobalt with flashes of silver and gold as far as a conscious mind might see, if one had a conscious mind. Forget about eyes, an eye might just see blue, but who cares about what eyes might see – we are not here to talk about eyes. What may look like simply broken shells to those with visual senses that merely max out at three hundred sixty degrees, to those of the higher breed of collective consciousness, those that Isolates may call Hiveminds, which, when viewed from multiple angles, multiplied by hundreds or thousands or millions or inputs, suddenly opens up a world of possibility among with blue and metallic patterns of the shells.

It is in this vista in which Deep Blue swims – not the barren expanse of cobalt nothing, but the world in which hiveminds see – full of logical possibility. The fish swim in coordinated patterns towards a specific coordinated location to wait upon the others that could navigate that labyrinth that is only visible to those with senses that could be exponentially multiplied. To an isolate with only one consciousness to draw upon, there would be nothing except fish floating in an empty spot of ocean, while Deep Blue and other hiveminds would see, if see is a word that may be used with such beings, a grand coral hall of blue, silver and gold – teeming with virtual life, that is life that could and may yet become part of its consciousness; the conclusion of predictable causality. And the so the memetic consciousness that lives within the patterns of the swimming Herring waits for its peers.

[Lumaeus]

The swarm that joins the herring-god in this fantastic place is familiar to all of the beings acquainted with communion; the Anointed Prophet of the Eternal Communion remain smaller since their miracle, but their gravitas is now something more than mere comportment. Something of the miraculous lingers within them, and the waters at their periphery grow ever so slightly more dense, as though acted upon by the trailing vestiges of wonder. This, of course, is not a pronounced effect, and it is only those who have the time, the intelligence, and most of all the breadth of senses reserved for higher beings who can perceive it.

The use of the Anointed Prophet as ambassador to both the Eternal Spring and to Deep Blue is now standard, but if any knew of the change in Riftling leadership, the fact that the origin cluster of the new Youngest came to treat would add even more weight to the proceedings, more sincerity to the Riftling delegation. Of course, events in the heart of the Dead Seas are witnessed by none, and so it is only the familiarity and importance of the Prophet that are seen.

Though their experiences in the lands of the occupying natives have taught them the isolate practice of "small talk," the Prophet eschew the convention, flowing into place and waiting for the final delegation.

[Epinephrine_Syn]

The first meeting of the hiveminds was in effect. They currently did not have a name for their meeting or group, but such labels meant different things to collectives. For now Violet had referred to it as the Collective Collaboration, and that would suffice until a more accurate name was found.

Or perhaps that would just suffice entirely. Putting a sticker on their meeting was a pretty low priority compared to what else they could spend time discussing.

The Medusa were an in between of hive mind and isolate, as much as any species could be. They could conjoin memories. They could segment them off. They often found it useful to segment memories off to do independent thought, and then reintegration into a whole. For one thing, such a process could allow for the observation of events or the study of science with a double blind experiment. See how different ones opinion might be with and without a given array of additional information.

And, very obviously, to send a heart to the delegation without moving their entire plant cluster there.

"Are we ready to proceed?"

A simple question, and right to the point. While other species often valued less direct tactics, all three of the participant species were very inclined to being direct with their methodology.

[mystic1110]

Directness was appreciated - if you could call it appreciation. Would the sinking rock appreciate a straight fall into the abyss? It was merely more efficient to go from point A to point B without stopping somewhere in the middle to discuss the latest tides. That is unless discussing the tides helped the rock to go quicker from point C to point D and getting to point D outweighed getting to point B. Sometimes efficiency means having to prioritize. Which is to say, that Deep Blue did not have any of these thoughts, because these thoughts were already thought and categorized in its epigenetic memory for quick recall - why think the same thing twice, just think it once and remember . . . but now to the task at hand, the narrator meanders more than they should be allowed and the Herring do not appreciate the delay . . .

Report: Beginning. Report: Observed Isolate gathering regarding collective race deemed "Shark People". Report: Isolates are prone to intense emotional states involving a strong uncomfortable and non-cooperative responses to a perceived provocations or threats. Report: result of such emotional states leads to disorganization and conflict among Isolates. Report: Wasteful. Report: Riftlings in communication with Isolates. Query: Opinion on Isolate behavior and its externalities.

[Lumaeus]

The Riftlings are possessed of all the necessary components for speech; how can a swarm of millions be incapable of generating sounds in the rough form of isolate language? However, among themselves, they hold no discussion and have no tongue. After all, it is much more direct to simply share an idea than to convert it into sonic approximations, praying that they pick up as few artifacts in the process of retranslation into thought as possible. Among these larvae, they simply integrate some of their number into other clusters. Among the Fathers, all thought is one, for in them the Eternal Communion is made perfect. The Riftlings use language as a diplomatic tool, but it is alien to their nature.

This is all to say that Deep Blue's creative circumvention of its own biological limits to produce language is in no way more alien or at all disturbing than any other speech to the Anointed Prophet, who give their report.

"The Diplomatic Ambassador of the Riftlings Many was in attendance at the Gravetenders' meeting, as was a delegation from the Eternal Spring. The Draigiau Residuum and the Shifting Ennead have been subject to increasing raids, violating their borders. To prevent additional interference, an agreement was reached to send a diplomatic mission from the Gravetenders representing all in attendance excepting the Draigiau, who refuse to work with the Ennead over the perceived slight of the murder of but one of their number. The mission seeks to demand a cessation of hostilities, backed by a military confederation headed by the Kar-Nath Hegemony. If the diplomats or the soldiers prevent the violation of our sovereignty, it will have been worth our word and the isolate soldiers we send to the conflict. For whom is this approach wasteful?

"As we have seen, The Draigiau are more concerned with correcting perceived wrongs than with joining protective collaboration. Their grudges are deep. The Ennead are creatures of whim, taking what they desire without much thought for the future--isolates having little future to speak of. The Seatide Confederacy's motivations are so far an enigma to us, and the Gravetenders are dedicated more to art and diplomacy than anything else. We suspect it is the loss of their masters that sees them turn so aimlessly altruistic. The Nathi are increasingly warlike, and have demanded free passage through our waters. We pray the Mother will seal that path, but until then, we live next to neighbors motivated more by expansion and less by their word than any of the others we have met. We have not ourselves treated with the Shark King."

[mystic1110]

Language is a structured system of communication. The most important word in that definition is, to an Isolate, communication - this is decidedly not the case for those that would be deemed a hivemind. The most important word in the definition of language for them would be: Structure. Language is always a feat of engineering and amazing coordination between muscles and nerves, bone and thought, but for a hivemind it is also a logistical issue, which reveals the truth to them that language may only be done under perfect order. Communication relies on Codification - each small part being exactly where it is meant to be. Sometimes a small part is meant to die, if the communication requires it.

Report: We have communicated with the Shark King and its people. Report: They are the same race as the Chora. Report: The People of the Chora and the People of the Shark share culture and history. Query: Opinion of the Chora.

There is a pause, then , despite a dry tone, another multifaceted intelligence would pick up the hues of curiosity in the proceeding sequence.

Report: We have understood the Shark King's desire for nourishment. We now provide such nourishment in exchange for influence. We may influence their actions. Query: Why do Isolates not repeat such action. Provide nourishment in exchange for sovereignty. Query: Importance of sovereignty.

[Epinephrine_Syn]

"While I agree with the overall opinion that the Draigu are overreacting, I would strongly caution against dismissing this as an isolate whim without underlying logic."

Communicating from the Medusa was more along the lines of a proper language than the others were. They had their own system of lights and stimulus to transfer information internally, more efficient than language, but linking that up would take time. Better to use a common language, as primitive as it was.

They also had far, far more experience in the game of 'competitive hivemindism' than the other members.

"Envoys are purpose-built to convey information between collectives. Cooperation is based on common goals mutually beneficial for all, but it can be far easier to sap resources from another collective than to come to agreement. If one can devour an envoy freely, they can extract information and resources from it without the other collective getting anything, along with several other sinister situation-dependent possibilities. There is a lot of potential for foul play, and a policy of controlled overreaction to foul play as a disincentive is not, at its root, illogical."


"Our opinions of the Chora and the Shark King are limited by our distance. We begin negotiations and profiteering from the Chora, but we do not yet know how those negotiations will happen. The Shark King we have had no interactions with, and would seek protection from. How did you obtain sovereignty over them? Our predicted result from an interaction with the Shark King would be them trying to harvest nourishment from our fields without recompense, so our best guess is you utilized some unknown-to-us capacity to negotiate or mollify them."

[Lumaeus]

Sovereignty is one of the central theses of Riftling worldview; the Prophet are prepared for this defense.

"All races have an origin and are proper to an environment. For many, this environment is a convoluted web of ecological algorithms and environmental variables that ultimately lead to a particular niche. These races are dependent upon outside factors for their survival and must negotiate only so far as allows them to maintain their place in their fragile system. We do not have this dependence. The Fathers are fed by the breath of the Great Mother, which gives only death to others. We Riftlings are birthed by the Fathers and are as such the only necessary swimming creatures in our seas. All other life is threat or interference. It is thus our right and our imperative to secure our seas from meddling. This has meant cleansing all life around our rifts that it might not endanger us.

"We demand no treachery of visitation within our waters, and we extend the same favor to others who ask it. The best spent resources are those unspent, and if none meddled outside of their own territories and niches, no foreigner would wrong a race. Yes, there are predators and prey, but they are proper to each other and thus inextricable. Few but the Riftlings Many and the Old Fathers have been loosed of those burdens.

"And beyond those arguments which even isolates can follow, we here know the inefficiency of isolates. If they held council or sway over our people, nothing would ever be accomplished."

[mystic1110]

The Herring hum, and even in this virtual world accessible to the hiveminds, it is unclear whether they speak seductively or with naivete - often the two are one and the same, from the mouths of fries . . .

Query: Consider Isolates are prone to violence, prone to inefficiency - two factors which lead to strong desires for distinction or preferment or the object of such desires of the individual instead of the collective. Consider, Isolates with sovereignty are prone to interfere with other sovereignties. Query: Consider cooperation between us in proactive control over Isolate economics, moral structures and power relations among individuals, in order to prevent predictable or possible incursions into our sovereignties.

[Lumaeus]

The Prophet see most things through the lens of the Eternal Communion at this point; not merely that its worldview is shaped by the nature of hivemind existence or the superiority of such beings to isolates, but also by the Eternal Communion as an organized religion. It had never been intended to be a faith, and the proselytization in the realms of the Eternal Spring and its economic permutations there are simply seen as philosophical developments. Once the isolates of the Seas-Not-Yet-Dead began to interpret the philosophy as religion, however, the Prophet began to use it as a tool to facilitate the Riftling reconquest. The true god of the Riftlings, the Great Mother, is private, but their religion is a tool to be used for control.

"Isolates are superstitious beings. They worship gods they cannot see and fear prophecies they cannot prove. They are so used to seeing things from only one perspective that they rely on assumption to fill in every other viewpoint--they operate by heuristic rather than thought. The Eternal Communion has been adopted as something salvific rather than descriptive, and we have found that simply allowing soteriological interpretations to arise is often enough to position those in the Communion as something like guiding spirits if not gods.

"We would be glad to bring this influence into these lands, letting the isolates do with it as they always do. They would doubtless see a god within your school. It would offer you a measure of protection, as well as the occasional boons inherent to a united populace. You would need only to allow and accept it to enjoy the benefits. Beyond that, if other great powers begin to view us as protectors or guides, we would be able to avoid conflict and control sentiments before they turn sour."

As the Prophet take a moment before changing subject, a skill gained from their years among the isolates, some thousands of their number begin a light humming.

"We denounce all alien influence in these waters. We decry the treachery of any incursion into our lands. We do not, however, condemn the Chora as we do the other interloping organizations. They are not like us, but we have heard their songs long enough to know that they are not mere isolates either. They live as isolates when individual, and they never achieve true communion. But together, when the Chora come in their numbers with their reefbacks, and when their songs rise and fall, intertwining beyond the speech of isolates, they are more than just isolates. A mere finstroke beyond the threshold, but they speak of songs serving in other places to unite isolates beyond what we have seen.

"We do not suggest the Chora are like us, but they are less unequal. There is something to be learned from them, and something to be feared. If they could teach isolates to achieve even their least communion, the salvation they desire to find in the faith could one day be something the Chora could offer. And that is something we would need to watch."

The humming only slowly fades.

[Epinephrine_Syn]

"Isolates form into collectives called nations, they clearly have some inherent understanding of the power such union provides, even if they cannot achieve it directly. To them, they would treat one of our number as we would treat an isolate, so we have found it useful to create a state to parley and barter with them in our name. The Eternal Spring as a nation-state governed by the Medusa already possesses economic control over isolate territories, and plans to continue acquiring more, as well as economic influence over nation-states. This influence is currently for its own sake, and as a safety net should isolate behavior turn unproductive or outright inhibitory to our needs. This is not entirely unlike the route the Eternal Communion has taken in acquiring influence over isolates."

There was much to ponder, and it took a little while for Violet to respond. Categorizing information, recalling data from memory banks. Lots of internal lights, little bits of boiling water around it, and in an instant, these processes stopped and Violet spoke once again.

"The information regarding the Chora is fascinating. This limb possesses neither the processing power nor the memory banks of the heart collective back at home, so an analysis we would call satisfactory will have to wait until this limb reunites and reintegrates its memories with the whole. Current analysis, we will invest more into the Chora, and update some number of hypothesis within our heart cluster."

A pause, very slight. "Obtaining a methodology of isolate integration may be closer than previously anticipated."

[mystic1110]

The Herring, while individually and collectively are expressionless, their movements betray a certain amount of interest, or at least due attention.

Report: Sounds arranged in patterns to provoke collective consciousness. Dictate: Hypothesis to be tested.

The attention wanes like the tides and the Herring change topic.

Report: Agreed with each other. Dictate: Confirm alliance, compact, association and mutual cooperation among selves to achieve proactive influence over Isolate societies through our own specialized means. Such means to be coordinated. Query: Request enforceable consensus that creates, defines, and governs mutual rights and obligations among its parties.

Requesting PRS Treaty among us - terms to be decided in Discord, although feel free to make IC requests.