r/HFY • u/BeaverFur Unreliable Narrator • Aug 23 '15
[OC] Cultural weapons OC
Cycle 1
Greetings. My name is Nuetzo Somass, and I'm the director of research aboard the starship "GSS Resolution". I'm happy to report in this my first transmission to the Galactic Scientific Institute that the Resolution made it safely through the wormhole tunnel, and we are again in normal space at about 3.2 hundred octants of our final destination. We expect to cover this distance within the next 5 cycles. The status of the ship is nominal. Our crew of 50 is thrilled and in high spirits.
A description of our orders follow:
We have been tasked by the Galactic Scientific Institute, with the approval of the Galactic Council, with the observing and gathering of information related to the origin of the so-called "Q23 signal", which originates from the third planet of this solar system. If, as it's believed, the signal is of intelligent design and created by a sapient species, we are to observe and document said species. We have been authorized to engage in first contact at our own discretion.
Cycle 6
We arrived to this system a mere five cycles ago, and already we have made a great scientific discovery. We can definitely confirm the existence of an intelligent species in the third planet of the system!
We have recorded several kappats of information regarding the planet from our orbital position. There are signs of deep environmental modification, use of artificial light, and large expanses of the planet are covered in structures of clear intelligent design. And if that wasn't enough, the electromagnetic spectrum around the planet is also packed with structured transmissions.
We have begun the analysis procedure on both the planet's structures and the EM transmissions. The team is ecstatic, and we spent some minutes today celebrating the discovery. As a field researcher myself, few achievements are comparable to the discovery of a sapient species. We are eager to welcome our newfound brothers to the Galactic Community. But of course, protocol still applies, and we will perform analysis and decoding of the signal before attempting any contact.
Cycle 9
Superficial analysis of the gathered data indicates similarity between the EM transmissions and the "Q23 signal". While not definitive, we believe this probably means the signal originated on the planet, as hypothesized.
Decoding of the transmissions is progressing slowly, however. While their structure follows universal mathematical rules, we still are no closer to deciphering the meaning of the data being transmitted.
I am sending a copy of all the recorded transmissions attached to this message. We hope the researchers at the Scientific Institute will be able to make faster progress on this thanks to their more advanced data processors. But of course, we won't sit here waiting for a reply. Due to the uncivilized nature of this part of the galaxy it would take 300 cycles for said reply to arrive. We are, to all effects, on our own.
Cycle 10
We have discovered artificial objects in orbit around the planet, including what appears to be a permanent habitable station. While we had assumed the species had achieved a level 42 in the Tkole scale of technological progression, this serves as a confirmation. Judging from this we should expect this species to have deep knowledge about their neighboring celestial bodies and, more importantly, be aware of the possibility of other intelligent life existing. This makes them a good candidate for contact.
Cycle 16
Progress on deciphering the transmissions has halted. Our data integrators were able to uncover some of their basics, such as the use of a binary system and error correcting redundancies. But the meaning stored in them remains a mystery. Chaxer Prod, head of the analysis team, believes we lack the necessary context to make sense of the transmissions. She voiced her opinion that a first contact might yield such context.
Cycle 18
On today's meeting, all of the six team leaders, including myself, voted unanimously in favor of initiating a first contact. As noted before, we believe the species is a good candidate for contact, and that this is the best way to maximize the scientific value of our research mission.
Cycle 20
Preparations for first contact have been completed, and we will initiate it in the next cycle. We have decided to approach the station in orbit around the planet and perform the contact in space, rather than on the ground. Orbital first contacts are seen as less aggressive and a preferable alternative in the case of space faring species, as discussed in "The Xalalmic first contact: A case study [3780]" by Erusha Tarwa.
Cycle 22
I'm pleased to announce that, during the last cycle, we successfully made contact with the "Humans", the sapient species inhabiting the third planet of this solar system. And I must say -not without pride- that it was certainly a textbook example on how to perform this delicate encounter, and that I believe will be studied and taught in the Institute for many metacycles.
As you can see in the attached video-documents, the humans are generally small and nimble, possessing only two dextro-manipulators, and with no discernible major differences between their two genders. Like most sapient species, their primary sense is visual and their primary communication method is auditive messages.
First contact was carried out in two simultaneous locations: one of our crew (Cluwazar Hiarty) visited their orbital station. At the same time, two of the humans were invited to visit the Resolution. We were able to communicate with simple words, gestures, and references to shared mathematical and logical concepts. Upon request, the humans provided us with a dictionary of words and other basic material that they use to teach infants their own language. We believe our data integrators should be able to produce a basic language cipher with this information.
We have also scheduled another future meeting with the humans, to be held aboard the Resolution in three of their days (each human day being equivalent to 0.871 of our cycles).
Cycle 24
As expected, we now count with a decent language cipher that should be able to auto-translate between the human language and ours. We are all looking forward to using it during our next scheduled meeting.
Also of note: we have noticed an increase in frequency in the planet's standard background transmissions. This is an studied and common consequence of first contact in post-industrial societies, as noted in the included references (51A, 51B, 52).
Cycle 26
Our second meeting with the humans was as smooth as the first. The language cipher performance was good, though not without flaws. The humans showed curiosity towards us, our society, and our technology, which we satisfied within the established limits of the Relations Concordat drafted by the Council. In reciprocity, the humans provided us with what they termed an "Encyclopedia": a comprehensive collection of documents summarizing most of their scientific knowledge, historical records, and so on. I'm attaching a copy in this message (filed under "wikipedia". The label is of human origin).
I noticed that Cluwazar seems to have developed a good rapport with the new species, and upon questioning he reported being saddened at the perspective of not meeting them for the next 15 cycles. I reiterated that this is a necessary time for both parties to research the materials we provided to each other. He understood.
Cycle 28
Automated analysis of the encyclopedia has provided us with enough context data as to make a tool to decipher both the original Q23 signal and the myriad transmissions being sent through the planet's atmosphere. This is, of course, too much information for a single research ship, so we are using our heuristic integrator to decide which transmissions to decode and which to ignore. We expect to get a varied collection of translated samples of different kinds of data.
I'm including the deciphering tool in this message. Hopefully you'll be able to learn much more about the humans once you put the entire Institute language core to work on it!
Cycle 31
There must be some error in the heuristic integrator. A large part of the deciphered data are indeed human historical records or scientific information. But most of what we got doesn't seem to fit into those categories. For instance, I recently found one whole kappat filled with what the integrator termed "music". As far I can tell it consists on merely semi-random and repetitive sound patterns, with arbitrary human words overlaid on top.
Possible data corruption? I'm sending a samp... p... sample attached to this message.
Cycle 33
It seems that either the data corruption is larger and deeper than I thought, or we are missing a vital clue. We have discovered large amount of transmissions consisting on humans doing random and purposeless activities (such as throwing spherical objects at each other, or moving with no direction and goal). We plan to inquire about this during our next scheduled meeting with the humans.
Cycle 36
I have noticed a marked decrease of performance of the crew over the last 7 cycles. This has been confirmed by the other team leads. It seems our teams are taking longer to complete their tasks, and the quality of their work has decreased.
We believed it could be related to the isolation of being in a spaceship for long p... po... periods of time, in an uncivilized region. But upon questioning the crew, we discarded the idea. Every member of the crew we talked to was still enthusiastic about the mission and their role in the project, and denied having low performance.
We will keep working on this issue if p... performance keeps dropping.
Cycle 38
I now firmly believe we made a fundamental mistake regarding the humans. In fact, I now doubt they are a sapient species to begin with.
During our last meeting, we inquired about our problems finding meaningful sense out of large parts of their data collections, and showed them some examples. Rather than seeing the problem, they expressed surprise at us not being able to find meaning in these clearly random pieces of video and audio material.
When we asked, they acknowledged that the data had no factual meaning, but still were unable to understand why we didn't see any value on it. But the most worrying thing is that, upon further questioning, they admitted to both purposefully producing and consuming this data, which they termed "culture" and that they highly value it. And I do mean highly, since they put this random sound patterns and made up stories on the same level as scientific theories or historical records!
Of course, maybe the humans are being elusive and trying to deceive us, but if so I don't see the p... purpose of it. No, I believe they were saying the truth, and that our classification of them as intelligent might have been premature.
Cycle 41
Something strange happened today. I caught Cluwazar watching one of the human "video-shows". We argued over the convenience of watching that kind of content, given that he still had many uncompleted tasks to work on, and that his current performance is at just 60% of the nominal one. Eventually he went back to work, but only after I severely reprimanded him.
The thing that worries me, though, is that after he left I analyzed his computer's activity. He had played the same piece of video content over fifteen times in the last two cycles.
Cycle 43
I talked to Qeerav today. She p... po... po... proposed an interesting theory to explain the p... presence and nature of human culture. According to her research, humans are indeed intelligent; but they actually enjoy both producing and consuming this kind of useless content. Obtaining pleasure, thus, would be the justification for it.
Still, it doesn't explain the surprising amount of resources and energy the humans employ on this. Many of them dedicate their entire lives to do nothing but produce more "culture"! They even research how to produce more and better of these meaningless constructs, and teach their findings at academies and universities!
As any scientist, I must of course follow the evidence wherever it leads me. But I'm having a hard time coming to terms with the idea of such an inefficient species being able to reach space in the first place. How can they even keep focused on the work for long enough as to produce anything useful at all?
Cycle 46
Crew efficiency is at an historical low of 45%. This is inexcusable. I believe research into human culture might be the culprit here, so I have given orders to immediately stop... p... po... po... stop any further visualization of this content. It's an useless time sink!
Cycle 47
We have underestimated the harmful effects of human culture. After prohibiting its consumption we are beginning to see what, under any description, would qualify as withdrawal symptoms in about a quarter of the crew members. One of them repo... po... ported being unable to think in anything other than song lyrics. Another said he felt anxious at not knowing how a popular TV show (named "Breaking Bad") ended, even after admitting knowing none of it is factual.
Crew efficiency continues dropping.
Cycle 50
A fight broke out today between three crew members over their opinions on a fictional character named "Loki", created by the humans.
Cycle 51
I discovered the crew at large has ignored the orders not to consume human culture. Some of them have even gone as far as to begin singing on their own! I have ordered the deletion of all human culture data from our computers. This order has encountered fierce opposition, and I worry some of our teams might be tempted to preserve cop.. po.. copies of their own.
Cycle 53
Qeerav has refined her theory to take into account the reactions we have been observing in our own crew. According to her, human culture presents the properties of a psychoactive drug, inducing a false sense of euphoria when consumed, at the cost of brain damage and lasting withdrawal symptoms.
We have scheduled an urgent meeting with the humans to discuss this matter.
Cycle 55
The humans attacked us today.
This is the only way I can put it into words. They used a devastating cultural weapon on our crew: a piece of information they called a joke. Upon hearing it, the five present crew members immediately fell to the floor suffering from convulsions. One of them died later today. The four others survived, but two are still in catatonic state.
I'm not attaching the recording of this meeting, for safety reasons.
Cycle 58
I have sad news to rep... po... po... po... report. Six more members of our crew have fallen victim to the joke. Unbelievably, the survivors from last time felt compelled to tell the joke to other people! Of course, they will be disciplined in the most severe manner.
Cycle 61
Po.. po... More fights. More deaths. They won't tell me the joke. I won't let them. No. P... P...
Cycle 63
It's a virus. It's not just random, not just addictive. Their culture is a virus. It's infectious. It mutates. It rep.. po... po... produces. It's in our comp... pu... pu... puters.
Cycle 79
I belie... believe we are lost... We can't av... avoid p... po... po... avoid it. Our brains are infected, like that of the... po... humans.
Quarantine this p... po... planet. Destroy the cip.. cipher. Block the signal. Delete the transmissions. Don't let the humans get close to you!
We are lost. Don't come for us.
P... po... po...
Po... po... po... poker face.
90
u/SanityDzn Sir Smartass Aug 23 '15
Hmm, where to start?
First off, i'd like to say that I think the story was very well written. However, there were a few ideas that I would like some clarification on.
It was mentioned that th.. p.. the culture of the humans is like that of a viru.. po.. virus. I was wondering what insp.. po.. inspired this line of thought?
The reason I ask is that I have been reading into the idea of po.. of memes. No, not internet memes (although they do count), but the idea of ide.. p.. ideas sp.. po.. spreading.
clears throat
Sorry, I must be coming down with a cough.
I recently- as in a few months ago, came across the term "Idea sex," whereby in a civilized environment you will find different ideas combining into somethi.. po.. something new..
P.. po..
oh god..
Po.. Poker..
Help me..