Lunch was burgers at an old school looking dinner just off Main. Sylph who'd already gained an appreciation for bacon over breakfast had got one with guac and bacon on top. I went for more standard tomatoes, onions, pickles, and lettuce. Badger was currently under the table working on a bonelike treat. It was as I was taking my second to last bite of my burger when I got a nudge from the grove that my neural network filter was finished.
“Oh yay, filter finished.” I shared a very heartfelt thank you with the grove to let it know I greatly appreciated its help. I imagined it replying with a very long low entish murmur of appreciation of my politeness. It didn’t actually, but it was more fun this way. “I think I’ll wait until we get back home before really trying anything though.”
“Yes. Having a known safe environment might be helpful for you.”
The three of us finished our meals and set out back for my home.
* * *
When we made it back I put on a playlist of studying music and we both got comfy on the couch. I leaned over and gave Sylph a very nice kiss. “Off into the Consensus I go I guess. Take care of me if I black out?”
She giggled at me. “Of course, but I believe you’ll have nothing to worry about.” She wrapped an arm around me and I rested my head on her shoulder.
I turned within and looked to my connection to the grove. First I asked it to do a search for any topics about me. I was presented again with the facet that represented me. It had several gems sharing it as a common facet that were overlapping through multiple dimensions. I recalled the topic from earlier, the discussion on why I was compatible with Fungie. [Xenobiology, engineered fungal colony; humanity: compatibility], I sent this to the grove to add to the filter and the lone gem appeared before me. I took a figurative deep breath and reached for it.
First I was presented with context. A wealth of background information on the mechanisms by which the alien fungal symbiote chooses and bonds with another organism. Aspects of cellular signaling pathways indicating if an organism were a possible receptive host or merely something to be studied. Great lists of changes that can be made in other organisms to induct them into the alien’s network. Histories of other species and how close or distant they were from evolving at random these biological properties.
Then came multiple theories on what adaptations I might have within me that makes me receptive. Each theory was a single complex and multifaceted thought, many aspects incorporated into a single proposition to the discussion. They each contained the core observations, principles, and precedents the theory was derived from. For each theory, there were multiple hypotheses along with experimental design for actions and observations to shed light on unknowns. There were only a few contributing to change within the discussion at the time, but change was happening. I could watch theories and suggested observations, experiments slowly shift and resolve into purer forms. I could see the presented identity, personal context, and experience of the individuals as they participated. I could feel Sylph’s presence there, within this gem. She’d provided her own observations and understanding of events. Offering her own theories of why things worked the way they did. Her offered personal context so very caring and concerned for my well being above all else. Sylph loves me so much!
Looking closer at the slowly shifting theories of the how and why my biology was receptive, I chose the current most accepted one. There were a series of surface protein markers the symbiote used to distinguish friendly organisms from those untouched by the alien’s biotech. The hypothesis for this was simple: if my cells present some combination of these surface proteins, then Fungie would have seen me as friend and snuggled in. I could check this with a simple observation of the cells lining my airways. Why hadn’t Sylph already done this?
I shared context with her over our link and asked with my voice. “Sylph, why haven’t you just examined me already? Or even just asked me?”
“It felt like these were all your discoveries to make. There was no urgency present in understanding why things happened. There have been no negatives to it having happened once we got past issues of your consent or any harm it was causing you.” Sylph let out a long sigh. “I didn’t want this to be another thing I felt like I was pressuring you with, so I didn’t even mention it to you… which feels dishonest and untrusting of you in hindsight.” She looked away. “I apologize, I didn’t know what I was doing until you brought it up.”
I cupped one cheek and kissed her other. “Things be like that sometimes.” I giggled, “I frequently find I’ve done something hurtful and only realize I've done it way after the fact. Please don’t dwell on this for months as that’s also something I do.” I smiled warmly at her to drive home that no apology was needed.
Sylph turned and kissed me. “I will resist the urge to dwell. Also I’m very happy your filter seems to have worked perfectly.”
“Me too. It’s very exciting, the thought of working with your people on a problem like this. Why Fungie took a liking to me. So I guess thank you for leaving this for me to find out.”
We kissed again. Slowly, appreciating each other through our closeness. I shared with her my love and trust for her into our kiss and she responded with her own.
I turned to Fungie and did something so simple I couldn’t believe I hadn’t done it yet. I asked why it chose to take root in me. It shared with me the moments surrounding when I first had inhaled Sylph’s spores. As the aliens had hypothesized, there were some non-human surface markers on my cells. Proteins which shouldn’t be coded for within the human genome, had somehow expressed themselves. I asked Fungie if it knew the coding sequence for that protein and if so, could it be so kind as to run a quick search of my chromosomes for its presence. It responded a short while later with the instinctual understanding of the gene’s location in my genome.
I turned back to the grove’s filtered Consensus and the gem of the Fungie compatibility question. I made a request of this discussion for how best to add my own observations. The Consensus itself responded. There was an etiquette for discussions which I became aware of. Identity, plus context, plus subject, plus core values or core principles which the content was derived from. All of this was then merged into a thought similar to how I merged my identity when first asking to join. I took my bundled identity, added the context that this was very personal to me considering it was happening within me, added my understanding of the principles the theories I was contributing to that were already within the gem, and added my observations; a gene of unknown origin present in my genome, its encoded protein present on the surface of my cells. I bundled all this and presented it to the gem.
As I watched, a great deal of shifting happened. I had disproved some theories which eased themselves to the background of the gem as things past considered. I had proved others which gained traction and acceptance by those participating. New considerations and theories were generated by gathering new minds as the gem shifted from “how is Marin compatible?” to “how did Marin become compatible?”
As the discussion shifted internally, the gem shifted externally as well. Some of the facets of the gem faded away as they were no longer relevant. New facets were made a part of it as new fields of study were brought in with new theories. The gem contorted within the space of the consensus, facets shifting with it to best fit. I allowed other gems though my filter into the space and I could watch their shapes contort along with it. The offering of my simple discovery had sent ripples of change throughout the alien’s understandings of humanity, the fungus, the grove, Sylph’s mission, and many more. I was being useful, but I could do more.
I turned to Fungie and asked if it could provide speculation as to how that gene got there. Was this an inherited mutation or something I’d picked up over my life? Fungi began sequencing my genome around the alien gene within multiple types of different stem cells within my body. If this were inherited, the coding would be present in every cell in my body, but if it were something I’d picked up after conception there was a good chance only certain cell types would have been altered. I became aware of the results as they completed. All of those tested showed the same gene. So inherited, which means either David or Aria had the same gene.
I asked Fungie if it could determine which parent contributed the gene and it replied rather quickly that it came from my mother, but how did she get it? I also asked Fungie if there were any interesting adjacent genes or other things on that chromosome. It took its time carefully sequencing the DNA up and downstream of the gene for the surface protein, but it found something. Another gene that shouldn’t be there, several thousand base pairs downstream. Interesting! I asked what this gene encoded and my good brain buddy found something that matched similar in its database of instincts. I was presented with the protein it encoded and an understanding of its function. It was a reverse transcriptase.
In my time in college I had taken many classes outlining basics of genetics and microbiology. Normally DNA is transcribed into RNA to perform a bunch of functions within the cell. Things only go one way within animals, but this was an enzyme that took RNA and generated a strand of DNA. The one case I knew of things going backwards was with a retrovirus. They infect a cell with a payload of RNA and a reverse transcriptase. After infection they hijack the cell’s resources to turn their RNA into DNA and inject it into the host genome. The host then uses its own normal transcriptase enzymes to turn the inserted genes back into RNA and then into proteins, unknowingly building copies of the virus that can go on to infect other cells.
I took a second for the realization to hit me, but it did. My mother or someone further back in her line had somehow been infected with a virus that contained a bit of alien genetic material. Proximity to the grove likely had something to do with it and she moved here thirty years ago, so she had been infected sometime in the three years before I was conceived. A virus would have to have found its way to her ovaries and incorporated itself into her eggs within the three years between moving and my conception. Her ovaries, ovarian cancer. Did this virus kill my mother?
I recoiled from this thought. It was twenty plus years between when she would have been infected and when she began to show symptoms. I couldn’t let my grief and lingering desire for something to blame shape me, and there was no way to know for sure with what I had available to me. What I could do was contribute what I’d discovered. I merged my discoveries and conjecture together with a more extensive sequencing of my genome. While it may be unlikely, my personal context had changed and I added my emotional connection to the possibility that this could have somehow contributed to my mother’s illness. I presented all this to the gem within the Consensus.
Again I watched as the discussion shifted. Theories proved and disproved. New questions generated and new theories put forward. I watched as the gem’s shape contorted further and more drastically than before. New gems sprang into being along similar facets and new minds joined as the ripples of my discovery were felt throughout the Consensus.
Shortly after I received a sharing, one directly from the Consensus. A result of a discussion gem about me I hadn’t seen. Context was presented of my recent contributions and all my past interactions with Sylph and the grove. The content of the sharing was the alien’s shared appreciation of my help, and heartfelt condolences for any connection that this might have had to my mother’s death. It felt within me like a supportive smile, a warm hug, and the hope of more to come. It felt like all these things, but from a myriad of minds all projecting the same feeling upon me.
This sharing tossed me right out of the consensus and back into my body. I started crying. Sylph wrapped me in her arms and held me against her. A dam of feelings had broken loose. I’ve known support and I’ve known appreciation, but they’d never been so purely distilled into their essence and given so freely to me. So I cried. My ear pressed to Sylph's chest, her heartbeat a gentle grounding rhythm. Badger shoved his large head in my lap under my hand forcing a laugh from me. “The Consensus just hugged me and it was a lot.” I managed to choke out the words while crying and giggling into her chest.
“Yeah, they can be that way sometimes. There was an urge for many to let you know their appreciation of you. You are appreciated by so many more of us than just me.” Sylph gently stroked my hair and held me to her. “It might be a bit of a long story but would you like to know more background as to why?”
I nodded into her boob and Sylph did her little wiggle and sat more upright in preparation for talking. I love her little wiggle!
“Despite what the initial very indifferent response to humanity's message from that satellite might imply, contact with humanity is a very important and ongoing discussion for us. Specifically how to make contact without causing all sorts of negative consequences. To use a media reference, we have a Prime Directive.”
The thumping of her heart, the vibrations of her wonderful info-dumping storyteller voice, the fuzzy head in my lap. I had calmed significantly. “It’s kinda a bad reference as in Star Trek they broke it all the time.” We both giggled. “What is your people’s Prime Directive?”
“Whenever my people encounter new life and new civilizations, we have a set of default values that we extend. Values for evaluating the impacts of our actions in the absence of actual communication.
“An ecosystem can be thought of as a single entity for basic general considerations. On that entity we project the values of maintaining homeostasis within the current environment and adaptability to unavoidable external stimuli. If we were to act as avoidable external stimuli, it is better not to act. If for some reason our actions are unavoidable or an attempt to resolve prior unintentional impacts, any ongoing actions should work to maintain or increase the carrying capacity of the environment, and cause as little deflection from homeostasis as possible while also maintaining or increasing adaptability of the greatest diversity of organisms possible. Maximizing what is most ‘generative and fulfilling’ for the largest cross-section of life.” She sounded almost exactly like I did when I had performed my impression of her.
“Sylph, are you mocking my earlier mocking of you?” I looked at her in sarcastic shock.
“Why yes I am, and thank you for admitting you were mocking me” She poked my nose. “But it also happens to be a good way to describe it.”
I wrinkled my nose at her poke. “Okay, so how does this extend to intelligent life and civilizations?”
“Ecosystems containing intelligent life can’t be as easily considered a single entity. When life gains the ability to shape the environment and knowingly become a source of change within an ecosystem, they must be viewed as separate but connected to the ecosystem. We again extend the basic values of homeostasis and adaptability for our decision making. Any unavoidable action we take must have results that are most generative and fulfilling for the largest cross-section of life, but we also take into account intelligence’s ability to understand and express consent. Self determination in the face of intelligent external stimuli becomes their third default value.”
I just loved listening to her speak. “Any actions taken that affect them, must also include them in the process of making the decision.”
“Exactly. Impact has to be generative and fulfilling for the ecosystem the society exists within, but consensus for that decision must also include them. The act of inclusion is, in and of itself, external stimuli that can result in impacts to the ecosystem and the society. Thus a paradox where we can’t contact them without first contacting them to receive their consent to do so.”
I chuckled at her. “Or you could just contact them accidentally like me.”
“Marin, that is still a sore spot for me. How many times must I apologize before you stop teasing me about it?”
A wave of guilt washed over me. “I’m sorry, that was me laughing at the situation at the expense of your feelings and not fair at all to you. I went too far.”
“I forgive you.” She gave me a squeeze and a kiss on the forehead. “Moving on, there are ways around this paradox. We must first study and understand the values of the society in question. If the values are similar to our own, and the level of advancement in ability to manipulate the environment similar to ours, contact has only minor impact. It won't shake the foundations on which the society was built and can become very generative and fulfilling for all involved, even in the short term.”
“And if the society has values in conflict with your own?”
“Building consensus is first and foremost an act of establishing shared values and trust. If values are in conflict or trust isn’t extended, the chance of any resulting decision being in alignment with both group’s desires drifts towards zero. Contact becomes the beginning of long ongoing work of developing a shared set of values and trust between our two cultures. This is an extensive amount of external stimulus, disturbing homeostasis within the society and likely the environment by extension. This is why we generally just don’t interact with hierarchical civilizations. There’s no pre-existing method to obtain consent from a wide cross-section of the population, and it isn’t worth the upset to homeostasis within the environment. Ultimately, It’s not our role to meddle.
“This is where we are with respect to humanity. An impasse of inability to respond to the message without drastically upsetting balance within society, but a desire to do so because the grove is here and we’d like to keep it here and expand it as possible. It might be a good thing for your society and planet in the long run for us to make contact and begin to influence the values by which your society acts. The ends might justify the means for some, but we are unable to obtain consent and ongoing participation from any wide diversity of humanity through interaction with the state entities that likely launched that satellite. Even the small act of responding to them would result in a cascade of actions taken by multiple groups on earth that a large part of the population would have no say in and would affect their lives directly in likely negative ways in the short term. That’s not to mention how any of those group’s actions would have widespread impacts on ecosystems all across Earth. Even now just our detection has impacts we can’t fully predict.”
I looked up at her with awe yet again. “This is all amazing as I've come to expect from your people, and you in particular…” I gave her a quick kiss. “...but how do I fit into this?”
“You my dear Marin, represent contact that doesn’t upset homeostasis, that doesn’t have a widespread cascade of powerful groups responding to something. Yes we impacted you unintentionally and that is why I still feel so guilty over the violation I put you through when we first spoke, but you have the ability to consent, and you’ve given it. To us… to me, in many ways.” Sylph winked and my heart did a flutter. “You are a connection and a path forward to more connection to humanity, more consent that can be gained, contributions that can be made, consensus that can be achieved. Any actions we take around the grove will not be decided on absent human opinion and expertise. You are greatly appreciated for both who you are and all the possibilities you represent.”
“My help to find out exactly how and why Fungie bonded with me. That’s work that could result in more humans consensually joining the Consensus.”
Sylph nodded. “Yes, that is one possibility. The most likely alternative is to leave and come back when your society either develops different values or no longer exists…” As an afterthought she added. “That isn’t a thing that is anywhere close to happening, but I did ask and you’d very likely be asked to come along if you were interested.” She winked at me again with that last addition.
“I have always wanted to go to space. So yeah, if it ever comes to that I’m down. I don’t know how to feel about representing all of that for your people. That’s kinda a lot to put on me, even if it’s just the concept of my existence and not any expectation of me.”
Sylph squeezed me to her and shared her love and contentment with me right at that moment. On top of this she overlaid all the appreciation and contentment of many of her people. I went very still and she gave me a moment to process those feelings, then she spoke. “Your presence with us is very generative and fulfilling for so many reasons, but you can only represent who you are right now, not any hopeful future accomplishments you might make. You bring possibility, but not expectations. You are appreciated and loved… and deserving of that love and appreciation and so much more, just for existing as you are right in this moment.”
The tears were back. I was so overwhelmed with that feeling of love and sense of community that my failsafe kicked in and I felt a slight distance growing between me and my feelings, but they still bled through. Some sense of inferiority within me was blasted away as my body cried against her.
I was still at a slight remove when my phone twinkled and buzzed in my pocket. This was apparently enough distraction to pull me completely back to myself. It was Lilly and Cairn.
- 13:45 - CairnRocks🪨!: MARIN! Play game with us!🚀🌌👾
I nuzzled into Sylph. “Would you like to meet Lilly and Cairn in person… well sort of in person?” Time for me to introduce Sylph to the wonder of video games.
Turns out cold type thing was a mild case of covid hitting us all. Everyone's doing pretty good as far as that is concerned then. Yay for having kids in school....
Hoping for a speedy recovery for you all!
Should be good. My youngest had his fever start and then break over the course of today and mostly better now. He's the last to get symptoms so now everyone's just filled with mucus, but very little coughing or lower respiratory problems so pretty good overall.
How humanity and the aliens interact through their conflicting values,
I feel like humanity would just *immediately* have a misunderstanding and assume that the aliens are hierarchal. Not because people can't be otherwise, but because men in power cannot conceive of a system in which people like them are not present
Yup, it would be years of discussion just to convince them the aliens aren't really interested in talking about anything substantial unless the discussion is made accessable to every individual on the planet
I have to say that this is one of the most wonderful descriptions of a truly alien way to be. It's a true utopian idea. From the "you are who you are right now, not what we expect from you" to the way the consensus works. Even though we can't actually grasp it, the way you describe the gems is so strong and vivid. I love everything about this.
yup, as i've said in little notes this story pretty much turned in me wildly daydreaming about nonhierarchic community which I think a lot about
just read this all. it's very good!
Thank you😊
I love chapters like this, they're so engaging
Yay thank you❣️
I love this so much. To add onto my previous comment, this all feeds into a model and idea of how such a hyperconnected and understanding society can really communicate, gain consensus, all in non-hierarchical ways. In many ways, the Consensus is more a brokerage of similar topics, a post office, not meant to be hierarchical or give decisions, but to help organise, a self-computed bureaucracy, an organic and semantic computer, and... its really amazing, I love it.
And again thank you very much and I'm super happy you are enjoying it❣️