Comments on: p.267 (Chapter Nine)

By: David

David — Fri, 06 Jul 2012 11:02:46 +0000

My favourite example of a “starfish” alien is the Caleban species in Frank Herbert’s ConSentiency universe. Just how different they are is esplored in his 1970 novel Whipping Star which is really about the human protagonist’s attempt to establish communication when the thinking is so different that there is practically no semantic congruency.

By: APStorm

APStorm — Thu, 05 Jul 2012 14:04:54 +0000

More TV Tropes that applies VERY MUCH to the Miesti: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/StarfishAliens

By: APStorm

APStorm — Thu, 05 Jul 2012 13:59:58 +0000

Possibly- possibly not. They may not have known these details. There may have been other reasons yet to be revealed.

By: APStorm

APStorm — Thu, 05 Jul 2012 13:52:06 +0000

Er, I should have specified that it was a different, possibly better, analogy to make, since horses are working animals, or beasts of burden. Creatures we consider ‘lesser’ and train to use as we see fit. If they suddenly seemed able to understand us and speak back more articulately than ‘tapping’ a number out with their hooves or such…

In any case, any creature we use to accomplish tasks, and consider non-sentient mostly because they don’t speak in a manner we recognize as such or use tools we can identify as such…

By: APStorm

APStorm — Thu, 05 Jul 2012 13:44:31 +0000

I imagine it would be like if we suddenly discovered horses were sentient.

By: APStorm

APStorm — Thu, 05 Jul 2012 13:43:18 +0000

Spot on- glad I’m not the only one who understands the Miesti haven’t necessarily been fully understanding the situation. Same to Andrew Crisp. I tried to point out differing moral compasses, as well, in the comments of the last page- what’s referred to as Blue and Orange Morality, which is possibly pertinent to this scenario.

WARNING: TV TROPES LINK BELOW:
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/BlueAndOrangeMorality

By: David

David — Thu, 05 Jul 2012 10:48:24 +0000

This was meant to be a reply to Jeremy, above.

By: David

David — Thu, 05 Jul 2012 10:47:19 +0000

You may recognize apes as sentient. The fact that we still keep them in zoos and use them for experimental purposes indicates that many humans do not.

I stand by my opinion that a truly alien species, with a completely different evolution and context, may look for different markers of sentience than we do. As a species that uses tools to adapt to different environments and evolve our abilities, we naturally look at tools like the space ship as markers of sentience. I can readily imagine a telepathic species using telepathic communication as “proof of sentience” and not assuming sentience in the absence of a mind that can “talk back”.

By: Sleel

Sleel — Thu, 05 Jul 2012 07:30:04 +0000

*chisels a “not” between were and enslaving* I blame the bottle of wine for this

By: Sleel

Sleel — Thu, 05 Jul 2012 07:28:33 +0000

Amen. Not like smelting alloys, creating, designing systems capable of “warp” drive are the “accidents” of the equivalents of ants. They’d have to be pretty self delusional to not think they were enslaving people at this point.