{"id":95540,"date":"2016-06-24T11:33:48","date_gmt":"2016-06-24T11:33:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/2016\/06\/24\/shrewreadings-beka-tiddalik-iopele\/"},"modified":"2016-06-24T11:33:48","modified_gmt":"2016-06-24T11:33:48","slug":"shrewreadings-beka-tiddalik-iopele","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/2016\/06\/24\/shrewreadings-beka-tiddalik-iopele\/","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"

shrewreadings<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

beka-tiddalik<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

iopele<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

friendlytroll<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

In the same vein as other\u00a0\u2018things humans do that aliens might be weirded out by\u2019 what if human pattern recognition skills were the thing? Like the ability to see a cloud resolve into a dog, or faces in wall patterns. Stuff that evolved from predators having camouflaging abilities, or let\u2019s face it, bugs that can look basicaly like a leaf to prey ON.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Imagine an alien being super confounded by a human being like\u00a0\u2018oh, that control board looks like a face\u2019 and it\u2019s just this big grouping of random lights and line but no ALL the humans on board think it looks like a FACE and theyve started NAMING it. And it just seems so confusing- is there anything on this flat painted wall?\u00a0\u2018No of course not\u2019 HOW IS THERE AN OF COURSE NOT. What about in that galaxy? And the human squints and stares at it and says\u00a0\u2018yeah, it looks like a cat.\u2019<\/p>\n

And they an draw out what they\u2019re recognizing in the lines but it\u2019s just so strange.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And then an enemy develops\u00a0\u2018cloaking technology\u2019 that\u2019s based on camouflaging and are so angry that every single human is able to point it out because it\u2019s a completely obvious moving shape to them.\u00a0<\/p>\n

or: alien species are introduced to leaf insects, tigers, and that one octopus that imitates a coconut and freak the heck out.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

god I love this kind of post<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The Girrami had never known deception until they started expanding into the greater galaxy. They did not like it. The closest word in their home language for deception translated roughly to\u00a0\u201cspeaking before having all the facts\u201d. It had taken time to learn that other races would outright hide<\/i>\u00a0information, or worse, speak untruths<\/i>\u00a0for their own ends.<\/p>\n

It was fortunate, the Girrami thought, that they had resources that the race who called themselves \u201cHumans\u201d desperately needed for medical supplies. The fact that the Girrami had (in line with their overarching philosophy of sharing what was needed) offered these resources freely, without (as the Humans would say) \u201cstrings attached\u201d, had made many the Humans quickly warm to the Girrami, and in turn, freely offer the Girrami advice on how to better negotiate.<\/p>\n

Human: \u201cHonestly, that was almost embarrassing to watch. Tell you what, you said that you had contact with the Farop?\u201d<\/p>\n

Cappa Girrami: \u201cYes. We have had\u2026 difficulties in our dealings with that race.\u201d<\/p>\n

Human: \u201cYeah that must have been like watching puppies walk through a meatgrinder. Those guys are total assholes. Tell you what, your medicine saved my little boy, so I\u2019m willing to do a little quid pro quo. Are you people familiar with the concept of a corporate lawyer? Because I am willing to offer you my services for cheap. No, don\u2019t thank me, this will be my pleasure<\/i>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Humans sometimes had the most odd and upsetting turns of phrase. But once the Girrami started contracting these\u2026 lawyers and businesspeople<\/i>\u00a0to conduct major negotiations, many of their dealings with other races did <\/i>\u00a0seem to be flowing a lot more smoothly.<\/p>\n

It did however make the Girrami wonder just how<\/i>\u00a0it was that the humans had become so adept at sensing deception. It seemed natural to them to start learning to \u201clie\u201d and detect untruths from an early age.<\/p>\n

And then the Girrami scientists were invited to observe a collection of specimens kept in a \u201cnatural history museum\u201d and suddenly it all made sense.<\/p>\n

Girrami Scientist 1:\u00a0\u201cWait, what is that!?\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n

<\/figure>\n

Human:\u00a0\u201cIt\u2019s a stick insect.\u201d<\/p>\n

Girrami Scientist 2:\u00a0\u201cAnd that?\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/figure>\n

Human:\u00a0\u201cA leaf insect.\u201d<\/p>\n

Girrami Scientist 1:\u00a0\u201c\u2026your insects<\/i>\u00a0practice deception?\u201d<\/p>\n

Human:\u00a0\u201c\u2026 I guess you could call it that? It\u2019s a form of camouflage.\u201d<\/p>\n

Girrami Scientist 2:\u00a0\u201cWhat is this\u2026\u2019camouflage\u2019?\u201d<\/p>\n

And then the Girrami realised that the Humans came from a planet where deception was so endemic that even plants<\/i>\u00a0practiced it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

No wonder<\/i> the Humans were so good at detecting it.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

I wanna read another 250k+ of this verse.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Right. Now.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

shrewreadings: beka-tiddalik: iopele: friendlytroll: In the same vein as other\u00a0\u2018things humans do that aliens might be weirded out by\u2019 what if human pattern recognition skills were the thing? Like the ability to see a cloud resolve into a dog, or faces in wall patterns. Stuff that evolved from predators having camouflaging abilities, or let\u2019s face … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[3434,2039,11990,2108,4],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95540"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=95540"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95540\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95540"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95540"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95540"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}