PentagonWhite

Myriad Reality

@Legend

I'm glad we're on the same page, then. I don't want to become adversarial, I'll just need to adjust my expectations and actions. Fundamentally, on this point, I disagree with you. I am confident I understand what methods you're trying to teach me, and am judging that they are less useful to my purposes, purposes you don't know as well as I do, than the cadre of methodology I'm using, of whose benefits I understand the merits of better than you only insofar as they are methods designed by me to achieve goals I have set for myself. I don't think I am failing to learn from your methodology, I don't think that my actions will lead to ignorance, I do not think that I could have gained more value from another line of questioning, and I have absolutely no interest in spending limited time trying to demonstrate that here beyond what has already transpired. All in all, my style has worked perfectly, in fact!

*The broad, toothy smile returns, entirely genuine.*

Now, will you countenance another question chosen by me, or are we well past that point in our cooperation?

Myriad Reality

@Legend

*I touch the side of my head, in a gesture more for show than anything else, and close my eyes for a second. The smile has faded somewhat, though it still beams.*

To begin: you say that I cannot pick and choose pieces of information to censor, when I very clearly said, and I quote 'your little spiel there was exactly the sort of thing I wanted, because I wanted to hear whatever you have to say'. There is a divide, at least in the culture of the Hierophany, between asking someone to stop transgressing the other's cultural norms, and censoring, or picking and choosing, pieces of information.

To follow, then, on the matter of assumptions. I have recorded the entire conversation. You've just accused me of refusing to learn new methods of understanding, when instead I have decided not to employ them. You are, at best, implying that I am ignorant of things that instead I am choosing to avoid. I have a different methodology than you would recommend, apparently, not necessarily one that is incomplete. I want to make the caveat, before I continue, that you may very well be right, but I cannot see how you'd make accurate predictions from our brief interaction here.

You couched your response to the trolley problem in the subjunctive, so obviously that shields you from culpability since it's more than possible that my culture has led me to read different meaning into certain words than others, that I think differently. My question on this matter would be, why say things like:

*My voice shifts, to a recording of Data speaking. My mouth simply hangs open a hair as the sound proceeds*

"If, hypothetically speaking, I were discussing the very scenario of a train approaching individuals on tracks in order to gauge the "moral development" of another creature I had not interacted with yet, I would consider another scenario with fewer loose ends, greater detail, and more resulting information instead of assuming ethical superiority or higher understanding"

"If I only desired to understand whether he valued individuals or groups to a greater extent, a "the good of the many outweigh the good of the few" ideology, I would perhaps ask directly instead of assuming he reasons on such an elementary level that all factors of a situation can be reduced to a binary decision with hazy conclusions, fit more for a thought experiment performed by one first being exposed to the concept of the psychology of intelligent beings. And I would also suggest others he speaks to do the same—that is, hypothetically of course."

*The recording ends, and I begin speaking normally once more*

...this? You'll notice that none of these are answers to the trolley problem as it is posed. I can't find a reason for these answers unless you think that I am likely to fall into one of these categories, into which I am certain I most resolutely do not. Whether or not you offered alternatives is of secondary relevance: I understood from your comments you have taken certain likelihood of meaning from the evidence you've seen, a meaning my culture has conditioned me to consider offensive and I believe is incorrect.

Perhaps most importantly, and I'll reiterate, you're assuming I'm not asking what I want to know. I want to gather data, in general rather than in particular. That's what I want to know, and despite all of this...

*I wave my hand in the air loosely, as though to indicate the tangent the conversation has taken.*

...I think I'm succeeding quite well. Ah, but perhaps we've just gotten off on the wrong foot. I'm sure I've caused you just as much unintentional offense, and for that I apologize. Would you like to drop the subject? It might be more expedient, for both our interests.

Myriad Reality

@Legend @Spiritblitz

Impressive, then, that you were entirely wrong about my intentions, methods, or state of mind. I'd appreciate you don't tell me how to do my learning. In return, I won't tell you how to live your life either: I am asking exactly what I want to know, and nothing else. I didn't think a more ambulatory approach was so difficult to grasp. Now, what's this about ghosts? Who's being killed? I feel this is more interesting than taking shots into the dark for our laconic, anti-social friend here. Does it have to do with the violence outside?

Myriad Reality

@Legend@Threads of Fate

*As soon as the other occupant of the room starts laughing in earnest, I break into peals of churchbell laughter, great sonorous peals that ring through the room. Two rows of pearl white teeth emerge from pale lips as I once again comport myself, wrangling my smile to something marginally less unseemly*

I'm enjoying myself too, though not exactly how I imagined I would be. For someone so irritated by assumptions, you seem to make a lot of them about me. Wrong, of course, and very rude in my culture, but I don't mind awfully: the universe is a big place. I'm glad, though, that you've got a handle on sarcasm. I was worried, when we first met, that that particular concept would be a bridge too far.

For clarity's sake: I'm not assuming anything about your reasoning. I'm not assuming any sort of higher understanding. I'm not assuming any sort of ethical superiority. I'm not trying to gauge moral development. I'm not fishing for an answer regarding "the good of the many outweigh the good of the few". I asked you a question and I wanted to hear your answer, and you gave me one: your little spiel there was exactly the sort of thing I wanted, because I wanted to hear whatever you would say. I'm trying to learn, Data, nothing more or less, at least not for the foreseeable future. I chose the question arbitrarily, it seemed as good as any when dealing with someone so alien to my understanding, or at least so apparently alien.

*I clear my throat, and look to my giggling companion.*

Is he always like this, or have I done something to offend him? I'm beginning to think I owe him money, or snubbed him at a party: something, no?

Myriad Reality

@Legend

Ah, so like one of your university students?

You're not an organization, but you have a shared history, you're a group of people easily described as 'we'. You have resources, Class 2 technology at least, and very powerful acquaintances. I'll take a different tack, then. Imagine there's a train going down a track which splits in two, its breaks are cut. On both paths, people are tied up: one path has one members of your species and one path has five members of your species. The tracks currently lead to the path with five, but you can pull a lever and change the train will move to the track with one. Anyone hit by the train will die: pull the lever and one dies, abstain and five die. What would you do, in this hypothetical situation?

Myriad Reality

@Legend

*I pause for a second, a brief shut of the eyes without fanfare, then re-open them.*

Research what? And who exactly are your companions. You keep interesting company, I can already tell: surely there's a story to be told, one worth recording?

Myriad Reality

@Legend

Ah, not where I'm from: I've heard of schools like that, where students go in and waste resources. Fascinating! There's nothing like that in the Hierophany. No, my role is a sanctified one. What about you, Data? What's your role, what do you do on a barren rock like this?

Myriad Reality

@Legend @Stabby

*A titter escapes my lips as I finally place my attention squarely on the occupants of the room around me*

God among us, no sarcasm, and clearly very different standards of hospitality. You're certainly not from the Hierophany. I'll get used to it, don't worry: my Pilgrimage has shown me more cultures than I could have imagined. Did you know, a few hundred parsecs from here, there's a colony of humans who see blinking as rude? They were scandalized by me, I had no idea what I was doing wrong. Fascinating people, really: beautiful artists.

*I clear my throat, as I catch myself rambling, and lean on a nearby wall. I renew my smile to look at the unfamiliar Alan*

Hello to you too: Hymn of Predestination. A Pilgrim, from very far away indeed. I was just trying to get to know your friend Data, though he seems awfully reticent. To answer your questions, Data: I want to know about you and the people here, but I don't know what I want to know. If I knew in what areas I was ignorant, this whole Pilgrimage would be much less interesting. The universe is full of people so alien I don't know what I don't know about them, so my questions might not be useful. If you're determined, though: 'Who are you, what do you do, what's the purpose of this facility, and who and why are those people fighting out there?'.

As for why, well, it's my holy duty to see and learn all there is to see and learn. I've been charged by God to learn, and so I intend to do so. Think of me like... a journalist, but without publications. Or a scientist, but without just one field of study. Or a detective, but without any crimes.

*I flick my hair behind an ear, smiling reassuringly as though to convince my words made sense*

Myriad Reality

@Legend

*My eyes narrow, the first slip in the mirthful countenance, irritation and offense visible for a brief moment before they fade back into the jovial smile*

That's a bridge too far, Data. Who knows what someone like you could do with that? I certainly don't. I'm afraid you'll have to just do without. I'm certainly ready to bargain, though: I want to know just who exactly you are, who built this place, and most importantly who are those two fighting outside?

Myriad Reality

@Legend

*I step in, eyes raking the scenery with an attentive, hungry disposition. I bite my lip, mind clearly working, presumably to commit things to memory, and my footfalls are soft and steady despite the sharp click of the bootheels*

Beautiful! I appreciate the warm welcome, it seems my hunch was right: this will be worthwhile.

*I continue to look around as I speak, never turning to fully appraise Data*

Do you have a name? Or is that classified, do I need to give a blood sample before I get such privileged information.