I've got a list of names | Glowfic Constellation

Afen is disappointed in the universe. He bounds back and forth across his room explaining why to his wife, his infant granddaughter, the end table, and a reporter flabbergasted by her good luck and cringing silently against the wall in the hopes he won't remember she's there.

"There is no reason to suppose that a species evolving independently of Amentans, with their own evolutionary history and living mammalian species likely related to theirs, would end up looking like us. None. Every explanation every scientist has ventured to the press has been unimaginative and unconvincing retroactive refitting of bad models to baffling data. Aliens shouldn't look like us but with different hair colors. Aliens that are not made out of carbon at all would be unsurprising; aliens with only as much physiological dissimilarity as exists between us and animal species on our planet would be mildly surprising; aliens with opposable thumbs would be truly remarkable. This is not remarkable and biologically enlightening; this is just inconsistent with everything we understand about the universe. It doesn't teach us new things about evolution; it should make us rethink evolution. - don't quote that part, they'll take it out of context."

Reporter nods rapidly.

"All of that said, I've picked up three of the languages and I'm working on building a good machine translator, it's a challenge with as little as they've produced in the way of electronic records. I'm absolutely going there to meet them as soon as the politicians figure out what to do with themselves."

"Do you have any predictions about that?"

"About politics? Why would I have predictions about politics? They deliberately obscure relevant information, for one thing, and for another it's deathly boring."

"- I mean, sir, surely you hear from your son about -"

"I have seven children and some of them are very dense indeed but not quite dense enough to try to interest me in politics."

"I was referring to -"

"I know who you were referring to. If you want a statement from Aitim go bother Aitim."

"Thank you for your time."

"I did not alter my activities in response to your presence and therefore you can't yet be said to have wasted any of my time though you should go before you do."

...out skitters the reporter.

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chanuphis

"Yep. Plus, like, they tell themselves the designated slave races are naturally inferior or that it's good for them without any evidence nearly as convincing as a house elf begging you please to do literally anything but free them."

"Eeeugh. Dare I guess that lots of people who thought that justified slavery do not feel like it justifies anything when they're on the receiving end?"

chanuphis

"They do not seem to consider this a compelling argument in favor of Amentan conquest, no."

"No one ever does."

chanuphis

"I think you're reasonably popular among ex-slaves."

"I would definitely rather have that constituency than ex-slaveowners."

chanuphis

"I bet!"

"Data among Amentans about how long people want a different government and at what point they start saying 'this is my country and I'm proud of it' is kind of hopelessly confounded by how repressive the conquerors were."

chanuphis

"Well, some data's better than nothing..."

"I mean, 'am I going to get shot for saying I want independence' is a much, much stronger predictor of whether anyone will say they want independence than whether they actually want it."

chanuphis

"Okay, true."

"So you can have the data but it's going to show you 'the Oahk Empire was real popular' and 'everyone who didn't die in the Aradeh Massacre loves the people who did it' and that practically no one in Imde likes Tapa and so on."

chanuphis

"Imde?"

"Uh, like eight years back now Voa had a food crisis and Tapa invaded and took one of their provinces to have independent food security. They were, like, relatively non-terrible, as far as that kind of thing goes, which isn't to say that most people in the region like them but they'd all feel safe saying that they don't."

chanuphis

Nod.

"On the other hand I think everyone in Biyan is pretty cheerful about being part of Cene now. I guess you could get the data, see if there's anything interesting."

chanuphis

"Yeah, if there's some aggregated paper on it that's worth taking home."

"I'll try to poke around for you."

chanuphis

"Thanks."

"Have fun with the rest of your trip!"

chanuphis

"Will do. Thanks for dinner."

She sends her papers! Amentans often do a lot of murder of conquered populations, or at least restrict their access to children. When they're not doing that and the new government is stable and competent at provision of services, it's common to maintain a separate cultural identify for a generation but fairly uncommon to want political independence. (This might be because it's not very safe to admit.) When the new government is a disaster or it becomes harder to get children then everyone will hate them for much longer.

chanuphis