"That makes sense! I think we can definitely make it happen. Do you think the human regional coordinators are a step in the right direction in this respect, or is that not the right kind of position?"

"It represents an improvement."

"Is your ideal arrangement something like human regional coordinators with a mostly human staff, not answered to anyone except insofar as they're obliged to follow the law like the rest of us, or is it more like territories that are human-governed and not part of Anitam at all?"

"My personal opinion, although again I'm representing others, is that fragmenting the polity is not something to deliberately work towards at this point, but that insofar as there's any procedure for secession and independence it shouldn't rule out human-led human-inhabited claimants."

"That makes perfect sense to me."

"Oh, good. - Since we've recently had misunderstandings can you rephrase it in your own words for me?"

"You don't think that right now we should be trying to create independent enclaves with their own laws, but if someday we decide to have a legal framework by which Earth could become independent, or colony planets more generally do that, we should make sure that it's framed in a way that allows for independent human polities."

"Planetary scale isn't necessarily the only way I could see this making sense but yes you've got the idea."

"It's a priority to us that anyone who likes being an Anitami citizen gets to stay that way, but with that constraint we want to be very flexible about what ends up being right for people."

"Great. I'm concerned about plans to caste humans, what can you tell me about that?"

"Castes have a lot of benefits for integration and building shared interest groups instead of permitting divides to arise along species or racial or religious or cultural lines. Once we understand more about what structures are good for humans we'd certainly be tempted to give humans the option of identifying as an Amentan caste."

"If it's freely chosen then your caste balance may be out of whack."

"We would probably open up a limited number and have some kind of aptitude screening."

"And if they find their castes don't suit them?"

"Oh, definitely screening for that also."

"And if," she says slowly, "they find, that their castes, don't suit them, after they've had a chance to try them."

"If you would like we could have a trial period during which they could decide not to have a caste after all."

"I see."

"I think lots of humans won't want to have a caste, but some of them probably will, and it'd be good if they can have that option."

"Are you imagining they'll be hereditary for humans?"

"That might depend on how heritable aptitudes are for humans."

"I think adding hereditary, restrictive castes without a persistent exit option to humans is a terrible idea."

"You think that we should make it illegal for humans to interact with the social institution most significant to Amentan life, forever?"

"I think you could make a case that that institution is the Internet, about which I have no real complaints. In their current form castes are regressive and participating in them gambles with one's descendants indefinitely. I think they need to liberalize before I'd be comfortable with them becoming part of human life. I understand they're important to Amentans but I think some loosening could help many of your species too." She pats Pelape's arm. Pelape coughs.

"If there's ever a majority of the population in favor of caste liberalization I expect that they'll vote for politicians with a good plan to bring it about. I'm not comfortable promising that we will prohibit humans from choosing a caste, though of course we'd make sure they understood that there are drawbacks."