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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insistence

"And if we figure out hybrids then it'll be a good thing having found humans."

"How's that going?"

insistence

"Rumored promising enough that if you have awful springs you're being encouraged to wait a year? But no one's published a paper yet, so I don't know why they're that optimistic."

"Mine aren't awful. Not that I have a permission lined up or could realistically get one this year, Grandmother doesn't let anybody who's not acceptably married get in on a clan permission. Too easy to cut and run once you have it."

insistence

"My parents had an awful time. I'm okay, but - if I could have kids who'd just want two that'd be the easiest decision of my life."

Nod.

insistence

And he gets back to work.

chanuphis

"So the, hm, not the fundamental problem with the idea of casteing humans but a severe limitation on the execution of the idea, is that all a government can offer is the legal status of being in a caste, and the legalities are entirely in the form of limitations. All the benefits are things they're hoping will happen naturally, which might not or might take generations or might just in our case be outweighed by the drawbacks, which are all they can actually offer."

"The legal part isn't all drawbacks - I really do think there's a case for customizing legal systems culturally, and for access to various community and educational resources. But you're right that it - mostly is, at least until kids can be raised in the culture. The ex-reds were really happy with it."

chanuphis

"There aren't yet important caste-divided cultural variations in humans, so, the legal part is all drawbacks. If you wanted to do that for humans it'd be by religion or something."

"We considered it but the religions aren't true so we kind of don't want to enshrine them in law like that. I suppose castes aren't any truer."

chanuphis

"They really aren't."

"They are at least not actively false."

chanuphis

"But most religions, you can convert if you want."

"There should be more flexibility. I think it'll happen naturally, with planets, you just need one casteless one you can swap in and out of."

chanuphis

"We're working on Mars and have no timetable on more."

"Yeah. But there are a lot of ships out looking and a potion for springs expands the options dramatically."

chanuphis

"Anyway, you shouldn't have to move to another planet to go from being a sweep to being a doctor."

"There being some barriers to entry is good, you want to preserve solidarity and expectations of stability and so on."

chanuphis

"Religions have those."

"I would be delighted to have a process for people to convert to castes. Maybe Nertel can magic up a justification for it."

chanuphis

"Heh. That'd be neat."

"But in the meantime having to swap to neutral planet and back seems like it mostly just filters for people who really want it and are willing to go to some effort, and that wouldn't be a terrible way to draw the line."

chanuphis

"If that's what works for Amentans, fine. Casteing humans in the first place is dumb."