Yes, that sounds like international cooperation.

...I have just realized something significant. Much of our technology revolves around using the song, our extra sense. For theological reasons, the fact that you cannot use it directly may make Draak in general much less afraid of heavy industry and high population.

Oh? Why is that?

There is a belief in an entity called the Onesong, which encompasses the entire universe and can do anything. The idea is that the song gives us a special connection to the Onesong, and if we desire something desperately enough and ask for it with pure and good intentions, anything will become possible.

He feels pretty skeptical about that, but there it is.

...all right. So since we lack the ability to attempt to communicate with this entity, we're less threatening.

Yes. Also, we will always be superior, capable of things you simply are not. We can learn everything you draw power from- Factories, the internet, organization- And you cannot learn song. I do not actually believe that is true, and neither will the other Elders. We will never be as good as Amentans in some areas. But many will believe that, and I predict it will be a calming influence on relations.

I suppose we can live with that, especially if it's helpful with keeping everything friendly.

I think it would be unreasonable to expect neither of our peoples to have beliefs that discomfit the other. 

He feels a sudden wave of - Disquiet, disgust. 

Factory farming is depressing. It feels like a perversion of ecosystems. One species, living in poor conditions, never seeing a live plant that they evolved to live with, their lives cold and predetermined. Even domestication is slightly disquieting, but factory farming is much worse.

I can see that for a people who hold naturally occurring ecosystems in high regard it would be very startling.

Startling. Yes. When I first read about it I felt like dropping everything else and going home to try to invent a plant that grows meat so I could then get all of Amenta to use it. That felt like a good use of my time in the moment. Still, I know that learning your way and finding a path to the future is more urgent.

I'm sure I saw only a tiny glimpse of how Amentans feel about pollution when you explained why bringing a red to meet me was infeasible, but it's the same broad category of feeling.

A plant that grows meat could in fact be popular enough to at least sharply curtail conventional animal farming, as long as it was economically comparable, but it doesn't seem like the top priority for right now if it would take a while to develop.

I am at least going to investigate what others have developed in that direction when I return home. Perhaps someone has a project that would readily bend towards that end. I think not all of us will consider ending factory farming a priority, but those who do will be quite motivated.

You don't think it'll be universally offensive?

I think it will be universally offensive, or close to it. It will not be universally the top priority.

That makes sense.

I've been asked to make inquiries into whether we should be considering you clean - it's not very urgent if not, you aren't touching anyone and the ocean is the sort of place that can clear pollution as long as the quantity isn't overwhelming, we don't panic when a ship is lost with all its crew in a storm - but people would like to know.

I think I would be clean, but require more information about what causes and spreads and removes pollution to be sure.

Amseli looks up the formal definition on Summary Bank. Any substance a person's body rejects because it is noxious, as opposed to for other reasons, is a primary pollutant; the corpse of a person is a primary pollutant; reds, even living, are primary pollutants, but you aren't likely to have those back home. People and things that come into contact with primary pollutants are secondarly polluted until thoroughly cleaned.

He decides not to mention that he keeps feathers from those he defeats in combat, and two of those were dead when plucked.

I have been thoroughly cleaned many times since I came into contact with any corpses of people. Waste decays into nature or is incinerated. In my ship it is sequestered until it can be safely dumped and the vessel is then cleaned with fire. I occasionally autoclave myself to remove chemical residues or dust, it seems like that would be an effective cleaning method. 

Reds are primary pollutants?

Autoclaving does the trick. And yes, they've been contacting the other primary pollutants often since long before really effective cleaning was invented.

That seems inconvenient. Is the purpose of this to remove disease vectors?

Yes, that's how our pollution sense is understood to have evolved.

We don't have anything like that. Perhaps because even juveniles with any skill at all can recognize most pathogens with the song and avoid dangerous concentrations of them - with the rare exception, such as the spores of the possible rogue bioweapon I mentioned, Blueblight. But it's something my kind will not have too much difficulty accommodating, I think.

Do the reds suffer from this instinct, if they are the only members of your kind considered inherently disgusting?

My understanding is that reds are less sensitive to it. How does telepathy allow you to identify pathogens?

The song is not just telepathy. It's a sense that happens to detect something other than electromagnetic radiation, or air vibration, or chemicals in the air. What exactly it detects is not very well understood even by the wisest among us. But it is what it is. Everything that is alive and many things that aren't sing. The signs are very faint sometimes, but they are there.

That's interesting! Do you have instruments that allow you to detect things you sense that way at greater range or precision, like lenses can for vision?

Yes! There are ways to trap patterns of song so they can be sensed again later, to detect things at a distance, to create illusions in it. There are ways to channel the action we perform to use telepathy into other effects, from light to stunning prey to healing to changing something's genetics, among others. It is even possible to make things that guide one's thoughts in particular patterns if you 'listen' intently - they are good teaching tools. Many of these are techniques, but my specialty is tools.