Why did your other partners want to create children if they weren't interested in rearing them?

The dance that causes children is a great pleasure, and creating new life with a wealthy or skilled or well-known Draak is something to boast about, and knowing your traits are being spread to the world is... Culturally reassuring. Even if you are destroyed, silenced, your song continues as an echo, a chorus.

That makes sense. Are you going to have trouble holding your population growth down when there are more of you? Probably at your current level you're not stressing the ecosystem at all, but since that's important to you, later on...

In the past this was managed by expecting Draak to starve or kill each other for territory when there were too many. Under a new way, I expect such things would be... Discouraged. Still, I do not expect it to be a problem. If it is, we will see the danger looming.

Amseli nods. In our history we saw it coming, but coordinating a solution was a very difficult time for everyone.

That sounds like a very relevant story, to the future course of both our species. I want to hear it from you, and read about it.

You should be warned that the details are very ugly.

I do not think I will find the same things ugly about history as you do... Our history is sometimes ugly, too. I will keep that in mind. 

Up until less than half a century ago, nations warred frequently, often under pretexts but really for territory. You can still see lingering poverty in border provinces compared to interior ones, in countries that have both. Everyone wanted more space for their people, because everyone was intolerably crowded; there were some early attempts to restrict births, once birth control was invented, but it wasn't consistently enforced enough and there were always people who preferred to let their own populations explode and spill out against others to take their chances. It was with great difficulty we managed to coordinate internationally on making it a war crime to have non-greys in combat positions, and that at least limited the scope of the fighting.

Just a few years later the Emperor was assassinated from within his own empire and the resulting power vacuum prompted his successors to grant autonomy to any political unit with a remotely credible claim on it. They've recovered more or less well depending on how long they were occupied and the decisions of their blues. But we've managed to maintain the one good thing about the Empire's bid for power - well-coordinated agreements to inspect each other's population control habits and crack down on anyone who lets their citizens cheat.

He takes a minute to parse all that. There's a lot of somewhat unfamiliar concepts in it.

A history of well-measured population control, of avoiding war crimes or punishing them even when not doing so would be convenient, of countries keeping their deals even in times of difficulty, a new way that you are following now, will be reassuring to my kin. It will certainly help, though I cannot promise more. If it were a full half-century, a longer time than any one of your lives, that would be a clear milestone. It sounds like it has been less, but it is still significant. I certainly want more detail.

There are some survivors of the events alive, but they were children then and are very old now. What can I expand on for you?

How is it ensured that all Amentan countries follow the new way? What other agreements between all countries have been made? When was a time when an agreement was breached, and what happened then? And this question may be premature, but would countries allow Draak observers to verify that an agreement between Draak and Amenta is being followed? I believe a more formal thing than a Grand Moot will be needed for such a deal... Premature. I will read more about all of this later for nuance and verification, but you are my guide in an unfamiliar ideaspace.

Amseli can tell him about the summits and the conferences at which the major nations decided on grey-only combat and post-imperial population control; she can tell him about breaches of the grey rule in Ereith, in Tuvan, in Tea; sanctions that have not yet blossomed into any wars against population laxity in Shi Cubrio, Tuviri, and Soweto. They do generally handle population monitoring with foreign observers, and Draak observers aren't so different in principle, if they come to a good agreement.

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?