How much is enough?

It varies. An adult ten years of age without a few hundred shiny trinkets and six more impressive items would feel like they did not have enough. As you grow older you get used to having more treasure than before. Losing most of my treasure would be extremely painful, but it would be tolerable if I had enough shiny things that I could not hold them all at once and could begin accumuating more. But there are many kinds of treasure, some which cannot be touched. Knowledge and secrets and technology are my most beloved treasures.

That's interesting. Amentans are interested in material security, mostly in the form of money, and some of us like to accumulate objects, or specific kinds of them, but it's not a species-wide interest.

Money is a concept that most Draak would be very skeptical of. I tried an experiment to get Draak to use money once, with specially prepared plant matter. The results were: If each unit of a currency corresponded to something specific and concrete they could exchange their money for, they would accept it and use it, but nobody wanted a unit of exchange that was meaningless beyond being a unit of exchange, even when led to believe that everyone else wanted it too. I was surprised by that. I was very sure our instinct as to what is treasure was affected by others' opinions, but it doesn't seem to be.

Currency on Amenta used to be backed by concrete commodities but eventually we did make the switch to fiat, which is useful for many of the functions of markets. I'm surprised that it's so unappealing to Draak.

I only did that experiment once. Kin are harder to experiment on than animals or things. Maybe money would appeal more generally if it was presented in a different way. It appeals to me, but mostly as a way to get other things.

A lot of Amentans enjoy getting numerical representations of nothing at all even when it can't be used to get things - like points in games - which I don't think anyone tries to acculturate on purpose the way we deliberately got used to fiat money, so it seems likely to be a species level difference.

There are many of those. I think we do not talk to each other as much as Amentans do. This conversation feels like it has already gone on a very long time.

I'm happy to pause any time you'd prefer to break.

I do not need solitude yet, but I want a new topic. Are there any greens specialized in terraforming techniques who would be willing to communicate this way?

"Yes, we've gotten ahold of one and he's on his way."

How long will it be?

I believe this was a shared assumption, but it is wise to state it clearly. It would be extremely irresponsible of me to teach the light-bridge without first calling a Grand Moot, and I will not do that even under threat of destruction.

He'll be here in about ten minutes.

It wasn't obvious whether you were at liberty to share unilaterally. Are you saying you're unwilling to take steps toward sharing at all, or have I misunderstood?

I can do what I want. But it would make me shunned and it would not be the best thing for my species to share this secret unilaterally, and I hold some loyalty to the species as a whole.

I am willing to share information that is sufficiently unlikely to invite war to Newhome. This class of information will probably expand as I learn more. I am willing to learn about your kind and discuss the concerns I have and the concerns others will have and the concerns you have, and consider and reconsider and reconsider again.

I am willing to call a Grand Moot to discuss a new way for our species, contact with aliens, sharing of technology, and the future. I think the old way must change. I am less sure how, and look forward to Darktooth's wisdom on that topic.

We're happy to tell you about ourselves and discuss ways forward.

I wonder if Draak have invented science fiction. It's a kind of story we invent for entertainment purposes; a lot of them are about different ways we imagined aliens might be and what it could be like to meet them.

I think we have not. Though fiction itself is familiar. I would read some if you think it is relevant. Reading does not come naturally to us, but I do like a challenge. I also want to know your history at some point. History is a predictor of the future.

I'll ask around for recommendations if you'd like some books to read, fiction and history both.

Good. 

He waits a moment to see if Amseli has anything else to say.

I think that's the terraforming green arriving now.

He still has little experience telling them apart or interpreting much of anything about how they stand or move.

Good! I hope he's smart. Please indicate him to me.

He's the only green on the boat approaching now.

He waits for the boat to come closer before sending, Hello, you know about terraforming?

- yes, that's right! We haven't had a good prospect for attempting it in practice but I know about what we think would work.

Excitement! Our kinds have studied different things. I'm being careful what I share, but it's still very exciting. I am going to share detailed survey information on twenty barren planets and part of our conversation is to help me decide which ones you would want to know about the most.

Ideally, we need a planet with year lengths near ours - a half-season longer or as much as a season shorter would probably be good enough - and a molten core so we can use geothermal energy. It would also be convenient to have a way to locally harvest water, since we need a lot of that and it's one of the least efficient things to haul, but it's not a problem if the water is vapor or ice, as long as we can generate enough power.