32,298
edits
Kuang Xuan's Logbook: Difference between revisions
m
Text replacement - "(“|”)" to """
m (Text replacement - "’" to "'") |
m (Text replacement - "(“|”)" to """) |
||
| Line 37: | Line 37: | ||
Unlearn your expectations, Xuan. And so learn readiness. | Unlearn your expectations, Xuan. And so learn readiness. | ||
Tomorrow we will begin the dig. I don't understand the | Tomorrow we will begin the dig. I don't understand the "extra-spatial" activity we detected, or the [[Clovis Bray (corporation)|Clovis Bray]] scientists who speak of transmissions that "propagate through Calabi-Yau sixspace." Maybe no one understands it. I have no expectations. I am prepared. | ||
<u>'''Still I wish I were not afraid.'''</u> | <u>'''Still I wish I were not afraid.'''</u> | ||
| Line 61: | Line 61: | ||
If I had my way, we would encode the question in topological thoughts and broadcast it to the Traveler. But that would mean going public. And the terms of our agreement with Clovis Bray demand secrecy. | If I had my way, we would encode the question in topological thoughts and broadcast it to the Traveler. But that would mean going public. And the terms of our agreement with Clovis Bray demand secrecy. | ||
Do we have an ethical duty to break that agreement? If we have discovered a clue to the Traveler's origins, certainly yes! Clovis Bray has buried its war against the [[Vex]] under a sarcophagus of secrecy and | Do we have an ethical duty to break that agreement? If we have discovered a clue to the Traveler's origins, certainly yes! Clovis Bray has buried its war against the [[Vex]] under a sarcophagus of secrecy and "existentially compromising information hazard"; they could do it again, here. Nowhere outside the retro-nationalism of the [[North American Empire]] does any private organization have such sweeping, selfish authority over knowledge which should belong to the whole human commons—and at least the Twin Eagles are voluntary society, answerable to higher law! Clovis Bray reeks of the old unregulated capitalism. | ||
But I will not be the first to break trust. I will not start the cycle of defection. | But I will not be the first to break trust. I will not start the cycle of defection. | ||
| Line 90: | Line 90: | ||
==Entry Seven== | ==Entry Seven== | ||
Yan and [[Mike Loftus|Loftus]] are making progress on the [[Black Fleet| | Yan and [[Mike Loftus|Loftus]] are making progress on the [[Black Fleet|"distant source"]] that communicates with the article. Their models describe the signal as a ripple moving through a six-dimensional manifold present at every point in our familiar four-dimensional spacetime. I almost understand it. But I am too much a creature of motion; too attached to the space I know. | ||
I almost wish they would make less progress; then I could afford to go easy on them. But it is clear that a major component of their work is intuitive and driven by proximity to the artifact. I have been pushing their exposure limits, because I fear (that is the honest word) that Clovis Bray will seize the site. Soon. | I almost wish they would make less progress; then I could afford to go easy on them. But it is clear that a major component of their work is intuitive and driven by proximity to the artifact. I have been pushing their exposure limits, because I fear (that is the honest word) that Clovis Bray will seize the site. Soon. | ||
| Line 123: | Line 123: | ||
[[Alton Bray]]! Of all the instruments I thought they'd deploy for their first trike, of all the machines and maneuvers at their disposal, they choose an '''ordinary man'''. <u>Even his implants were unremarkable</u>. | [[Alton Bray]]! Of all the instruments I thought they'd deploy for their first trike, of all the machines and maneuvers at their disposal, they choose an '''ordinary man'''. <u>Even his implants were unremarkable</u>. | ||
He rebuked me for my secrecy; I told him that the | He rebuked me for my secrecy; I told him that the "secrecy" of the project was the very reason I'd cut him out. He said it was not part of our agreement, as if that agreement hadn't introduced the virus of secrecy in the first place! | ||
So I showed him what we'd done with all our secrets. I showed him the thing we'd built, the thing that Clovis Bray would now never be able to keep for itself. | So I showed him what we'd done with all our secrets. I showed him the thing we'd built, the thing that Clovis Bray would now never be able to keep for itself. | ||
| Line 132: | Line 132: | ||
<u>Clovis Bray stole it</u>. | <u>Clovis Bray stole it</u>. | ||
That meat-suit Alton twisted the [[K1 Communion|Site Two]] antenna into proof that we no longer need the article itself. He asked me why we want to keep suffering under its influence, risking | That meat-suit Alton twisted the [[K1 Communion|Site Two]] antenna into proof that we no longer need the article itself. He asked me why we want to keep suffering under its influence, risking "unknown noetic effects" and "massive psychological attrition." He insists on pathologizing the experience of contact—as if every difficult discipline, from Buddhism to contract bridge, doesn't suffer attrition in its learners! | ||
His corporation has designed a [[The Anomaly|gruesomely overengineered containment system to hold the article]]. It poses more of a danger to us than the artifact ever did! Yet we have no choice but to install it. Then the whole containment system and its suspension will be hauled from [[K1 Revelation|the dig]] to [[The Anomaly|a permanent Clovis Bray laboratory nearby]]. | His corporation has designed a [[The Anomaly|gruesomely overengineered containment system to hold the article]]. It poses more of a danger to us than the artifact ever did! Yet we have no choice but to install it. Then the whole containment system and its suspension will be hauled from [[K1 Revelation|the dig]] to [[The Anomaly|a permanent Clovis Bray laboratory nearby]]. | ||
| Line 178: | Line 178: | ||
==Entry Eighteen== | ==Entry Eighteen== | ||
We are settling into a routine of exposure and rest. This had yielded several insights, which the science team insists on referring to as | We are settling into a routine of exposure and rest. This had yielded several insights, which the science team insists on referring to as "excursions": | ||
* An interesting proof that life arises to maximize a system's energy capture | * An interesting proof that life arises to maximize a system's energy capture | ||