We'll be looking into exactly that next year when we hand the emitter over to Mary (my preference would be for Amanda to get permission to do so on bended knee with a ring box ) and have her go to town.
Why? At first I thought this was about "that you have permission to let me onto ALL of the ships to do this" but then further clarification was added and it became "put your species at risk by admitting to be governmental representatives". And my question is "Why is Amanda demanding that?"
This all stems from Unknown Potential, where it was revealed that it was possible to take down the Shiplords, but that we'd need a coalition of the largest alien races to do it and it'd still probably be devastating. It is impossible to have an open conversation about how a coalition of the largest groups have a chance to topple the Shiplords when the Contact Fleet are still maintaining the fig leaf fiction that they are some rogue group, unconnected with any larger organization at all.
With the extension that Amanda is asking this due to being a not-a-diplomat trying to get the CF to the actual diplomatic table. To do that, they need to admit who they represent. The relevant link here is that she's being invited aboard their ships, but what they'd like her to do is in a way a diplomatic request. So she's asking for them to clarify where it comes from.
So, we now have roughly half the votes coming from one-word, no justification posts, which are somewhat infuriating because I suspect many of them are expecting Amanda to Speak at Kendl in the next update and there's no way that's happening. The vote is for what tack we're taking in the negotiations, and not anything to do with Practice.
If I may clarify this if nothing else: Amanda is NOT Speaking your word of choice.
Hopefully this post ends up long enough to trigger OP alerts.
Going to yoink your options and just go through them one by one. They're all very similar in some ways, but the exact way Amanda frames her reply here is likely to matter. Also, whilst I'm aware that some people don't always have direct things to add to the discussion beyond their vote, large numbers of single-word voting posts can be a little disheartening.
Truth: All about, somewhat ironically, revealing the Project Insight revelations, and using that to leverage Kendl into admitting her group's true affiliations. Very high-risk, high reward, because it amounts to yet again giving away something for free and expecting the Fleet to meet us halfway, but there is a further risk that the Fleet will start to fear associating with us, because this whole "pulling knowledge from the Void" thing sounds like a super-dangerous version of what the Nileans did invading a Shiplord comm node.
Truth doesn't so much reveal Project Insight as lean against it, using not-quite-lies of data extracted from Tribute Fleet wreckage and the subnet hub and putting it together with the small version of our knowledge of the galaxy in pursuit of a very simply statement. They wouldn't be here if they didn't think we might be worth revealing their contact with us. It's the bluntest of your options, in some ways, due to how clear you'll be making the statement. It also skates the edge of you having knowledge beyond what you should, but Kendl is unlikely to notice that now. That said, given that you're trying to get them to a full negotiation posture, they're going to find out about the UPI report at highest levels anyway. Dropping hints, vague as they'll be, won't really affect the current conversation.
Insight: Leveraging soft power, trying to pick apart Kendl's motives and motivations to persuade her to agree. Probably wouldn't have worked at all if not for Kendl being off-balance due to her Mending, but is actually possible now that her Soul is less closed off than it has been for the last several centuries. A little bit of a cheap shot, and has a chance to backfire if Kendl remembers her spy training at the wrong moment and reaccts badly to an attempt to manipulate her emotions, but allows us to keep our secrets and not bare our own soul.
Here you're more than a bit off. Insight involves a very reasoned set of statements that skirt the edge of outright saying what Truth would. It's designed to show that humanity has a stake in this, although less than Freedom does, and direct Kendl towards realising the flaw in her own argument. In some ways almost more 'truthful' than Truth, but it's a complex set of interpretations. Some sharing of insights, likely ending with a statement about how their fears of the Shiplords, whilst justified, might give them too much credit as effective rulers of the galaxy. This may worry you; it shouldn't. It's not going to be said arrogantly, and Amanda is good enough to make that clear.
Freedom: Reveal our own desire for freedom, which as a prerequisite requires the Shiplords to be very, very dead. The most emotionally taxing for Amanda, and risks revealing exactly how raw the emotions still are on Humanity/Amanda's side regarding the Shiplords; on the other hand I think this is a side of Humanity that needs to be revealed, and the fact that it hasn't yet been may be making the Nileans and the rest of the Contact Fleet suspicious.
Freedom is an awkward one, as it does base in some ways around humanity's own desire for freedom, but how you present that is very delicate. Simply revealing how committed we are to the absolute destruction of all things Shiplord, with much of the connected emotional component, isn't actually the best option. But then, Amanda isn't going to do that. Remember what was stated a while back; humanity is 100% dedicated to war with the Shiplords. The Shiplords don't share the sentiment. And you're talking to someone who is the product of an Intrigue-focused society that has spent almost half as long as humanity has had coherent written history living in the Shiplord's shadow. That said, it is the most emotional option, and the one most focused on showing that for all your openness and smiles, there's a burning core of anger against your oppressors. None of the G6 like living under the Shiplords, after all.
All of these options hold their own risks and rewards, but they're balanced against each other. Amanda is coming at this after over a week of high level interactions with the representatives, a great deal of study, and some Insight reports on species baselines. The option you pick might worry some races whilst emboldening others, and how you do it will matter in that regard and a few other. That said, none of the options risk damage to your diplomatic relations. There's enough built on that that's a non-issue. I know, myself, how I'd have Amanda answer, and I could have simply pushed past. But the occasions I give you to decide how Amanda is likely to deal with opportunities like this are rather rare, and this is a special one. In that regard, this will shape Mandy in future interactions, and not just with the CF.
Further questions, if the clarifications I've given are unclear, are very much welcome. I'll also be leaving the vote open overnight at this point, at minimum.
So after reading some of the discussion and Snow's interjection, I'm no longer quite as interested in flat out revealing Humanity can learn pretty much anything about anyone with enough time and effort. Which is an exaggeration, but tell the paranoid aliens that. We've already displayed Humanity's power, I wanna dial it back a bit.
Hmm, that is a distinctly different set of interpretations than my original thoughts. After weighing them I think my original vote still stands, but for different reasons than it did before.
Something to consider on my explanation of Freedom, is that the option brings out similarity between you on an emotional level. Amanda will work to show how the Sorrows and the everything else deeply affected humanity, with just a few sparks of fire to make the statement clear. She's not going to go blabbing about long term plans, or the UPI report, but make it clear that humanity is as prepared as it can be for the possibilities of this alliance leading down dark paths.
Talking seriously for a moment, what I said isn't actually wrong, and to be fair you're not lying to Kendl in any of the options. The information you have is true, you know that, but the sourcing is a little different from what she'd expect.
Truth gives her the truth of her situation, that she wouldn't be here if the decision she's being hesitant about hadn't already been made.
Insight helps her find that herself, whilst giving some insight into how humans tick beneath the surface.
Freedom expresses humanity's own desire to be free of the systems of the Shiplords, and taps into the shared embers that bind the entire G6, if in different ways.
Adhoc vote count started by Snowfire on Apr 7, 2018 at 6:06 AM, finished with 11040 posts and 25 votes.
Now that the options have actually been explained, Truth doesn't sound quite so appealing anymore.
[X] Insight
I like this one because it seems to focus on getting the aliens to make the relevant connecting leaps for themselves, and thereby convincing themselves of them, rather than just telling them outright.
So on the subject of besting Shiplord infiltration- when we start trading and interacting with the greater universe how do we keep infiltrators from coming in?
I get that; on the other hand presenting the hardheaded calculations sounds much more like the job of the actual diplomats, the ones who have been quietly discussing the nuts and bolts of what goes where for years.
Not really.
Amanda has an intentionally broad remit, and while it's not her job to deal with the fiddly bits, she does do the logical and technical arguments just fine.
Our very first encounter had her doing the security sweep for example.
Furthermore, she was President of Earthgov for fifteen years.
Being able to switch between the emotional and the logical technical is something that the G6 would expect of someone like her, and is definitely something she was selected for.
Being able to make an emotional argument while keeping broad strategy in mind is not exactly easy.
After all, even after two Tribute Fleets, one only a few years previous, Humanity is apparently open to making diplomatic overtures with potentially hostile aliens, greeting them with open smiles and showing off wonders and Miracles like they were party favors; who's to say they aren't one Shiplord diplomatic courier away from making an alliance with the oppressors of the galaxy?
This isn't true.
They have a limited snapshot of our Net activity, up to the point of actual broadcast data of the Second Battle of Sol, and in enough detail to realize the ages of Amanda's daughter. They are under no illusions what the societal consensus regarding our attitude towards the Shiplords is.
I mean, here's explicit textev of Amanda Hawk, ex-President and Unison head, talking to the G6:
"Not as far as we know. It affects only a handful of our population, but it does so along deeply specific lines. My own directly opposes the nature of Shiplord construction and lets me detect devices of their creation, and then destroy them." You didn't speak loudly, but the weight of your words resonated in a way that you hoped your guests would understand. You couldn't put into words how wrong Shiplord systems felt to you to other humans, which made trying to convey it to nonhumans a challenge. "They are a wrongness in the world, a blight that I cannot ignore, and will not abide when I have the power to wipe it away."
"We shall open a link to our Network for you." Grasis added, as you watched the aides to the Telas representative lift the three former infiltrators with an easy strength quite opposed to their slender bodies, then carry them away. "Your contact packages were very complete, after all, and ours are not as near to being so highly polished. Within the network, you should be able to find answers." That you'd be tracking their every move in there went without saying.
"I am what my people call a Mender." You began, bringing your hand to your breast. "I told you at our last meeting that Practice grants power along particular avenues. Mine is Mending. It gives me the ability to detect, repair and heal almost any form of damage. Again, as I told you, I perceive Shiplord biotechnology as a gaping wound. Something I can't miss, not if I focus."
"Practice makes no exception between wounds of the body, and wounds of the mind or soul. I have little doubt that you've looked at our race, at how we've risen past the pain of our, First Fall, as you call it. That, one way or another, was down to Practice. And people like me." For all the truth in the last sentence, you didn't like saying it. It made you feel too special, but there was more to the statement than yourself. "With our help, humanity was able to overcome the crushing horror and pain of our Sorrows. Let me be clear, we have not forgotten, or forgiven what was done to us. But it doesn't drive us, not in the same way that perhaps you thought it would."
Every word we've used has indicated an implacable opposition to the Shiplords and their works.
Even that some manifestations of Practice explicitly oppose Shiplord technology.
And everything they can access corroborates the fact that Amanda speaks for Earth.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Basically, I'm arguing that if we want partners who are in this wholeheartedly of their own will, the more involved, the more fully responsible they feel for those decisions, the more committed they will be to actions resulting from it.
Truth relies a lot on data from Project Insight without revealing it. It's basically parallel construction, and has the same ethical issues.
It appropriates some of the approaches the Nileans have used with manipulating people, even some of their partners, and it will generate some of the same trust problems in the future for Earthgov and Humanity when Project Insight is finally revealed.
Freedom feels entirely too much about Humanity's anger, when it should be about the G6.
Insight OTOH is about the G6.
It frames things so that they come to the decision of their own accord, by seeing the flaws in their own arguments, rather than being pushed by us.
This is especially important because two elements of the G6, the Sarthee and the Schorvan, both seem to have significant internal dissent about whether going after the Shiplords is a realistic prospect. The Schorvan seem to be more Doubting Thomases, but the Sarthee in particular have an Uninvolved movement in their society, and they're the premier military power of the G6. They need to be invested in this.
We need them committed of their own accord, not feeling they were talked into it.
EDIT: Note that this was the same thing the Nileans did to get this fleet organized; they didn't persuade, but presented the data so that the other nations came to their own conclusions.
If the Contact team feel they were persuaded, we are going to have to keep pushing and dragging them along.
If they come to this decision mostly of their own accord, we won't, because the Contact team will be more invested in selling this decision to their governments. It's that simple.
Adhoc vote count started by uju32 on Apr 7, 2018 at 10:01 AM, finished with 11043 posts and 26 votes.
So the question is if you think it's more important to get them invested on their own terms, or if you think they're already invested enough and they need to know that Humanity is ALSO invested.
Alright fine, I guess my vote actually matters. I haven't been saying anything because even after the explanations I don't think I understand enough of what we'll be saying to really trust my opinion (and because I'm terrible at people, but eh), but between our dear QM's post and uju's analysis, I think I like
[X] Insight
more, because I like the idea of communicating the idea that we can, in fact, win if we work together as a more key message than communicating the emotions humanity is feeling. I will admit the emotional bit is probably what our dear protagonist is better at, so Freedom might actually be a better choice, but oh well. I think this would be a better approach, and we are kind of absurdly competent at convincing people of true things (that is, diplomacy), so I hope it won't be that bad.
) and have her go to town.
