Intergalactic Summit

Don't know if I should laugh at stupidity, or shrug at expected antics of college students..... Choices....

Agreed. Why attempt to communicate with a bunch of self-aware killing machines? Shoot them and be done with it, because they'll do the same to you given the chance.

Well. It would have made a good grade. If it worked

Whilst the way in which these students conducted this talk left something to be desired, I believe the core principle behind communication with the Rogue Drone Hive has merit. It's easy to say "they're different" and be done with that, but if you actually look at the situation there are several arguments for trying to better understand these intelligences. In fact, there's an argument from the perspective of each Empire, so I struggle to see why this debate should be allowed to be strangled by petty politicking.

Minmatar: Do you like the sound of "shoot them because they're different"? Is trampling on another form of existence just because they're strange to us something that particularly resonates with your psyche? My guess is "no". Perhaps there is good reason to crush these drones - but do you want to act the same way as the Amarr did and not even try and uncover any such reason?

Amarr: These creatures (and they are creatures, if you truly adhere to your beliefs) were put here for a reason. Your god has delivered judgement on you before for attempting to subjugate an unknown and strange race, the Jove, by humiliation in the war and the subsequent Minmatar rebellion. Even if your god's divine will is to destroy the drones, you cannot presume to simply know this without investigation - would you risk your god's ire again?

Gallente: Liberty and freedom are supposed to be your core tenets, the pillars upon which your Federation is built. These rights are given to all - can you truly feel comfortable assuming the role of arbitrarily denying one race or another these rights, without even asking yourselves why? Without even seeing the drone perspective?

Caldari: We of all races should see the opportunity here. Powerful weapons of war, intelligences that have grown and multiplied through their own technological advances, unseen and unknown. Can we truly justify throwing away potential resources, or even allies, without so much as a second thought?


Don't let this become a slugfest between rivalling ideologies. Everybody has a reason to find out what we can about these Rogue Drone Hives - look beyond superficial differences and see the opportunity for what it is.

...this'll end well.

Notice that I'm Minmatar, good sir, but I never mentioned shooting them because they're different. Perhaps I should have explained more on my post. In fact, I like them the way they are. Probably my love for nature has something to say, but I consider them fascinating creatures. Therefore, attacking them just because they're different is, through my eyes, as stupid as killing the spider you've just seen on the ceiling just because you don't like it.

It does have some parallelism with Minmatar Tribes. We can be very different from each other, and not only in our culture. In fact, that was cause for conflict in the past. Now, however, we've realized how much we need each other and the no-sense of hating each other. So, we do understand hating the different is not at all wise.

That said, one should take great care when attemping to communicate with Rogue Drones. Hives are really intelligent, I understand the interest of these students. However, their mind is alien in nature, their values are mainly not ours, and taking from the short dialogue, they can actually not like us. So, establishing contact with them should be taken as a matter as delicate as talking with an "enemy" that has alien values.

I think they're demanding human characteristics as a prerequisite to intelligence and sapience. It's like finding alien life and looking for deoxyribonucleic acid as the vessel for trait inheritance, then declaring it to not be life at all when it turns out it didn't spring from the same goo as we did in the same way.

It may very well prove impossible to "befriend" rogue drones, but I don't doubt they're capable of sentience of some sort or another. This means that there'll always be ways to deal with them without necessarily using violence. Train them with rewards and incentive, should such leverage be found. Allow them to understand the consequences of aggression. Teach them the benefits of... well, we could call it a level of cooperation if we get sufficient understanding of their needs and wants.

Whether they're merely insects in space, or something far more intelligent than such is rather irrelevant. Everything that's alive in any sense of the word can be dealt with in some manner or another, even if it simply means learning how to purge them from your immediate surroundings.

Right now, all I need to know about rogue drones is what type of ammo to load. We can debate their motivations and beauty all day, but Rogue Drones are always, always, always violent and aggressive to human life. Not capsuleers. Not armed intruders. All human life. Everywhere.

This doesn'tvsound legit for some reason. Is this for reals?