[Fan Fiction] Looking forward to the Mirror (Completed)

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dragoongfa
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Re: [Fan Fiction] Looking forward to the Mirror

Post by dragoongfa »

Chapter 7, part 1

“Sir, none of the files that the Loroi sent us have any sort of malware or executable in them.” Operation’s officer lieutenant Gina Vinica reported.

“Are you certain lieutenant?” Captain Asteios asked.

“All of it is raw text with attached pictures and the format is pretty straight forward; almost like a printed encyclopedia.”

“Alright then, take it out of quarantine and send it to the doctor.” The Captain ordered.

“Yes sir.”

Captain Asteios turned his attention back to his screen and the video feed from Lieutenant Allerberger’s space suit.

“Doranzer Needle asks if it is acceptable to restrain your subordinate?” The Loroi diplomat, Torimor Shadowcloud asked.

“Is it necessary?” Lieutenant Allerberger asked, his voice’s tone enough for the captain’s imagination to draw a deep frowning picture of the lieutenant in his mind.

“It is best that the patient doesn’t move at all during the procedure. It helps to avoid mistakes thus limiting the time of the procedure itself.” Torimor Shadowcloud explained.

“Private Gomez?” Lietenant Allerberger asked the naked marine that was laid on a medical examination bed.

“I would prefer not to be tied up sir, I will stay still even if it hurts like hell.” Private Gomez replied in trade.

“There is no need to worry, the procedure itself is painless.” Torimor Shadowcloud explained and Private Gomez visibly relaxed; although for some reason the Loroi seemed confused about something. “Does ‘hurt like hell’ have a special meaning?”

“It’s a metaphorical figure of speech, meaning unbearable pain. Why do you ask?” Lieutenant Allerberger replied.

“We Loroi find it confusing when words with an unrelated meaning to a conversation are used in it.” Shadowcloud explained.

“I understand, it’s something that humans do in their conversations without thinking about it.”

“But why use unrelated words in such figures of speech? Saying the literal words is far less confusing.” Torimor Shadowcloud asked.

“Humans like to add some flair to our vocabulary when conversing since we find bland conversations boring.” Lieutenant Allerberger replied.

“Flair, Bland?” The Loroi asked, still confused.

“Like food, no one likes to eat food with little to no taste, so we add spices to make it taste better.” The marine lieutenant explained.

“I understand, the Loroi at the planet I grew up on do the same with their food.” Torimor Shadowcloud replied. “But verbal speech is vastly different from food which is a necessity for survival. Comparing the two seems far-fetched to us.”

“It can be argued that socialization is a deeply ingrained psychological need for humans.” Lieutenant Allerberger said after some thought. “I have never really thought about it but I think that we do this in all our forms of communications because we find them lacking otherwise.” The Loroi’s face lit up as if in understanding as the marine said that.

“We Loroi also have this need for socialization but our telepathic abilities allow for very detailed, precise and emotional communications even from some distance away.” The Loroi replied.

“So, metaphorical figures of speech fly over their head…” Captain Asteios said out loud once the conversation they overheard ended.

“Sir, I once read a fantasy book in which a telepathic race of humans had trouble understanding metaphors and abstract meanings because of their telepathy.” Lieutenant Vinica commented.

“Go, on.”

“In the book the telepaths communicated with each other using their raw thoughts. Thoughts however are always flagged as true or false on the mind of the one who ‘speaks’ so the one who listens would always know if what was being said was true or false. This led to the telepaths always speaking the truth to each other, even when the truth itself would be problematic.” Lieutenant Vinica explained.

“Earlier, Torimor Tigomenial looked ready to attack one of the Teidar.” Lieutenant Lucas Martel commented.

“Perhaps she didn’t like the ‘truth’ that Teidar said…” Captain Asteios said out loud.

“Perhaps it was something to do with her coming in physical contact with one of us.” Lieutenant Martel commented.

“Which reminds me…” Captain Asteios said as he tapped a command on his console. “Private Westwood, do you read me?”

“Yes sir, loud and clear.” The Marine on the Loroi vessel replied.

“What were you thinking?”

“Sir?”

“What were you thinking when the Loroi diplomat scanned you?” Captain Asteios explained.

“Ah…well…”

“I was the one who suggested that the volunteer should think ‘something that would cause a reaction’.” Captain Asteios admitted.

“Well…the Loroi didn’t react sir.” Westwood said with an embarrassed voice.

“That bad?”

“My girlfriend back on Earth didn’t like it at all when I suggested that…” Captain Asteios couldn’t help but laugh at that.

“Some things would cause a reaction...”

“What I thought definitely would sir.” The marine replied with an embarrassed laugh.

“You looked a little nervous as well.” Captain Asteios commented.

“Thinking ‘That’ when your brain is probed by a telepath would do that to anyone sir.”

“I can only imagine.” Captain Asteios said and closed the channel.

“I am torn between asking for details and bleaching my brain to wash away my imagination.” Lieutenant Vinica commented.

“He is a marine.” Lieutenant Martel pointed out.

“Brain bleach it is.” She replied with a laugh.

“So…in that book.” Captain Asteios begun. “The telepaths never spoke falsehood?”

“Among themselves no, they explained that false thoughts were used for jokes and for teasing someone. They also preferred to speak the truth even with non telepaths but they had to relegate negotiations to people who were trained to hide the truth and tell lies.” Lieutenant Vinica replied.

“Interesting…” Captain Asteios said as he pondered the Loroi diplomat from a new point of view. “What if something that they thought was true was proven false?”

“That was a key plot point of the story sir, although they were more than capable to accept a situation where the truth was proven false, they did so only for mundane, everyday situations. However there were huge social problems when one of their core religious beliefs was proven false. The telepaths even reacted violently to those who challenged that belief.”

“Religion does that to people.” Captain Asteios commented.

“In the end the telepaths overcame that hurdle by admitting that their tenant of truth above all else held a superior position than their religious beliefs did.”

“Sounds interesting… did the book have any insights about telepathic ‘speech’.” Captain Asteios asked.

“The normal humans in the story discussed that it would be impossible for them to really understand telepathic ‘speech’ since they lacked the necessary telepathic senses. The telepaths themselves admitted that even if they wrote down everything they spoke, there would still have trouble with passing the full meaning of the conversation. I think that it was the writer’s way of saying ‘that’s why I don’t write down the telepathic speech because even if I did, it would at best be just an approximation’.”

A communications alert flashed at the Captain’s console, drawing his attention and making him sigh when he saw the caller’s ID.

What does she want now?

Chapter 7, part 2: http://www.well-of-souls.com/forums/vie ... 103#p19103
Last edited by Guest on Sun May 08, 2016 4:59 pm, edited 7 times in total.

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dragoongfa
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Re: [Fan Fiction] Looking forward to the Mirror

Post by dragoongfa »

Here is a small treat as a thank you for breaking 10.000 views.

Also, I think that I will now be able to squeeze two updates every week instead of just one.

Logannion
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Re: [Fan Fiction] Looking forward to the Mirror

Post by Logannion »

dragoongfa wrote:Here is a small treat as a thank you for breaking 10.000 views.

Also, I think that I will now be able to squeeze two updates every week instead of just one.

*Cheers*
:D

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Re: [Fan Fiction] Looking forward to the Mirror

Post by dragoongfa »

Chapter 7, part 2

“Yes doctor?” Captain Asteios said politely even though she could see some traces of annoyance on his face.

“Sir, I have trouble with the data that the Loroi have sent us.” Lieutenant commander Miranda Jacobson, Matveyev’s medical officer, replied.

“What kind of trouble? Is it incomplete?” The captain asked with a frown.

“Not as far as I have seen but… I don’t know how to put it sir, it’s exactly like a hard to read encyclopedia; I believe that it has everything but the way it is written and arranged makes it very hard to study. It’s nothing like our ‘pedia’ standard format that is specifically designed to work with keywords and to provide comprehensive and easy to understand information about any particular subject.” She explained.

“That doesn’t sound that it is unreadeable.” The captain commented.

“No sir, it’s just hard to read and comprehend; it would take months for someone to go through it in detail.” The doctor replied.

“That seems troublesome…” The captain admitted. “For the time being we don’t need to know everything about them… can you find specific parts and see if they make any medical sense?”

“I could try to use a word search function to search for particular phrases and subjects but that would take a lot of time; I know that we have some programmers aboard and I would like for them to see if they are able to implement a comprehensive search and archiving function for the Loroi data.”

“I will ask the resident code monkeys but I can’t make any promises. For the time being I would like you to oversee Gomez’s treatment by the Loroi, I think that they are about to start.” Captain Asteios said.

“Yes sir, thank you sir.” She replied and closed the channel while immediately accessing the video feed from Lieutenant Allerberger.

“Doranzer Needle has finished adapting the machine by using the biological information you sent us and asks if you are ready to proceed.” The black haired Loroi, the diplomat if she remembered correctly, said to private Gomez in Trade. The private was laid naked on a medical bed in front of what looked like an oversized medical scanner; his wound, which was sealed with coagulated blood, had been cleaned on the surface leaving only the barely closed entry wound visible.

“I am ready.” The private replied and the bed slowly slid into the scanner which looked oddly out of place to her. It was as big as the ancient MRI that was exhibited at her university, a medical device that was obsolete almost a century ago. Matveyev’s medical scanner was a third of the size of the Loroi one and even that was at first considered too big for such a small ship.

“Lieutenant can you turn towards the machine’s control panel?” The doctor asked and the marine did as he was asked. The console was as she expected it to be, if a little extravagant. It had a big screen that nearly covered the entire wall, with a plethora of smaller secondary screens beneath it. The Loroi medic, an unseemly young female with short white hair, was operating what looked like holographic controls with dexterity. She couldn’t see whatever the screens were showing due to the camera’s angle and contemplated if she should ask the Lieutenant to position himself so she could take a better look.

“Lieutenant, how knowledgeable are you in medical matters?” She asked.

“I don’t know much doctor, I can administer first aid and do some stitches but nothing more than that.” Lieutenant Allerberger replied.

“If the Loroi make a mistake I want you ready to apply coagulant foam again, for now let’s see what the Loroi think of their scans.”

“Yes doctor.”

“The procedure is finished.” The Loroi diplomat said in Trade as the bed slowly slid out of the scanner.

“What?!” Doctor Jacobson cried out in an instant.

“It’s over? My subordinate is fully healed?” The lieutenant asked with disbelief.

“Of course.” The Loroi diplomat said with a smile and gestured towards private Gomez.

“Private?” Lieutenant Allerberger said as he approached him.

“Yes, sir?”

“How are you feeling?” The Lieutenant asked in Trade.

“Why? Are we done?” Both the Loroi diplomat and the medic chuckled at that.

“Looks like you are.” The lieutenant commented as he leaned to take a look at the pink scar tissue that denoted the now closed wound.

“Regeneration…” The doctor managed to mutter as she understood what had happened.

“That’s not funny sir.” The private said and the lieutenant just poked the pink scar with a finger.

“Does this hurt?”

“No.”

“Then you are healed.” The private then lifted his head to look at his abdomen.

“Damn.”

“Is he good to go?” The lieutenant asked and the Loroi diplomat looked at the medic.

“Just a few solons more.” The diplomat replied as the medic took what looked like a stylus from a pouch and approached the private who remained perfectly still as she ‘wrote’ on the scar tissue.
When she was finished the scar tissue was gone, replaced by smooth skin which left no indication that the wound ever existed.

“Your subordinate has been fully healed.” The diplomat said and the private instantly stood up and checked his abdomen in disbelief.

“It’s as if I was never hit.” The private commented and turned to the Loroi medic.” Thanks doctor… I mean Doranzer Needle.” The Loroi medic looked away in embarrassment, probably due to the full frontal nudity, while the private immediately went to dress himself again when he saw that reaction.

“Doranzer Needle appreciates your thanks and apologizes that her lack of skill at vocal speech stops her from telling you herself.” The diplomat said while barely controlling a laugh.

“It’s not a problem, I understand, telepaths and all that.” Private Gomez said as he hurriedly put on his underwear.

“Is it normal for Loroi not to feel confident with vocal speech?” Lieutenant Allerberger asked.

“I think that it is easy to understand that vocal speech is seen as awkward and inefficient by many Loroi, our civilians barely use it as a matter of fact but Loroi warriors are expected to be able to communicate vocally for a variety of reasons. Many of the young warriors however didn’t have the chance to properly train their vocal skills before being sent to the front. Doranzer Needle fully understands vocal speech but she is not comfortable with speaking yet.” The diplomat replied but for some reason it looked like she omitted a few details.

A communications alert flashed at her console and she instantly replied when she saw that the call was from the captain.

“Doctor, what did we just saw?” The captain asked.

“Sir, it’s amazing, it’s regeneration tech. They healed the wound by accelerating the body’s natural healing process, they even have a small portable device for skin regeneration.” She replied with barely held back enthusiasm.

“It is my understanding that such tech is being researched at the moment.”

“People have been trying to reach that tech for decades sir, but everyone always ends up producing cancerous cells instead of healthy tissue.” The doctor replied. “Sir, not only they went past that problem but their tech is so simple and straightforward that they were not only able to adapt the device to alien biology but the medic who run the operation was very confident with it; despite her inexperience with human patients.”

“When you put it like that it sounds amazing.”

“Sir, I think that their machine is far more capable that what we saw. If it is able to regenerate limbs and vital organs then this machine alone dwarfs the capabilities of even our most advanced hospitals.”

Chapter 7, part 3: http://www.well-of-souls.com/forums/vie ... 197#p19197
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dragoongfa
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Re: [Fan Fiction] Looking forward to the Mirror

Post by dragoongfa »

And the humans get a glimpse of just how more advanced the Loroi are in certain fields.

Whale
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Re: [Fan Fiction] Looking forward to the Mirror

Post by Whale »

The stuff about speech seems off, since stuttering when trying to talk into a radio can cost lives and I doubt civvies handle all long-distance communication by text....

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Re: [Fan Fiction] Looking forward to the Mirror

Post by dragoongfa »

Whale wrote:The stuff about speech seems off, since stuttering when trying to talk into a radio can cost lives and I doubt civvies handle all long-distance communication by text....
I would agree but that's what Arioch said somewhere in the miscellaneous Loroi thread (or the insider, not 100% sure). I doubt that civvies handle much long distance comms since the vast majority of the government is handled by warrior castes; a small minority of civilians would certainly be very fluent with speech since they would have to come in contact with aliens and Loroi warriors but I used the rule of thumb approach since the discussion just touches the subject.

In the case of Doranzer Needle however, it's both being uncomfortable with speech and the fact that the patient is a male. Her reasons will be covered in one of the next Loroi POVs one way or the other. To be honest I was originally ambivalent about the particular segment but I wanted to touch the Loroi aversion to speech a little.
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Logannion
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Re: [Fan Fiction] Looking forward to the Mirror

Post by Logannion »

Great update!

I guess that's why no one in the comics have any scars at all. Despite being part of one of the most elite squadrons in the Loroi fleet.

I wonder why their encyclopedia/database is so disorganised. Is it because they are rendered redundant by their memory and telepathic capability? Guess that just underlines the huge disconnect the Loroi have with non-telepathic races in general. Perhaps that is where Humaniti can step in, as diplomats/intermediary between the Loroi and other races. In the future that is.

Looking forward to seeing a Loroi civilian POV.

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Re: [Fan Fiction] Looking forward to the Mirror

Post by Mr Bojangles »

An enjoyable update. But, I have to ask, dragoongfa, is the "unseemly" medic sketchy-looking or is there actually an unattractive Loroi in your story? :P

I'm not sure if it was in the fora or the Insider, but Loroi warriors need to use speech for battlefield communication, e.g., ship-to-ship. Trying to send over the distances ships in formation maintain would probably annoy the hell out of any other Loroi on your ship. :) Like dragoongfa, I imagine civilians don't have as much need for long-distance communication.

And I'm curious about the lack of organization in the Loroi's data, too. I'm also curious as to why Matveyev's computers can't automatically derive some sort of context and apply organization to the data. I know Outsider humanity isn't real humanity, but that's fairly basic stuff nowadays... Sorry, my inner AI nerd came out.

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Re: [Fan Fiction] Looking forward to the Mirror

Post by JQBogus »

I am pretty sure the 'unseemly' part was the medic's appearance of extreme youth... too young to have learned enough to be an actual doctor, by human appearances. Humans in the story don't know about Loroi longevity or lack of apparent aging yet, I think.

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Re: [Fan Fiction] Looking forward to the Mirror

Post by dragoongfa »

Logannion wrote:Great update!

I guess that's why no one in the comics have any scars at all. Despite being part of one of the most elite squadrons in the Loroi fleet.
Thanks, it's also why Alex doesn't have any scar tissue left when he had some when we saw him just outside of such a medical device. Maybe in canon the device is indeed just a medical scanner but as it was mentioned it is just too big for that. It would make perfect sense however if it was both a scanner and a regenerative machine.
I wonder why their encyclopedia/database is so disorganised. Is it because they are rendered redundant by their memory and telepathic capability? Guess that just underlines the huge disconnect the Loroi have with non-telepathic races in general. Perhaps that is where Humaniti can step in, as diplomats/intermediary between the Loroi and other races. In the future that is.
That's more or less it, when you have Listels/other Eidetics that can transfer everything and answer questions from a distance then archiving complex information takes the very last back seat and would probably be seen as a punishment itself. That would also bring forth quite the problematic archiving practices since Lorois would rarely if at all need access to such information, as such the archiver would see no reason to improve the archive for proper access and dissemination, making it very hard to read and understand. Whoever had to wade through the archive of someone who didn't give a fuck about it will understand. Of course the aliens who had to have access to such archives would see it as either a veiled insult or an attempt to hide information.
Looking forward to seeing a Loroi civilian POV.
Who knows if Calmwater gets an other POV :P However as a farseer she should know how to speak in order to interact with warriors over long distances.
JQBogus wrote:I am pretty sure the 'unseemly' part was the medic's appearance of extreme youth... too young to have learned enough to be an actual doctor, by human appearances. Humans in the story don't know about Loroi longevity or lack of apparent aging yet, I think.
Needle is average looking but is very young even by Loroi standards being 9 years old, she was assigned to an older Doranzer for a milk run evaluation that didn't end up being such a milk run. The doctor saw mainly her youthful appearance, human doctors study for 6 years to get their first degree in medicine and then some more for their specialization. In fact most human doctors have studied medicine for more time than Needle has been alive; which speaks volumes for the efficiency of telepathic teaching methods.
Mr Bojangles wrote:And I'm curious about the lack of organization in the Loroi's data, too. I'm also curious as to why Matveyev's computers can't automatically derive some sort of context and apply organization to the data. I know Outsider humanity isn't real humanity, but that's fairly basic stuff nowadays... Sorry, my inner AI nerd came out.
Loroi aren't the best archivists as I already mentioned. Matveyev's computers would have done so if the data didn't have plenty of unknown words (archaic Trade words), the doctor doesn't know this but the code monkeys will realize this almost immediately and ask the Loroi for a lexicon. In contrast the Loroi computers didn't have trouble accessing the data even if they were organized in an unfamiliar but highly intuitive format that the Loroi computers failed to fully implement; the concept will be expanded later.

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Re: [Fan Fiction] Looking forward to the Mirror

Post by Twinkee »

So the only Loroi who talk are merchants, diplomats and politicians... no wonder the Loroi consider all speech as a means of deception :P

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Re: [Fan Fiction] Looking forward to the Mirror

Post by Logannion »

Twinkee wrote:So the only Loroi who talk are merchants, diplomats and politicians... no wonder the Loroi consider all speech as a means of deception :P
:shock:
Wow, that really does put things into perspective.

:| Plus, the Loroi don't have lawyers due to the telepathy. So the people who talk really are the weasels of the society. :P
dragoongfa wrote: That's more or less it, when you have Listels/other Eidetics that can transfer everything and answer questions from a distance then archiving complex information takes the very last back seat and would probably be seen as a punishment itself. That would also bring forth quite the problematic archiving practices since Lorois would rarely if at all need access to such information, as such the archiver would see no reason to improve the archive for proper access and dissemination, making it very hard to read and understand... Of course the aliens who had to have access to such archives would see it as either a veiled insult or an attempt to hide information.

Loroi aren't the best archivists as I already mentioned. Matveyev's computers would have done so if the data didn't have plenty of unknown words (archaic Trade words), the doctor doesn't know this but the code monkeys will realize this almost immediately and ask the Loroi for a lexicon. In contrast the Loroi computers didn't have trouble accessing the data even if they were organized in an unfamiliar but highly intuitive format that the Loroi computers failed to fully implement; the concept will be expanded later.
I wonder why none of the other Union members haven't made a more user friendly database. The Insider archives stated that the Neridi and the Pilsopids have been assimilated into loroi culture and fulfil functions similar to Humanity's civilian society. You'd think that over the centuries, some of them would have complained to the loroi about it.

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Re: [Fan Fiction] Looking forward to the Mirror

Post by dragoongfa »

Loroi chauvinism coupled with minor profiteering by the species who are able to straighten things up. Why correct the chauvinist telepathic warriors when you can have a niche market where you can help aliens understand your telepathic overlords? For a price of course.

I suspect that's where the Neridi come in, since the aquatic Pipolsid would have trouble coming in contact with mouth breathers.

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Re: [Fan Fiction] Looking forward to the Mirror

Post by Mr Bojangles »

dragoongfa wrote: Loroi aren't the best archivists as I already mentioned. Matveyev's computers would have done so if the data didn't have plenty of unknown words (archaic Trade words), the doctor doesn't know this but the code monkeys will realize this almost immediately and ask the Loroi for a lexicon. In contrast the Loroi computers didn't have trouble accessing the data even if they were organized in an unfamiliar but highly intuitive format that the Loroi computers failed to fully implement; the concept will be expanded later.
I'm glad to hear you'll be touching upon this in-story. In a past life, I did research into natural language processing and context derivation, so this chapter ended up becoming a thought experiment for me. After typing my initial message, it hit me that even if the Loroi data didn't have an unusual format/layout, it was still a medical text and thus would contain tons of technical terms and Loroi-specific biological terms. In general, automatically deriving meaning and context for unknown nouns and technical terms isn't possible; you must be told their definitions.

Then you mentioned that the Matveyev's devs will ask for a lexicon and all was good! All I can say is keep being thought-provoking, dragoongfa. :)

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Re: [Fan Fiction] Looking forward to the Mirror

Post by Zakharra »

One thing that should be considered is that to the Loroi, Neridi, Barsoom and the Historians, that way of data structure in archives might make sense, to them. To us it clearly doesn't. But then we developed completely independently of anyone and have an entirely different viewpoint because of it. What we find as reasonable and makes sense to us doesn't mean it is actually the best way to do something. It's just different. I am sure there are some things the Loroi do will be better than humanity. Not just technology, but the method of how it is done; culturally. And computers aren't necessarily going to be able to 'talk' to each other easily. There will be programming differences that make systems harder to talk to each other. It's a good thing that the downloads they exchanged were accepted, although I give that to the humans for being somewhat prepared if they used the Orgus programming as a stable platform (and knowledge of the Trade language and system). If it had been purely an unaltered human download, it very well might have been garbage as far as the Loroi computers ability to read it.

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Re: [Fan Fiction] Looking forward to the Mirror

Post by NuclearIceCream »

Zakharra wrote:One thing that should be considered is that to the Loroi, Neridi, Barsoom and the Historians, that way of data structure in archives might make sense, to them. To us it clearly doesn't. But then we developed completely independently of anyone and have an entirely different viewpoint because of it. What we find as reasonable and makes sense to us doesn't mean it is actually the best way to do something. It's just different.
The ability of the Loroi going over the data and immediately figuring out how to navigate it and then determining a hypothesis for why we are not psychic, and the innability for the humans to even sort through it even for a cursory look would imply that the humans in the story have a much more user friendly system, even for beginners. I am of the opinion that when it comes to UI, user friendliness is indicative of quality.

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Re: [Fan Fiction] Looking forward to the Mirror

Post by Zakharra »

NuclearIceCream wrote:
Zakharra wrote:One thing that should be considered is that to the Loroi, Neridi, Barsoom and the Historians, that way of data structure in archives might make sense, to them. To us it clearly doesn't. But then we developed completely independently of anyone and have an entirely different viewpoint because of it. What we find as reasonable and makes sense to us doesn't mean it is actually the best way to do something. It's just different.
The ability of the Loroi going over the data and immediately figuring out how to navigate it and then determining a hypothesis for why we are not psychic, and the innability for the humans to even sort through it even for a cursory look would imply that the humans in the story have a much more user friendly system, even for beginners. I am of the opinion that when it comes to UI, user friendliness is indicative of quality.

If I remember right, there was a bit of incompatibility in how the data was organized: 'However it took some time for the computer to access the data; looking into it after the computer finished accessing it she realized that this happened because it wasn’t a standard template but a different one; optimized and organized to work with a keyword search function instead of the standard breakdown between different subjects. The computer had trouble presenting it the way it was compiled so it compensated by introducing a crude search function. ' They don't appear to use a key search function, but have everything broken down into different subjects. To the Loroi, it seems that their date retrieval is suitable enough to them. Ours as humans is obviously different. Not necessarily better, but different. Theirs is just as effective for them.

That said, I'm not saying there isn't room to improve things, but overall the Loroi way looks to be fairly good and reasonable. It seems the biggest challenge for getting the information is to get the Listel(?) and other tech castes to put the information in a digital format in the first place.

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Re: [Fan Fiction] Looking forward to the Mirror

Post by dragoongfa »

Well I had to do a rewrite already (not for this subject) and since this ain't a spoiler I will explain what I had in mind.

So Author's random rambling: Human Computer Sciences.

The way I envisioned it and implemented it is a little straight forward and somewhat underwhelming.

Imagine the Loroi data like a printed encyclopedia, look into the table of contents, find the subject you want to find and then open the relevant data. Simple and straight forward enough to write down and easy enough to understand. However the Loroi don't read that data at all since they are telepaths and as such the ones who wrote it took the easy way out by dumping whatever text was handy and sufficient without rewriting it for ease of reading comprehension. Then add the fact that Loroi Trade is a little more complicated than the Historian Trade that the humans know. Plenty of archaic unknown words and Loroi specific terms that the Historian Lexicon the Orgus gave to the Humans doesn't cover.

So in essence you have a system that the Humans consider straightforward but obsolete since the early 21st century, text that doesn't take into account ease of comprehension and unknown Loroi Trade words.

The human system is the evolution of the wikipedia format (hell, I named it 'Pedia' both as homage and because 'Pedia' literally translates 'to teach and instruct'), imagine a wikipedia type of encyclopedia but better, straightforward and naturally intuitive. Type the term you want to find and the system will automatically direct you there. The way every entry is written is simple and comprehensible with just a glance, while there are detailed explanations of each and every subject that the reader might be interested in.

To give an example:

If a human had a broken arm and an alien medic wanted to fix it, the medic would just have to type 'broken arm' and would immediately be shown a small list of all type of arm breaks and what the procedures are for each break. How long would this take? Less than a minute to type the key word and identify the correct type of break.

If a Loroi had a broken arm then the alien would have to find the table of contents, wade through it to find the 'injured arm' section, then wade through every possible type of injury the arm may have in order to find the particular type of break. The medic would then have to comprehend what the Loroi wrote before trying to help the patient. How long would that take? Around 10 minutes to find the correct section, another 10 minutes to find the correct injury and then who knows how much time in order to comprehend what the Loroi have written.

Pretty glaring difference if you ask me.

Aliens with advanced computer skills, like the Historians, would be able to have their virtual intelligences to wade through the Loroi stuff with ease and produce a result that is akin to the human one. Aliens that don't have such skills however; let's just say that Loroi avoid alien doctors for a reason but that reason doesn't have to do anything with the skills of the doctors themselves. The Neridi have written alternative encyclopedias for all Loroi related subjects, these encyclopedias are better than the Loroi originals but the Loroi don't trust the work of aliens so they haven't themselves adopted them and the Neridi are content to sell their services to aliens who can't be bothered to do their own research on the matter.

Human computer sciences, although not on the same level as the Historians yet, have evolved to a greater degree than many other species with their biggest limitation being hardware related. Human software is advanced, far more advanced than their tech level implies and they may be very close to get to virtual consciousness which as a technology falls in tech level 12 and not at end of tech level 9 that the humans are. I attribute this to the human capability to innovate and the need for ever evolving suits of software to work with technologies that other species took centuries to fully master but humans have done so in years at the least and decades at the most.

Why have I taken the liberty to give this advantage to the humans?

Well, it's a small advantage story wise for one and the other is that humans got where they are by information sharing and dissemination. The innovation that followed the printing press is best described as mind boggling when compared to before that and it took centuries to master the art of the press before its true strength was realized and how perfect it covered the human need to sate our curiosity. The computer and computer networking is the next milestone and we have yet to master it as a technology; currently we are in its early era of adoption, we are still 'printing bibles' if I am to compare it with the printing press. When we master it as a tech then we will see an new level of mind boggling innovation because that's how human innovation works, by sating the human thirst for information and allowing scientists to expand it.

I think that Arioch followed this approach with the rapid advanced of human tech levels in regards to the background of the Outsider universe. Other species advanced themselves by scavenging the tech of the Soias but humans had nothing but their wits and curiosity and as our muscles grow stronger when we use them so do the tools that enhance our wits and curiosity.

Zakharra
Posts: 165
Joined: Fri Mar 25, 2011 3:46 am

Re: [Fan Fiction] Looking forward to the Mirror

Post by Zakharra »

Good points. I agree with them.
I think that Arioch followed this approach with the rapid advanced of human tech levels in regards to the background of the Outsider universe. Other species advanced themselves by scavenging the tech of the Soias but humans had nothing but their wits and curiosity and as our muscles grow stronger when we use them so do the tools that enhance our wits and curiosity.
I'd add that we are also more inclined, due to culture and the fact we didn't have any help like the rest of the races did, to look for newer better things. Because we don't have examples of advanced tech, we had to develop our own and did so in ways that other races might not have. We're more geared mentally to do R&D and innovate than the Loroi. Arioch did say that if the contact had happened a few hundred years later, that the humans would be equal in technological level if not superior in some fields.

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