Pilots;
A formal response to the Scope article is warranted.
In the first place, let me express my amusement and pleasure that Lina Ambre considers the Arataka Research Consortium’s work on Drifters controversial. It is our view that the Drifters are widely regarded as a potential threat to cluster stability, and have demonstrated a willingness to and a capability of assassinating state leaders. To that end, in our desire to understand their capabilities and monitor developments in known locations of Drifter infrastructure, ARC and other organizations routinely engage Drifter forces and recover material for study.
More importantly, the Arataka Research Consortium coordination group feels it is necessary to respond to the unnamed Directive Intelligence Agency source, and his or her concerns about dangers implicit in this technology.
We as sovereign capsuleers can’t and won’t surrender our autonomy, not least of which in a matter of public interest such as this. We will however take all necessary steps to ensure the security and safety of our operations, and invite CONCORD to provide advisers and observers to minimize the risks involved in this venture.
These steps will be undertaken immediately: we will establish a hot lab facility for use in this research. The research centers will be operated behind an air gap, with strict controls on equipment present within the research center to prevent bridging from within the information quarantine zone. Further measures are being researched and will be implemented immediately, and we may delay research as necessary to ensure adequate security against memetic or infowar attacks.
What’s more, given that the CDIA source indicates that infowar or memetic elements are a probable threat, we will ensure that priority is given to analysis of this data for signs of infomorph or neuromemetic content, and will invite suitable experts to advise on this avenue of research.