I have been investigating a rogue drone on behalf of various representatives of our Cluster’s factions. I fell into a routine and rashly charged into a cloud of automata only to discover that my ship was gone. I had to go back in with another ship to see what happened. Focusing my cameras more closely made the light show of disabling weapons very attractive. I suggested variations on them to my older sister for use in JMPop concerts. I then waited some time and used drones of my own. It proved effective.
However, it felt problematic. How did this situation become necessary?
A reporter I worked with briefly insisted that that omnipresent They knew more than They said. Every reporter thinks that, yes? However, the drone issue does seem to have arisen in Federation space. The Federation is noted for drone use, and it appears a seed drone, something experimental, began to capture and repurpose CreoDron equipment.
We know that the Triglavian Collective is divided on the subject of these drones. In contrast, our own factions maintain universal efforts to eradicate them. If the Triglavians are willing to invest effort in reclaiming so-called rogue drones, our Federation should consider revising its own stance. There seems some real possibility that their emergence is the result of actions in our space. Even if that is only a possibility, emulating the Triglavian effort would represent an act of responsible leadership and accountability.
Given the Collective seems to have its own AI entities as part of its structure it should come as no surprise that they found some sort of potential avenues of communication and even common ground with some of the Rogue Drones.
However the years of conflict between our two species should not be brushed aside and ignored.Any sentient form of life which you show hostility toward repeatedly for the simple fact that it exists by destroying it’s homes and parts of its population will not be easily swayed to even consider talking to you.
Now that we’re on the subject of talking first of all they need to be able to understand us and vice versa only afterwards can we slowly begin to try and make amends and further still before we can arrange to coexist .
I would begin with preloaded observation using covert vessels with sophisticated sensors to record all transmission made by the drones.
Once basic vocabulary is established I would provide them with some token of friendship along with a recording of ours that they can understand,I also think this token ought to be something they’d like and since they like to build a few freighter loads of starship parts would be a nice gift for them
I agree that violence by populations under attack is reasonable. I am not suggesting that our societies have been wrong in their approach. However, the act of deploying drones to destroy other drones gave me a moment of pause. I thought “will there come a day when the Federation’s drone fleets themselves reach sufficient sentience that they will deserve representation in the political arena?”
Then I thought of the Triglavian effort.
Unfortunately, to M. Aldercain’s point, I could think of no way to engage in communication with the hostile automata whirling around my ship. Meanwhile, they had become more dangerous than the initial models I encountered.
Although I had admired one of their constructions as quite beautiful, Dread Saboteur’s point about their proclivity to build had not occurred to me. It is an excellent observation. I can only now, and only as a technicality, explore the Abyssal space. Consequently, I have not studied the Triglavians as closely as I should.
Is the Clade that is trying to work with rogue drones the “builder” Clade?
Sole purpose of Automata is to destroy all sentient life so reaching out will probably create no results or maybe Automata will act friendly for some time in order to set a proper trap…
Well, it seems the Triglavians have concluded that co-operation with the Rogue Drones is possible and preferable… but then, they might have a better method of communication than we Capsuleers, or the Empires.
Rogue Drones look more like somewhat oriented to turn sentient life into component materials, rather than simply destroying something.
Ultimate gallente ideals of freedom - just take what you want and do what you want with it, disregarding whom it belongs and what it can destroy and whom that “material extraction” will kill. No respect for sentience, no respect for property - the real freedom.
The logical conclusion of freedom is absolute, unrestricted power, yes, but even in Gallente space, hell, even out in the Nullsec sovereignties and the wilder domains in the Wormhole systems, that logical conclusion is rarely, if ever, reached. Furthermore, even if power is freedom, as you suggest, the exercise of power is still optional.
Even with that aside, the Drones have a redeeming quality. Unlike we Capsuleers, they don’t destroy for idealistic or emotional reasons. By and large, what they destroy, they destroy for purely logical reasons… grinding things down into components, yes, without any regard for what those things are, but for the purpose of building something new.
My own encounters with rogue drones have not given an impression they are interested in explicitly exterminating living organisms. The remarks about focus on materials and construction do seem more applicable. Rogue drones display curious reverence for some asteroids, such as those containing mercium, and transform structures that do not ordinarily have tentacles into structures with tentacles. Transforming a mine into something that can mine itself presents clear industrial efficiency benefits. In turn that creates the oppressive freedom for creatures other than drones to listen to opera or recitations on the benefits of stakeholder loyalty.
Of course there is conflict in choosing which facilities to tentacle-enable.
Given the absence of communication, conflict is inevitable. Even if initial Triglavian efforts were coercive reprogramming, more recently published intercepts show policies toward the drones evolving. It is unfortunate a society cut off from our space for several thousand years iterates more rapidly than we have been able to manage.
Well, the freedom and power are different things. The power is something that comes from within, it’s what you achieve and strive for, it’s what you use to achieve other goals as well. While the freedom is something that comes from outside - or, likely, something that removes outside interference. It’s lack of restrictions where you can use that power and against whom. It’s lack of laws, affection, any other kinds of bonds. It is lack of directions and regulations, holding you from abusing your power.
By getting freedom you get ability not just use, but to abuse your power - just like Rogue Drones do.
And yet, lack of emotional reasons prevents them from feeling what damage they inflict on others. They don’t have empathy. And while people like me consider that for certain jobs empathy is a demerit, we can see what happens when you have freedom machines with absolute lack of empathy. Technically speaking, they’re not really worse a lot than your regular freedom fanatics in human forms, as with their terror acts they often show lack of empathy as well. And still, they are human, who might… might have at least tiny bit of humanity left in them. And rogue drones simply doesn’t have that at all. They’re cold machines of murder, genocide and freedom.
So one would assume… but really, we can’t know that, because like every other outsider faction to New Eden’s societies, the Rogue Drones simply refuse to talk to us, or do anything to confirm or deny they are even capable of communication.