I realize you can just answer, “mysterious aliens beyond our understanding,” but why would a space probe have a mandate of either talk to a whale for 30 seconds or destroy Earth and disable everything in its path on the way to Earth?

Why? What does that achieve?

  • Flying SquidOPM
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    61 month ago

    One hell of a side effect. You’d think its creators would understand the whole ‘destroy the planet’ aspect of their ‘must communicate with a whale for a very brief period of time unless there aren’t any and then I just stick around’ plan.

    • dual_sport_dork 🐧🗡️
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      221 month ago

      Well, you know how Starfleet admirals are all insane?

      Turns out, that’s not species specific.

    • andyburke
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      21 month ago

      It’s been a minute for me - did they ever establish that it absolutely had to be whales or were whales just sea creatures that qualified?

      What if this thing was sent to harvest water from planets lacking intelligent cetaecian life forms like humans might harvest a resource from an “uninhabited” world?

      • Flying SquidOPM
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        51 month ago

        Not did it just have to be whales, it had to be humpbacked whales. And don’t ask me why they couldn’t fake it.

        • Melllvar
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          31 month ago

          Spock explained that they could mimic the sounds, but not the language. They would be responding in gibberish.

          • Flying SquidOPM
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            31 month ago

            And yet, 100 years later: Cetacean Ops.

    • @Thebeardedsinglemalt
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      129 days ago

      Maybe we can parallel it like this…

      You’re out in your backyard playing with your dog. You’re both running around in the grass, rolling around, the dog digs for a moment at a spot in the yard. You think nothing of it.

      But in those few minutes, you both stomped on and destroyed a couple ant mounds, squashed some other bugs and insects in the grass (their habitat) and the dog dug up and obliterated another creatures nest in the grass.

      • Flying SquidOPM
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        129 days ago

        The problem here is that it wants to talk to the whales but it is also destroying the ocean. That doesn’t really match your scenario.

        • @Thebeardedsinglemalt
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          129 days ago

          It’s just an overgeneralization. It’s doing something it thinks is harmless and possibly considering humans to be lesser beings like the insects

          • Flying SquidOPM
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            129 days ago

            It’s doing something it thinks is harmless that would directly harm the thing it’s wants to talk to?

            Are its programmers morons?