Best HFY Reddit Stories: A Logic Problem (Humans Are Space Orcs)

[@noppornwongrassamee8941]

So this story is basically what happens when a classic Hollywood style sci fi civilization runs into a high end hard sci fi civilization.

[@RyRy2057]

super cool, they're both horrifying!

[@Whisper555]

A bit like the "Faith Engines" story

[@mugenokami2201]

Define hard scifi. I do remember one series having weaponized time travel.

[@Amoth_oth_ras_shash]

i go hard sci fi anyday one of the few things that kept me from being a hollywood trek fan was how 99% the dam aliens where some version of human and how 'shiny borderline magic' the tech was for soap opera stuff , but borderline mundane and outright lacking in many other ways

[@-MeatsOfEvil-]

​@@mugenokami2201Like cider but hard cider only sci-fi.

[@singletona082]

Isaac Arthur would shed a tear of pride for these humans.

[@chromeblue1282]

god, i was about to say that

[@kokofan50]

Yeah, this is an SFIA special.

[@Rose_Harmonic]

I wrote this. I was thinking about my favorite Isaac Arthur episodes almost constantly.

[@aman7196]

@@Rose_Harmonic You did a good job with the story.

[@explodoboyv2]

@@Rose_Harmonic It's genuinely incredible! I now seriously want more HFY stories like this. I most like the high-realism sci-fi interacting with the low-to-mid-realism sci-fi and want more of that.

[@TarsonTalon]

Hmm. Humanity in scenario seems to be employing a 'spider' strategy. Waiting for prey to come to it, rather than going out to find it. Don't need to develop FTL flight if the enemy is happy to give you free rides. This is a million times more deadly/peaceful than the Borg.

[@donanthebarbarian5177]

I mean to be fair it's implied that we didn't have a clue how to actually make a FTL system that works in the story. We'll shortly know how but we're just being that insidious because of a coincidence that allows us to handle the matters that way in the short term.

[@kirknay]

@@donanthebarbarian5177 I mean, why conquest when you can seamlessly turn your enemies into allies without their own knowledge?

[@toothpasteman3400]

@@donanthebarbarian5177 there is the alcubierre drive

[@donanthebarbarian5177]

@@toothpasteman3400 we know the theory already yes but not how to build the device. According to our current understanding of physics we need far too much energy/strange matter to build a FTL drive that it'd be impossible without having access to most of the galaxy's mass and energy. The story is clearly implying even single star systems have plenty of resources and can make a FTL drive but humanity has no idea how to do so on such a limited mass/energy budget.

[@toothpasteman3400]

@@donanthebarbarian5177 it's still an option there is the virtual particles in space which would be good candidate for fuel we already can nearly split them apart before they destroy themselves

[@TheOneWhoMightBe]

I am unreasonably happy to see Orbital Rings in a sci-fi story. So often overlooked in favour of space elevators and teleporters.

[@alexfierro1500]

I don’t think I’ve heard of orbital rings. Would you like to explain?

[@conspiracy_marine9238]

​@@alexfierro1500basically a artificial version of the rings of saturn used for everything from transport, shipping, habitation, manufacturing, and more

[@criminallyoffensive]

Halo, the franchise.... :P

[@widdershins5383]

See and there’s the biggest difference, you compared habitation and industrial location with transport. Space elevators and teleportation just move stuff around, orbital rings is more urban sprawl.

[@robinhodson9890]

Orbital rings are not described: Instead, ring-shaped space fountains, which are not physically possible.

[@Battleguild]

Leave it to humanity to take an apocalyptic scenario and turn it into a boon.

[@GreenDude_Gaming]

Are you referring to the fact that scientists think will go extinct by gray goo which is self-replicating nanites

[@reggiehigh22]

It wasn't even an apocalyptic event to the humans it felt like, it seemed to be just another Tuesday at work.

[@Battleguild]

@@GreenDude_Gaming Yes indeed, I was referring to the Grey Goo scenario.

[@zane49er51]

A lot of people who think about ways a dyson sphere or large scale space infrastructure would work think that intentional gray goo (especially on the moon and mercury IIRC) would be a good way to do it, since it could efficiently mine out an entire planet/moon and turn it into a reflector or solar array

[@Netherdan]

Several, in fact. - Post-singularity True Artificial Intelligence? She's our guard! - Grey Goo? We make moon art with them! - The Death of our sun? Only when we allow it! - Catastrophic genetic failure due to misuse of genetic engineering? Lmao, we made a RPG world complete with fantasy races and stuff as our amusement park! - Alien invasion? Two can play that game!

[@coreythebludragon1986]

I love the idea of humans instead of developing ftl, we just keep building up and up and up in our own little block of the universe, casually preforming technological marvel after marvel. Turning the moon into a garden, litterally speeding up a planet's rotation all while harvesting other planets on a massive scale that would could most definitely deplete them in the foreseeable future

[@beingsneaky]

Well they know ftl is possible and had time to reverse engineer xeno tech.

[@lumberluc]

Dimensional Travel. Going 2D for a split second just to get to the other side. But why do that, when you can be a terraforming humanitarian? Always ready for war, but will be diplomatic the first shot you get.

[@v8matey]

Humans need to invent hover technology

[@robinhodson9890]

Deplete them how? The other planets and moons have either too much or too little atmosphere. The scenario described merely redistributes that.

[@arandomsystemglitch2398]

Well isn't that kinda what every race does for ftl because going faster then light means you need speed thats techically infinite and building up and up and up untill you go as fast as light is very posible

[@GentlemanBystander]

>Artificial Intelligence (not that there is such a thing) >Genetic Alteration >Massive extra-atmospheric habitations >Massive reactors that convert stars into energy/materials >particle cannons that tally their range in AUs What about this reads as "begging to be invaded"?

[@fosseprezcyrus7285]

Apparently it’s a matter of ethics I think?

[@janthion3590]

Why did you had to say the AI is not a possible thing? Are you....

[@isaackinsley1662]

I think its more like "oh look, they did the job of setting this all up for us. Now let's murder them and take it!"

[@GentlemanBystander]

@@janthion3590 People have, for years, conflated Analytical Heuristics or Fuzzy Logic with Artificial Intelligence. Artificial Intelligence implies an actualized sapient software/hardware schema capable of abstraction and innovation. The problem is there would be no system to constrain or control such a schema and you'd end up with "AIs" that would be like "I just want to dance, mom! Faaaaammmeee...I'm gonna live foorrrrrevvvuuh! Light up the sky like a flame, FAAAAMMMMMMMEEEE!" rather than doing stuff like calculating Hohmann transfer orbit solutions.

[@GentlemanBystander]

@@isaackinsley1662 Yeah, but if they set it all up it usually means they have a pretty high "ways to fuck you up" score, too.

[@oscarlundberg7462]

Seems like the Humans decided to play tall this game.

[@Fedico7000]

Space game funny

[@RocketWeaponsGuy]

Dutch tall-playing infected the world huh?

[@phantomwraith1984]

Rather than jumping to other systems, humanity just colonized every world and moon in sol system and then industrialized and fortified sol system to absolute hell and back

[@spiderstrand2]

​@@phantomwraith1984the benefits of small territories dense in resources are absolute bs when fully realised. Pretty sure the UK used to benefit from em, before advanced naval tech

[@leyrua]

I loved the bit where Athena wanted to recommend that the kernel AI get promoted to full sapiens for its clever tactics.

[@peterhilligoss5697]

Big bad monster? if it bleeds, it can be killed. Massive battleships? enough force can destroy anything. But this? This is a nightmare.

[@ThomasTee]

What I leanrned from this story: Don't fuck with a K2 civ.

[@UNSCPILOT]

100%, especially don't mess with a K2 with multiple systems and high power AI, even without the nanite goop they would have been toast

[@ArkAngelHFB]

Yeah the second a civ is using grey goo willingly and safely, you are dealing with fuckers that just need to be left alone.

[@leechowning2712]

@@ArkAngelHFB that should never have been let out of its cage. There are basically three major technologies that I never ever want to see loose. AI, fully automated factories, and nanos. There is no way that that will not go badly in the long run. And if I was a species thinking about invading and I saw any one of those three we turn around we go home and we put big do not cross signs all the way around it, at about a hundred light years out. You want nothing to do with them.

[@zharpain]

@@leechowning2712 for the goop thats why you put it on a asteroid for testing. if its good great, you got a "safe" goop. if not then toss it in the sun and get another rock.

[@nerine4188]

It's more of a don't fuck with Type IV-minus + K2 civ.

[@Troleandocreyentes]

WE ARE THE HUMANS. LOWER YOUR SHIELDS AND SURRENDER YOUR SHIPS. WE WOULD ADD YOUR BIOLOGICAL AND TECHNOLOGICAL DISTINCTIVENESS TO OUR OWN. YOUR CULTURE WILL ADAPT TO SERVICE US. RESISTANCE IS FUTILE.

[@TheSchultinator]

Although we're much more polite about it

[@bl00dth1rsty9]

This might be a bad thing

[@chrisb9143]

YOU ARE BEING IMPROVED. PLEASE DO NOT RESIST.

[@TonyDemetriou]

You are all assuming it's the humans doing this. We only saw the AI taking action, and a couple of human spokespersons at the end. If the AI can take control of the invaders, create duplicates, remove memories, and modify their species, what makes you think that hasn't ALREADY happened to the humans? And if you were in control of the AI, and could end all wars and bring a new age of prosperity and cooperation, would you hold back? Notice their name was the "virtual" alliance, after all...

[@brandonharkin270]

sounds like Rome

[@alexs5814]

What i REALLY wish was to read about the adventures the clever undermind would have post uplifting to true AI. Great story, thanks for reading.

[@polasamierwahsh421]

Too hard to write

[@silvadelshaladin]

You just provided the kind of information to the humans (ftl travel) that essentially dooms both you and your enemies. You should have been far more careful, reported what you saw, and come back -- your speed advantage would have helped, but instead you oopsed.

[@OzixiThrill]

Confirmation bias is a powerful thing. If you see a primitive person, you won't suddenly turn around and wonder if you're seeing a 6 dimensional hyper-intelligent FTL engineer. You'll think it's a primitive person. And if that idea takes deep enough of a root, it will take a considerable amount of counter-evidence before you change your mind about it; Something that, in this scenario, just didn't happen.

[@silvadelshaladin]

@@OzixiThrill He saw SEVERAL things that outpaced what he had -- the orbital rings, the other massive structures. It was enough that he made the decision it had to be destroyed or else it could cause a threat. It was more than enough to go back and report // check on new orders as opposed to being stupid.

[@OzixiThrill]

@@silvadelshaladin A superstructure is likely viewed as frivilous overspending by their people, not something that "outpaces" them. Rather, something that humans had to achieve to reach minimum viability in the first place. Don't mix a low tech sidegrade (many of the mentioned technologies are things we can do last century, if we put in the effort) and a superior tech upgrade. Also, when was the last time a commander thought that a fight was viewed as a walk in the part initially and on new data decided to regroup and reasses? You literally wouldn't have the saying "Never fight Russia in a winter war" if it was a common idea.

[@ericwortman2315]

@@OfficerHotpants trojan virus becomes ruler of advanced vasle state.

[@aronnemcsik]

@@ericwortman2315 the virus just sending them adds about car insurence...

[@0rbital_nugget188]

Dyson Swarms. Orbital rings and habitats. It’s all I’ve ever asked for

[@FrostyShock349]

This just gave me an idea, it’s kind of unrelated, but we can make radiation shielding by way of plasma sputtering. Have the ship be one node, and a possibly handheld device being the other node fitted with the shielding material.

[@idcgaming518]

an excellent idea. Tell you what. I'm off to uni to study astrophysics at bachelor's (undergraduate) level two days from now. If I succeed and also attempt and succeed a masters level degree, and decide to do a Phd, I will look into the Feasibility of your idea as a thesis.

[@PhoenixARCModding]

@@idcgaming518 Imagine committing your thesis to an idea you heard on a youtube video. beautiful 21st century moment.

[@FrostyShock349]

@@PhoenixARCModding I’m sure some inventions were thought up from a random conversation at an entertainment place

[@zarlsalamandersspacemarine302]

@@PhoenixARCModding see this right here is the true beauty of the internet. A space for minds to comunicate little ideas that all add up to a breakthrough no matter the distance between them

[@idcgaming518]

@@zarlsalamandersspacemarine302 exactly.

[@matthewkopplin9497]

Somebody watches Isaac Arthur lol

[@Rose_Harmonic]

Yes

[@Z4RD4N34]

Yup

[@Rose_Harmonic]

I wrote that in the footnote

[@simeonbranch-eason]

Indeed

[@gmaninatrashcan7144]

Yep. I know each video that all came from too!

[@lord1todd]

The skeleton of this universe is solid and compelling. I would love to see it fleshed out from the beginning in book series!

[@scottwilliams846]

I'd like to see this, too. Let's find the OP and figure out how to ask them for more. Maybe we can get a UNSC vs Covenant thing going on.

[@Rose_Harmonic]

@@scottwilliams846 If I did this, the scale would go way beyond the 40k universe. That's a lot. Tempted tho.

[@jlb3737]

I love this focus on the superstructures as the protagonist is seeing and learning about them for the first time. I also love seeing work inspired by Isaac Arthur’s channel. What a treat!

[@frocurl]

Very cool create a super intelligence who's primary goal is to uplift its creator. I could get behind that

[@bassnfool2]

The Cybermen say hi

[@Da_Shark]

This is what happens when you allow yourself to believe you can be a god That we may actually discover the secrets of this world yet and go beyond all current known boundaries

[@halogeek6]

Only thing stopping us is our weak fleshy bodies. Cognitive transference to synths. That's the future. Gonna turn my self into a giant space squid and drift thru the cosmos until the heat death of the universe or I Ascend this plane of existence.

[@generictimestamperstupendi9021]

18:52 "it wouldve been a good story if i had ever gotten the chance to tell it" thats not ominous

[@amberkat8147]

Yeah, I thought so too.

[@brandonrogers2769]

The very first line in the entire story is ‘Narrative record generated from extracted memory.’ And you think it got ominous 18 minutes in?.. 🤣 It was already pretty clear something had happened to the narrator.

[@calvingreene90]

The second question's answer is immaterial. The humans had decided on reprogramming rather than destruction as they're keeping prisoners.

[@jayeisenhardt1337]

Maybe there were a billion different alien species on earth when those FTL aliens first got there. They had all just be reprogrammed to be human? AI mindspace is all that's left building and expanding a bigger trap. Their people and world are already dead. They will be assimilated. Humanity become Borg.

[@theexchipmunk]

The whole choice is no choice. Both options have the same result. Genocide of his speciess. Just the way it´s enacted is differnt. Plainly put, it´s the differnce between shooting someone dead and a smothering with a pillow after putting them to sleep.

[@samuelcrow4701]

The best part, humans don't need to do anything to take over the galaxy now, the nanoplauge has that handled

[@jayeisenhardt1337]

but that does make you wonder if there are any humans left Could just be AI and all the humans down there that looked alien are reprogrammed aliens now known as humanity. We just became the damned Borg! Instead of a cube ships we just make every planet in the universe earth and every alien human.

[@lumberluc]

Just let other Xenos come to them. Easy to fool the other Races, and extract all the tech without any of them knowing their being ripped off.

[@saqvobase4301]

the second half of this one was really scary

[@theexchipmunk]

And the end makes it really grim dark. What an incidious way to comit genocide. The speciess did even get to know that it was already dead.

[@chrissoto7187]

Ouch that’s got to hurt. You’d think they’d use more lube with the mind breaking.

[@crittergonya]

@@sirghostington6305 owo

[@crittergonya]

@@sirghostington6305 *puts lips on the barrel* ;3

[@crittergonya]

@@sirghostington6305 *loud slurping noises*

[@crittergonya]

@@sirghostington6305 this is so cursed

[@crittergonya]

especially since i know that one of my friends watches these videos, you know who you are if you're reading this xd

[@Kortegard0341]

I'm imagining aliens learning the story of Isaac Clarke

[@BeeKisses]

Oh damnnn half an hour?? Narrator is spoiling us again

[@generictimestamperstupendi9021]

"strangely though i could not remember which choice i made regarding the second question they had asked me" considering you arent Annihilated i think the answers obvious

[@jayeisenhardt1337]

"it would've been a good story if i had ever gotten the chance to tell it" They don't exist anymore, they just were never allowed to die physically. Two choices? There is no choice, or "Resistance is futile" as we assimilate them into humanity. All the aliens they thought they saw and found out were human... were all the ones before that added to our empire. Even death has doppelgangers made. Those sent home same as the modified people in prison. Created that way or changed to be that way, the outcome is the same, you are no long you just another slave.

[@amberkat8147]

I sure hope so.

[@Wolfkey13]

If they are able to make perfect clones they plan to send to send back then does it really matter what the choice was. Take minute to think about that.

[@alexzanderroberts995]

​@@Wolfkey13 There is no real version of them anymore, its the Archimedes ship paradox

[@theexchipmunk]

Eh, it wasn´t really a choice. Both had the same result, genocide of his speciess. One just left a differnt speciess optimised for "humaitiys" needs in it´s wake. But in both cases, his speciess stopped existing. This is, if you actually get it, a pretty grim dark story. The genocidal aliens just came across the other genocidal aliens who had a bigger better hidden stick.

[@tickticktickBOOOOM]

Traditional Space Opera meets Science and Futurism with Isaac Arthur, where a system with billions of inhabitants and thousands of space habitats is on the equivalent of a one horse town on the empty fringe of civilization. I love it.

[@puntedhat5025]

Humanity IS the technological singularity

[@stalwartteakettlepotato9879]

This story would be a cosmic horror story if read from the perspective of the aliens. Honestly killing them is a more moral choice than reprogramming their minds.

[@satibel]

I'm pretty sure most people would choose mild loss of freedom over death.

[@stalwartteakettlepotato9879]

@@satibel it's not a mild loss of freedom. It's your values and opinions switching in an instant without you even being aware of it. Imagine all that you held with conviction wiped, warped and replaced without warning or realisation. Would that even be considered the same person? Death is a far preferable alternative then being an empty husk who's free will only extends to the limits your overlords allow it to extend.

[@JosephKano]

When have moral choices ever been a concern for humanity the species when it comes to survival. Moral choices are for individuals.

[@amberkat8147]

@@stalwartteakettlepotato9879 Valid point, if they knew it would be a truly terrible fate indeed. But they will never know. I'm guessing their memories will be altered, their historical records changed and everyone will be certain they were always like that. None of them will have the slightest idea they were ever different. It's almost beautiful in it's elegance. So I'm thinking that will be far better than being utterly wiped from existence.

[@donanthebarbarian5177]

​@@stalwartteakettlepotato9879 while that is true of all currently living members of the alien species, it's not true of all children they raise on those switched values, those would be allowed freedom as they would not be a exterminator species anymore and thus in a few generations a new free diplomatic species would arise from the ashes of the exterminators as the humans of this story value freedom so long as you do not infringe upon others right to live, in which case we'll treat you the way you treat others until you treat others as equals with the same rights as you or you are no more. Thus whole the aliens would be in a bad situation of forced mind control enslavement I believe that after a few generations humans of this story would allow the truth of what they had done be revealed to the aliens who were no longer warrior exterminators, after all of necessary we can do it again but if not we'll have a somewhat angry but still diplomacy favoring neighbor when we're done.

[@EpicSOB_]

This is one of the best HYF stories out thare and my personal favorite outside the j-verse.

[@TheSolidSnakeOil]

Not the smartest aliens. You don't poke the gray goo!

[@willparry530]

That was a brilliant story to cover, thank you for narrating it!

[@thetoasterisonfire2080]

Humans on that Factorio grind

[@blueeyeswhitedragon9839]

One of the best sci-fi stories on the internet. Well thought out and different from the "humans are great warriors from a death world, and in spite of technological inferiority, are extremely dangerous " type story. Thank you.

[@DEMONOFLOVEANDDEATH]

Bless the Narrator Bless the Author

[@Rose_Harmonic]

I wrote this. Typos typos redundant words typos. I forgot to actually describe the aliens. Ahhhhh. If people weren't saying it was good I would really dislike it.

[@kokofan50]

It’s great that we don’t have a description. Maybe a few more hints would have been useful though.

[@Rose_Harmonic]

@@kokofan50 would've made them fuzzy crabs or something

[@cognisant307]

This reminded me a lot of Neal Asher's Polity universe, great work.

[@Rose_Harmonic]

@@cognisant307 I'm not familiar with that, which makes me super happy. It still lies ahead of me.

[@UNSCPILOT]

Would love to see more down this line, as a SFIA fan it makes me giddy. I wish you luck with animation and such too you mentioned on the post, been trying to finish a ship for use in 3D animation myself, based it on the ships in "We are Legion,(we are Bob)" because I adore those books

[@Banana_Banshee]

this gives major Red Rising vibes, great story

[@generalharness8266]

Grey goo, lets collect it. Yea I knew that was not a good idea.

[@amberkat8147]

I'd suspected as much too. They aliens really should have been more cautious.

[@JosephKano]

Never ever collect the Grey goo

[@Warutteri]

Yay! A long video, perfect for a bedtime story ❤️

[@garybobst9107]

It would be interesting if the Terran diplomats, upon seeing the visitors, start screaming and hurling feces. ' They haven't changed a bit' said one of them...

[@illusiveelk2558]

The whole nanite control thing reminds me of SIVA.

[@TheMiner19]

Yeah same here granted it could do that in game as well it just rasput and said destroy instead of control

[@generalzeta7000]

We also had a warmind and sub minds.

[@Wolfkey13]

The AI has major Rasputin vibes to it.

[@ComfortsSpecter]

“It sound like human ascendency up in here!”

[@Wichitan]

One of my favorites...

[@matthewshiers9038]

The removal and rewriting of memories in living creatures is a terrifying concept. I would hope that humans in the future never stoop so low, for we would surely make perfect slaves of ourselves first and maybe give the keys to our shackles to artificial intelligence.

[@jackdare]

ALL YOUR MINDS ARE BELONG TO US 🤖

[@vision-of-dog]

Only one galactic core conquest away from becoming the Plenitonent Dominion

[@assaulthetz]

Humans are Cosmic Horrors here.

[@alfredsutton7233]

A great short science fiction story, well read. May it be so.

[@iketoreijuu6521]

crab🦀

[@aj_the_infamous1013]

That crab is a spy

[@Prezy_Preztail]

🦀

[@barstool9156]

An interesting Idea, the Ai, has been set up as. Destiny and Bungie has done similar things being that they had a Grand WarMind, being Rasputin, witch delegated primary purposes to its Sub minds.

[@noahbawdy3395]

Great story ! Thanks for sharing :)

[@LezlyLikesYuri]

Yeah... Coming at humans with guns is never a good idea. At best you'll wipe us out but we won't go down without a fight. At worst well... Well it's just better to come at us with peace and friendship. Granted we're going to be a bit sus for a while but that'll probably fade off quickly as we learn more about our new friends. At the very least we'll respect your boundaries as long as you respect ours... But coming at us with guns is just begging us to turn our guns on you as well.

[@taitano12]

So we've become the Cytherians? I can dig it.

[@DisIzDaName]

His answer to the last questions seems pretty obvious given that he isn't dead, right? Not sure why they'd bother erasing that memory.

[@kumiq17]

the second question was what to do with his species. He will not know if he doomed them to be destroyed or changed

[@OzixiThrill]

Not necessarily. While the offer was ambiguous, it's possible that the second question pertained exclusively to the rest of his species. Alternatively, it's also possible that the decision was so taxing on his mental health that it was decided that it would be removed from his memories and soft-blocked from his mind.

[@Rose_Harmonic]

I do not remember why I made that choice, as it happens :)

[@MrHuntingClaw]

It could be possible that the ones on the ship are the real ones, while the ones who got left are the duplicates, they perhaps didn't give the duplicates the answer to the 2nd question, which makes the duplicates believe that they could be the real ones, so now humanity has duplicates who believe they are real, whom they can study in order to understand them. So the 2nd question was likely about "consent".

[@kumiq17]

@@MrHuntingClaw i mean its a good thought but if they could make duplicates that acted exactly like them then i do not see the point of studying them since you basically under stand them if you have the ability to exactly make them

[@ouranosodysseus286]

all praise the goo! great story!

[@Mgl1206]

Sky Hooks and Space Elevators, nice Laser propulsion, noice (like Avatar) Nanorobots

[@TheSanien]

They got chewed up bad 🤣

[@benjamincasatimcintosh2918]

I loved the idea of a super inteligent Ai having though processes

[@norsehawk]

Just because your species is more advanced in some obvious ways does not mean that someone else isn't more advanced in different ways.

[@a_Minion_of_Soros]

Ah.. the Intel officer exposition dump.... Why'd they not have a common understanding of orbital rings...

[@evernewb2073]

I think the premise is that subspace tech doesn't require massive development, it just requires stumbling into some basic information to get started. these guys stumbled into it reasonably early and were never really pressured to approach the engineering challenges of developing industry on a stellar or interstellar scale. depending on how it works they could fairly easily function as an interstellar civilization with just the ability to make pressure vessels and ideally some kind of remote manipulator without ever having much pressure to develop past that until they run into conflict, though it sounds like they had made it a decent bit past that either before or during their war. it sounded like almost everything the humans were doing was at least familiar concepts to them, they just never had to actually make them into a real thing and justifiably shied away from the scary AF stuff that could and would kill a planet if anything went wrong like advanced AI and gray-goo nanites and energy distribution facilities that function on a stellar scale. the humans had just never stumbled into the starting point for ftl and had done far _far_ more development into practical large scale applications of normal physics than these guys were used to seeing. also possible they figured out you could detect ftl tech while still in the theory stage and chose not to light up a signal flare prematurely.

[@davethompson3326]

The Affront attacks the Culture. No one but the Minds notices.

[@ihateyankees3655]

The one thing more terrifying than out of control grey goo is grey goo under the direct control of your enemy.

[@paddingtono3823]

I like this one, implys that humans made ai's because they were lonely being the only sepcies in the milky way. then made them selves alian with dna resequencing and nano augmentation.

[@ReptillianStrike]

I remember this story! I think the previous one I had listened to might have been a rework. This one is much better.

[@papasult11]

What episode of Isaac Arthur is this? I wanted to watch it

[@earnestbrown6524]

All of them

[@tonyneal910]

If you stop and think about it this is actually a bit of a horror story. It has an awful lot in common with the old classic SCI-FI stories. ❤👍

[@szymonbollin5074]

Playing tall

[@sirfrancis8732]

I get that reference

[@ScogMeister]

yoo Epsilon Eridani is the system that panet reach is in from halo (22:10)

[@a177rhythm2]

..That's a fucking horror story.

[@johnnyrotten3175]

4 D Narrator ‼️ 4 D author ❗ 4 D algorithm

[@Bannedchan]

So the Humans are Eldritch Horrors route

[@brianlips8346]

Thanks for the story 🙂☺️🙂

[@Spartacusse]

I wonder why, with the obvious brain-machine integration they've achieved, they haven't completely migrated to live inside the matrix.

[@bandiras2]

Not remembering the answer...

[@lunaphoenix1785]

maybe he's a doppelganger, maybe he's not...

[@ulyx9804]

Now THIS puts the Sci in Sci-Fi!

[@Amoth_oth_ras_shash]

nice , do love how hard sci fi tryess to avoid the silly idea a stellar size capable civilization would measure citizen ship on shallow morphological aspects , as just the tertiary biology insights needed for that would make the cognition framework the only shared trait , as outright bio engineering and life extension just be one way to stay stimulated be it through work or 'manifesting' historic culture etc

[@Max_Ohm]

This is a good one :)

[@kenjay813]

No way we didn't reverse engineer they jump engines

[@carminedesanto6746]

There’s always a bigger fish

[@MrAcerulez]

This was a great one

[@bobjohnson7963]

The person who wrote this is probably familiar with Isaiah arthur

[@rhyguy6260]

Maybe having AI overlords wouldn’t be so bad

[@MrAwsomenoob]

Lol who are the "aliens" in this scenario?

[@thewolf7531]

Humans be having a utopia in this reality

[@leadingauctions8440]

Excellent.

[@autosneak1618]

Better title: skill issue

[@domschra]

God this one is perfect

[@Okaythen-001]

ah a man of science and culture. are you a fan of isaac arthur ?

[@pantro1014]

The Borg

[@asandrewsilvaw]

Good reading

[@galahad626]

Nano machines son

[@kokofan50]

Not to be an ass, but tritium is pronounced tr-it-ium. It’s a rare isotope of hydrogen that doesn’t get talked about much outside physics and related subjects. Also, heavy water made with tritium is also called tritium, short for tritium water.

[@MrHuntingClaw]

Pronounciation can differ quite a bit depending on what dialect you use which usually depend on which language is used as well, although not all people are capable of all dialects, so people more often than not read things as best they can, meaning that your pronounciation could very well be biased and be considered wrong by someone else, internet communication isn't exactly established beneath one single dialect yet. On a side note, I did fancy the story though.

[@kokofan50]

@@MrHuntingClaw the pronunciation is pretty consistent by dialect. The only real change is the second t becoming a d a common change in the North American dialect, but that doesn’t really effect the breaks in the word. Moreover, the scientific register is very consistent throughout English dialects. The real differences in English happen in the informal forms. Also, what do we care about how a word is pronounced in other languages?

[@MrHuntingClaw]

@@kokofan50 I don't wanna be that guy, but when some indian tech scammer calls about your computer, ya might feel bothered by the dialect from other languages.

[@kokofan50]

@@MrHuntingClaw “The dialect from other languages,” that makes no sense. A dialect is a particular form of a language, so you’re statement is either internally inconsistent or talking about other languages when we’re talking about English.

[@MrHuntingClaw]

@@kokofan50 depending on what your native language is, you're often taught how to pronounce something differently, Japanese have their way, French people have their way, Indian people have theirs, etc, etc. point of it is, there's no global standard yet. Moreover, British and Americans frankly said have two different languages but to the global population both their "English" is mostly considered the same despite clearly being completely different, hence color, colour both being correct in their own ways.

[@nixiejamies2330]

What was the second question?

[@Thermalist]

Light minutes is distance not time

[@WiredTurkey316]

Damn that's a good one

[@loneIyboy15]

This is one of the rougher videos you've made. Between the many mispronunciations, and the rough cuts, it might have been better to leave this one in the oven a bit longer.