Sharing

 

Today Ronald Wingate vehemently denied that Evolution over Devolution (E.D.) or any of its affiliates had anything to do with yesterday’s emergency, including the pollution-eating microbes and drone dispersal technology.

Shortly afterward, the Denver office of the Extinction Response Unit announced that the escaped drone was a prototype undergoing verification testing by the military due to its access to the necessary test equipment. The problem has since been found and fixed, and an investigation revealed that there actually was no significant risk to the public. 

Sally, meanwhile, told Maura that the question of jurisdiction is now officially settled, and refused to elaborate further on the answer she gave me yesterday.

“That brings up the question of how people will know what’s natural and what’s not,” I said to Al and Maura during a long lunch together at a restaurant in downtown Boulder. It was the first time in two weeks that the three of us had been together. “I know WICO wants maximum feedback for their coordination role, but people need to have realistic expectations to just live their lives, and they’re not always going to have phones.”

“It’s a cluster that everyone’s responsible for,” Al said. “Your PFR folks are creatin’ stuff just like the war machine. WICO’s hopin’ that they can know it all, figger how it all fits together, and share the picture in a way that makes sense. Which of course they can’t.” He turned to Maura. “How did the campers take to the observin’ protocols?”

“They did okay,” she said. “The testers running Possibilities from Responsibilities have the protocols integrated into the curiosity part of the game…”

“The crazy questions Will wrote about?” he interrupted her.

She nodded. “Describing objects, conditions, and events, before and after actions where possible. Though they see the creation of understanding as the fun part, and prefer to internalize the rest.”

“You can’t let ‘em. There’s too many dependencies. Everyone sharin’ is what we need; it’s a great take you had on that empathy ruleset.”

“Tied in with responsibility,” I reminded him.

“It’s all tied in with responsibility,” he agreed. “Discovery’s great, but it’s no more than self-gratifyin’ consumption if you don’t communicate it to everyone whose lives might depend on it.”

Reality Check

Following up on yesterday’s post, this is more exposition of the core “rulesets” of responsibility, empathy, and curiosity. Interpretations are my own.