Tribe Talkin’

The old world is dying

And there is no more denying

That when we realize we are all part of one

We’ll know real civilization has finally begun.

We’ll reach another dimension

Some might call it an ascension

But I see it more as awareness

Simply more awareness.

The poetry, such as it was, was being projected onto a screen that the participants were peering at as Professor InDepth read it aloud. It was clearly still in draft form, as there were many crossed out words, and the handwritten words ‘the whole thing is shit’ were penciled into the right hand margin.

InDepth paused and shook her head somewhat sheepishly before continuing. “Our Honored Guest’s communications are not all like this, thankfully. But it’s a simple level of language we can use as a minimum baseline in the Tribe Talk device.” She shuddered theatrically. A few chuckles erupted in the room.

She moved on to the next slide. “What’s interesting is this human actually uses terms like ‘awareness,’ ‘Might Makes Right,’ ‘spacetimecontinuums,’ and the phrase ‘all is one and one is all.’ She also wrote a story that very much mirrors the ‘No More Tangles, No More Tears’ event on the planet now called Beneficus in the Solarium Congiarium.”

A couple of committee members expressed some surprise. Others furiously took notes. InDepth looked over her ocular enhancers and paused to let them finish.

“And a little earlier today, Officer Sync shared with me some other bits of our Honored Guest’s writing. I have to say, the sentiments in that piece are quite advanced for a human in this spacetimecontinuum. In fact, we may be able to use some of her ideas to design new interventions to try to combat the MMR in some places that have the infection, and on Earth. Speaking of which, as all of you are aware, we now have a new mission to help Earth try to recover from MMR without resorting to the radiation cure. I’ve scheduled an intervention team meeting for later today with a large invite list. If you somehow did not receive an invite, please do come anyway. As many crew as we can have actively involved will be a blessing for the mission. At that meeting I will brief you all on the ideas that have recently come to light from her writings. They are really quite promising, and I hope you’ll all be there.” InDepth flashed a serious smile.

“Now, let’s return to the topic of this meeting.” InDepth used a pointer to direct the group’s attention back to the rhymes on the screen.

“All right then. I hope you all are at least somewhat familiar with human anatomy by now, but here’s a short summary. They are pure humanoids, with the classic five humanoid senses available to use in their quests for awareness. And like other pure humanoids, they have two arms, two legs, a torso, with one stomach and various inner organs. They have one head, and a basic brain. They have no extra brains.” There were murmurs at this fact.

“Yes, they are quite simple in their processing capacities; their brains are fully within their heads, and they are as yet unable to modify their capacities. In the very recent past they have created devices they call smart phones—which are multifunction devices they carry with them that need…uh…an eternal source of electrical energy to function.” At that, there were murmurs all around the table about the crazy inefficiency of devices needing external energy.

InDepth held up a hand. “Yes, they are wildly inefficient, but humans do not yet know how to use their own life energies to run these devices. In actuality, these phones are, of course, rudimentary extra brains, but most humans do not seriously see them as such at this stage in their development.” 

A new slide went up: a simple drawing of a human head, with various parts labeled. The slide also contained an inset depicting the inner workings of the human ear. InDepth immediately zoomed in on that.

“Humans have ears, located quite near their brains, as most other humanoids do. And, as you are undoubtedly aware, Tribe Talks are inserted into humanoid ears—usually. We are assuming this will be best for our Honored Guest as well. We’ll be using a generic humanoid Tribe Talk device as a basis for building our Honored Guest’s device. Any questions so far?”

There was a pregnant silence as the committee members shook their heads and looked attentively at each other. Professor InDepth paused for a beat before concluding with the standard meeting prayer lines. “May we work well together and prosper. May we find meaning to better all our lives. May we become aware of the answers we are seeking and better all our lives. May we be guided by Goodness. May we always find wonder in the singularity.” She bowed her head slightly as she intoned the last sentence.

Besides Professor InDepth, Sync, several Wintonesians, and the main Apel were all gathered in one form or another in a conference room. The materially based members all performed the customary head nod of agreement as InDepth finished her last line. Then they all replied more or less in unison, “Praise Goodness!”