54/365 - What's In a Name
This particular first contact was confusing. All the aliens seemed to have the same name. At first we thought the translators were broken but it appeared that the aliens, thrilled at meeting another alien race, were all named Cruff. They looked at us through their many yellow eyes and wide smiles with different lengths of green hair.
It was awkward.
In a radio transmission, they’d referred to their own race as the Kursk. So we knew they weren’t referring to their race.
When we introduced ourselves, it was like they didn’t know if they should be insulted or confused. Their smiles fell. They blinked a lot. They checked their translators like we did.
Then when re-introduced ourselves, the confused ones said their name was Jart. The two that seemed offended referred to themselves haughtily as Pronto and looked at the ground.
The Kursk had a notion that all emotions and physical states were vast, invisible beings. And that to experience an emotion or physical state was to become an appendage of that emotion or physical state. They believed they were merely extensions and that each of those vast, invisible beings had a name.
The joy of discovery was called Cruff. When a Kursk experienced the joy of discovery, that Kursk’s name became Cruff. Confusion was called Jart. Being offended was called Pronto.
They had different names depending on their physical or emotional state.
Angry people were called Tarno but then when they become happy, they were called Shret. The names were applicable all across three of their sexes.
They had six hundred and eight-seven names. As their society progressed and became more complex, a new name was added now and then. The last time that happened was a hundred years before we met them. They were very peaceful.
They had math and so they had numbers for each citizen to keep track of them in terms of any needed bureaucracy. Personal Identity Numbers to keep the wheels of commerce and retirement and birth records going. In many respects, they were like humans.
What happened was a tragedy. We’d taken precautions against any sort of biological or technological contamination. We’d even limited their access to our records so that they wouldn’t find out the finer points of war or the more distasteful chapters of our history.
But names. We didn’t think of the names.
We contaminated them. They had six hundred names. We have millions. In their culture, a new name was a big deal. They hadn't had a new name in ten years.
Now they had too many. It introduced a fracture into their society. In a mad rush to assimilate what they could from our culture, they innocently copied over nine hundred thousand names before we barred access to our records. We didn’t realize what was happening until it was too late.
They couldn’t agree on the finer points of the new names and what they signified. They demanded to meet people with the names they were unfamiliar with. We refused.
It plunged their society into chaos. It exposed them to an emotional complexity within a month that should have taken centuries to develop. We feel pretty guilty.
We basically introduced nine hundred thousand giant, invisible beings into their society with no idea how to define them. It might as well have been an invasion.
We are orbiting the planet now. Soon we will leave and classify this planet as off limits except to qualified personnel.
We’ve done enough damage here.
tags
It was awkward.
In a radio transmission, they’d referred to their own race as the Kursk. So we knew they weren’t referring to their race.
When we introduced ourselves, it was like they didn’t know if they should be insulted or confused. Their smiles fell. They blinked a lot. They checked their translators like we did.
Then when re-introduced ourselves, the confused ones said their name was Jart. The two that seemed offended referred to themselves haughtily as Pronto and looked at the ground.
The Kursk had a notion that all emotions and physical states were vast, invisible beings. And that to experience an emotion or physical state was to become an appendage of that emotion or physical state. They believed they were merely extensions and that each of those vast, invisible beings had a name.
The joy of discovery was called Cruff. When a Kursk experienced the joy of discovery, that Kursk’s name became Cruff. Confusion was called Jart. Being offended was called Pronto.
They had different names depending on their physical or emotional state.
Angry people were called Tarno but then when they become happy, they were called Shret. The names were applicable all across three of their sexes.
They had six hundred and eight-seven names. As their society progressed and became more complex, a new name was added now and then. The last time that happened was a hundred years before we met them. They were very peaceful.
They had math and so they had numbers for each citizen to keep track of them in terms of any needed bureaucracy. Personal Identity Numbers to keep the wheels of commerce and retirement and birth records going. In many respects, they were like humans.
What happened was a tragedy. We’d taken precautions against any sort of biological or technological contamination. We’d even limited their access to our records so that they wouldn’t find out the finer points of war or the more distasteful chapters of our history.
But names. We didn’t think of the names.
We contaminated them. They had six hundred names. We have millions. In their culture, a new name was a big deal. They hadn't had a new name in ten years.
Now they had too many. It introduced a fracture into their society. In a mad rush to assimilate what they could from our culture, they innocently copied over nine hundred thousand names before we barred access to our records. We didn’t realize what was happening until it was too late.
They couldn’t agree on the finer points of the new names and what they signified. They demanded to meet people with the names they were unfamiliar with. We refused.
It plunged their society into chaos. It exposed them to an emotional complexity within a month that should have taken centuries to develop. We feel pretty guilty.
We basically introduced nine hundred thousand giant, invisible beings into their society with no idea how to define them. It might as well have been an invasion.
We are orbiting the planet now. Soon we will leave and classify this planet as off limits except to qualified personnel.
We’ve done enough damage here.
tags