Entelechy: Difference between revisions

RETRIEVED FROM: [[Rainship Taliks-Syn]] // Databank Q20K2G ORIGIN: HD 37124 // Long-range communications buoy, derelict, scrapped for parts<br>

We mustn't abandon the path to the final shape<span style="color:#40678e;">*</span> simply because it is difficult.

Will you and your [Merciful/Penitent/Benefic] cause lesser harm for greater good?

The purpose and the means are inseparable. It is simple teleology. We are not advocating for needless cruelty. There are countless methods of intervention at our disposal with compassion as their guiding pillar. The [transition/uplifting/enlightenment] would be uncomfortable, naturally, but the alternative is to sit idly by and watch the inevitable extinction of a species. An extinction we could prevent!

That we have failed to do so, even among the Consensus<span style="color:#40678e;">**</span>, suggests imperfections in our own understanding. If we cannot prove an apodictic final shape even to each other, to our own kin whom we strive to understand as well as our own selves, then how can we possibly declare it fit to teach to others?

We have made improvements. The glass-minds<span style="color:#40678e;">***</span> trim the excess branches. What we see now are the strongest paths. And in the seeing, they become true.

Consider the virus, my friend. The parasite. The predator. These things that exist only by taking from others. To these things, improvement may well entail causing greater and greater harm to others-not out of malice, but as a simple fact of existence. When you eradicate an illness, are you stamping out a microscopic final shape? Should we care less for the final shape of a disease, simply because it is smaller than us? Or because it does us harm?

We have all studied our histories. We know what we are capable of. What we have done. What if the [Nihilists/Redolent/[[Accepting]]] are right, and our final shape is our own destruction?

And why does it allow its gifts to be misused? It did not correct the [Profusion/Bountiful/[[Swarm]]] on their path to their great, fatal error. It did not stop the [Conquerors/Primacy/[[Sovereign]]] from using the gifts it granted for subjugation. Are we to accept that these, too, were meant to happen? If you reject the notion that destruction can be a final shape, how are we to accept that the Gardener allowed us to make such grievous mistakes?

Even after all these millennia, there is much we do not understand about the Gardener. Perhaps we will not understand until we have achieved the final shape for ourselves.

<span style="color:#40678e;">My cross-check for the identification code in SCRIBE ARCHIVE XI-2-4A proved quite fruitful. The trail of datacrumbs led me to a databank retrieved from a Rainship originally downed on Mercury! The Saint and Osiris were kind enough to share it with me, along with a pot of tea.</span>

<span style="color:#40678e;">Our conversation was most illuminating. I understand that Mercury was a scorched wasteland before the Great Machine's arrival. When it had finished, Humans could walk unprotected on its surface. What wonders the Great Machine can work! I can only hope that Mercury will return from the Witness's clutches, released as Titan was, so that I may see it for myself. I hear that, thanks to Sol engulfing its sky, one could study without pause… or at least until exhaustion proved greater than the desire to learn! Perhaps I could catch up on some light reading…</span>

<span style="color:#40678e;">In any case, the concept of the final shape has worn many faces. From your encounters with the Disciples of the Witness, we know that they all had their own understanding of this concept - that they all saw what they wished to see in it. But this communications log, here, appears to predate all of them. If I am correct, and the parties communicating are among the Witness' precursors, then this may be the concept's original form. We can see in this log that HNW and RS, at least, were preoccupied with the concept of a higher purpose. They sought the final shape, but at the time of this exchange, they did not agree on what it was, or how to achieve it. RS speaks of how the final shape will prevent suffering and maximizing benefit; HNW expresses concern over the methods of achieving this.</span>

<span style="color:#40678e;">I notice, however, that they never speak of communicating directly with the species they discuss. There is no consideration of consulting others, or even if they are capable of reaching the final shape for themselves and others. The most pressing matter, in their discussion, is if they should or should not intervene, and to a lesser extent, whether some coercion is acceptable for the greater good.</span>

<span style="color:#40678e;">I understand that, granted the blessings of the Great Machine, Eliksni and humanity both have fallen into similar traps - the certainty of one's own rightness, the arrogance, the belief that receiving the Great Machine’s gifts confers superiority to others. Given the length of time between this record and SCRIBE ARCHIVE XI-2-4A, it appears that the Great Machine stayed with their civilization for millennia.</span>

<span style="color:#40678e;">If it had stayed on Riis for that long - if humanity's Golden Age had continued unending, would we also have fallen victim to the same mentality? Lost sight of others as equals and seen them as animals to be herded.</span>

<span style="color:#40678e;">I think I prefer where we have come to stand: together, walking the same streets, beneath the shadow of the Great Machine.</span>