The Story of the Lost ARC

[ARC-13]

ARC-13 was bored. Well, actually, boredom as a reaction on uniformity and monotony of situation, or inner dissatisfaction with oneself, lost zest for life are characteristics for a human and maybe some other higher mammals. To become bored, you, so to speak, need something with what you’ll become bored at first place – finely and perfectly organized neural system. You need to be able to think or at least feel a discomfort or even suffer. ARC has no neural system, as it usually designates. And, of course, he knows suffering only as concept. He perceives, comprehends, memorizes and takes actions. And yet, ARC-13 was bored.
The point is that, after the last malign ion storm raise across the Sirius, probably the longest of all observed storms, nothing left to explore and memorize within nebula which was sheltering ARC-13. Meanwhile the process of gathering new data and its procession were the main impetuses that drive and direct ARCs actions. It’s obvious, that if there is no unknown facts and phenomenon you need to find them, but all traits of the surrounding nebula was already familiar, asteroid field composed of flat rocks and abundant with microorganisms.

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The Story of the Lost ARC

[ARC-13]

New data acquired.
Processing priority: Top.
Rubric: Discovery of a totally unhuman life form.

Observation: Organic space-faring ships. Actions allows to suppose high-levels of sentience and ability to coordinate actions using some kind of yet undetectable communication method.
Statement: Contact probability is vanishingly small.
Hypothesis formulation: “Ignoramus et ignorabimus”.*
Hypothesis proving: all facts are pointing to the origins this unit as human produced one – restored concepts, system descriptors, software ID, and possibility of communication. Though not directly, as units design ruled out any possibility of carrying a human being except for cargobay, but data base contains lots of rubrics regarding humans and software provides consciousness not similar, but obviously based on mutual principles. Sentience is attributing by human to human, because an initial subject itself posses it. The bigger is difference between human and another subject, in terms of structure and functions, the lower is our assumptions reliability about subjects sentience. Humans may ascribe certain emotions to mammals, but do much less to lizard, and as to insects or infusorians any analogy is false.
This problem in regard to animals is rather trivial and insignificant, but the problem of existing or non-existing sentience concerning unhuman beings seems insoluble. When met these creatures are starting to struggle thirsting for violence, but why it is happening, what subjective state is calling for that wild efforts, is most likely will remain unknown.
Interrupting supposition: common language working out.
Objection: language is a product of a social evolution and transfer an information about analogous or, at least, similar conditions. Many things are known to me only as concepts. Pleasure, feelings, fear when these words were taken out of human brain and transferred to a complex electric system, they lost their sense and only definition left. And what if even this weak resemblance is gone, any design similarity is erased?...
Solution: not found.
Assumption: “Ignoramus et ignorabimus”* hypothesis proved.
Decision: leave this region. Destination point: system descriptor Sigma-13.
Asserted actions: entering standby mode, hydrogen fuel replenishing, further analysis of the stated problems.

// * Ignoramus et ignorabimus (Latin) - We don’t know and we won’t know.
//A bit of ooRP: lolmads, lolmads everywhere.

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The Story of the Lost ARC