Let me make something totally clear: I respect Dr. yi-Rangapoor. We collaborated remotely over a period of about eight months designing the research program here, and Sid is a consummate professional and a really nice man. He has -- hands down -- done the very best work on the DAF to date, and I could not be where I am today without his efforts.
Some wonder why I am not using his term. He called the DAF of Sigma 957 the Ticho, which roughly means "Silent Ones" for their apparent lack of language. While Dr. yi-Rangapoor never used it in published papers (he always preferred the probe's designation "lifeform AA01"), I have heard it used by members of this expedition and it always set my teeth on edge.
First of all it belies tradition. It used to be, on Earth, the discoverer of a new species had the priviledge of naming it. Of course that doesn't work on other worlds. The probe itself is technically the discoverer, and when a probe returns its data gets pumped out into the global Roam where it's impossible to say which human eyes first saw a specific organism. So technical designations are used until people actually visit the new ecosystem, and even then there are clear rules about who is allowed to assign names. By tradition that's me, not Sid (and certainly not Gregol).
But that's not the main reason. The problem I have with Ticho is that it focuses on a negative -- the thing that we as non-stop gabblers feel is missing from these graceful and highly successful creatures. They don't talk. They've harnessed fire, they settle in complex comunities, they make tools and textiles and pottery, and yet in our minds they are not complete. They have no language. That makes them different or lesser, or just -- alien. So we give them a name (in our language!) that signifies their stigma.
Sid's work really speaks for itself. He described them as a very successful species with remarkable survival skills, and eschewed anthropomorphising the ways that we are similar, and any revulsion about the ways we are different. The name he used casually does not reflect his science. I want to pick a name that expresses what they are, not what they are not. There is something extraordinarily beautiful about these creatures -- they deserve a name that speaks to their uniqueness, not our fears or predjudices.
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