amazing hard sci-fi exploring whether sentience is actually worth it, via a First Contact situation with a ship called Rorschach.
"memories aren't historical archives. They're-improvisations, really. A lot of the stuff you associate with a particular event might be factually wrong, no matter how clearly you remember it. The brain has a funny habit of building composites. Inserting details after the fact. But that's not to say your memories aren't true, okay? They're an honest reflection of how you saw the world, and every one of them went into shaping how you see it. But they're not photographs. More like impressionist paintings."
"I deal with other people's information. I don't vomit my own personal life into the public sphere."
"I'm saying these things can see your nerves firing from across the room, and integrate that into a crypsis strategy, and then send motor commands to act on that strategy, and then send other commands to stop the motion before your eyes come back online."
The only explanation is that something has coded nonsense in a way that poses as a useful message, only after wasting time and effort does the deception become apparent. The signal functions to consume the resources of a recipient for zero payoff and reduced fitness. The signal is a virus.
Viruses do not arise from kin, symbionts, or other allies.
The signal is an attack.
"One hundred thirteen facial dimensions, each presenting a different variable. Principle-component combinations present as multi-feature aspect ratios." He turned to face me, his naked gleaming eyes just slightly side-cast. "You'd be surprised how much gray matter is dedicated to the analysis of facial imagery. Shame to waste it on anything as ... counterintuitive as residual plots or contingency tables."
I felt my jaw clencing. "And the expressions? What do they represent?"
"Software customizes output for user."
An agonizing gallery pled for mercy on all sides.
"I am wired for hunting," he reminded gently.
Chimpanzees have a higher brain-to-body ratio than orangutans, yet orangs consistently recognize themselves in mirrors while chimps do so only half the time. Gorillas don't self-recognize at all. Similarly, those nonhuman species with the most sophisticated language skills are a variety of birds and monkeys - not the presumably "more sentient" great apes who are our closest relatives. Such facts almost suggest that sentience itself could be a phase, something that orangutans haven't yet grown out of but which their more advanced chimpanzee cousins are beginning to.
