{"version":"1.0","type":"rich","provider_name":"Audius","provider_url":"https://audius.co","title":"Technically Speaking by Justin Empire • Audius","description":"Technically Speaking\nIn a universe where every answer must be perfect, humanity's greatest flaw may be its greatest weapon.\n\nFar beyond Earth, in a distant galaxy and another dimension, lies a civilisation unlike anything humanity has ever encountered.\n\nIts people have built their entire society around one fundamental principle: nothing can ever be left unaccounted for.\n\nEvery question has an answer. But an answer is never simply an answer.\n\nEvery possibility must be considered. Every variable must be calculated. Every exception must be acknowledged. Every consequence must be anticipated. Even the smallest statement can contain an almost infinite number of conditions, qualifications and potential interpretations.\n\nTo these beings, precision is not merely a scientific ideal. It is the foundation of language, mathematics, politics, philosophy and even psychological stability.\n\nTo speak without considering every possibility is irresponsible.\n\nTo give an incomplete answer is embarrassing.\n\nTo be demonstrably wrong is almost unimaginable.\n\nThen, somehow, humanity arrives.\n\nAnd the humans have a rather different approach to conversation.\n\nThey say things like:\n\n\"Probably.\"\n\n\"I don't know.\"\n\n\"It depends.\"\n\n\"Give it a minute.\"\n\n\"I suppose so.\"\n\n\"Close enough.\"\n\n\"We'll figure it out.\"\n\nThe alien civilisation initially finds humanity fascinating. Then confusing. Then deeply disturbing.\n\nThe humans don't seem to understand that every statement requires qualification. They answer questions without calculating every conceivable variable. They make assumptions. They contradict themselves. They change their minds. They misunderstand questions and somehow continue the conversation anyway.\n\nAnd, most alarmingly of all, nothing seems to happen to them.\n\nAs humans begin interacting with the planet's inhabitants, their casual, imprecise manner of thinking starts spreading through the civilisation. Long-established systems of logic begin to fail. Conversations become impossible to predict. Scientists begin questioning calculations that were previously considered absolute. Politicians can no longer construct statements containing every possible caveat. Mathematicians encounter something they have never had to account for before:\n\nan approximation.\n\nWhat begins as cultural confusion soon becomes a crisis.\n\nThe beings have spent their entire existence constructing a world in which uncertainty must be eliminated.\n\nHumanity has arrived to demonstrate that uncertainty is unavoidable","html":"","width":500,"height":480,"thumbnail_url":"https://v.monophonic.digital/content/baeaaaiqseb32zlaacvvhjnaaamqgw4pgj2s6y6eoopgoinaqpogjhgayaqhhg/480x480.jpg","thumbnail_width":480,"thumbnail_height":480,"author_name":"Justin Empire","author_url":"https://audius.co/kissinginlove","cache_age":3600}