Humph the rat - Madagascar canal Done in 1.3
In the realm of the canal, I saw the blue boat blob. Yup, that's the same boat boy, I can smell him just fine. Up close, the dock is damp from the rain, my whiskers enjoy the familiar feeling. The old ones say this one is a dreamer, I am not so sure. I've tried chirping, he doesn't hear, no reaction. He hears the lower sounds though, I have to be silent.
One of the wall boards doesn't go all the way down, I'm in. The boat office looks like most human rooms, table, chairs, no bed, no fabric to strip for my nest, except that shirt. I'll wait, it smell like him. Whiskering and smelling, building a map for the old ones. There's a piece of papaya under the table, no any more, back to the relative safety of the floor edge.
Somehow, I have to leave this human a message, the time has come for us to talk. The last explorer observed them leaving marks on paper with a large manmade stick.
Charles Vanderbilt walked into the office to grab his shirt. It would be dark soon, with no shirt the mosquitos would have him for dinner, life in the food chain. His pen was gone! He always put his pen in its pocket. When you have as few possessions as Charles, you learn to treat each with care. There it was on the table, shrugged, put it in his pocket.
The next day, in the heat, Charles had removed his shirt again. Humph came in silently. Took the pen, put it on the table and left.
Charles was willing to accept that he misplaced his pen once, but not twice, not two days in a row. Something was going on. He made sure to leave his shirt and pen hanging on the chair. Placed a notepad on the table. He also set up a motion detector game camera.
Humph returned again. Pen and shirt check. This time there was something on the table, paper, oh that would be nice shredded in his nest, he loved the sound it made with the lightest breeze. But not this time. He put the pen on the table. Needed to leave a message. Had no idea how to use a pin, so he squeezed out one rat dropping on the paper and left.
Charles, to be sure, was amazed. It would take weeks of his sat time allotment, but he wrote up the story, attached the pictures, encrypted the file with Wonk's public key and mailed it.
Wonk thought it was interesting, but didn't think anything of it, sent it to Yolanda. She would have probably missed it, but not her AI. Anomalous behavior involving a rat, 10 kilometers from a location rats with human brain cells were observed. The AI collected as much relevant data as possible, wrote an executive summary and then flagged this message in Yolanda's inbox.
Meanwhile Charles, all on his own, made his best effort. He put a piece of parmesan cheese, (do you have any idea how precious parmesan cheese is 44 klicks up a nearly impassible canal in Madagascar is), on the paper, reset the camera.
Humph showed up, smelled the cheese. Rats do not actually prefer cheese and this was far outside what Humph knew of, but it didn't smell dangerous. He ate it.
Charles looked at the video. He was certainly no ratamologist, but it certainly seemed like the rat was trying to communicate. For the next few weeks as he worked the boat up and down the canal he kept asking about child's learning toys. Eventually someone produced a Speak n Spell, when they put batteries in it, it worked. He brought it back to the boat office set it on the table.
That night Humph showed up, saw the toy on the table, eventually pressed a button, the spell spoke the sound. Humph fled at the noise. After a little while he came back, pressed another key, another sound. Humph was a scout rat, maybe the best there was, he could see that if you press a key it made noise, but why. He left and made his report.
In the burrow, they pondered the meaning that scout shared with him. Aarf, was getting older, but he knew more words than any of the other rats. He must go and see this. This time Charles had drawn a rat of a piece of paper and under it wrote R A T in block letters.
Like all of the rats from the burrow, Aarf had two brains, the first, his standard issue rat brain, his primary lifeforce. His organoid, as humans would call it was more interesting. All of these rats were born with them, but couldn't really communicate with them until after puberty. Humpf for instance, usually blocked his out, sometimes when he was sleeping it would cogitate on things he had seen and share them via dreams. That is how he had "known" the pen was special.
Aarf on the other hand was more integrated with the product of human stem cell experimentation in rats. They were for all intents and purposes one. Rats, like dogs, have some semblance of language in the sense of symbols. He knew thousands of word/symbols. But he certainly did not know the R, A, T, block letters and their English language pronunciation in a nation whose primary European language was French.
Humph could easily distinguish it from other objects, knew it had significance to the human in the boat office. He possibly understood 500 - 850 such object symbols, mostly things in the rat world, bedding, danger, cheese, (the gift of parmesan added a new word/symbol to his vocabulary that fateful day).
When daybreak came, Humph was treated to an unpleasant surprise. Aarf would not leave. We've gotta go, scout's honor. My work here has just begun. Aarf assumed there had to be a relationship between the paper and the gadget, some sort of vermin rosetta stone. Aarf took only a little water, (after a day Charles brought in a dish). He ate nothing and pooped on a napkin at the corner of the table; he was a fastidious rat. When he could not work anymore he slept on the table, his head on the paper.
Charles had reported in, Yolanda was freaked. Neither Blue Circle nor HNMNBies had access to fission high energy weapons, but a very reasonable line of thought would be to nuke the area from high orbit, a line, a very important line, had been crossed. However, reality has a way of modifying your decisions. 100% eradication was not possible, even certain cowboy U.S. presidents know it is bad form to nuke other countries especially when they are not at war or preforming hostile acts.
Since "contain and clean" was not an option, watch and learn was looking pretty good. She sent a team of human scientists and a few Blue Circle PSEs in with simple instructions, "hurt the rat, it will be triple to you".
Aarf continued, his organiod brain growing by the minute with the challenge. The A on the paper pattern matched the A on the Speak n Spell. By the time he unlocked the code and screamed the answer at a rat mid-range 25 kHz, the room was fully instrumented. RAT in English was picked up by the mike. He typed it into the Speak n Spell. He dragged Charles' pen over to a block of cheese the well meaning scientists had left there, but could not lift it. No problem, he climbed onto the cheese and used his right front paw to carve RAT into the cheese. Exhausted, he slept. The scientists wanted to keep him for safekeeping, one tried, only to loose his arm to a long knife. Yolanda, however far away is never a force to be trifled with. When Aarf woke up, Humph guided him back to the burrow.
Many scientific papers have been written on this set of events. A common question is just how smart was Aarf. Our best assessment is that somewhere around a 2 yr old human child. However, please try to keep in mind the rat gestation is 21 days, sexual maturity is in 5 weeks. By the time you are reading this report, 2 new generations will have entered the world and already the size of their skull is growing to accommodate the organoid.
One of the wall boards doesn't go all the way down, I'm in. The boat office looks like most human rooms, table, chairs, no bed, no fabric to strip for my nest, except that shirt. I'll wait, it smell like him. Whiskering and smelling, building a map for the old ones. There's a piece of papaya under the table, no any more, back to the relative safety of the floor edge.
Somehow, I have to leave this human a message, the time has come for us to talk. The last explorer observed them leaving marks on paper with a large manmade stick.
Charles Vanderbilt walked into the office to grab his shirt. It would be dark soon, with no shirt the mosquitos would have him for dinner, life in the food chain. His pen was gone! He always put his pen in its pocket. When you have as few possessions as Charles, you learn to treat each with care. There it was on the table, shrugged, put it in his pocket.
The next day, in the heat, Charles had removed his shirt again. Humph came in silently. Took the pen, put it on the table and left.
Charles was willing to accept that he misplaced his pen once, but not twice, not two days in a row. Something was going on. He made sure to leave his shirt and pen hanging on the chair. Placed a notepad on the table. He also set up a motion detector game camera.
Humph returned again. Pen and shirt check. This time there was something on the table, paper, oh that would be nice shredded in his nest, he loved the sound it made with the lightest breeze. But not this time. He put the pen on the table. Needed to leave a message. Had no idea how to use a pin, so he squeezed out one rat dropping on the paper and left.
Charles, to be sure, was amazed. It would take weeks of his sat time allotment, but he wrote up the story, attached the pictures, encrypted the file with Wonk's public key and mailed it.
Wonk thought it was interesting, but didn't think anything of it, sent it to Yolanda. She would have probably missed it, but not her AI. Anomalous behavior involving a rat, 10 kilometers from a location rats with human brain cells were observed. The AI collected as much relevant data as possible, wrote an executive summary and then flagged this message in Yolanda's inbox.
Meanwhile Charles, all on his own, made his best effort. He put a piece of parmesan cheese, (do you have any idea how precious parmesan cheese is 44 klicks up a nearly impassible canal in Madagascar is), on the paper, reset the camera.
Humph showed up, smelled the cheese. Rats do not actually prefer cheese and this was far outside what Humph knew of, but it didn't smell dangerous. He ate it.
Charles looked at the video. He was certainly no ratamologist, but it certainly seemed like the rat was trying to communicate. For the next few weeks as he worked the boat up and down the canal he kept asking about child's learning toys. Eventually someone produced a Speak n Spell, when they put batteries in it, it worked. He brought it back to the boat office set it on the table.
That night Humph showed up, saw the toy on the table, eventually pressed a button, the spell spoke the sound. Humph fled at the noise. After a little while he came back, pressed another key, another sound. Humph was a scout rat, maybe the best there was, he could see that if you press a key it made noise, but why. He left and made his report.
In the burrow, they pondered the meaning that scout shared with him. Aarf, was getting older, but he knew more words than any of the other rats. He must go and see this. This time Charles had drawn a rat of a piece of paper and under it wrote R A T in block letters.
Like all of the rats from the burrow, Aarf had two brains, the first, his standard issue rat brain, his primary lifeforce. His organoid, as humans would call it was more interesting. All of these rats were born with them, but couldn't really communicate with them until after puberty. Humpf for instance, usually blocked his out, sometimes when he was sleeping it would cogitate on things he had seen and share them via dreams. That is how he had "known" the pen was special.
Aarf on the other hand was more integrated with the product of human stem cell experimentation in rats. They were for all intents and purposes one. Rats, like dogs, have some semblance of language in the sense of symbols. He knew thousands of word/symbols. But he certainly did not know the R, A, T, block letters and their English language pronunciation in a nation whose primary European language was French.
Humph could easily distinguish it from other objects, knew it had significance to the human in the boat office. He possibly understood 500 - 850 such object symbols, mostly things in the rat world, bedding, danger, cheese, (the gift of parmesan added a new word/symbol to his vocabulary that fateful day).
When daybreak came, Humph was treated to an unpleasant surprise. Aarf would not leave. We've gotta go, scout's honor. My work here has just begun. Aarf assumed there had to be a relationship between the paper and the gadget, some sort of vermin rosetta stone. Aarf took only a little water, (after a day Charles brought in a dish). He ate nothing and pooped on a napkin at the corner of the table; he was a fastidious rat. When he could not work anymore he slept on the table, his head on the paper.
Charles had reported in, Yolanda was freaked. Neither Blue Circle nor HNMNBies had access to fission high energy weapons, but a very reasonable line of thought would be to nuke the area from high orbit, a line, a very important line, had been crossed. However, reality has a way of modifying your decisions. 100% eradication was not possible, even certain cowboy U.S. presidents know it is bad form to nuke other countries especially when they are not at war or preforming hostile acts.
Since "contain and clean" was not an option, watch and learn was looking pretty good. She sent a team of human scientists and a few Blue Circle PSEs in with simple instructions, "hurt the rat, it will be triple to you".
Aarf continued, his organiod brain growing by the minute with the challenge. The A on the paper pattern matched the A on the Speak n Spell. By the time he unlocked the code and screamed the answer at a rat mid-range 25 kHz, the room was fully instrumented. RAT in English was picked up by the mike. He typed it into the Speak n Spell. He dragged Charles' pen over to a block of cheese the well meaning scientists had left there, but could not lift it. No problem, he climbed onto the cheese and used his right front paw to carve RAT into the cheese. Exhausted, he slept. The scientists wanted to keep him for safekeeping, one tried, only to loose his arm to a long knife. Yolanda, however far away is never a force to be trifled with. When Aarf woke up, Humph guided him back to the burrow.
Many scientific papers have been written on this set of events. A common question is just how smart was Aarf. Our best assessment is that somewhere around a 2 yr old human child. However, please try to keep in mind the rat gestation is 21 days, sexual maturity is in 5 weeks. By the time you are reading this report, 2 new generations will have entered the world and already the size of their skull is growing to accommodate the organoid.
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