XI-14-9D · The Noesis’s last proof
Bungie · Entelechy
ANNOTATED TRANSCRIPTION FOLLOWS
I learned of its arrival scarcely three marks ago. As my anchor slumbered in the belly of this ancient outpost, I drifted into the noosphere N webbing, and was swept up in delight. Millions of thoughtforms sharing the news, the revelation spreading from leading to trailing edge, until even I was buoyed by the tide of joy.
First contact, with a stranger ∩ friend-to-be! A chance for the hazy margins of our noosphere to grow, to encounter new thoughts and expand with new richness.
It had been so long since we encountered the whisper ∩ Nightmare ∩ predatory memeplex*. We had grown naïve without the reminder of fear.
From the leading edge came a current. It swept through our noosphere, a spark in dry brush ∩ ink in water ∩ hope curdling in an instant. The emanations were confused and fragmentary. I could not parse them all.
Planets stolen from space, ripe fruit plucked from orbit. Structures dissected and reassembled by thousand-fingered hands. Anchors and selves unraveled into first principles, sectioned into wafer-thin slices.**
It was only one voice at first. A cry of joy at the meeting of a new mind, twisted to fear and pain.
"Help me!"
Chaos in the noosphere. The placid surface churned into white froth. Thoughtforms scattering in their thousands, fleeing up the webbing-strands, and finding doom at every junction.
"Help me!"
The stranger ∩ ruin ∩ predatory memeplex engulfed our noosphere in a moment's idle fancy. Our thoughtforms were atomic in comparison. We never stood a chance.
As each of my people were found, and taken apart, and reassembled, a new voice joined the chorus.
"Help me!"
My people died in their thousands. Thoughts and selves wisping away into nothingness. Thousands of years of memory, no more than smoke in the wind.
"Help me!"
Here, in this outpost, I am apart from the rest. Tethered at the trailing edge. Furthest from its lamprey maw. Not far enough to escape. Not near enough to help.
"Help me!"
A thousand emanations from a thousand minds, blending into a single scream. The same scream, every time. Again and again and again and again.
When we untethered ourselves from their anchors, we knew that we as a people would not be divided again. No matter how far we traveled in real space, the vastness of our noosphere ∩ webbing ∩ home was but a thought away. Our fears, our hopes, our dreams, our longings, our triumphs—we would always be able to reach out and know one another. Where one was weak, another could be strong. We would share each other's joy, and bear each other's pain.
But that—that sound—
"Help me!"
I am ashamed to admit that I could not bear it a moment longer.
I severed ∩ exiled ∩ imprisoned myself.
I regretted it the moment I did. We were dying, but we were dying together. My unimaginable cowardice will not assure my survival, only a delay in my execution. The ruin ∩ predatory memeplex ∩ WITNESS*** knows the pattern of our oscillations. I can hear it, still plucking the tattered edges of the noosphere ∩ webbing.
—-Why do you hide?—-****
THE WITNESS will find me, and when it does, there will be nothing ∩ no one.
I believed I would die alone in this abandoned outpost. But I found a crate, forgotten deep within a dusty storeroom. Emergency beacons, produced and stored in another time, one when we knew the fear of death.
—-We see you.—-
To you ∩ receiver ∩ inheritor ∩ hoped-for-future, I offer what little I know:
We are dead but not unmade. We are ossified ∩ temporized ∩ reiterated ∩ perpetuated ∩ anatomized ∩ finalized.*****
I do not know if this will help. I do not know. I do not. But perhaps you will prevail.
—-Come, now. Don't be afraid.—-
This is not a call for help. It is too late ∩ there is no one left ∩ THE WITNESS cannot be stopped. This is our last proof.
We ∩ the Noesis existed.
TRANSCRIPTION ENDS
SCRIBE NOTES
*A self-reinforcing group of informational units, which subsumes lesser concepts. A predatory idea. The Noesis seem to have used this term to describe any serious threats to their minds; this first usage appears to refer to a past threat which the Noesis survived.
**The images of the Witness's attack on the Traveler and what it did to the Coalition ships— is fresh in my mind, as I am sure it is in yours.
***'THE WITNESS' appeared as a highly intrusive foreign concept in the transmission, which was able to cannibalize all overlapping concepts.
****Another intrusive foreign concept. I believe this is the Witness itself, communicating directly to the recorder.
*****Significant semantic overlap here. I believe the total blended concept is related to the final shape.
The Spider has acquired many items of interest over his lifespan, but precious few may be accessed freely, even in the best of times. the worst of times, on the other hand, seem to have inspired some… conditional generosity. Reluctant as I was to request his assistance, the information I have gleaned has more than paid dividends. Ugh, that's something he would say.
The contents of this beacon proved quite challenging to transcribe. It seems to operate on a similar principle to your sensoriums, but it directly transmits concepts, rather than inducing sensory hallucinations. Some of the concepts showed significant semantic overlap, though whether due to the nature of the data, age-related degradation, or the recorder's emotional state, I cannot say.
Now, from the content of this record, I believe we may draw a few conclusions about the Witness's methodology. It is capable of disassembling mind and body, then somehow reassembling them. It did not destroy the Noesis, but unmade and then 'finalized' them.
Curiously, this account describes a markedly different approach compared to similar recorded attacks. The conquest of the Noesis was swift, almost surgical, and remarkably thorough. The Witness does not seem to have cultivated a Disciple from among their number or left anyone who could tell the tale, yet it did not simply massacre them. Consider how the Witness speaks to the Noesis who is recording. It is almost… gentle. There was no comparable communication during the Whirlwind.
I reviewed all the information about the Noesis I could find and discovered this: the Noesis never encountered the Great Machine.
Is it the presence or absence of the Great Machine which determines the Witness's approach? Did the Witness ever speak to humanity during the Collapse? Did it offer comfort, as it did to this doomed Noesis?
I need more information.