[DRAFT] Study of Currently Unexplained Phenomena Act

[Aclion]

We acknowledge no such thing.

The giant squid was thought to be a myth until 2005. Just because something isn't thought to exist doesn't mean it doesn't

If The WA is to respect other people's religious and governmental ideologies, then I can't see why we shouldn't do this. Plus there are more things in the heavens and earth..........

Respecting people's right to believe in the supernatural and setting aside funds for "research" into myths and fairyland are quite different matters.

And no the AMBL has been recovering, preserving and researching remains of Architeuthis sp. since I was in school. And i'm not young by any means.

[The Nexus Force]

The giant squid was thought to be a myth until 2005. Just because something isn't thought to exist doesn't mean it doesn't

If The WA is to respect other people's religious and governmental ideologies, then I can't see why we shouldn't do this. Plus there are more things in the heavens and earth..........

Respecting people's right to believe in the supernatural and setting aside funds for "research" into myths and fairyland are quite different matters.

And no the AMBL has been recovering, preserving and researching remains of Architeuthis sp. since I was in school. And i'm not young by any means.

The Nimban delegate has calmed down - slightly - after the bear incident and is in a somewhat fit state to answer. "You are quite right, esteemed colleague, which is why it is not 'myths and fairyland' which will be investigated but rather observable phenomena whose workings are unknown. WAICUP's research will not be into nothing."

[Caramelldancers]

"You mean, like how Tarja got this position instead of multiple life-long prison sentences?" Brenjos asked.

"Hey!" Tarja objected. "I blackmailed, slept, and backstabbed my way into this position like an honest Caramelldancerian!"



"What."

"... is this for real?"



"If this goes where I think it's going, we're leaving and sending in an angry bear as our delegate," Tarja said.



Tarja and Brenjos both stand up, pack up their papers, and shuffle out of the room. A few seconds later, a particularly disgruntled bear is ushered.

"Graaaah!"



The bear starts clawing and chewing on a table in protest over how silly this proposal is.

-Consul Tarja Brendan
-Consul Adjutant Brenjos Avenitur
-Consul Intern Angry Bear

How the angry bear got into the room is unclear but, of course, mass panic ensues. The Nimban delegate focusses, using what remaining Imagination she has left after the paper propulsion and vocal projection to telekinetically halt the bear. The bear, however, is a bear, meaning that the amount of force needed to oppose its attempts at movement will quickly drain her reserves, leaving them exhausted and freeing the creature; it is fortunate that preventing its from moving has given security teams around the room a clear shot, allowing them to execute the hapless beast before it can cause casualties.

The Nimban bows her head, pausing for a moment to pay her respects to the bear, then looks up, furious. "I will not link this to whatever view of this legislation that they might have had in a fallacious ad hominem attack; I absolutely will, however, condemn what we have all just witnessed from the Caramelldancerian delegation! Rather than make plain their views and argue logically over the proposal, their utterly unjustified actions have resulted the death of an innocent creature and could have easily killed many more of us! Their behaviour is irresponsible, callous and wrong; it must be treated accordingly!"

And then, for some strange reason, the bear's ghost sat up out of the body. The disembodied ursine looked around, seemingly confused, before reaching over to pat at a table in a manner that vaguely resembled supporting the bill proposed.

-Consul Intern Angry Confused Bear Ghost

OOC: Terrible post, but inspiration fails me right now.

[Nau States]

Believing that international cooperation in the study of supernatural phenomena would greatly aid both efforts to gain a deeper understanding of their workings and the propagation and furtherance of their uses

"My nation and I refuse to believe in irrelevant subjects such as these. We (The Nau States) should be spending our hard-earned Plinks on actual things like math, science, and defense. These things have have been proven to actually help citizens. Why should I risk money on phenomenon that may not even exist, let alone help people? In short, stick with science, not mythical creatures."
-Ambassador Qualugoth, Nau States

[The Nexus Force]

Believing that international cooperation in the study of supernatural phenomena would greatly aid both efforts to gain a deeper understanding of their workings and the propagation and furtherance of their uses

"My nation and I refuse to believe in irrelevant subjects such as these. We (The Nau States) should be spending our hard-earned Plinks on actual things like math, science, and defense. These things have have been proven to actually help citizens. Why should I risk money on phenomenon that may not even exist, let alone help people? In short, stick with science, not mythical creatures."
-Ambassador Qualugoth, Nau States

The Nimban delegate sighs. "You evidently have been given an old draft, esteemed colleague. I am sure that somebody in your vicinity has a copy of the latest version to hand."

OOC: It's the one immediately below the bold red text on the first page.

[Giant Bats]

Ikiti's species, the Tikrr, resembled a combination of what in some world somewhere might have been called bats, orca whales and birds of prey. They were eyeless but in return had marvelous hearing and acoustic abilities. These days, when not on their homeworld, they also used cybernetic headgear that gave them a kind of vision but in audio form, the information from the multitudous tiny cameras on the complex yet fragile-looking contraption being passed directly into the correct part of their brain. Just how a species like hers had access to higher technology like that, was unknown, as was the reason for their presence in the WA Headquarters.

Not having a humanoid bodyshape, for her a chair was about as useful for sitting on as a trapeze would've been to most humans: just about possible to sit on but uncomfortable and unnatural. But because - despite what small-minded people with bad bureaucracy skills might say - the Office of Building Management was fairly efficient with its job, as soon as the Tikrr delegation had shown up, a desk at the debate hall had been readied with a kind of a solid perch instead of a chair behind it. It was just the right thickness, too, for a full-grown Tikrr female to properly grasp with her killing claws.

As usual, when in a crowded area like the debate hall or the Stranger's Bar, Ikiti had her cybernetic headgear set to outline mode only, which let her pick out the edges of objects much like she would have if using her own sonar, but leaving out the information about softness of things. On that she still needed to rely on her natural sonar abilities.

Also as usual, the debate in question was something incomprehensible, but those were the ones that the Liftgivers had urged her to partake, to test out the sounds of new ideas and the limits of the Tikrr understanding. However, Ikiti was getting good at spotting the errors that were often called illegalities. The Tikrr were big on obeying the rules. It was how they had reached the stars.

"The proposal seems to break the proposal rules," she said, or at least the universal translator attached to her cybernetics said. "The rule of thumb on how to avoid the illegality called "committee only", is to take away all the clauses that would be meaningless without the committee, and then look at what is left. Currently only clause four is left when that is done, and all it does is say it doesn't limit the nations' actions. That does not count as an active clause. An active clause requires the member nations to take action. Furthermore, there are no strengths in the Educational category, there are areas of effect. We suggest the author of the current draft be replaced with one that can read, and then have them re-read the proposal rules before writing a new draft."

For an eyeless creature, the blue ball inside the jar on the table simply didn't exist. Neither did light that did not make itself known as heat.

- Ikiti Tikilikrr, Head of Diplomatic Wing of the Tikrr, 10th generation mother of two

[Cogoria]

OOC And slightly unrelated. But the bear couldn't have been killed. The WA Has long had weapon nullifiers which make lethal force of any kind impossible. Just a heads up.

IC: The nation of Cogoria supports this proposal s idea, but feels it is something that can be left to individual nations as it is hardly an international issue.

[The Nexus Force]

Ikiti's species, the Tikrr, resembled a combination of what in some world somewhere might have been called bats, orca whales and birds of prey. They were eyeless but in return had marvelous hearing and acoustic abilities. These days, when not on their homeworld, they also used cybernetic headgear that gave them a kind of vision but in audio form, the information from the multitudous tiny cameras on the complex yet fragile-looking contraption being passed directly into the correct part of their brain. Just how a species like hers had access to higher technology like that, was unknown, as was the reason for their presence in the WA Headquarters.

Not having a humanoid bodyshape, for her a chair was about as useful for sitting on as a trapeze would've been to most humans: just about possible to sit on but uncomfortable and unnatural. But because - despite what small-minded people with bad bureaucracy skills might say - the Office of Building Management was fairly efficient with its job, as soon as the Tikrr delegation had shown up, a desk at the debate hall had been readied with a kind of a solid perch instead of a chair behind it. It was just the right thickness, too, for a full-grown Tikrr female to properly grasp with her killing claws.

As usual, when in a crowded area like the debate hall or the Stranger's Bar, Ikiti had her cybernetic headgear set to outline mode only, which let her pick out the edges of objects much like she would have if using her own sonar, but leaving out the information about softness of things. On that she still needed to rely on her natural sonar abilities.

Also as usual, the debate in question was something incomprehensible, but those were the ones that the Liftgivers had urged her to partake, to test out the sounds of new ideas and the limits of the Tikrr understanding. However, Ikiti was getting good at spotting the errors that were often called illegalities. The Tikrr were big on obeying the rules. It was how they had reached the stars.

"The proposal seems to break the proposal rules," she said, or at least the universal translator attached to her cybernetics said. "The rule of thumb on how to avoid the illegality called "committee only", is to take away all the clauses that would be meaningless without the committee, and then look at what is left. Currently only clause four is left when that is done, and all it does is say it doesn't limit the nations' actions. That does not count as an active clause. An active clause requires the member nations to take action. Furthermore, there are no strengths in the Educational category, there are areas of effect. We suggest the author of the current draft be replaced with one that can read, and then have them re-read the proposal rules before writing a new draft."

For an eyeless creature, the blue ball inside the jar on the table simply didn't exist. Neither did light that did not make itself known as heat.

- Ikiti Tikilikrr, Head of Diplomatic Wing of the Tikrr, 10th generation mother of two

"I ask, esteemed colleague," the Nimban delegate responds coolly, "that we do not trade insults but instead speak civilly. The error was an oversight on our part, certainly, and we will correct it immediately; that need not mean that you condemn our entire delegation."

"In response to your other point, we have already clearly established that this proposal will create an institution, not a committee, and thus is allowed under General Assembly rules; a precedent for this has been set by Resolution No. 78."

OOC And slightly unrelated. But the bear couldn't have been killed. The WA Has long had weapon nullifiers which make lethal force of any kind impossible. Just a heads up.

IC: The nation of Cogoria supports this proposal's idea, but feels it is something that can be left to individual nations as it is hardly an international issue.

OOC: I won't retcon it, since it would interfere with the narrative flow (and because it is a somewhat humorous incident), but I will bear this in mind in the future; thank you!

"This is, as previously set out, esteemed colleague, not a question of necessity but of opportunity. WAICUP would allow nations to pool resources and knowledge, creating a powerful force for solving some of reality's greatest mysteries. The matter can be left to individual nations and the legislation proposed clearly states that this option still exists; we have in front of us, however, the chance to make grand strides forward in our search for knowledge rather than small steps. From unity, after all, it is said comes strength."

[Caramelldancers]

OOC And slightly unrelated. But the bear couldn't have been killed. The WA Has long had weapon nullifiers which make lethal force of any kind impossible. Just a heads up.

OOC: I accepted it happening because it was funny, and I thought it fit the general tone. And fits the general wackiness of my UN team.

[Kaboomlandia]

"If you want to study UFOs, do it on your own damn time. No support."

Terry Miller
WA Ambassador

[The Nexus Force]

"If you want to study UFOs, do it on your own damn time. No support."

Terry Miller
WA Ambassador

"Would UFOs not be better as IFOs?" The Nimban delegate chuckles slightly, then becomes serious. "The above example is a poor one, since unidentified flying objects are generally easily attributable to either explained natural phenomena or to the activity of other known sapient beings. What we are calling for, rather, is a body to study events in nature whose cause is both unknown and examinable by scientific endeavour. Besides, if you do not wish to become involved in WAICUP's activities there is no obligation for you to do so nor any cost for its existence - why deny other World Assembly members the opportunity manifest within it?"

[Araraukar]

OOC And slightly unrelated. But the bear couldn't have been killed. The WA Has long had weapon nullifiers which make lethal force of any kind impossible. Just a heads up.

OOC: Logically it can only apply to sapient creatures, or otherwise you couldn't wash your hands or cure an illness (killing bacteria, other microbes or parasites), nor eat a salad (live plant cells, sometimes viable shoots) or nuts (viable seeds).

OOC EDIT at author: Using an old passed resolution as a "but this passed so mine's good too" doesn't fly, since the proposal rules themselves have changed since that resolution was passed. Much as you want to claim otherwise, this is currently a committee only violation.

[Aclion]

*Celice quietly unplugs her minifridge and plugs the nullifier back in, resigning herself to drinking warm wine.*

[The Nexus Force]

OOC And slightly unrelated. But the bear couldn't have been killed. The WA Has long had weapon nullifiers which make lethal force of any kind impossible. Just a heads up.

OOC: Logically it can only apply to sapient creatures, or otherwise you couldn't wash your hands or cure an illness (killing bacteria, other microbes or parasites), nor eat a salad (live plant cells, sometimes viable shoots) or nuts (viable seeds).

OOC EDIT at author: Using an old passed resolution as a "but this passed so mine's good too" doesn't fly, since the proposal rules themselves have changed since that resolution was passed. Much as you want to claim otherwise, this is currently a committee only violation.

OOC: The Universal Library Coalition legislation passing is not the reason for the proposal being legitimate; it is a demonstration of a larger principle that is. That larger principle is the difference between a committee, a small, often temporary group of individuals, and an institution, a large, permanent organisation. This proposal establishes the latter, not the former, and so is legal.

[Araraukar]

OOC: The Universal Library Coalition legislation passing is not the reason for the proposal being legitimate; it is a demonstration of a larger principle that is. That larger principle is the difference between a committee, a small, often temporary group of individuals, and an institution, a large, permanent organisation. This proposal establishes the latter, not the former, and so is legal.

OOC: All coalitions and courts and bureaus and committees and associations and whatnot count as "committees" for the purposes of the proposal rules, when they're established by WA resolutions. You still need an active clause that forces the nations to do something. And you still need to fix your Category/AoE.

[Bears Armed]

OOC: The Universal Library Coalition legislation passing is not the reason for the proposal being legitimate; it is a demonstration of a larger principle that is. That larger principle is the difference between a committee, a small, often temporary group of individuals, and an institution, a large, permanent organisation. This proposal establishes the latter, not the former, and so is legal.

OOC: All coalitions and courts and bureaus and committees and associations and whatnot count as "committees" for the purposes of the proposal rules, when they're established by WA resolutions. You still need an active clause that forces the nations to do something.

OOC: Agreed.

[The Nexus Force]

OOC: All coalitions and courts and bureaus and committees and associations and whatnot count as "committees" for the purposes of the proposal rules, when they're established by WA resolutions. You still need an active clause that forces the nations to do something.

OOC: Agreed.

OOC: If we accept that broad a definition, then, what would you suggest?

[Araraukar]

OOC: If we accept that broad a definition, then, what would you suggest?

OOC: I would personally suggest what others have already suggested: abandoning this. I get the feeling you might be an X-Files fan, but considering the RP realities of the various nations - and even if you wanted to dismiss RP as nonsense, then the "MT realism" thing that WA resolutions are often held against would come to bite you - this isn't going to pass.

[The Nexus Force]

OOC: If we accept that broad a definition, then, what would you suggest?

OOC: I would personally suggest what others have already suggested: abandoning this. I get the feeling you might be an X-Files fan, but considering the RP realities of the various nations - and even if you wanted to dismiss RP as nonsense, then the "MT realism" thing that WA resolutions are often held against would come to bite you - this isn't going to pass.

OOC: I've actually never engaged with that particular TV series. What I would argue is that it is you who is ignoring the RP realities of multiple WA nations which do have extramundane phenomena as significant parts of their existence (my own included), which I am seeking to recognise and address here.

[Araraukar]

OOC: I've actually never engaged with that particular TV series. What I would argue is that it is you who is ignoring the RP realities of multiple WA nations which do have extramundane phenomena as significant parts of their existence (my own included), which I am seeking to recognise and address here.

OOC: I meant that whatever your RP reality can't explain, someone else's could, and thus there would be no "unexplained phenomena".

[The Nexus Force]

OOC: I've actually never engaged with that particular TV series. What I would argue is that it is you who is ignoring the RP realities of multiple WA nations which do have extramundane phenomena as significant parts of their existence (my own included), which I am seeking to recognise and address here.

OOC: I meant that whatever your RP reality can't explain, someone else's could, and thus there would be no "unexplained phenomena".

OOC: This would be true if such phenomena were common to all nations. They aren't (this is, in fact, explicitly acknowledged within the proposal's preamble); Imagination, for example, is unique to the Nexus Wardship of Former Citizens of the Nimbus System within the NationStates multiverse and as such no nation other than them would have put any (or at least barely any, since it has propagated a tiny bit in my interactions with other nations) work into analysing it. Removing that barrier for faster and more comprehensive understanding of all of them is precisely what WAICUP is for.

[Araraukar]

Imagination, for example, is unique to the Nexus Wardship of Former Citizens of the Nimbus System within the NationStates multiverse and as such no nation other than them would have put any (or at least barely any, since it has propagated a tiny bit in my interactions with other nations) work into analysing it.

OOC: The above statement makes no sense even in IC, because imagination is, you know, an ability of the RL human mind as well...

[The Nexus Force]

Imagination, for example, is unique to the Nexus Wardship of Former Citizens of the Nimbus System within the NationStates multiverse and as such no nation other than them would have put any (or at least barely any, since it has propagated a tiny bit in my interactions with other nations) work into analysing it.

OOC: The above statement makes no sense even in IC, because imagination is, you know, an ability of the RL human mind as well...

OOC: Not imagination, Imagination (The capitalisation is quite important - I should probably have made it clearer in the above post), a substance (or, as most Nimban scientists believe, entirely separate variety of matter) that interacts with the nervous system to produce what for all intents and purposes could be described as telekinesis; an Imagination Orb is pictured in the first post as part of the narrative of the proposal's submission and has been displayed IC alongside the copy of the legislation throughout the meeting. Not exactly something that exists in real life.

[Araraukar]

OOC: Not imagination, Imagination (The capitalisation is quite important - I should probably have made it clearer in the above post)

OOC: Not a very imaginative name. *tease*

an Imagination Orb is pictured in the first post as part of the narrative of the proposal's submission and has been displayed IC alongside the copy of the legislation throughout the meeting. Not exactly something that exists in real life.

Also OOC: Yes, I know, but you have totally missed the point here, one that I've tried to make on two different RP accounts now. For the cat it's a "glowbug". Because to him a glowbug is a thing that looks like it's nothing but light and can fly/float. That's the whole sum of the explanation and thus it's not an unexplained phenomenon.

For the Tikrr it doesn't exist, because it's inside a glass jar, and Ikiti's "sight" is in fact sonar audio. She can detect the surface of the glass jar (and the extra info of "hard, fragile, hollow") and with her cybernetics set to, as mentioned in the post, on outline mode, she can "see" (it's still acoustics to her mind) the shape and size of the jar. But visible light doesn't exist to a species that has no eyes.

Instead the Tikrr have (this hasn't been spelled out yet in a post, so this is fully OOC information), similarly to many RL creatures, a magnetic sense. In RL birds it's known that it's somehow connected to their sight. With their actual eyes. That's a known "unexplained phenomenon". We know birds need their eyes (in some birds' case just one of their eyes) to detect the magnetics and that the same part of their brain that processes visual info, processes magnetic info. We just can't explain how any of it is possible.

Still, based on your original reply to the cats' post it would not count as an unexplained phenomenon. The way you're explaining the definitions outside of the proposal does not agree with what you're trying to say the proposal is meant for. If you can cherrypick what counts as unexplained and what doesn't (in RL how human brains get thoughts from the neurons transmitting weak electrical charges between each other via chemical changes in cell wall permissibility for certain ions and with chemical molecules between two different cells, is a completely unexplainable phenomenon and of great interest to anyone with any interest in how minds work), then so can everyone else.

And if everyone can cherrypick what they want to count as unexplainable, then you should fully expect many people to say there's no such thing as an unexplainable phenomenon and thus this whole thing is unnecessary. Trying to put up a WA committee to do the cherry-picking for you won't work any better for the same reason.

And that's just all the scientific side. But there are actual nations here that do actual magic and can explain magic as magic, not try to explain it as science. There's no way around this. No sane way. Yes, you can write something up and have it be legal to the proposal rules, but no, you can't expect to pass a "we need to try and explain how telepathy works" when the majority of WA voters will be people who couldn't give a rat's ass about anything to do with RP, or at least RP that isn't equivalent to RL, just with changed names and more weapons.

And your AoE is still missing. I'll re-suggest for the third time that you check the proposal rules again to see how Educational works. If you need help with it, TG me.

[The Nexus Force]

(Cool name, by the way!)

OOC: Not imagination, Imagination (The capitalisation is quite important - I should probably have made it clearer in the above post)

OOC: Not a very imaginative name. *tease*

No, now that I think about it it isn't particularly imaginative. That's a bit of a discrepancy, even, when you consider that my nation's culture is built entirely around free-thinking and diversity.

an Imagination Orb is pictured in the first post as part of the narrative of the proposal's submission and has been displayed IC alongside the copy of the legislation throughout the meeting. Not exactly something that exists in real life.

Also OOC: Yes, I know, but you have totally missed the point here, one that I've tried to make on two different RP accounts now. For the cat it's a "glowbug". Because to him a glowbug is a thing that looks like it's nothing but light and can fly/float. That's the whole sum of the explanation and thus it's not an unexplained phenomenon.

For the Tikrr it doesn't exist, because it's inside a glass jar, and Ikiti's "sight" is in fact sonar audio. She can detect the surface of the glass jar (and the extra info of "hard, fragile, hollow") and with her cybernetics set to, as mentioned in the post, on outline mode, she can "see" (it's still acoustics to her mind) the shape and size of the jar. But visible light doesn't exist to a species that has no eyes.

Instead the Tikrr have (this hasn't been spelled out yet in a post, so this is fully OOC information), similarly to many RL creatures, a magnetic sense. In RL birds it's known that it's somehow connected to their sight. With their actual eyes. That's a known "unexplained phenomenon". We know birds need their eyes (in some birds' case just one of their eyes) to detect the magnetics and that the same part of their brain that processes visual info, processes magnetic info. We just can't explain how any of it is possible.

Still, based on your original reply to the cats' post it would not count as an unexplained phenomenon. The way you're explaining the definitions outside of the proposal does not agree with what you're trying to say the proposal is meant for. If you can cherrypick what counts as unexplained and what doesn't (in RL how human brains get thoughts from the neurons transmitting weak electrical charges between each other via chemical changes in cell wall permissibility for certain ions and with chemical molecules between two different cells, is a completely unexplainable phenomenon and of great interest to anyone with any interest in how minds work), then so can everyone else.

And if everyone can cherrypick what they want to count as unexplainable, then you should fully expect many people to say there's no such thing as an unexplainable phenomenon and thus this whole thing is unnecessary. Trying to put up a WA committee to do the cherry-picking for you won't work any better for the same reason.

And that's just all the scientific side. But there are actual nations here that do actual magic and can explain magic as magic, not try to explain it as science. There's no way around this. No sane way. Yes, you can write something up and have it be legal to the proposal rules, but no, you can't expect to pass a "we need to try and explain how telepathy works" when the majority of WA voters will be people who couldn't give a rat's ass about anything to do with RP, or at least RP that isn't equivalent to RL, just with changed names and more weapons.

And your AoE is still missing. I'll re-suggest for the third time that you check the proposal rules again to see how Educational works. If you need help with it, TG me.

I have now got the Area of Effect sorted, finally - apologies for not noticing the fact that the word 'Category' had been erroneously used instead (my lack of a response was a result of my mystification over what you were actually trying to point out that needed fixing).

The principle that I was attempting to describe and that would be used to discern which phenomena would come under WAICUP's mission was that of the highest common denominator - if presented with a phenomenon of which no nations' cognoscenti could scientifically explain all of the facets that is clearly observable to the sapient species of some World Assembly members then WAICUP would investigate. Nimban Imagination would be such an example, being able to be experienced via the medium of visible light, for which a number of sapient species in the World Assembly (I assume) possess sensory organs of some description and via direct use of it (potentially - I've never really thought this through) by any sapient species and only having undergone serious analysis by Nimban scientists who still haven't figured it out yet; the human brain would not, since (again, I assume) some World Assembly nations have enough scientific advancement to have entirely discerned its workings (in fact this wouldn't even be a problem to solve for any nation, since results of the endeavours of the scientists of at least some of those nations would be recorded in and accessible through use of WACLC). I am sorry if this was not clearer in either the proposal or earlier discussion; I'll review the former to ensure that it is implicit.

The problem of nations unwilling to have their magic systems explained scientifically was raised earlier in response to which I removed the original proposal's requirement for evidence of phenomena to be submitted to WAICUP and instead made it voluntary.

All of this discussion, however, may have been made irrelevant by your final point - since you have greater experience than I do, are you saying that you believe that World Assembly nations without any investment in roleplaying will vote down the proposal because they believe it to be irrelevant to them? Are they really that closed-minded?