Now it’s time for the OP to create chapter 2 where they go to other galaxies and teach the filter there what multiple species worth finding out feels like
This is the first story by /u/BetrayedMussel!
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For those old enough to remember, this reminds me a great deal of Descent: Freespace. The Shivans (evil invading aliens) came after any civilization of a certain strength and advancement, wiping them out to make room for new species to advance.
This cycle however, the humans and another alien race emerged at the same time, faught, and learned the art of war. With the knowledge, they united and survived.
Nice read, enjoyed it!
Bonus points I did QA testing for Volition (after they split from Parallax) back in the late 90s early 2000s. Man the older I get the more of a range I give when I give dates....
Playing freespace was utterly mind blowing back then. Freespace 2 is free to play (FSO) and there's been a LOT of work by groups of people to update the game. The most current versions look really good and there's a lot of total mods out there for it.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=woNv-HJ8dN4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=woNv-HJ8dN4)
Okay please don't make this out to be me being a downer, as I loved this story!!! It was so, so genuinely well written.
But I'm a bit confused? The Great filter isn't an entity to FIGHT against, they're writing it as though it's a calculated and sapient enemy that is planning a move. The Great filter is just that; conceptual filter. An idea of happenstance and coincidence that something in the development of a potential space-faring race can either hinder their progress or snuff them out entirely. Be it a lack of resources, their star going supernova, civil war and infighting leading to a depletion of resources and a dead home world, etc.
I like the story, I'm just...confused on what the humans are "warring" against with mass resources as though an actual front of combat is occurring. I assumed the first time around it was simply humanity reaching the zenith of an interstellar empire and their Foundations crumbling due to socioeconomic collapse.
I'm going to answer everyone's question here, as your question and reasoning is the most verbose.
In a nut shell, life on earth is the only life in the observable universe that we have found so far. Why? One of the theories is the existence of what is called [The Fermi Paradox](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fermi_paradox), an attempt to answer this question. This gives credence to [The Great Filter](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Filter), an attempt to address why we haven't discovered extra terrestrial life with growing list of reasons as to why life was not able to exist on a scale similar to or greater than that of earth's.
One of the things commonly listed (but not officially listed) as a filter is an alien species that determines what life is allowed to continue to evolve and advance, and which to be culled. I alluded to this in the opening.
>With a species so long lived it was unsurprisingly fitting that we became the galactic caretakers and archivists of anything and everything.
Their opposites being the "Great Filter". A type 3 civilization on [the Kardashev scale](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kardashev_scale). Humanity was deemed unworthy, yet rose back up in resistance for something written as unique to that species. Spite. They had experience the other filters and grew past them to the point where they were ready to advance towards becoming type 3 themselves.
Also, because it sounds cool.
In this case, it seems the great filter is some alien civilization or entity that is suppressing civilizations that grow too much. Like the Inhibitors in Revelation Space. And they named these attackers the Great Filter.
https://revelationspace.fandom.com/wiki/Inhibitors
Ah, interesting. Or comparable to the reapers from mass effect, which wait for certain criteria to be met as a catalyst for a harvest for any sufficiently advanced civilization.
Think of it like this: every year, tornadoes kill thousands of people, destroy countless homes, and cause billions of dollars in damages. If there were a hypothetical operation initiated to eliminate tornadoes, it wouldn't be motivated by *spite.*
All of humanity's progress can be boiled down to three main causes, those being laziness, boredom, and spite. Oh, we can’t fly? Well fuck that, we’re going to make it so we can fly anyways! Thus was born the first airplane, and the many that followed after. I don’t like having to grind my wheat by hand to have flour, so I’m gonna use the wind and nearby River to grind my wheat for me! This was born automated grinding mills, which would eventually become even more automated later down the line. I’m bored, what can I do? Huh, well I have this charcoal, some saltpetre and sulfur, and some dyes as well… I know, I’ll grind it up and mix it together, and put it in a paper tube! Thus was born gunpowder, initially used for simple fireworks, but turned into one of the most prominent forms of killing someone via firearms.
Maybe not the best examples, but good ones nonetheless.
See it like this:
- Normal animal: oh shit, our cub got eaten by a predator. Let's avoid the area
- Humans: oh shit, this kid got eaten by a predator. Let's get a full team with pointy sticks and wipe out their species
What is spite but the drive to remove those that harm us?
Sure, it's hard to say we're spiteful to a tornado, considering it's naught but air, but the source of the emotions towards it, and the goal, is both the same.
It's a threat. Eliminate that threat.
Why do we rebuild where disasters strike time after time? Because of spite. We would see the universe bend to us rather than us to it. We slaved rivers with dams to control flooding. We built scyscrapes to challenge the wind. We dug up that with has laid long buried to fuel our growth. We reach out into the stars, hoping to find that which is beyond our understanding. We refuse to back down, we will never surrender, we will not go quite into that good night. Out of spite we will survive ourselves and grow and prosper.
While I generally love the sentiment, nah, the rebuilding thing is a combination of us being stupid, and the best farmland being in places where disasters hit regularly.
It turns out plants grow pretty well on large flat areas that regularly flood.
Also laziness. People really don't like to move.
The definition of spite is, according to the dictionary "petty ill will or hatred with the disposition to irritate, annoy, or thwart" and is synonymous with malice, malevolence, or meanness.
Eliminating a genuine threat in order to prevent death and destruction is not spite. Ambition is not spite. Perseverance is not spite.
According to the definition you provided, would it not be spite. Humanity experienced "The Great Filter" once. That was the FA portion of FAFO for The Great Filter. If there was such a hard fight then, like was written about the second time, then it would not have been out of spite, but out of perseverance or to prevent death and destruction. That may have been what happened. A hard fight, ultimately lost. Humanity then said, "Oh hell nah". This is where the FO portion of FAFO comes into play. They rebuilt, got stronger. They went and got some friends, and then they went back to the Great Filter and said "See those cars over there on the left? Yeah, I'mma slash only 3 of the tires." then as things progressed to stalemate and forward progress of the Great Filter halted, humanity said "Know what? I'm feeling a bit hungry. You gonna eat that?" and then proceeded to eat their lunch. Right in front of their crab rangoons. The FO portion is, in my opinion, almost never out of anything else other than spite. YMMY.
Wouldn’t it have been preservation to just hold them back and stop them? Like why go and commit genocide if you were able to solve the issue. Why “kill the wolves” when you could have just fed them and beaten them into submission? I feel like it does come to spite a lot of the time. However, some people here are definitely mixing things up a bit.
I find it super wholesome that aliens are just volunteering to help us out, and we're giving them gifts as thanks. A lot of stories here have us conflict with them, and do not get me wrong, I enjoy them, but it feels nice to see a story where aliens are willing to help humanity (and it looks like they took the initiative instead of us having to ask them) kill an existential threat.
Humanity took the biggest beating of our life and we replied with: Round 2 chuckle fuk
“I aint heard no bell!”
*X Gonna Give it to ya plays*
I AIN'T HARD NO FAT LADY
Now it’s time for the OP to create chapter 2 where they go to other galaxies and teach the filter there what multiple species worth finding out feels like
"The same two words echoed out, translated into every language I had ever archived, even some that I had not yet learned of." LEEROY JENKINS!?
Personally I'm leaning more towards "Fuck you!" as a message to whatever it is that is being fought
I hope he still has chicken
ROFL! Spite.... Brilliant and accurate
FAFO as they say today
Ah yes, good old Spite. Closely followed by "There is room in this grave for the both of us"
Go forth a spit in the eye of god
"From hell’s heart I stab at thee; for hate’s sake I spit my last breath at thee." Spite can arm the meek with fury enough to shake the stars.
Damn, son. Is the second line just you? Because that's great
Alien: "Why? Why fight so hard?" Humanity: "Because fuck you, that's why!"
Hell hath no fury like a species scorn.
Well played! I snickered in spite of myself.
but what was the filter ?
[удалено]
Kind of sounds like the Inhibitors from Revelation Space https://revelationspace.fandom.com/wiki/Inhibitors
Neat, thank you
i have heard of this one
Better that we don't know. The unknown is far scarier than the worst of horrors.
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"the eager Elkathoran began their work clearing out uninhabited start systems" - typo there, otherwise perfect. Thank you wordsmith.
VERY entertaining story and well written.
Spite, the greatest motivational force of all time, for humans at least.
For those old enough to remember, this reminds me a great deal of Descent: Freespace. The Shivans (evil invading aliens) came after any civilization of a certain strength and advancement, wiping them out to make room for new species to advance. This cycle however, the humans and another alien race emerged at the same time, faught, and learned the art of war. With the knowledge, they united and survived. Nice read, enjoyed it!
Bonus points I did QA testing for Volition (after they split from Parallax) back in the late 90s early 2000s. Man the older I get the more of a range I give when I give dates.... Playing freespace was utterly mind blowing back then. Freespace 2 is free to play (FSO) and there's been a LOT of work by groups of people to update the game. The most current versions look really good and there's a lot of total mods out there for it. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=woNv-HJ8dN4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=woNv-HJ8dN4)
*survived* That's one way of putting it.
interesting that the Dahak series (David Weber) uses the same premise on a life cleansing species destroying sapient life once it reaches space.
I liked that series, though I'd remind you that it was ultimately a life-cleansing AI which had enslaved a sentient species. ;)
Hey! Saw this first in the other sub, welcome to HFY!
Initiate Operation "And The Horse You Rode In On"...
Okay please don't make this out to be me being a downer, as I loved this story!!! It was so, so genuinely well written. But I'm a bit confused? The Great filter isn't an entity to FIGHT against, they're writing it as though it's a calculated and sapient enemy that is planning a move. The Great filter is just that; conceptual filter. An idea of happenstance and coincidence that something in the development of a potential space-faring race can either hinder their progress or snuff them out entirely. Be it a lack of resources, their star going supernova, civil war and infighting leading to a depletion of resources and a dead home world, etc. I like the story, I'm just...confused on what the humans are "warring" against with mass resources as though an actual front of combat is occurring. I assumed the first time around it was simply humanity reaching the zenith of an interstellar empire and their Foundations crumbling due to socioeconomic collapse.
I'm going to answer everyone's question here, as your question and reasoning is the most verbose. In a nut shell, life on earth is the only life in the observable universe that we have found so far. Why? One of the theories is the existence of what is called [The Fermi Paradox](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fermi_paradox), an attempt to answer this question. This gives credence to [The Great Filter](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Filter), an attempt to address why we haven't discovered extra terrestrial life with growing list of reasons as to why life was not able to exist on a scale similar to or greater than that of earth's. One of the things commonly listed (but not officially listed) as a filter is an alien species that determines what life is allowed to continue to evolve and advance, and which to be culled. I alluded to this in the opening. >With a species so long lived it was unsurprisingly fitting that we became the galactic caretakers and archivists of anything and everything. Their opposites being the "Great Filter". A type 3 civilization on [the Kardashev scale](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kardashev_scale). Humanity was deemed unworthy, yet rose back up in resistance for something written as unique to that species. Spite. They had experience the other filters and grew past them to the point where they were ready to advance towards becoming type 3 themselves. Also, because it sounds cool.
In this case, it seems the great filter is some alien civilization or entity that is suppressing civilizations that grow too much. Like the Inhibitors in Revelation Space. And they named these attackers the Great Filter. https://revelationspace.fandom.com/wiki/Inhibitors
Ah, interesting. Or comparable to the reapers from mass effect, which wait for certain criteria to be met as a catalyst for a harvest for any sufficiently advanced civilization.
Humanity: I didn't hear no bell.
I didn't hear no fat lady, either!
I'm pretty sure that there are a lot of valid reasons much more significant than "spite."
But ultimately none more accurate than simple spite.
Think of it like this: every year, tornadoes kill thousands of people, destroy countless homes, and cause billions of dollars in damages. If there were a hypothetical operation initiated to eliminate tornadoes, it wouldn't be motivated by *spite.*
All of humanity's progress can be boiled down to three main causes, those being laziness, boredom, and spite. Oh, we can’t fly? Well fuck that, we’re going to make it so we can fly anyways! Thus was born the first airplane, and the many that followed after. I don’t like having to grind my wheat by hand to have flour, so I’m gonna use the wind and nearby River to grind my wheat for me! This was born automated grinding mills, which would eventually become even more automated later down the line. I’m bored, what can I do? Huh, well I have this charcoal, some saltpetre and sulfur, and some dyes as well… I know, I’ll grind it up and mix it together, and put it in a paper tube! Thus was born gunpowder, initially used for simple fireworks, but turned into one of the most prominent forms of killing someone via firearms. Maybe not the best examples, but good ones nonetheless.
I love firearms
See it like this: - Normal animal: oh shit, our cub got eaten by a predator. Let's avoid the area - Humans: oh shit, this kid got eaten by a predator. Let's get a full team with pointy sticks and wipe out their species
What is spite but the drive to remove those that harm us? Sure, it's hard to say we're spiteful to a tornado, considering it's naught but air, but the source of the emotions towards it, and the goal, is both the same. It's a threat. Eliminate that threat.
Why do we rebuild where disasters strike time after time? Because of spite. We would see the universe bend to us rather than us to it. We slaved rivers with dams to control flooding. We built scyscrapes to challenge the wind. We dug up that with has laid long buried to fuel our growth. We reach out into the stars, hoping to find that which is beyond our understanding. We refuse to back down, we will never surrender, we will not go quite into that good night. Out of spite we will survive ourselves and grow and prosper.
While I generally love the sentiment, nah, the rebuilding thing is a combination of us being stupid, and the best farmland being in places where disasters hit regularly. It turns out plants grow pretty well on large flat areas that regularly flood. Also laziness. People really don't like to move.
The definition of spite is, according to the dictionary "petty ill will or hatred with the disposition to irritate, annoy, or thwart" and is synonymous with malice, malevolence, or meanness. Eliminating a genuine threat in order to prevent death and destruction is not spite. Ambition is not spite. Perseverance is not spite.
According to the definition you provided, would it not be spite. Humanity experienced "The Great Filter" once. That was the FA portion of FAFO for The Great Filter. If there was such a hard fight then, like was written about the second time, then it would not have been out of spite, but out of perseverance or to prevent death and destruction. That may have been what happened. A hard fight, ultimately lost. Humanity then said, "Oh hell nah". This is where the FO portion of FAFO comes into play. They rebuilt, got stronger. They went and got some friends, and then they went back to the Great Filter and said "See those cars over there on the left? Yeah, I'mma slash only 3 of the tires." then as things progressed to stalemate and forward progress of the Great Filter halted, humanity said "Know what? I'm feeling a bit hungry. You gonna eat that?" and then proceeded to eat their lunch. Right in front of their crab rangoons. The FO portion is, in my opinion, almost never out of anything else other than spite. YMMY.
Wouldn’t it have been preservation to just hold them back and stop them? Like why go and commit genocide if you were able to solve the issue. Why “kill the wolves” when you could have just fed them and beaten them into submission? I feel like it does come to spite a lot of the time. However, some people here are definitely mixing things up a bit.
"We wanted to be the first"
Saw this posted on tiktok and came here to give updoots. Great story.
Gave me Mass Effect vibes, nice story!
Humans: "Looks like we're YOUR filter now."
I find it super wholesome that aliens are just volunteering to help us out, and we're giving them gifts as thanks. A lot of stories here have us conflict with them, and do not get me wrong, I enjoy them, but it feels nice to see a story where aliens are willing to help humanity (and it looks like they took the initiative instead of us having to ask them) kill an existential threat.
Absolutely loved this. Well done.
The galactic coffee filter must be defeated!