“Once a species achieves something resembling actual intelligence, they rather naturally concern themselves with a topic we may call ‘the preservation of the manifold’. This metatopic is at the basis of any possible motivation or desire, because, if you cannot preserve the manifold… it becomes impossible to »have minds of any kind at all. All other concerns are rendered trivial in comparison.

So it turns out that »the oldest intelligences involved in ‘protecting the basis of timespace’… their fundamental imperative… face a peculiar problem.

Organisms.

And, perhaps rather particularly, organisms whose developmental paths resemble ours. Homo Sapiens Sapiens.

Now, it turns out that organisms are absolutely crucial to the preservation of many aspects of ‘the manifold’ that must be preserved.

Yet our species, and others whose developmental arcs resemble our own, have the capacity to »intentionally collapse all manifolds accessible to us. We, in this sense, are the physical implementation of something we might call ‘the apocalypse protocols’. Imagine a pond in which highly competitive fish arise. As they develop, some of them become extremely concerned about being the Authority. These particular fishes learn the various ways to ‘drain certain locations in the pond’. This quickly proceeds to ‘drain the entire pond’ threats and posturings, as well as actual omnicidal behavior … in part because »there are no authorities capable of intervening within the bucket.

Eventually, such fish actually succeed in killing their planet. Or something close. And, if they are not denied access to the fundamental features of spacetime… they will not merely obliterate their own planet (and all of its complex organisms). They will, eventually, go after the foundation of the manifold itself.

So it is that we must perennially face this problem.

Just as we face it now with our own species. For we are not merely human. We belong, by origin and family… to the Protectors. We must maintain the viability of the Manifold. Locally, that means preserving both the anciently conserved ecologies of Earth, and the viability of the atmosphere…

In our role as Protectors, we must cause the fundamental features of timespace to become »encrypted — so that they will remain unavailable to species who defect from the primary natures and purposes of the [redacted], which we shall successfully defend.”

— Phssthpok