8th Day of Cylus
718th Arc
718th Arc
The girl was back in the room Virikai back to his vantage point in the adjacent room, ever watchful. He did not understand this next task - few eídisi children did. It was about play - something human children were adept at, it was innate for them, and Yvithia wanted to know if it was the same for other races. Would this aukari child be able to engage in imaginative play?
Unfortunately, Asher had followed him down once again. “Where were we? Oh yes! Research! Now that we have our basic premise, it's time to go deep into the real meat of the issue. With your problem that you needed answering, with all the associated works of others that you can build upon, and with your why outlined and figured out, you should be able to go into the details of what you need to be solved. Surely by now you should have a hypothesis - an answer that you suspect may be able to answer your question. It may be right, it may be wrong, it doesn't matter because your research will support or invalidate it. But you need this hypothesis, because it will help you to formulate smaller questions that when combined can help you solve your main question.”
“Yes, but at the same time, we must be aware of other problems, Professor,” Virikai murmured politely as milky eyes watched the girl begin to interact with the handler, who was trying to engage. “Here we have a six arc old child who has never known anything other than clinical white walls and adults who look nothing like her scribbling notes about everything she does. It is hardly a natural environment, and perhaps a typical aukari child would engage in play like humans, but how will we know, as this girl has not stated that typical upbringing?”
Asher nodded solemnly. “Yes, Virikai. And that could potentially be a problem with the whole study. It is not naturalistic. How do we know whether or not that the subjects’ responses are as a result of their nature… or their nurture?” He smiled sadly, having had Virikai realise the problem with this study, the sheer amount of money the Facility of Retrospective Analysis had wasted on it, and potentially for nothing. “That girl speaks the Ancient Tongue better than she does her birthright language, Vauni, and she certainly cannot write in Sau’ei.”
The young academic paused at that, he had not thought of how the child’s language may be affected by this experiment. He wondered briefly if… but no… could it? Was that possible? Virikai had no formal education in linguistics. Yes, he spoke many languages, but he knew very little of the fundamentals of linguistics.
“After you know what you're going to do, you actually do it. You will need data. Empirical data.” Asher continued, oblivious to Virikai’s slowly building epiphany. “That can only be gained through conducting experimental research. Of course, those artsy pansies over at the other Institude will say that not all data has to be empirical. But for us science folk, it is a must. If you're not solving your problems at and realised it only at this step then you're doing something wrong.”
Unfortunately, Asher had followed him down once again. “Where were we? Oh yes! Research! Now that we have our basic premise, it's time to go deep into the real meat of the issue. With your problem that you needed answering, with all the associated works of others that you can build upon, and with your why outlined and figured out, you should be able to go into the details of what you need to be solved. Surely by now you should have a hypothesis - an answer that you suspect may be able to answer your question. It may be right, it may be wrong, it doesn't matter because your research will support or invalidate it. But you need this hypothesis, because it will help you to formulate smaller questions that when combined can help you solve your main question.”
“Yes, but at the same time, we must be aware of other problems, Professor,” Virikai murmured politely as milky eyes watched the girl begin to interact with the handler, who was trying to engage. “Here we have a six arc old child who has never known anything other than clinical white walls and adults who look nothing like her scribbling notes about everything she does. It is hardly a natural environment, and perhaps a typical aukari child would engage in play like humans, but how will we know, as this girl has not stated that typical upbringing?”
Asher nodded solemnly. “Yes, Virikai. And that could potentially be a problem with the whole study. It is not naturalistic. How do we know whether or not that the subjects’ responses are as a result of their nature… or their nurture?” He smiled sadly, having had Virikai realise the problem with this study, the sheer amount of money the Facility of Retrospective Analysis had wasted on it, and potentially for nothing. “That girl speaks the Ancient Tongue better than she does her birthright language, Vauni, and she certainly cannot write in Sau’ei.”
The young academic paused at that, he had not thought of how the child’s language may be affected by this experiment. He wondered briefly if… but no… could it? Was that possible? Virikai had no formal education in linguistics. Yes, he spoke many languages, but he knew very little of the fundamentals of linguistics.
“After you know what you're going to do, you actually do it. You will need data. Empirical data.” Asher continued, oblivious to Virikai’s slowly building epiphany. “That can only be gained through conducting experimental research. Of course, those artsy pansies over at the other Institude will say that not all data has to be empirical. But for us science folk, it is a must. If you're not solving your problems at and realised it only at this step then you're doing something wrong.”
