It is a year later and Moon Meeting time again for Zeb and Jane. They are gathered at a banquet. Jason is not there.
Zeb asks, "How's the year been going, Jane?"
Jane almost facepalms, "Oh my! It's been a rough one."
"No contracts?"
"Plenty of contracts, but lots of difficult work and not much profit. The Mirondians are getting hard-nosed. The scuttlebutt is: This starship project is going to be a big, expensive one, even for them. They are squeezing."
"Ouch!"
"Yeah, but we're adapting. We're doing more work for human contractors. They are still paying like they did last year and there are now a lot more of them. And how about you, Zeb?"
"Well... the hot news is: I got accepted to the charter class at MirU."
"What? That new university they are opening up? The one that's teaching hard-core blip?"
"That one, indeed! And, you know who else is in the class with me? John Foursmoots."
"...The one who first discovered the Mirondian ship was coming our way?"
"One and the same. And he's been busy since then. He's been helping redesign the Mirondian propulsion systems -- making them work at higher G force."
"Impressive! On many counts."
"I'm headed there from here. That's why I'm up here now. MirU is at the Showroom Asteroid."
"What's Jason up to these days?"
"Funny you should ask: I was talking with John Foursmoots and apparently he and Jason have crossed paths on Earth, and are now buddies of some sorts."
Jane shakes her head at this news, "It's a strange, strange world we live in, Master Jack. What I heard was he has kept up his protesting, and got tossed in jail a couple times."
"Foursmoots and jail time for Mirondians Go Home protesting, that is a strange mix."
<<<*>>>
John and Zeb both graduated... in blip time. The course was only six months long. They both returned to Earth, but their fortunes there were night and day different.
Zeb continued his enterprising and had enough hits that he was prospering. What John wanted to do was continue his work in "Big Astronomy" -- examining far away stars and galaxies using big telescopes and other expensive equipment. But with the arrival of the Mirondian Encyclopedia, funding for big astronomy had dried up.
The chairman of his grant committee explained, "Why should we fund Big Astronomy? It's all in the Mirondian book."
John countered with, "That is nonsense! Only 1% of what we look at with our telescopes is in Mirondian space. They don't know any more than we do about the rest of the galaxy or other galaxies. Their knowledge should make no change to our funding." But he argued in vain, and funding for his proposals dried up. He found himself on the losing side of the Great Change. And that changed his attitude about Mirondians, and he wasn't shy about talking about his change of heart.
John and Jason got on a talk show six months later. John said, "The Mirondian cultural systems are alien, and they are dehumanizing. We need to back off and reexamine what we humans want out of this relation. Doing things the blip way needs to be examined carefully."
Jason said, "Doing things the blip way is increasing inequality. It isn't fair to the poor people of Earth. It isn't fair to the poor people around the solar system. If blip can't increase fairness, we need to abolish it."
Losers lose in many ways. Some piss and moan, some drink themselves into oblivion, some yell and shout and rail against the world, get laid, and then drink themselves into oblivion.
John Foursmoots chose to analyze and write, as well as piss and moan. He wrote blogs, books and videos. These days he is most famous for "The Alienation of Mankind", in which he analyzes why Mirondian goods and technology are dehumanizing humans.
On another show John says, "The highlight of the problem is the communication-intensive aspects of blip techniques. First time viewers of blip techniques in action always leave with their jaw dropped.
"To first time viewers blip processing looks a lot like a Betty Boop animation of the 1920's in which everything is moving, and everything moving is perfectly synchronized with everything else moving. Kids seeing a blip process in action for the first time would squeal in delight, and, in fact, several children's museums put obsolete blip machines on display for just that reason.
"Getting that kind of coordination requires intensive communication. Much of the communication is machine-to-machine, but MSE's and humans are also in the loop."
He puts a communicating device on his head. It looks like an early Blackberry.
"They get into the loop using one of these. This can open up two or three communications channels simultaneously."
He gives it to the host. "Give it a try."
The host listens for just a moment, shakes her head, and says, "It's all gibberish to me."
John says, "To understand this takes training... intensive blip training. Even with that training, only some people can adapt, many can't. This new think-tank I and some of my associates have formed has done some studies. Those who can adapt to this are soulless nerds. Conclusion: Humanity be being dehumanized by its adaptation to blip."
The host is speechless hearing this.
<<<*>>>
The Mirondians have a big announcement to make. Miro-Robert appears on their news channel.
"We Mirondians have completed the planning for the building of our next starship.
"Once again, I would like to express our gratitude to you humans. If you had not created such a wonderful Solar System here, one so full of humans, and resources and life in general, this project would not be possible.
"Our plan is to construct this new ship on your Earth's Moon.
"This is a good place because:" as he ticks off reasons, they show up as bullet items on his screen.
"o It is close to Earth, so moving the hundred thousand, or so, human laborers the project would take will be comparatively easy.
"o There is plenty of resource on the Moon, and on nearby Earth.
"o It is not likely, but if space pirates show up, the Moon has defenses.
"Once again, we Mirondians look forward to this great leap forward in Mirondian and human cooperation." and he signs off.
The reaction on Earth is huge and unenthusiastic.
Foursmoots and Jason are on a talk show. Zeb and Jane are watching.
John starts off, "To Mirondians the Moon is just another satellite. What they think is important is that "their baby" -- the ship -- should be gestated somewhere safe and as convenient as possible.
"But for us Earth people, the Moon is something very different. It is the unchanging Goddess of the Night.
"And, I have been going through the details that the Mirondians have released. This project is huge! And the pollution it is going to create is huge! It will create a mountain... no, mountain range! of trash and pollution on the Moon's surface.
"This is not a good idea."
"Mirondians Plot Moon Trashing" scream headlines.
"Not only would the starship orbiting the Moon be an eyesore for decades, the Moon would develop a dusty atmosphere from all the pollution. The surface scars created would be visible to the next species!!"
It took a month for the Mirondians to realize that the Earthers weren't kidding -- that this was deeply upsetting. When they did Miro-Robert is back on the air.
"We have listened. We are changing the construction site to a large anonymous Earth orbit-crossing asteroid.
"As a bonus, when we are finished this asteroid will no longer be a threat to Earth."
This was a good change, but a lot of image damage had been done. This gaff spawned the coalescing of scattered radical groups across the solar system into a serious anti-Mirondian movement.