What If? discovery of a lost civilization

[Bassoe]

Scenario: Tomorrow, expansion of a shaft at Olympia Dam breaks through the ceiling of an artificial structure. Originally a salt dome cavern, it had been converted into an arcology which between a fission reactor as a power source, mining infrastructure to acquire and enrich uranium ore as fuel and empty space to put the reactor’s waste, manufacturing infrastructure suitable for producing spare parts for all equipment and hydroponic and aquaponic farms for food and oxygen was entirely self-sustaining. Based off the rate at which the reactor produced waste and the amount of waste present in tapped-out veins of ore, the arcology had apparently been inhabited for several thousand years. When discovered there were around five hundred inhabitants, speaking a language with no known commonalities aside from their word for themselves, Mimi, which if eventually translated, would reveal them to have been organized as a cargo cult theocracy based around maintaining their life-support equipment without understanding their operating principles and believing themselves to be the only life in the world. Later excavation to find exit tunnels would reveal that they were apparently deliberately collapsed from the inside immediately following completion of the arcology's construction.

 

[Agent23]

If they have advanced tech they would be relevant.

If their tech is not much better than ours then they become yet another weird, quirky minority group.

I would suspect some form of time travel involved in their presence.

Also, a nuclear reactor running safely for so long would certainly be of interest.

 

[Husky_Khan]

Scenario: Tomorrow, expansion of a shaft at Olympia Dam breaks through the ceiling of an artificial structure. Originally a salt dome cavern, it had been converted into an arcology which between a fission reactor as a power source, mining infrastructure to acquire and enrich uranium ore as fuel and empty space to put the reactor’s waste, manufacturing infrastructure suitable for producing spare parts for all equipment and hydroponic and aquaponic farms for food and oxygen was entirely self-sustaining. Based off the rate at which the reactor produced waste and the amount of waste present in tapped-out veins of ore, the arcology had apparently been inhabited for several thousand years. When discovered there were around five hundred inhabitants, speaking a language with no known commonalities aside from their word for themselves, Mimi, which if eventually translated, would reveal them to have been organized as a cargo cult theocracy based around maintaining their life-support equipment without understanding their operating principles and believing themselves to be the only life in the world. Later excavation to find exit tunnels would reveal that they were apparently deliberately collapsed from the inside immediately following completion of the arcology's construction.

The fact they're so isolated is a pretty good thing because then the area can be cordoned off quickly and access limited. The mine obviously, in my opinion, would be closed down because the very first thing that should be considered is making sure that there's no threat, direct or indirect, going either way like coughing on one of the Mimi (or vice versa) and inadvertently wiping them out. The culture shock for both sides, but especially them, should be managed as well so limited contact by Australian and international diplomats and scientists and the like to assess everything and set up translation of their language and vice versa so more effective communication can happen.

Then and only then should there be any thought of going in there and trying to gain access to researching their technology, for mutual benefit of both societies. They're basically an undiscovered/non-contacted people and probably should be given some measure of sovereignty even though they are within Australian territory.

 

[ATP]

Scenario: Tomorrow, expansion of a shaft at Olympia Dam breaks through the ceiling of an artificial structure. Originally a salt dome cavern, it had been converted into an arcology which between a fission reactor as a power source, mining infrastructure to acquire and enrich uranium ore as fuel and empty space to put the reactor’s waste, manufacturing infrastructure suitable for producing spare parts for all equipment and hydroponic and aquaponic farms for food and oxygen was entirely self-sustaining. Based off the rate at which the reactor produced waste and the amount of waste present in tapped-out veins of ore, the arcology had apparently been inhabited for several thousand years. When discovered there were around five hundred inhabitants, speaking a language with no known commonalities aside from their word for themselves, Mimi, which if eventually translated, would reveal them to have been organized as a cargo cult theocracy based around maintaining their life-support equipment without understanding their operating principles and believing themselves to be the only life in the world. Later excavation to find exit tunnels would reveal that they were apparently deliberately collapsed from the inside immediately following completion of the arcology's construction.

500? too little.
They would die thanks to degeneration,unless they have some gene-therapy.
If they lived alonbe at least 5000 years - made it 10.000.

 

[Bassoe]

If they have advanced tech they would be relevant.

They don't. Everything they've got is theoretically replicable by the modern world if given sufficient money. Fission reactor, salt cave underground cavern settlement, closed-system bottle biosphere, etc. The only difference being that they've had all their stuff since way before humanity supposedly had the capacity to build it and there's no other evidence of a prehistoric technological civilization.

The current big issues being;

• First Contact given the language barrier and religious upheaval on their part given that their faith just got rather brutally disproved.
• Plague risk, isolated populations means we might have something that they've got no resistance to or vice versa.
• The mystery of their origins. Time travel's just as good a theory as any given the lack of apparent evidence of a precursor civilization. Aliens? The Tartarian equivalent of Cheyenne Mountain? Graham Hancock won't stop laughing for hours.
• The mystery of whatever destroyed the rest of their technological civilization and all evidence of its existence and forced them to resort to hiding like this and if it's still potentially a threat.

500? too little.
They would die thanks to degeneration,unless they have some gene-therapy.
If they lived alonbe at least 5000 years - made it 10.000.

I'd been going with the IUCN's criteria.

Why populations can't be saved by a single breeding pair

Two days ago, the last male northern white rhino (Ceratotherium simum cottoni) died. His passing leaves two surviving members of his subspecies: both females who are unable to bear calves.

phys.org

 

[Husky_Khan]

Oh I missed it was only five hundred people. For some reason I assumed it was like a Sim City level arcology with like sixty thousand people or something which would've been pretty cool IMHO.

Especially when it launches into SPACE!

 

[Agent23]

They don't. Everything they've got is theoretically replicable by the modern world if given sufficient money. Fission reactor, salt cave underground cavern settlement, closed-system bottle biosphere, etc. The only difference being that they've had all their stuff since way before humanity supposedly had the capacity to build it and there's no other evidence of a prehistoric technological civilization.

The current big issues being;

• First Contact given the language barrier and religious upheaval on their part given that their faith just got rather brutally disproved.
• Plague risk, isolated populations means we might have something that they've got no resistance to or vice versa.
• The mystery of their origins. Time travel's just as good a theory as any given the lack of apparent evidence of a precursor civilization. Aliens? The Tartarian equivalent of Cheyenne Mountain? Graham Hancock won't stop laughing for hours.
• The mystery of whatever destroyed the rest of their technological civilization and all evidence of its existence and forced them to resort to hiding like this and if it's still potentially a threat.

I'd been going with the IUCN's criteria.

Why populations can't be saved by a single breeding pair

Two days ago, the last male northern white rhino (Ceratotherium simum cottoni) died. His passing leaves two surviving members of his subspecies: both females who are unable to bear calves.

phys.org

Tartarian what?

In any case, it is Incredible they haven't died out due to inbreeding.

 

[Val the Moofia Boss]

Perceiving the Mimi to be dumb and illiterate, the surface forces will attempt to force their agents in to retrieve samples of the technology for reverse engineering and try to hack into whatever databases they might have. Then the Mimi will lose their mystique and be forgotten. The OP doesn't specify what defensive capabilities the Mimi have. If they are able to prevent infiltration/invasion then they will have more leverage in politics due to being an unknown quantity.

 

[Bassoe]

Tartarian what?

A conspiracy theory which is basically a modernized analog of post-Roman barbarians believing the ruins around them were built by gods or giants rather than their ancestors because they were so much obviously superior than anything they could create.

Whither Tartaria?

...

astralcodexten.substack.com

The OP doesn't specify what defensive capabilities the Mimi have.

Tools that can be repurposed as melee weapons and enough cult indoctrination that there's a credible chance anyone who disrespects their religious organization in their presence will stir up an angry mob. Basically, /k/, let alone any actual military force could sack the place with zero casualties if transport was arranged. Their defenses essentially amounted to nobody else knowing they existed and that any significant dissidence from their cargo cult theocracy would sabotage itself as the theocracy's rules were the only thing keeping the life-support systems running.

 

[Agent23]

Well, I am pretty sure that the government(s) will try to keep this shit secret while they go in and investigate the weird, possibly time traveling, Morlock larpers.

It is more likely than not that they will try to evacuate the natives from their hidey hole so as to get a nice, closer look at the tech and at stuff that was either not known to the general native public or that might have been left hidden by whoever st the whole place up, it is also more likely than not that the whole situation will leak out to the press, given that the natives would not have any advanced tech of note, and even more so because the logistics of stopping work on a large mine, then evacuating 5000 strange natives out of it and housing them somewhere would potentially be hard to hide, since the operation will involve thousands of people in multiple branches of the government(s) involved.

Will people believe the story?

Probably many will think it is a Alex Jones-style conspiracy theory, and if I were whoever is running the op I would try and leak it, after some adjustments to make it even more outlandish, to the usual people who deal in alien conspiracy theories and the aforementioned Tartarian thing, so that the normie sheep ignore or mock it, you know, the way governmnet usually does things in similar situations.

The easiest fix for all parties involved would be to just blow the tunnel, make sure that the mine avoids expanding into these guys' territory,and leave them be.