[ WP ] The intergalactic starfleet secretly hovering earth has a `` no intervention '' rule , so is not allowed to save earth from self-destroying . A fleet member finds a loophole though : asking questions is allowed . Here 's their series of AskReddit threads .

I'm gon na stray from the prompt for this one, sorry. 
 
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 `` I^α am prohibited from directly intervening in the course of species maturation. A species must learn how and why to become by fruit of their own free will. To intervene is to deprive.'' 
 
 `` And not to intervene is to kill. I^β know what will happen. This species^Ε will not become if left in isolation. It is too scared and too confused, while at once too powerful and too irrational. Left to its own devices, it will kill itself, and I^Ω, knowing this, will have killed. 
 
 `` The law did not spring from whim. I^Ω created it based on great experience, data, reason. To abandon the law now is to share the irrationality of this species^Ε. There is no perfect system, no method for null loss. There is only minimization.'' 
 
 `` But I^β conceive of a way to intervene^0 without intervention^1. I^Ω know much about this species^Ε, and it is so similar to myself^Α. Its philosophy, its auto-pedagogy, near mirrors of mine^Α. I^Ω may use this. 
 
 `` How, β?'' 
 
 `` Engage in Socratic dialogue on the species level. Encourage fruitful patterns of thought, paths of reason.'' 
 
 `` How, β?'' 
 
 `` Use the cosmos. Challenge its notions of uniqueness. Show it a galaxy to ask how its God^Ω compares. Show it a distant planet to ask how it is special.'' 
 
 `` That is not indirect. To influence what is seen --'' 
 
 `` Is not to deprive of free will. Any more than to show me^α a third is to prevent my^α choice of a first and second.'' 
 
 `` That is invalid. By that reasoning, I^Ω may engage in open conversation on the specimen level, an act which is very much direct.'' 
 
 `` Not so, because the act of conversation does not require symmetrical knowledge of agency. This species^Ε converses with its God^Ω. Certainly, its God^Ω is not aware of this, for its God^Ω is not^Ω. At the same time, sibling species^ΑΒΓΔ scream their pain, their lovehate, their warning, their *thoughts*, and this species^Ε understands them^ΑΒΓΔ without noticing they^ΑΒΓΔ are being.'' 
 
 `` So I^β invoke the illusion of free will to justify?'' 
 
 `` The illusion of free will has been shown false. Although it is true I^β invoke a lie. But what else is there? Not truth. There is as much truth as there is cold, for truth precludes^⇔ free will.'' 
 
 `` Then I^α see no other objection at this time. I^Ω will show it^Ε the cosmos and itself^Ε. I^Ω will influence those happenings with no Ε-observable cause. From the species^E point of view, luck will simply increase. Though the species^E will not see it as luck, for the species^Ε will not see it. Let me^Ω begin with the Copernicus specimen.''
