Being as gay as a loon and supportive of equity, there can only be one answer for one such as I.  I honestly believe people should be able to do as they choose; of course, I'm not so sure about marraige myself, I don't think I'd like it but the lack of the option is a bit of an inequitous slap in the face.

As for the metric system and the rest of it, being in Britain, parts of my homeland have possessed such a system for a while now and yea, I doubt it will be long before something else comes along to replace it.  Things grow, things change and adapt.  Adaption is life, without it there's only stagnation, people sitting around bored and wondering what they're going to do with themselves today and stuff.  Stagnation usually tends to not be favoured by the process of evolution.  Change is good, as literally, change is life.

Besides, fresh ideas are always fun.

I had often wondered if our Pkunk bretheren were correct in that 'They are right and we are wrong.'  It appears they might've been, of course, I did my best to keep them from being destroyed so I haven't seen any alternatives but I'm glad to hear that even if you don't attempt to draw them away from their own seeming demise with clever, witty and ultimately silly reasons for them to not visit the Yehat... uh, where was I?  Oh yes, it's nice to know that even if you don't save their lives with tales of swollen moons andsoforth, that they still live.  Perhaps I should allow them to reach the Yehat but in my games, I never have the heart for it.  The idea of Pkunk being blown away by their avianic cousins the Yehat bothers me almost as much as the destruction of the entire Zoq-Fot-Pik race did.

These of course are all reasons to be glad that Star Control 2 is a game and I'm able to reset the Universe at the touch of a button, or I never would've forgiven the Kohr-Ah for not waiting around long enough for me to turn up and deliver a sizable can of whup-ass to their ships.

But this is all besides the point, it's nice to hear.  Maybe I shall try that sometime.

REJOICE!!!

Sorry, sorry!  I couldn't resist.  <Slinks out.>

Sounds exactly the same as what I'd described, I note.  My theory being minus the psychic elements, of course.  That said, I support your theory.  It sounds good and plausible to me.  I think the Umgah are just biomasses which can bond with things, I think that's all each Umgah body is.  They're like an ameoba but on a much larger scale, and they actually have a complex molecular structure as opposed to none.

-- Edit --

Of course, I bear no malice towards the peculiar Umgah so I wouldn't want to discard said stick; besides, poking them with a stick might prove enlightening, they might really be holographic entities disguising themselves as a biomass to throw us off and they got hacked!  Of course, I really should stop thinking about machines.

And no, nobody should take that seriously, I was kidding, wholly.  Though this does give an amusing cause to wonder, if the Umgah shared their home planet with any other races, said races might've spent days poking the Umgah with sticks and wondering what they were and in an eye-for-an-eye way, the Umgah might've decided to do some exploratorive research on them instead and found how fascinating it was.

"Oh, so THAT'S why they were poking us with sticks.  There's interesting stuff in there!  Probably in us too..."

Nonetheless, I shall wander off and take my crazy with me, but I thought it was an amusing thought in passing.

I wholeheartedly support Death in his theories on this; in fact, being no small fan of psychology, the Orz psychology is one of those aspects that I've given much thought to.  With all assumptions on the physical laid aside, and concentrating on their mental state alone.  Their words give a clue to how their intelligence might work.  What their words say to me personally (and verily, this is the path that I trod along to the final realization that the Orz might be mechanical, after a fashion -- but that's merely just a theory of mine) is that their intelligence is distributed.

They're not bubbles but they are fingers of a hand.  So let's suppose for a moment that the campers they speak of (us) are individuals and they aren't, at least we can't see them as the kind of individuals they are.  They often accuse the humans of a lack of perception, as I understand it.  What I think the Orz might have as intelligence isn't a hive or anything like that but if you've ever seen a distributed computer network, this is what I believe the Orz to be like.

So I'd wager that they're not only not many bubbles, as they claimed but they're not one large bubble either.  They're many bubbles interconnected with the intelligenci (integrated intelligences) working together as a whole in an integrated fashion.  It almost reminds me of a mindship theory I heard once, a mindship of integrated memetic-sets.

This is how I believe the Orz to be, perhaps not a single intelligence but subsets of intelligenci (which I call them for reasons I know not why) which interact in an integrated fashion over a distributed system of 'fingers'.

Regardless of whatever they might be, all I really know is that they're happy little fishfellows and I like them.  Hopefully if there's a future Star Control game, we'll learn much more about this all too fascinating race.

These have all been very wonderful theories and an utmost joy to read, I have to say that with the Chenjesu I too favour the idea of slow molecular readjustment, for no other reason than the idea of it fascinates me more than anything else; and if one were to theorize, it would also explain why they'd wish to bond with the Mmrnmhrm and moreover, how.  After all, it's true that the Mmrnmhrm used technology that was so aptly described by the avatar of Sqrlian-ness, Gordy, as Robotech technology.  Given the morphic nature of the Mmrnmhrm and the supposedly morphic nature of the Chenjesu, this might allow them to bond on some molecular level and this possibility might've seemed like a really good idea at the time to both, for the reasons stated within the game, of course!  It seems likely anyway that such an adaptive and modular molecular structure would support the idea of 'The Process'.

As for the Pkunk, I have little to say!  I certainly don't stand behind the idea of them being 'airheads', not at all.  I won't hear of that.  Instead I'd rather agree with he who claimed the Pkunk to have a denser bone structure, after all, if it works for Flamingoes then it might also work for our good friendly friends, the Pkunk.  It's just a theory in passing anyway, they all are and I enjoy them.  I've also enjoyed reading all this.  Verily, keep them coming!  This is a fascinating topic.

I did have an idea on the Umgah too; but that was ranging far too into the far-fetched and it might get me into trouble, so I'm not sure whether I should share this one.  I think I will but... you have been warned.  And to be forewarned is to have four-arms, or something along those lines.  I theorize that the Umgah whilst not being wholly parasitic, might be able to 'bond' with their ship on some level, so instead of moving they might be able to 'sink into' the biommass of their ship, to join with it and eventually, be spat out somewhere else.  That the 'body' of their ships might work like any other body and its reactions to the organisms contained within.  I know little of the Umgah so their entire planet might be like this as far as I know.

It might be possible that they were able to merge with parts of their planet and use it to travel around, utilizing vines and whatnot in a sort of symbiotic way.  If they were parasites then it's likely they'd still have and be using the creatures they bonded with, I'm not sure?  They could've 'absorbed' these creatures into their biomass I admit, and used them that way but they don't seem to have any aspects of other races.  So they might feed on the animals of their planet by absorbing them and they might use these absorption techniques to move through certain kinds of matter such as the biomass of their ship.  Not like parasites then but... it's really quite hard to explain.

More like the way a water-based life-form might become one with a body of water easily.  A water-elemental might become a lake.  That sort of thing.  In essence, I believe I'm claiming that the Umgah are flesh elementals.  I know, it's just icky.  I wouldn't touch the topic more than that with a long barge pole, and I might desire to clean said pole afterwards.

I hadn't taken anything of what you'd said with malicious intent, the only intent I had too was that I didn't want to be pidgeon-holed into some set of 'theory-rules'.  Truly, my thought processes are my own and there's little I can do about them, nor would I for they are my individuality and what I contribute to this World as a whole.  I certainly stood my ground and acted silly about it but offense?  None!  If there was anything to forgive?  Forgiven.  So forget about it already and join us in posting irrelevant nonsense on the forums once again.

I had a rather similar experience.  I remember in my youth reading about this game, thinking all the races sounded 'nifty' and all that.  Though little did I expect the game to be all that and more.  I'd say for me, not that it's an important viewpoint but I'll share it anyway, it's the charm of the races.  You always have a reason to like them.  One doesn't even have to be purely Pkunk to see it either, I wouldn't imagine.  Even the destructive Ur-Quan aren't all "Rrr.  Bad guyz R Vee!  Raa!  Fear!"  It was wholly refreshing.  You'd fly around and wonder who the real threat really was.  In the end, the most fun came from sitting around and talking to the races.  The jovial charm presented, and the underlying warmth was pleasing to me.  The game understood some basic truth about cammeraderie, even with races you'd just met ("Goodbye Slylandro gas-bags!", "Goodbye, human fluid sacks!").  And even with races that are your enemy, in almost all cases you could understand them, relate to them and even accept their reasoning.

The charm and the humour created a wholly wonderful experience and one that, speaking of character alone, I hadn't seen a worthy match to for years.  I hope there will be some kind of ToysForBob sequal someday, wholeheartedly and vehemently so and such a thing has my support.  I would love to see that charm and cammeraderie again, and the wonderfully tasteful humour wouldn't go amiss either.  I could hug those developers.  They're great.

At ikcizok, I sigh... but it's probably a happy sigh full of bouncing rabbits, who knows?

I thank (Sir) Death (sorry!) for pointing out that I would would have in more wordier terms.  That indeed I proposed no knowledge on anything and that my ideas are rooted in fun and silly.  I wish people to not take me so seriously, they can believe me me and my ideas if they like.  They can throw them around and have silly dreams about them, they can form their own copylefted or copyrighted stories or visions from them if they so desire.  But don't take me seriously, whatever you do.  It can only lead to spasms and aneurysms.  I'm not mature, no but nor am I foolhardy or arrogant.  I wouldn't even begin to presume I knew anything about this game, I only have ideas, the kinds of ideas which are classified as "Ooh, fun, look at this idea.  It's neat, probably!" and so on.  So there you have it and facts?  Who in the ninety-nine levels of psychic-advancement (and beyond there by just a tad) was talking about facts?  Of course, I might not understand because my ideologies tend to shy from such labels.  I might have used these facts but I don't recall it, at least not as far as I know.  Nonetheless with second-helpings of regardless, sorry if I did!

I suppose I might have made a jab or two but they weren't in anger.  They were just me being... assininely silly.  "Go back, read it again.  Go on.  Again.  And three more times.  It's there, really!  But I'll say it again anyway!"  Of course, it came over as worse than I'd actually intended but I find this happens to me a lot.  The more posts I've made the more careful I've been as I try to tailor myself to those around me.  It's wise to walk into unknown territory with at least some defenses, so I wholeheartedly admit that I might have... what is that strange old term?  Leaping firearms and whatnot, I did something to that end anyway.  To this I admit.  So there's that you can pin to my behind if you so desire.

Regardless, if we wish to speak of maturity then this really shouldn't be as public as it is, should it?  If ikcizok really wishes to continue this then he's welcome to either contact me personally (I'm rather sure I provided lots of contact information) or use the board's own personal-message-relaying-system-thingy.

And once more, I have to say with utmost humility that Mr. Death (?) is absolutely correct!  I've made a few mistakes and indeed, I'm trying to tone down my ability to be... creative.  Yet since I like it, sometimes I'm just going to go overboard with words or ideas.  It's fun!  That's really all there is to it.

Oh and backspace?  I speak in honesty when I tell all now that I rarely use it, I believe if someone originally had something to say then it should probably be said and the consequences dealt with, in reality one doesn't have a backspace key in conversation so I shun using such things to correct my mistakes in other walks of life (including the digital, as wondrous as it is) too.  Why, certainly I'll correct typos or little misnomers I've made but generally, what I've said I have said and the ramifications... I shall deal with with probably further amounts of silly when they happen to wander in my general direction.

Short version (summary): They were theories, theories are fun, I'm a tad defensive and my writings weren't always as eloquent as I'd intended (sometimes verging on callous, curse my inabilities to express via text) but I never outright attacked anyone.  I only stood my ground when I was told that there was a certain way that I, as a being, should act or be.  I don't take kindly to authoritarians.  People are able to just ignore me after all if they don't happen to like what I'm saying.

-- Edit --

And here I am, correcting typos!  If I'm going to say something, I might aswell say it properly.

"BTW, Picowoof, denser does mean more massive, if you are holding the volume constant."

Indeed, I'm not entirely sure but wouldn't (by the standards of 'RealSpace') such a dense/massive body also bring about a gravitic 'weight' (as in, heavy)?

"Lastly, to question a point made earlier -- I don't see why there wouldn't be dense planets in a space entirely filled with fluid."

Don't get me wrong, not at all.  I wouldn't deny this fact.  'Tis true, I am one of those folks who would happily believe that anything is possible.  I like believing that all things are possible and then making wholly silly comments about them.  As a matter of fact, this is the regards with which I hold myself and the entirety of the Universe around me.  It's all but a curiousity to poke, ponder about and then offer up silly ideas in regards to.  It's fun.  Not altogether taken in utmost seriousness but believed nonetheless.

So I am in vehement agreement that any kind of fluidic space could have solid planets, verily.  Yet let's work with the cohesion of my theory for a moment.  Let's say that perhaps the licquid nature of their dimension somehow didn't allow for truly hard planets and that things 'licquified' before they truly solidified, perhaps the gravities of their dimension were 'off' somehow, I don't really know (I haven't given it too much thought).  If that were true then 'heavy'/'hard' 'playgrounds' dense supermasses such as planets might be new to them.

It would be a curiousity, "Look, a... SOLID thing, we've never seen something this dense before.  It draws us!  We've never felt this pull."  It could all literally refer back to the same idea, that in their space, things were rarely 'heavy or hard' but indeed, their space might've been 'lightweight' after a fashion.

I also realize that the Orz might've been a biological virus, naturally occurring or made but it seems more likely for the speed in which the Orz created things, they were probably machines.  I'm talking within the confines of my theory now, not the actual game.  I'm also trying to see this from other points of view.  Whilst my theories about the Orz utilizing the Androsynth are far-fetched by most standards though, I don't believe my theories of fluidic space would be.  I think they're quite happily believable.

But then, this of course comes from an entity that usually considers all things believable.  So I'm not exactly the best person to be working with such things.

Nonetheless, thanks for your Scientific input Death (and I still push back the urge to call you Sir Death because it seems more frivolous and not unlike Terry Pratchett's Death when I do), it's an appreciated, respected, refreshing and ironically 'solid' addition to this thread of dreamers.

My only guess is that American vaccuum cleaners work via severely different means than British vaccuum cleaners, perhaps you steam clean your work to death.  Indeed, now I shall be stuck with the imagine of a steampunk mecha vacuum cleaner robot for the rest of the day, without doubt!

"...than any of us really seek to delve?"

You can speak for the collective all?  You must be more in touch with the true nature of One than I am, that is for certain.  I know my humble woofian self could certainly never even begin to assume the cranial goings on of my fellows without even a passing enquiry, I must be unenlightened and thus I bow down to your knowledge.  Summaries it shall be then.  Despite strong urges to the contrary which cry out that simplicity isn't any means to an end, I shall try!

"My *fingers* reach through into *heavy space* and you *see* *Orz bubbles*..."

Yes I am aware the Orz said this but I do not believe we are on the same page here, allow me to help but fingering through your proverbial book to the place you need to be; which if I remember with correctness is the Androsynth homeworld, I'm not entirely sure (as I never am) but I believe they stated at least once 'hard playground'.  Now unless my age is robbing me of my sight along with my sanity and perspicacity, there's no mention of playground in your quote yet every time I mentioned this, I did indeed mention playground, I am also wholly certain I am not in err about that.  You may feel free to check.

"...a *splash* (some of aforementioned liquid)..."

Here's where we get to apply household physics!  And these are always fun but even though I'm going to describe this, I still feel compelled to add; 'Don't try this at home, kids!' as the Melnorme inside me yells for me to do.  After all, I don't wish to be sued and I really wouldn't be able to deal with the sheer guilt of someone harming themselves.  ButthisisALLbesidethepiont... take a glass of water and apply a flat surface to it, then make a large hole in that surface and apply an absolute vaccuum.  Since we don't have an absolute vaccuum a vaccuum cleaner will have to do.  What happens? SSHH-LOOOOP!  All the licquid finds itself returning from whence it came.  The Pre-Orz possessing some level of cleverness managed to avoid being sucked back in after the wave blew outwards, and was then sucked back in as the Universe apparently hates 'gaps' and fills them with anything as quickly as it's able, even with surrounding space!

And I never claimed the Androsynth were pulled anywhere, I just realized this sentence at the back of my mind, at some remote region which picks up on these little things and in a small voice points me to them with a "Hey, look, oddity..."  So I must assume you're talking about someone else in that sentence?  I hope my assumption is correct and if it isn't, my apologies and could you explain?

"Or would there be some sort of universal cohesion to hold it all together, even when faced with a wormhole?"

The cohesion would exist in part as it were happening and wholly as it were fixed.  I think of the Universe as not like paper but more like clingfilm.  Have you ever seen this strange material?  It's amazing!  It stretches like gum for a while before it eventually breaks but with the merest of shakes it sticks back to itself, closing its own gaps.  Admittedly it sticks to you and wraps around just about anything but the 'fabric' of the Universe might just be like that.  This is an absolute guess, a theory one would certainly say, on my part but that's what this all is and it doesn't hurt to help explain one theory with another; after all, Scientists have been doing it for years and remarkably well.  I couldn't hope for that kind of professionalism but I can aspire.

" You're either quite gifted, or you're terminally insane."

I wouldn't like to assume I were either or both.  Yet in being insane I might have an edge on understanding what the Orz are actually saying!  Either that or all those years of reading Babelfish-translated pages paid off, I'm not entirely sure...

-- Edit --

No, I believe I am incorrect.  I believe it was the World where the Taalo thingumapsychicdevice was.

To Shiver I say with earnest near-acquiescence...

"HOLY *SPICY SAUCE* [Translation Glitch]!!"

A desired effect, how utterly pleasing <claps>!  This is always something I like to see, I aim for three things in my posts; A) no small amount of humour, wit and perhaps even a little friendly snyde, B) to be wholly entertaining to myself and collectively the 'Others' around me, whomever they might be, C) to rearrange minds in fascinating ways (it's all part of some subliminal plot, probably!).

"I mean, uh, Picowoof, your avatar isn't working."

Really?  I thought the Gods of karma were against me and that avatars weren't allowed for people under a certain post-count, I shall look into it post-haste and I think you for your informational statement which will allow me to project even more selfness into this forum.

"but rather a living manifestation of pure hatred."

It cannot be!  For alas if it were, all my attempts to be passive and simply 'An Artefact Of Nature Or Random Construction Which People Point And Ooh At In Passing But One That Leaves No Lingering Effect On Their Culture' have failed!  Oh the effort I've expended in being kind and giving when I could just be Sharkey or Toastyfrog-like and claim to hate you all.  But I can't do that because I genuinely LIKE you all and there's the conflict at the crux of the matter!  I can only conclude that you must be incorrect, a fact of which I am greatful.

To Necro I say with mild discomfiture...

"Methinks that this is getting far too in-depth. "

One would wonder, aren't we bringing relativity into the affair here?  By this; I mean that the words 'in-depth' are irrelevant when used on their own standing, they only have meaning when in relevance or measured by some other standard.  I never was capable of comprehending how things could be 'too simple' or 'too complex' by no standards.  'More complex than I'd care to deal with.' would be understood but 'More in-depth than [?]' leaves me in a state of perplexed incognizance.

I personally believe that each item can be as in-depth or as simple as the person that wants them to be and that anything else is casting a person's own perceptions on them.  So I ask for your forgiveness in advance for I forsee naught but further depth in the immediate future.  Depth to me is fun, it's an opposite to shallow and equates to diversity.  So I gravitate around it, as most things in the Universe seem to do, curiously enough.  So um... I'm sorry?

I could try to summarize every now and then I suppose but that might end up looking like those hopeless recaps in webcomics which even the characters themselves end up poking fun at and travestying.

Your takes on seen and smell are valid as the other forum-posters here, as valid; not more or less so and in that, I am sure that they are welcomed by everyone here.  If I see something you've theorized that truly perks my dreamstate-theorytrigger or whatever it is, then I shall eagerly comment on it in my merry little way.  Equity is Good and Fun after all and I wholly support its existance in day to day life.

" The Orz don't find "hard" *playground*"

Are you sure?  It doesn't matter much however as heavy equates to density, does it not?  It is gravity that causes weight and the more dense something is, the heavier it is.  Singularities are superdense so they have WOOOSHBangEvil (tm) levels of gravitational pull.  At least, that's how I remember it and I'm sure I'll be hastily corrected by Death if I am incorrect and I would welcome such a correction.  So heavy == hard and your point... was... ?  I'm afraid I got kind of lost.  It happens.

"I don't understand all this 'fluidspace' rattle."

This seems to happen a lot, it might have something to do however with this being such a wholly alien concept but since Star Control deals with flying around and dealing with aliens in a fiction setting, I don't believe it's so inconceivable.  Especially since the theories are mostly sound-ish...ish... mostly.  I'm sure a Science boffin could turn up and make them sound if he so truly desired anyway.  It appears that physics are a most malleable and claylike thing.  And fun to play with!  Like clay.

"I'm simply failing to see how our 'logical' science can be put into play on this strange, often illogical topic."

I have stared at this sentence from many angles, I have prodded it with the many lingual centers of my brain and it took me a few minutes to truly grasp the levity of its meaning.  I shall try to answer; it all has to do with perception and the way each of us understands all which is around us.  I call it the 'Perception Wall', each of us is going to use our own tools to even begin to understand any Universe, fictional or real.  My tools happen to be logic and abstract-creativity which often somehow seem to work as one.  Not everyone will use such a system of perception but to each their own, difference breeds adaption and life.  Yay difference!

So ends this particular jaunt into forum-postery.

So they're actually looking for esper potential and preying on that?  Then that would mean their loophole was to try and rework their hardware a little to 'ping' sentience that might respond.  Yes, yes I could see this... especially if they already somehow had the capability.  The Taalo playing a time joke might've been more amusing to them because the Taalo device was a 'reverse-ping', the opposite of what the Orz had figured out how to do (but never pursued out of lack of need).

Yay!  These are good points, I like good points and you seem to be wholly on the same wavelength (though hopefully not 44, we could do without the DOOM) now on all but one aspect.  This one aspect I shall explain below and I believe it can be explained away with relative ease in a way that will be at least relatively pleasing to you.  There is the other matter in fact but I'm not sure on that one but because I like plugging plot-holes, I'll try!

" - after the Transition, the pre-Orz vanished? Else, how are the Orz not made of the pre-orz?"

You've undoubtedly heard the phrase 'Nature abhors a vacuum?'  Well, the way I see it is that the dimension breacher was much like a Stargate, it washed outwards, carrying the physics of itself into our Universe then it washed inwards, closing in on itself and filling its own gap because whenever the Universe has a gap, it seems to do its best to fill it.  This left the Pre-Orz with a limited amount of resources to work with but because they possess radio-telapathy (in my theory, of course) it made it easy for them to split themselves up into groups of resource gatherers which would create 'The Final Product', so to speak.  So only so many Pre-Orz rode the wave in, only so many could and in the resultant clash of physics, even on a picotech level, a great percentage of them were probably destroyed.

" - after the Transition, the Orz had the knowledge of the pre-Orz: Taalo, Arilou, dimensions, etc."

Let's split this up into three happy little bite-size pieces so it'll all make sense and everyone can be happy, rather than highly confused by my mixed up mental-state.

Arilou: They obviously had some idea of their creators, maybe BITS of transmissions they'd picked up that were left floating around (they were radio-telepathic, after all) and they pieced together their history once they were sentient enough to do so.  And they were displeased, upset and generally ill-karma ridden by what they'd found out.  Poor Orz.

Taalo: The Taalo planet wasn't far from Androsynth, now I'm wagering that the Orz have the same scanning abilities as the Pre-Orz so it would've taken them all of ten minutes to learn everything that could possibly be learned about that artefact from every possible angle.  If there were carvings, inscriptions or even some form of hard-drive there, they would've read it and learned of the Taalo.  What I find fascinating is that when they say "The Taalo are playing a time joke on us, it is funny."  I think by 'funny' they might mean 'enlightening and entertaining' and I think by 'time joke' they might mean 'lessons of the past'.  However, everything comes out of the translator with a jubilant slant because the Orz are highly jubilant and child-like creatures themselves.

Etcetera: Radio telepathy explains the rest, they still have it and they've probably adapted it to their new Universe, they can probably snatch any kind of transmission that passes even marginally by their space and have it decrypted in a mere matter of seconds.

" SO... when I said that the pre-orz thought the androsynth were like something they knew about, I meant, they recognized the sentience and then began tinkering (because they were broken?)."

I see!  I see!  Then the fault was wholly mine.  I apologize.  Yes, you are correct in all assumptions there except for broken, they are broken but I'm guessing being broken is the intent of their creators.  The creators were going to give them bio-aspects until they found out how eager the mechanical aspects of the Pre-Orz were by themselves and decided against it, in fact because the Pre-Orz were seeing them as lunch (as resources they could rebuild and nothing more) they thought it would be a good idea to run away and leave the Pre-Orz there in this state instead.

"There was a LOT of text going down there."

This describes my mind on an everyday basis, it's just as confusing to be me as it is to listen to me and it takes a while for things to solidify into a state that could be wholly understandable by more 'default' means.  I believe I should quote Sam and claim that my mind is a "Swirling neosma of scintillating thought and turgid ideas."  Verily.  I'm crazy.

" While you did literally say this earlier, I figured you meant it poetically."

Oh, this old chestnut.  The whole 'Emotion and intent are not carried through the internet's text relays, beware!'.  I really should be more wary and explain my emotion and intent more often.  Though usually my intent is factual whereas my emotion is just silly.  So er... I don't really know!  Make of it what you will.

Oh and don't take my capitalizations as shouting or being ired, this occurs to me too.  It's just that the game uses the 'THEY/THEM' upper-cased-namings and I wanted to carry on the spirit of that.

" How is its perceptions literally and actually limited by others perceptions of it? It is not carried out by picotech super abilities, unless the picotech has been elaborately programmed to be willfully blind. The only explanation I can think of is a form of telepathy that can only detect sympathetic thoughts (i.e. thoughts about the one sensing). That seems awfully specific an ability to be built into picotech devices."

In all honesty, by reading your paragraph you can divine your own answer.  Yet for the sake of it we shall give this answer a name.  Let us call this answer 'A failsafe'.  Why?  We'd have to ask the creators <perk>!  It's a sly and albeit crafty dodge I'm aware, I shall try to dream up a better excuse and therein, reason.

A better answer might be that the failsafe was coded shoddily, after all, both Star Control 2 and the non-canon Star Control 3 show us that bad coding is prevalent within the SC Universe, especially where the Precursors are involved.  Therein, it might be theorized that the creators threw in protective code-loops and such but the Pre-Orz singled out the most important aspect they were searching for (sentience), probed the code thouroughly with their machine intelligence and instead of recoding themselves (which at that point they couldn't do), they found loopholes.

" Also, the rest of that paragraph is denser than the average Kant epigraph. Try using fewer pronouns."

I'd say 'You're no fun.' but that wouldn't be the truth because actually you're lots of fun to tangle with in the realms of theory and idea.  Yet I can't help but call upon my own nature to explain things and my own nature tends to itself lean to caliginous prolixity!  I do try to tone things down but often it's hard, things become grey and dull and then I lose the meaning in the ideas I'd originally had and wished to convey, removing the character adds an equal degree of militation, I find.

"Physics actuators make sense."

I find them fascinating and it's the nature of a great many species to bottle things, it's what they're used to.  Their ships bottle them and even their ships are often in a bottle so bottling a piece of Universe to sit inside doesn't seem outside of the general culture.

-- Edit --

Added a little to the failsafe thing.