In this episode of "Unusual Sentient Beings of the Universe", we will cover a species where sentience is in dispute. It is clear that Sprg Brk do not register as having individual real time sentience. At the end of the episode will present our evidence.

So here, we see a simple scene of an ocean beach, where waves lap against the shore. Now with the encroach of one large wave, there is a medium-sized colony (200 or so) of the Sprg Brk. This is the pre-spore life cycle of the Sprg Brk. A colony resembles a collection of bipedal humanoids. They set up in clusters of four to eight, with a beach cloth and an object or two. They will stay on this part of the beach until they go to spore dust. All of them have a reflective faraway look, as if to express the thought "well this song is not too bad, but I really want the next song to be that favorite song".

Sprig Brk spores are quite small and float in air ubiquitously. Spores can be transferred in trans-plane rifts, so the Sprg Brk have established on many planets across most of the planes. Festivals, celebrating the appearance of Sprg Brk on shores, are quite common. Hotels and restaurants encourage these festivals because otherwise the shores are cluttered with beings that never buy anything.

There is a particular linguistic peculiarity in the galaxy. Words with a common pronunciation in the galactic core, are often regionalized slightly in the outer arms. You probably know of how OK is sometimes heard as "Och Aye", "Ol Korekt", "OKeyDoohKey". At this beach, the people call this a "Spring Break" festival.

Here you see a frequent mis-understanding among hapless locals. Someone is trying to communicate with a Sprg Brk. "I hear there is a kegger" "Can I get you contact details". The fair looking Sprg Brk has a far-away smile that belies any reply. We will revisit this situation later in this episode.

Sprg Brk spores eventually arrive in an ocean. Once the Sprg Brk reach a size in which they gather; they set up a formation in the ocean. There is a central being, and all the other arrange around that central Sprg Brk as if it was coliseum seating. The central Sprg Brk floats with a possible purpose, but if any of the others react, we have not found it detected. These formations, because it is for aquatic life, are often called schools. When the formations are deep in the sea, there is an aura of seriousness (these are called high pressure schools). At the appointed time, movement from school to beach is immediate and sudden.

As promised, we are now going back to pre-spore colony of Sprg Brk. The weather has reached particular foggy and misty condition. It is late in the night. The Sprg Brk are beginning to spore are float away with the wind.

Here we have assembled telepaths to read the collective thoughts as this happens. We focus on the fair Sprg Brk and hapless biped. The thoughts are murky, but become sapient as view the hapless biped is acknowledged. The thought is [swipe left]. The Sprg Brk vanish collectively into the wind on dark breezy nights, and cycle is renewed. We think this is sufficient evidence of sentience.

The hapless biped is left only with the story of the one that got away.