To the reader: the following account was automatically translated (necessarily imperfectly) from the underlying semantic information, received from future year 2439 via quantum realtime semantic tunneling (QRST). Will the meeting recorded herein, to take place over 300 years hence, take place on Earth? Or on some distant, alien planet? QRST's 5th theorem holds that QRST cannot be used to resolve any significant ambiguities or other unknowns in this received recording.
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The Chief Technologist tried to stay calm. It was not every day that one of this rank was asked to address a meeting of the chairs of The Corporation. A loud cracking sound signalled it was time to begin. It would need to be concise to avoid the risk of an imperious, mid-report dismissal.
"Honored leaders of the common good, exalted and noble, fair and just! (In a gesture of respect the technologist looked downward while placing hands, palms up, on the cool silvery table, counted quickly to 5, then resumed speaking.) Our species has searched for intelligent life on other planets for hundreds of years. One week ago we found it. Using basic data mining techniques we detected statistical evidence of information-carrying characteristics in raydio frequency transmissions from a star 20.3 light years from here. Cryptographic analysis revealed stunning, animated video images of intelligent beings and their artifacts and environment. Like us, these beings have bilateral symmetry, hands with fine motor coordination, and a head containing an apparently large information processing organ, located in proximity to sensory organs, we presume to enable rapid reaction times to key sensory stimuli just like with us and animals here on our world. There are other, surprising similarities as well - an audible and written language which we have partially decoded, as well as equally surprising differences. (Touching 2nd and 4th fingertips to the table, and sliding them just so, the screenwall came to life with a luminous glow. It proceeded to show several short video clips of the alien creatures, as portrayed for their own populace by their own broadcasting technology. The group watched in raptured silence. Then the technologist continued.) We surmise from the signals that they have color vision but most likely the colors shown here are different from the colors shown on their own screens, and even if they were the same, they would see them differently than we do. But that is not so important. Much more important is their overall level of technological development, which we estimate to be approximately equivalent to ours. How they would react to contact is a key issue since quantum wormhole travel puts them essentially right next door to us."
The 3rd chair looked upward, then closed an I in thought. Who are these beings, with their odd hands so like, yet so unlike ours? With their eyes so like and unlike ours? Cutting semi-familiar silhouettes, and yet as startlingly alien in appearance as in our most imaginative works of entertainment? And who dare, as we dare, to bend the laws of nature to their will?
The 2nd chair spoke, voice forceful: "Where there is newness there is challenge. Where challenge exists danger. Where danger, opportunity - if we are lucky. The danger is real. Our own history shows numerous instances of new contacts between our civilization, such as it was hundreds of years ago, and the civilizations and societies of others of our species on different continents and islands. Ours became practiced and expert at exploiting, displacing, and even exterminating those cultures and societies. Economic incentives made those who controlled and exploited rich as they swept aside those who bleated objections, destroying their victims and cannily dodging voices of conscience in our own society.
Contact with this alien civilization is now inevitable. If this fact is new, it is also old, for us and probably for them. If a challenge, it is a challenge we - and probably they - have met before, destroying, prevailing, and profiting. If there is danger to us, this alien civilization faces the same danger from us. And if there is opportunity, it lies in winning and profiting from the inevitable clash. And -"
A loud bang like a firecracker announced the 1st chair. "If what you say is true, then we have a 50% chance of winning and like chance of losing. If we win we benefit merely economically, but if we lose it is an existential loss. The utility of contact seems well below zero."
The 2nd chair responded instantly with the chill sneer of command. "There is a way. It is good to win, but almost as good to be the leaders of the losing side if, with great cunning, they sacrifice their side in order to come out ahead personally."
Shocked silence reigned until the 3rd chair, brought back from reverie, responded slowly and deliberately. "Perhaps the spirit of fairness and peace can prevail, yielding an expectation of positive utility for both us and them. We need not be prisoners of this dilemma. It is possible..." There was a pause.
The 2nd chair continued, confident and matter-of-fact. "It may be possible in theory. But our history shows few such cases. We must have the mindset to win, either as a species, or at least just us their leaders. If the rest are crushed so be it."
The protocol of threes dictated it was the 1st chair's turn, and all turned their heads accordingly. 1st's face was an inscrutable mask, and several seconds elapsed. Still unreadable, finger slowly squeezing the control trigger, the gunshot sound of adjournment ended the meeting.
Reference
"...chill sneer of command": paraphrased from Percy Shelley's "Ozymandias," 1818.
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The Chief Technologist tried to stay calm. It was not every day that one of this rank was asked to address a meeting of the chairs of The Corporation. A loud cracking sound signalled it was time to begin. It would need to be concise to avoid the risk of an imperious, mid-report dismissal.
"Honored leaders of the common good, exalted and noble, fair and just! (In a gesture of respect the technologist looked downward while placing hands, palms up, on the cool silvery table, counted quickly to 5, then resumed speaking.) Our species has searched for intelligent life on other planets for hundreds of years. One week ago we found it. Using basic data mining techniques we detected statistical evidence of information-carrying characteristics in raydio frequency transmissions from a star 20.3 light years from here. Cryptographic analysis revealed stunning, animated video images of intelligent beings and their artifacts and environment. Like us, these beings have bilateral symmetry, hands with fine motor coordination, and a head containing an apparently large information processing organ, located in proximity to sensory organs, we presume to enable rapid reaction times to key sensory stimuli just like with us and animals here on our world. There are other, surprising similarities as well - an audible and written language which we have partially decoded, as well as equally surprising differences. (Touching 2nd and 4th fingertips to the table, and sliding them just so, the screenwall came to life with a luminous glow. It proceeded to show several short video clips of the alien creatures, as portrayed for their own populace by their own broadcasting technology. The group watched in raptured silence. Then the technologist continued.) We surmise from the signals that they have color vision but most likely the colors shown here are different from the colors shown on their own screens, and even if they were the same, they would see them differently than we do. But that is not so important. Much more important is their overall level of technological development, which we estimate to be approximately equivalent to ours. How they would react to contact is a key issue since quantum wormhole travel puts them essentially right next door to us."
The 3rd chair looked upward, then closed an I in thought. Who are these beings, with their odd hands so like, yet so unlike ours? With their eyes so like and unlike ours? Cutting semi-familiar silhouettes, and yet as startlingly alien in appearance as in our most imaginative works of entertainment? And who dare, as we dare, to bend the laws of nature to their will?
The 2nd chair spoke, voice forceful: "Where there is newness there is challenge. Where challenge exists danger. Where danger, opportunity - if we are lucky. The danger is real. Our own history shows numerous instances of new contacts between our civilization, such as it was hundreds of years ago, and the civilizations and societies of others of our species on different continents and islands. Ours became practiced and expert at exploiting, displacing, and even exterminating those cultures and societies. Economic incentives made those who controlled and exploited rich as they swept aside those who bleated objections, destroying their victims and cannily dodging voices of conscience in our own society.
Contact with this alien civilization is now inevitable. If this fact is new, it is also old, for us and probably for them. If a challenge, it is a challenge we - and probably they - have met before, destroying, prevailing, and profiting. If there is danger to us, this alien civilization faces the same danger from us. And if there is opportunity, it lies in winning and profiting from the inevitable clash. And -"
A loud bang like a firecracker announced the 1st chair. "If what you say is true, then we have a 50% chance of winning and like chance of losing. If we win we benefit merely economically, but if we lose it is an existential loss. The utility of contact seems well below zero."
The 2nd chair responded instantly with the chill sneer of command. "There is a way. It is good to win, but almost as good to be the leaders of the losing side if, with great cunning, they sacrifice their side in order to come out ahead personally."
Shocked silence reigned until the 3rd chair, brought back from reverie, responded slowly and deliberately. "Perhaps the spirit of fairness and peace can prevail, yielding an expectation of positive utility for both us and them. We need not be prisoners of this dilemma. It is possible..." There was a pause.
The 2nd chair continued, confident and matter-of-fact. "It may be possible in theory. But our history shows few such cases. We must have the mindset to win, either as a species, or at least just us their leaders. If the rest are crushed so be it."
The protocol of threes dictated it was the 1st chair's turn, and all turned their heads accordingly. 1st's face was an inscrutable mask, and several seconds elapsed. Still unreadable, finger slowly squeezing the control trigger, the gunshot sound of adjournment ended the meeting.
Reference
"...chill sneer of command": paraphrased from Percy Shelley's "Ozymandias," 1818.