Message E-Book

Peter Schüring

• Herausgeber: tredition
• Kategorie: Fantasy und Science-Fiction
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 450

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2021

Beschreibung

This is a different science fiction book as it does not deal with invading aliens, but rather with peace loving aliens living in a more advanced world. Via radio and TV waves they know everything about us humans. By radio they communicate with us from a not-too-distant planet. The Aliens provide us humans with very advanced technologies in the fields of energy generation, medicine, computer science and artificial technology. These represent a quantum jump to our current state of development. This book also deals about how we humans deal with the impact of the introduction of these very advanced technologies and the politics which go with it. Therefore, this book is also a book of psychology of the human mind.

Leseprobe

Peter Schüring

Message

Science Fiction

© 2021 Peter Schüring

All rights reserved.

Publishing and print:

tredition GmbH, Halenreie 40-44, 22359 Hamburg, Germany

ISBN

Paperback:

978-3-347-26637-7

Hardcover:

978-3-347-26638-4

e-Book:

978-3-347-26639-1

This work, including its parts, is protected by copyright. Any use is not permitted without the consent of the publisher and the author. This applies in particular to electronic or other duplication, translation, distribution and making available to the public.

Bibliographic information from the German National Library:

The German National Library lists this publication in the German National Bibliography; detailed bibliographic data are available on the Internet at http://dnb.d-nb.de.

Table of Contents

Introduction

Discovery

The Message

MIT

The President of the United States

The United Nations (Part 1)

The Media

The New MIT Receiving Station

Nuclear Fusion (Part 1)

Nerve Glue

Fundraising

The FDA

Team Meeting (Part 1)

John Simon

AI and DNA Computer

Organs

Nuclear Fusion (Part 2)

Reviving Extinct Animals

Nitrogen Bacteria

The Heart of the President

Artificial Intelligence

Nanoparticles

Nuclear Fusion (Part 3)

AIDS

Malaria

Fuel Cells

Financing the TESLA Corp. Project

Team Meeting (Part 2)

Human Genetic Engineering

China (Part 1)

Hydrogen Project (Part 1)

Nuclear Fusion (Part 4)

Biotechnology

China (Part 2)

Expansion of the Human Mind (Part 2)

The United Nations (Part 2)

Hydrogen Project (Part 2)

Earth Enhanced

End of the Message

Sources of Information

Introduction

This is a work of science fiction. Unlike other stories that deal with aliens invading and conquering our planet, causing great damage to our civilization and showing the aliens as monsters, in this story no aliens invade and change our world. This likelihood is small if not unrealistic for many scientific reasons and is perhaps incredible. But it is fear of the unknown that makes people see the alien as a threat; therefore, this type of science fiction has always been and will continue to be popular. An exception to this has been Steven Spielberg’s film E.T. Here, he succeeded to present aliens with their stunning capabilities in a friendly way. It is we humans who act aggressive.

This book does not try to scare people and achieve notoriety from this fear factor. This book presents a scenario of what could happen based on the current level of research of the universe, its stars and the discovery of planets. It is based on the likelihood that we will indeed be contacted by aliens using radio waves. Ongoing attempts to achieve such contact is being made by SETI, which was founded exclusively to achieve this goal. In their sixtyyear history using huge parabolic antennas and listening for radio signals from intelligent civilizations, they have not yet been successful. This task is difficult considering the thousands of different wavelengths they must monitor all the time and the enormous size of our galaxy and the universe. Stephen Hawking predicted that we are not alone in the universe but that there must be other intelligent civilizations, given the billions of planets which must exist with earth-like conditions. The problem we are facing is the enormous distances for such civilizations to reach each other and the speed of light as a limiting factor of communication. For example, our closest star is Proxima Centauri, which is 4.24 light-years away. A light-year is the distance light travels within one year, 9.46 trillion kilometers or 5.88 trillion miles. Our closest neighboring star is over 24,000,000,000,000 miles away. This gives an idea of the distances we are talking about. While astronomers have identified sixty-four G-type stars (which like our sun convert hydrogen to helium using nuclear fusion) within fifty light-years of our sun, many stars in our galaxy alone are more than 1,000 light-years away.

This book deals not only with a possible contact but also with the reaction of humans. Many books have already been written anticipating such an event, for example Contact by Carl Sagan or more recently First Contact (Erstkontakt) by Daniel Gerrizen. My book selects one scenario out of perhaps millions of possibilities to describe how, when, and in what form such contact would take place and what consequences it would have for mankind. The described events are futuristic but lean on the current state of science on our planet. The way humans react to anything new and strange plays a key role in this book. Therefore, this is also a book about human psychology. Humans have the reflex to protect what we have and have great fear of anything new and strange. This trait is part of our DNA and stems from the experience of our ancestors who had to fight hard for their nourishment and livelihood to exist. This reflex manifests itself in many known ways and the politics involved throughout this book is part of what makes this scenario fascinating.

Can such a contact really take place? Given the state of our science and rapid understanding and exploration of the universe, I believe it will; this view is shared by many reputable astronomy and space experts. This belief is based also on our current state of technology and the rapid progress we are making to improve it. This book is an attempt to extrapolate the future state of our existing sciences utilizing the knowledge of the aliens. It is as Yuval Noah Harari describes in his book Homo Deus— an attempt to upgrade Homo sapiens and to change the world beyond recognition in this century.

Discovery

Sunday, March 23, 2025

John Simon was a ham radio aficionado, call sign VE8US. He spent his free time huddled in front of his radio, searching the ether for new contacts around the world. He had been invested in this hobby for many years, as shown by his collection of calling cards covering one wall. Crowning his saltbox house—one of the few on Foxhill Street in Westwood, Massachusetts, near Boston—was a huge antenna he could turn from inside his small studio.

John spent several hours in his studio listening to the waves in the afternoon and early evening. He had just finished talking to Javier, his friend from Cordoba, Argentina. Their conversations usually revolved around topics such as family, the highlights of their lives, the weather, and of course, politics. John was extremely disappointed and concerned about the politics of the nation in recent times. China had now surpassed the United States as the largest and most influential country in the world. This fact was hard to swallow for this proud nation that had led the world for so long. The current president had inherited an exceedingly difficult situation but had done well toward re-establishing the domestic normalcy of the United States since his inauguration in January. Javier concurred and complained about the growing inflation rate in Argentina and the continuing economic chaos in his country.

John knew many of the thousands of ham operators around the world, some of whom he talked to on a regular basis, like Javier, if he managed to get a connection. Connectivity depended on atmospheric conditions, the time of the day, and the weather; it worked best at night. The many relationships John had built over the years kept him going with his station. Although such connections could easily be maintained via the internet, the sheer excitement involved in establishing a connection with another person via radio was missing from the Internet.

Using his master’s in electrical engineering from MIT, John had built his shortwave station as well as all the equipment himself. His station had a transmitter with a strength of 50 kW, an extremely sensitive receiver, the rooftop antenna, Morse code keys, a weather station, a signal strength meter, and clocks displaying times from around the world. He also rigged a tape recorder to record messages received during his absence. A collection of books with the call codes of shortwave stations around the world lined a shelf along one wall. These were updated every year, although online databases were the fastest way to learn someone’s QSL.

His wife Mary called him for dinner. Dinner on Sundays was always something special, and John was looking forward to the roast pork he’d been smelling all afternoon. Dinner time was almost always quiet, and the couple took their time enjoying a good glass of California red wine and light conversation. The Simons were progressive, politically. They had no children. In their thirty-plus years together they had lived an orderly life. Mary looked after the house and was responsible for their somewhat limited social life. She enjoyed a part-time position at a real estate office more as a reason to leave the house than for the money. As an engineer, John’s main interests were his work at Bell Laboratories and of course his ham station. They did not approve of the policies of Donald Trump that had ruined the international reputation of the United States. They had been ecstatic when Joe Biden had been elected president and the protests, riots, and divisiveness plaguing the country had ceased being headlines. America had resumed its somewhat normal state of being. After the meal, John spent another hour at his ham station while Mary cleaned up in the kitchen.

Upon reaching the top floor again, John switched on the tape recorder to see if there were any new messages for him. To his surprise, he heard Morse code-like signals. He listened carefully but could not identify the code. He was quite familiar with Morse, which had been the standard for communication in the past until voice modulation had taken over. It was rare to receive Morse messages except for emergency transmissions from shipping, sailing, or military vessels. However, these signals did not follow the regular pattern. It was a different code—one that he had never encountered before. He continued recording the incoming signals. The signal strength is good, he thought. He rotated his antenna to see what would happen. Normally, when he changed the antenna’s setting, the signal would disappear. However, to his great surprise, these signals continued transmitting with steady strength. Unusual; they have to be coming from space. It had to be a satellite sending them, and they were probably encrypted so that nothing other than the designated earth station could identify them. That, of course, was the simple answer, but why would the satellite transmit in the shortwave band designated for ham radio operators, in the kHz to MHz range organized in different channels The frequency within which these signals were now being received was well within the designated bands. John chewed on his cheek, somewhat frustrated that he could not figure out this code. He reviewed all his literature on Morse code, but this one looked different. He would call NASA tomorrow. Perhaps they could offer an explanation. Before going to bed, he put on a new tape to make sure the recording would last through the night. To his surprise, in the morning, the Morse-like signals continued to come in. He put in a fresh tape before going to work.

He took his usual train at 7:30 a.m. to get to Bell Labs. He had worked for them for thirty years and enjoyed working on different projects as an electrical engineer.

After reaching his office, he called NASA’s offices in Houston, Texas, and explained the phenomenon he had witnessed the night before. NASA confirmed that neither their satellites, the satellites of other nations, nor private operators known to them were broadcasting on the ham radio wave bands. They also explained there was an international convention preventing satellite radio traffic from using shortwave radio bands. There were several radio frequencies in use in satellite communications such as frequency C, X, Ku, Ka and even EHG and V-band. To prevent interference caused by multiple sites transmitting on the same frequencies, government agencies and private satellite operators around the globe had their satellite frequencies registered, and violations of the accepted regulations managed by the United Nations carried heavy penalties. According to them, this signal did not exist because it was regulated not to be. John thanked the person and hung up.

Arriving home in the evening, John went up to his station and was surprised to see he was still receiving the strange Morse messages. NASA had explained to him the effects of Earth’s rotation on signals from orbiting satellites. When the earth moved away from the source of the signal, it would stop. When the earth moved toward the source of the signal, it would be received again. The fact that this phenomenon was not taking place confirmed to him that the signals were coming from somewhere much farther away in space.

Given this situation, he began a log on this most unusual event so he would have a detailed record if asked later. He also wrote down parts of the signals on paper so he could analyze the strange code.

The first transatlantic radio communication had been in 1901 from England to the United States at Marconi Beach, Cape Cod. Regular radio signals were bouncing around Earth by 1906.

Theoretically, since that time, aliens—if there are any—have known exactly where we are and what we have been up to. John became preoccupied with the disquieting image of broadcasts billowing away from Earth for a good part of a hundred and fifteen years. Hundreds of star systems were within range of TV and radio signals that had been emitted during the past hundred and fifteen years, considering that radio signals traveled at the speed of light in the vacuum of space. Some of the signals could certainly have reached other stars and planets in the galaxy.

Samuel Morse developed Morse Code in 1833 and it had been the standard for global communication for several decades. The code “…---…” was the well-known universal emergency signal “SOS.” John wrote down several pages of the dots and dashes, but none represented a letter or number intelligibly. The message did not repeat itself but some of the dots and dashes did. It became clear that like Morse code, there was a pattern. The signals had continued for twenty-four hours, uninterrupted. This meant that they had to come from somewhere in space in the Northern Hemisphere—at an angle not affected by Earth’s rotation.

This was a huge puzzle. It dawned on him that the electromagnetic signals he was receiving were most likely indicative of intelligent life somewhere in the universe and that it was possibly the first time such signals were being received and recorded on Earth. If this was true, the implications for mankind would be life changing. It would be the most significant technological development in modern times and would have unthinkable consequences. It would mean that humans were not alone in the universe and that there were other intelligent—perhaps also more advanced—species out there trying to contact the inhabitants of Earth. These implications sent shivers down his spine.

John searched the Internet for information concerning the attempts to contact extraterrestrial life. So far, mankind had been unable to establish any contact despite several past and ongoing efforts and the creation of special private organizations such as SETI. Created by the University of Berkeley, the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence had numerous followers the world over. He read that the nearest star was a red dwarf called Proxima Centauri, which was 4.24 light-years away. It could or could not have planets; no one was sure. Sending a spacecraft there would take thirty-five years at the current speed of spacecrafts. Crossing the Milky Way at one tenth the speed of light would take four million years. The Milky Way itself could be awash with civilizations older and more technologically advanced than humanity. It was estimated about 100 to 300 billion stars comprised our home galaxy. It was also assumed that about half the stars were orbited by planets. Scientists were concluding that the lack of extraterrestrial visitations could be due to the huge distances involved in interstellar flight; it was virtually impossible to reach Earth. But if they were not going to come calling, how were humans going to encounter them? The answer: radio waves traveling at the speed of light from them to us.

The next evening, John began to identify all the dots and dashes that repeated themselves and wrote them down on a separate piece of paper. There were several of them, perhaps hundreds—and these were only what he had identified so far. Morse code consisted of only forty-one different combinations of dots and dashes. Was this a foreign language written in a new code? Or what was it? Even if it was an encryption using only numbers and letters, it had to be based on the Morse code, and this was clearly not the case here.

John noticed that the tape was running out and he quickly replaced it, missing only a few of the signals. Until he solved the mystery, he decided to continue recording the incoming signals.

That night, as he lay in bed, he wondered whether he should involve other people to help him identify the signals or attempt to do it himself. If he advised NASA and the government of the signals he was receiving, the magnitude of this news could threaten the tranquility of his life and perhaps even endanger him. He would have FBI and CIA officials crawling all over his house and investigating everything. The media would pick up the story and TV stations from all over the world would park in front of his house. He would suddenly become a well-known public figure. He wanted to avoid all this, so he decided that for the time being, he would keep quiet about this discovery and not even tell Mary. She hated even the idea of public attention and was a rather shy person. The received signals would not be lost, as he was recording it all. He concluded that he had plenty of time to deal with this mystery himself.

Understanding the message would require learning its new language and this, he realized, would take a significant amount of time and skill.

He started by filtering out identical combinations of dots and dashes from all the combinations of codes he was receiving. He then counted how often they were repeating themselves: this was several times, in fact. This suggested that perhaps these could be letters like the alphabet or numbers as in the decimal system. These combinations had to be words or numbers in a foreign language or perhaps even in English. Now, how was he going to decipher all of this without expert help? He had zero experience with this kind of research. He had only recently read the book on the Enigma machine, which had been used by the British to decipher German war codes. It had taken mathematicians several years to break the German code, and this had required a special machine. He also needed to study the history and methods used to decipher the hieroglyphs of the Egyptians and the language of the Mayans. He would buy books on the subject the next day.

He used his lunch break to go to one of Boston’s best bookstores, where he bought not only books on hieroglyphs and the Mayans but also some books about cryptography. While the messages from space continued to be recorded, John began to study his new books to figure out how he could decipher them.

He started with the history of writing. He learned that the Sumerians first invented writing as a means of long-distance communication, necessitated by trade, as early as 35,000 BCE. Later, Egyptians developed hieroglyphs which they carved in stone still visible today. Creating a gateway to the rich meaning of the hieroglyphics was the crucial part that the Rosetta Stone had played. It had the same message written in both Egyptian hieroglyphs and Ancient Greek, which was translatable to the modern explorers who found it. Without knowing the content of at least some parts of a message, there was no way to decode it. When talking to aliens, what would people use for a Rosetta Stone?

John read and studied as much as he could on the methods used to decipher the Egyptian hieroglyphs. He then turned to the civilization of the Mayans. Once considered an unsolvable enigma, recent advances in deciphering the Mayan writing system had not only shed light on the mechanics of the script but also on the socio-political, artistic, and historical aspects of the Mayan civilization. This rabbit-hole of information occupied him for hours.

Upon reading how long it took for people to decipher the hieroglyphs of the Egyptians and the Mayans, and how long it took Allen Turing to crack the German code during the Second World War, John was daunted. How difficult would it be and how long would it take him to decipher the code he was receiving from space, especially if he wanted to tackle this task by himself? It could maybe take him years, and even then, he was not sure whether he would understand the message.

Despite all these issues, he nevertheless decided to refrain from revealing his discovery before working on the problem himself. Perhaps it would be much easier than it seemed if the message was in English or another known language. He also thought about the consequences of this message for mankind if it had indeed come from another civilization. Is this civilization more advanced than ours? Are these people peace-loving or a threat to our civilization? How many light-years is this civilization from Earth? Can we identify the star that is their sun? What will these aliens look like? And to whom can I reveal the messages? Is this the property of the UnitedStates or does this discovery belong to the entire world? Can I rely on the FBI or CIA for my protection?

Thursday morning, on the train to work, John decided to focus on available systems of cryptography first. These, he thought, might be helpful in understanding the messages he was receiving. First, he had to decipher the Morse code. This meant that he had to identify the letters and numbers corresponding to their alphabet and numeric system. Once that was done, he had to understand the meaning of the combination of their letters and numbers. This would most likely be in their language, which he could not understand. Therefore, the third and perhaps most difficult task would be to understand and interpret the language of this civilization.

John had also read articles regarding Project SETI. The organization had tried to receive signals from other civilizations in space for several decades. Although it had several large radio telescopes in locations like Arecibo in Puerto Rico, Cheshire, England, and the Green Bank radio telescope in West Virginia, USA, these large radio telescopes focused mainly on the one billion stars in the galaxy. Despite the fact that technology had improved a great deal to include an ever-growing spectrum of radio channels, they had not helped. Except his radio, no other radio telescopes had captured a single meaningful signal. The task was formidable if one considered the size and the distances of the universe with its several billion stars and their planets.

Serious scientists such as Stephen Hawking considered it virtually impossible that humans were the only intelligent civilization in the universe. The problem seemed to be more the enormous distances from one star to another counted in light-years, and the same from one galaxy to the next. Through the Internet, thousands of aficionados followed the SETI project with the great expectation that the human civilization would receive an intelligent signal from outer space one day.

When John had been an aspiring electrical engineer, he had studied at MIT and attended many lectures conducted by the mathematics department. It was considered one of the best in the world. MIT was also renowned for its work in information technology. In fact, while working for Bell Labs, John regularly contacted professors at various departments of MIT. The university was also not too far away from his workplace.

John called on his friend John Adams, the head of research for telecommunications at MIT. After catching up on personal news, John stated the reason for his call. “You know I’m a ham enthusiast.”

“Yeah.”

“The other day, I received a long, coded message that looked like Morse code. I can’t ID the sender but I’m curious about the content of the message. Maybe it comes from Russia or from someone who needs help. Can you help me decipher it? You have the best mathematicians and computer scientists at your disposal—this should be a piece of cake for you.”

John clucked his tongue for a moment. “We don’t normally entertain requests like this, but I’m willing to try it for you. By the way, there are some great free programs on the Internet for that. Christopher McDonnel wrote an excellent program called the ‘Secret Code Pattern Word Program.’ He was one of our best Math and IT students. I’ll email you the info. You can download it for free. If you have difficulties with it, call Christopher or me. If it doesn’t work, call me again, and we’ll get our IT students involved. Be a nice challenge for them.”

In the evening, John received the promised message from Bill:

Here is the program description from Christopher McDonnel and the download instructions. I hope it works.

This is a free ZIP file download that contains a Windows program (instructions can be found in the Helpmenu) and a set of Word Pattern files for words up to nineteen alphabets long. The program looks up words based on patterns of encryption. There is also a “crib” function for cases in which one or more letters of the unknown word are known, thus narrowing down the possible results. This program was written for“Secret Code Breaker by Christopher McDonnel.

www.secret-codebreaker-pattern-wordprogram.com

Regards,

Bill

That evening, after returning home and after dinner, John downloaded the program Bill had sent him. After carefully reading the instructions, he began typing the beginning of the code he had received. It took a few minutes, and then to his total astonishment, his laptop started to display English text. His heart began to pound. In front of him was the last thing he had ever expected.

The Message

The text said the following:

WE ARE AN INTELLIGENT CIVILIZATION LIVING ON A PLANET 53 LIGHT-YEARS AWAY FROM YOUR EARTH. WE ARE SENDING THIS MESSAGE IN YOUR EARTH YEAR 1972 AND EXPECT YOU TO RECEIVE IT IN YOUR YEAR 2025. PLEASE FORGIVE REPETITION OR DISORGANIZATION IN THIS FIRST MESSAGE AS WE ARE STILL LEARNING HOW TO COMMUNICATE WITH YOU AND WE HAVE SO MUCH TO SHARE.

WE LEARNED ABOUT YOU WHEN WE STARTED TO RECEIVE YOUR MORSE CODE AND LATER RADIO AND TELEVISION SIGNALS. THEY HAVE TAUGHT US SEVERAL OF YOUR LANGUAGES, YOUR MUSIC, PHOTOGRAPHS, FILM, AND TELEVISION. YOUR FIRST RADIO SIGNALS REACHED US IN OUR YEAR 30462 AND IT HAS TAKEN OUR CIVILIZATION 10 OF OUR YEARS 5 OF THEIR YEARS TO UNDERSTAND YOUR SIGNALS AND STUDY YOUR LANGUAGES, CIVILIZATION, AND HISTORY. FROM THE PHOTOGRAPHS, FILM, AND TELEVISION PICTURES RECEIVED, WE KNOW HOW HUMANS AND MOST OF THE OTHER SPECIES IN YOUR WORLD LOOK LIKE AND BEHAVE. WE HAVE ALSO STUDIED YOUR MATHEMATICAL, MEASUREMENT, AND COUNTING SYSTEMS AND HAVE MANY OF OUR PEOPLE SPENDING TIME TO UNDERSTAND HUMANS, YOUR WORLD, AND HISTORY. WE HAVE READ AND STUDIED MUCH OF YOUR LITERATURE. YOU WILL THEREFORE BE SURPRISED HOW MUCH WE KNOW ABOUT YOU. WE HAVE ALSO STARTED A UNIVERSITY PROGRAM CALLED “EARTH SCIENCE” WHERE MANY OF OUR STUDENTS LEARN ABOUT HUMANS, THEIR CHARACTER, HISTORY, AND THEIR ENVIRONMENT ON YOUR EARTH. WE HAVE A FORMAL EDUCATION SYSTEM IN OUR CIVILIZATION VERY SIMILAR TO YOURS.

FROM THE ANALYSIS OF ALL THIS DATA SO FAR, WE HAVE REALIZED THAT WE ARE SUBSTANTIALLY MORE ADVANCED THAN YOUR STATUS OF DEVELOPMENT IN TERMS OF YOUR LEVEL OF INTELLIGENCE, TECHNOLOGY, LIFESTYLE, AND SOCIAL BEHAVIOR IN YOUR YEAR 1975. BUT IN OTHER WAYS YOU ARE MORE ADVANCED THAN US AND WE LEARN FROM YOU.

FROM SOME OF YOUR LITERATURE, WE UNDERSTAND THAT HUMANS ARE FEARFUL THAT A MORE ADVANCED CIVILIZATION LIKE OURS WILL BE HOSTILE TO HUMANS AND MAY COME TO DESTROY YOUR WORLD. WE ARE NOT HOSTILE TOWARD YOU AND HAVE ONLY PEACEFUL INTENTIONS. WE DO NOT HAVE SPACE TRAVEL AMBITIONS. WE WERE AWED TO WATCH YOUR SPACE PROGRAMS DEVELOP AND SEE HUMANS ORBITING EARTH IN VEHICLES YOU BUILT AND EVEN LAND ON YOUR MOON. BY THE TIME YOU RECEIVE THIS MESSAGE YOU MAY HAVE ALREADY REACHED OTHER PLANETS IN YOUR SOLAR SYSTEM. YOUR DARING, EXPLORATORY NATURE IS FOREIGN TO US BUT FASCINATING TO STUDY. WE DO NOT EXPLORE BECAUSE WE HAVE NOWHERE ELSE TO GO BUT OUR ONE CONTINENT AND ONE VIABLE PLANET IN OUR SOLAR SYSTEM. YOUR CURIOSITY HAS TAKEN YOU FAR AND WE COMMEND YOU, BUT IT IS NOT OUR WAY.

OUR CIVILIZATION HAS ALREADY LEARNED MANY NEW THINGS FROM YOU THAT HAVE IMPROVED OUR LIVES GREATLY SUCH AS IN MEDICINE. THE SAME WE HOPE TO DO BY PROVIDING YOU WITH TECHNOLOGY AND CURES YOU DO NOT YET HAVE FOR SOME OF YOUR DESEASES WHICH SHOULD BE BENEFICIAL TO YOU HUMANS AND IMPROVE YOUR LIVES.

WE HOPE THAT YOUR CIVILIZATION IS STILL ALIVE TO RECEIVE THIS MESSAGE GIVEN THE MANY WARS TAKING PLACE ON YOUR PLANET AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF WEAPONS LIKE NUCLEAR BOMBS. THE USE OF WEAPONS TOOK US A LONG TIME TO UNDERSTAND, AS OUR CIVILIZATION DOES NOT KNOW STRIFE.

WE ARE HERBIVORES. ALSO, WE DO NOT HAVE LARGE PREDATORY ANIMALS HUNTING US LIKE YOU DO (LIONS AND BEARS MUST BE TERRIFYING). FOR THESE REASONS WE DO NOT NEED TO KILL OTHER ANIMALS TO SURVIVE. THE MAIN THREAT TO OUR SURVIVAL COMES FROM NATURAL EVENTS ON OUR PLANET LIKE QUAKES, FLOODS AND STORMS, SEVERE CHANGES IN TEMPERATURE DUE TO SUNSPOT ACTIVITY OR VULCANISM, AND IMPACTS OF METEORITES FROM SPACE. THEY ARE MUCH WORSE THAN ON YOUR PLANET. DUE TO THESE CIRCUMSTANCES AND THINGS SUCH AS DISEASE, OUR MORTALITY RATE IS HIGH. THE TOTAL POPULATION OF OUR PLANET FOR MOST OF OUR HISTORY WAS AROUND 2 BILLION BUT IN THE LAST TWENTY YEARS HAS RISEN TO 4.5 BILLION PEOPLE THANKS IN PART TO YOUR ANTIBIOTICS.

UNLIKE YOUR SPECIES, WE DO NOT KNOW OF OR BELIEVE IN RELIGION. THEREFORE, WE HAVE NO CHURCHES, TEMPLES, OR MOSQUES. WE LIVE A TRANQUIL LIFE. OUR PEOPLE HAVE NOT DEVELOPED A NEED TO PRAY AS WE DO NOT BELIEVE IN ANY GODS. WE ACCEPT DEATH CAUSED BY NATURE AND DISEASE AS PART OF THE LIFE PROCESS. LEARNING NEW MEDICAL TECHNIQUES FROM YOU HAS ALLOWED US TO FIGHT DISEASE IN NEW WAYS. AS A RESULT, OUR POULATION INCREASED AND QUALITY OF LIFE IS IMPROVED.

IT WAS A GREAT SURPRISE WHEN WE FOUND OUT THAT WE ARE NOT THE ONLY INTELLIGENT SPECIES IN THE UNIVERSE. WE HAVE TRIED FOR A LONG TIME TO ESTABLISH CONTACT WITH OTHER CIVILIZATIONS, BUT WITH NO RESULTS. THE CONTACT WITH YOU IS OUR FIRST CONTACT WITH AN ALIEN CIVILIZATION. THE NEWS OF THIS CONTACT HAS CAUSED GREAT EXCITEMENT ON OUR PLANET BUT ALSO SOME FEAR. HUMANS ARE CONQUERING TYPES. HUMANS ARE SPACEFARING. IT TOOK MANY DECADES TO AGREE TO SEND THIS MESSAGE BACK TO YOU.

OUR UNDERSTANDING OF SPACE/TIME AND WHAT YOU CALL THE “BIG BANG” IS NOT LIKE YOURS. OUR ASTRNOMERS AGREE THAT THERE WAS A BIG BANG AND THAT IT OCCURRED ABOUT 13.7 BILLION EARTH YEARS AGO. WE ALSO CONCLUDED THAT THE MATTER RESULTING FROM THE BIG BANG IN THE FORM OF STARS, PLANETS, AND GALAXIES CONTINUES TO EXPAND IN THE UNIVERSE AT AN ACCELERATING SPEED. OUR ASTRONOMERS DO NOT AGREE WITH YOUR THEORIES THAT THE UNIVERSE WAS CREATED BY A BIG BANG FOLLOWING THE TIME/SPACE THEORY. WE HAVE COME TO THE CONCLUSION THAT THE UNIVERSE HAS ALWAYS EXSISTED AND THAT IT HAS NO BEGINNING AND NO END. OUR RESEARCH SHOWS NO EVIDENCE THAT THERE ARE OTHER UNIVERSES. OUR BELIEF IS THAT THERE IS ONLY ONE UNIVERSE WITH THREE DIMENSIONS. WE HAVE NO EXPLANATION FOR WHAT CAUSED THE BIG BANG. IT PRODUCED MATTER AND GRAVITATIONAL WAVES IN AN ALREADY EXSISTING EMTY UNIVERSE. OUR CONCLUSION IS THAT THE UNIVERSE IS ENDLESS. WE HAVE NO EXPLANATION SO FAR FOR THE CREATION OF THE UNIVERSE. MAYBE IT IS WHAT YOU CALL GOD.

LIKE ON YOUR EARTH, ALL OUR ORGANISMS ARE BASED ON CARBON. ON OUR PLANET, EVERY SINGLE MOLECULE THAT HAS A BIOLOGICAL OR BIOCHEMICAL FUNCTION IS A COMPOUND OF CARBON. LIKE ON YOUR EARTH, WE HAVE 92 CHEMICALLY DISTINCT KINDS OF NATURALLY OCCURRING ATOMS. THESE ARE MAINLY FOUND COMBINED AS MOLECULES SUCH AS WATER. IN THAT SENSE, OUR WORLD LOOKS TO BE ALMOST IDENTICAL FROM A CHEMICAL POINT OF VIEW.

EACH OF OUR ORGANISMS CARRIES ITS OWN BLUEPRINT IN EVERY CELL OF ITS BODY, CODED INTO THE LONG-CHAIN CARBON MOLECULES YOU CALL DEOXYRIBONUCLEIC ACID OR DNA. WE WERE SHOCKED TO LEARN THAT YOU SHARE THE SAME FOUR NUCLEOTIDES WE HAVE IN OUR DNA. IN THAT SENSE, OUR CHEMISTRY IS ALMOST IDENTICAL TO YOURS, BUT THE EVOLUTION OF OUR SPECIES IS VERY DIFFERENT FROM YOURS. THIS FOLLOWS THE EVOLUTION THEORY OF YOUR SCIENTIST AND EXPLORER CHARLES DARWIN. OUR SPECIES ALSO EVOLVED OVER LONG PERIODS OF TIME AND ADAPTED TO OUR ENVIRONMENT.

WE ALSO KNOW THE TEMPERATURES IN SEVERAL PARTS OF YOUR WORLD AND FROM THE MAPS, WE KNOW THE LANDMASS AND WATER DISTRIBUTION ON YOUR PLANET EARTH. GEOGRAPHY DIVIDES YOU MUCH. OUR PLANET HAS ONLY ONE HUGE LANDMASS WHICH IS SURROUNDED BY OCEAN. THERE ARE ISLANDS DUE TO VULCANISM BUT NO OTHER CONTINENTS.

YOU CAN DIRECT YOUR TELESCOPES IN THE NORTHERN HEMISPHERE AT THE CONSTELLATION YOU CALL ‘MU ARA’ 17h 44m 08.70114 AND DECLINATION -51°50´02.5853. WE ARE SENDING THIS MESSAGE AT THE SHORTWAVE OF 57 MHz, IN A CODE EASY FOR YOUR COMPUTERS AND MATHEMATICIANS TO IDENTIFY. WE HAVE CHOSEN A SHORTWAVE FREQUENCY TO SEND OUR MESSAGES SINCE THERE IS A LARGE POPULATION OF SHORTWAVE FANS ON YOUR PLANET AND WE HOPE THAT AT LEAST ONE OF THEM WILL PICK UP AND IDENTIFY OUR RADIO SIGNAL. WE ARE SENDING OUR MESSAGES IN ENGLISH TO MATCH THE MAJORITY OF YOUR SIGNALS WE HAVE RECEIVED, AND TO AVOID LANGUAGE PROBLEMS. IT TOOK US SEVERAL YEARS TO UNDERSTAND ENGLISH AND OTHER LANGUAGES SPOKEN ON YOUR PLANET.

WE HOPE TO RECEIVE AN ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF THIS MESSAGE IN YOUR EARTH YEAR 2075. YOUR CIVILIZATION IS PROGRESSING RAPIDLY WITH THE USE OF TECHNOLOGY AND SPACE EXPLORATION, BUT WE SUSPECT IT WILL TAKE YOU A LONG TIME TO REACH OUR LEVEL OF DEVELOPMENT ON YOUR OWN. THE FACT THAT YOU HAVE THE DESIRE TO KILL YOUR OWN SPECIES AND FIGHT WARS WITH EACH OTHER WILL SLOW DOWN YOUR DEVELOPMENT. WE HAVE CONCLUDED THAT THIS KILLER INSTINCT IN HUMANS AND MANY OF YOUR OTHER SPECIES IS WHAT SEPARATES US MOST. YOU KILL ANIMALS BECAUSE YOU NEED THE PROTEIN AND FAT FROM ANIMALS ALONGSIDE NUTRIENTS FROM PLANTS. WE DID NOT UNDERSTAND OMNIVOROUS AT FIRST; IT TOOK MUCH STUDY. WE CONSUME ONLY PLANT MATTER LIKE YOUR HERBIVORES.

AFTER MUCH ANALYSIS, WE HAVE CONCLUDED THAT YOUR DEVELOPMENT WILL BE SLOWER ALSO BECAUSE YOUR BRAINS ARE SMALLER THAN OURS RELATIVE TO YOUR BODY MASS. WE HOPE THAT THIS FACT WILL CAUSE NO RESENTMENT TOWARD OUR PEOPLE AND WE WILL BE ABLE TO ESTABLISH A FRIENDLY RELATIONSHIP WITH EACH OTHER IN WHICH EACH OF OUR CIVILIZATIONS CAN LEARN AND BENEFIT A GREAT DEAL FROM EACH OTHER.

WE ARE NOW DEDICATING OVER 10,000 OF OUR PEOPLE TO STUDY YOUR PEOPLE AND LEARN FROM YOU. WITH THE DELAY OF 50 EARTH YEARS, WE ARE FOLLOWING UP DAILY THE NEWS WHICH COMES FROM YOUR EARTH AND ARE OFTEN SHOCKED AND SURPRISED AT THE MANY DISPUTES AMONG YOUR POLITICIANS BEING REPORTED BY YOUR RADIO AND TV STATIONS.

SOME OF YOUR TECHNOLOGIES HAVE ALREADY HELPED TO IMPROVE OUR LIVES AND HAVE BENEFITTED OUR CIVILIZATION. THIS IS ESPECIALLY TRUE IN MEDICINE. LIKEWISE, WE HOPE THAT SOME OF THE ACHIEVEMENTS ON OUR PLANET WILL HELP YOU MAKE MORE RAPID PROGRESS IN YOUR DEVELOPMENT. FOR EXAMPLE, YOUR ANTIBIOTICS HAVE BEEN A BLESSING TO OUR PEOPLE, AS BEFORE, WE HAD NO EFFECTIVE WAY TO FIGHT BACTERIA, AND MILLIONS OF OUR PEOPLE DIED FROM INFECTIONS WE CAN NOW CURE.

EACH OF WHAT YOU CALL DAYS ON OUR PLANET HAS 48 OF YOUR EARTH HOURS AND OUR PLANET IS CIRCLING OUR SUN IN 720 OF YOUR EARTH DAYS OR TWO OF YOUR YEARS. DEPENDING ON THE TIME OF THE YEAR, EACH DAY HAS ABOUT 25 HOURS OF SUNLIGHT. THE DECLINATION OF OUR PLANET IS 15 DEGREES TO OUR SUN. OUR SINGLE CONTINENT IS CENTERED ON OUR PLANET’S EQUATOR WITHOUT MUCH VARIANCE IN LATITUDE, KEEPING OUR CLIMATE STEADY YEAR-ROUND.

SINCE WE HAVE HAD TIME TO UNDERSTAND YOUR ENGLISH LANGUAGE, WE ARE SENDING THIS AND FURTHER MESSAGES TO YOU IN ENGLISH. WE ALSO UNDERSTAND CHINESE, JAPANESE, FRENCH, SPANISH, AND GERMAN. LIMITING OUR COMMUNICATION TO ENGLISH WILL SPEED UP OUR COMMUNICATION WITH YOU. THE ONLY THING YOU MUST LEARN IS OUR CODE.

OUR LANGUAGE WE CALL “GALLA” IS THE PRIMARY WAY FOR US TO COMMUNICATE AND LEARN FROM EACH OTHER AND DEVELOP OUR CIVILIZATION. WE WILL SEND TABLETS WRITTEN BY OUR HISTORIANS DESCRIBING THE EVOLUTION OF OUR CIVILIZATION. YOU CALL THEM BOOKS. THIS WILL BE VERY IMPORTANT FOR YOU TO UNDERSTAND OUR PEOPLE AND HOW OUR CIVILIZATION DEVELOPED OVER A PERIOD OF MORE THAN 30,000 YEARS. YOU MAY HAVE TO ASSEMBLE A LARGE TEAM OF HISTORIANS TO STUDY THE HISTORY OF OUR PEOPLE. ONLY THIS WILL GIVE YOU A SUFFICIENT UNDERSTANDING OF OUR EVOLUTION AND DEVELOPMENT.

ON OUR PLANET, WE ARE NOT GEOGRAPHICALLY SEPARATED FROM EACH OTHER SO WE HAVE ONE CULTURE. WE ONLY USE ONE LANGUAGE. UNLIKE YOUR WORLD, WE DO NOT HAVE COUNTRIES AND WE DO NOT FIGHT WARS AMONG OUR PEOPLE. WE DO NOT HAVE PRIVATE PROPERTY, AND EVERYTHING IS OWNED BY ALL. WE HAVE NO ASPIRATION TO OWN ANYTHING AND THEREFORE WE DO NOT HAVE ANY DISPUTES. HOUSING, TRANSPORTATION, FOOD, AND HEALTH SERVICES ARE COORDINATED BY THE ONE AND ONLY STATE WE HAVE. THE STATE IS GOVERNED BY PEOPLE WHO HAVE AS ITS ONLY MISSIONTO PROVIDE SERVICE TO ALL PEOPLE. OUR WORK IS OUR CURRENCY; WE DO NOT HAVE MONEY. MONEY WAS AN INTRIGUING CONCEPT WHEN WE STARTED UNDERSTANDING YOUR RADIO AND TV SIGNALS. AS WE DO NOT HAVE A DESIRE TO CREATE, GROW AND MAINTAIN WEALTH, WE HAVE ALMOST NO DISPUTES AMONG OUR PEOPLE. OUR MALES AND FEMALES ARE ALL ASSIGNED A DESIGNATED PAIRING TO REPRODUCE AND FORM FAMILIES. ALL OUR PEOPLE CAN CHOOSE A PROFESSION AND USUALLY SPEND THEIR ENTIRE LIFE IN THIS PROFESSION.

WE DO NOT HAVE ANY POLITICS, AS IN OUR SYSTEM, THEY ARE NOT NECESSARY. ADMINISTRATORS ARE GIVEN SPECIFIC TASKS TO PERFORM BY OLDER ADMINISTRATORS IN THE SAME FIELD. OUR COUNTRY KEEPS A RECORD OF ALL OUR LIVING PEOPLE, THEIR AGE, HEALTH, PROFESSION, LOCATION, AND OCCUPATION. THIS IS NECESSARY FOR PLANNING THEIR ASSIGNMENTS IN OUR SOCIETY. ONCE A PERSON IS BORN, WE KEEP TRACK OF THEIR DEVELOPMENT AND THEIR INTERESTS AND TALENTS AND PLAN THEIR EDUCATION AND PROFESSIONAL LIFE ACCORDINGLY.

ALL THIS WILL SOUND VERY STRANGE TO YOU AND MAKE YOU WONDER HOW IT WORKS. KARL MARX TRIED TO ESTABLISH SOMETHING SIMILAR IN YOUR WORLD AND FAILED, AS DID OTHERS SUBSEQUENTLY. WE BELIEVE THE FAILURE RESULTED FROM THE DESIRE IN HUMANS TO OWN THINGS. IT ALSO DID NOT TAKE INTO CONSIDERATION THE HUGE DIFFERENCE IN CHARACTER AMONG PEOPLE AND THEIR DESIRE TO OBTAIN WEALTH; OUR PEOPLE DO NOT HAVE THESE TWO ASPIRATIONS. THE REASON FOR THIS WE BELIEVE LIES PRIMARILY IN OUR GENES. THIS SHOULD NOT SUGGEST THAT WE DO NOT HAVE A SOCIAL LIFE AND FUN. THE NEED TO HAVE SEX IS MUCH STRONGER THAN YOURS AND OUR PEOPLE THEREFORE HAVE SEX ALMOST EVERY DAY WITH THEIR ASSIGNED PAIRINGS; THIS ASSURES OUR SPECIES A HIGH RATE OF REPRODUCTION. THIS IS NECESSARY WITH OUR HIGH MORTALITY RATE.

WE HAVE OTHER SIMILAR LESS-DEVELOPED SPECIES THAT PERFORM MUCH OF THE MANUAL LABOR ON OUR PLANET. THEY ARE ASSIGNED AND TREATED MUCH LIKE YOUR DOMESTIC HELP AND LABORERS. THEY LOOK LIKE US BUT ARE SMALLER AND HAVE MUCH SMALLER BRAINS. THEY ARE USED BY US ONLY AS WORKERS. HOWEVER, THEY ARE NOT UNHAPPY WITH THEIR SITUATION AND ARE NOT TREATED LIKE YOUR SLAVES. WE CALL THEM “MONGOS.” FOR EVERY ONE OF US THERE ARE TWO MONGOS. THESE CREATURES WERE DESIGNED AND DEVELOPED BY US TO PERFORM ONLY MANUAL WORK. THE TECHNOLOGY TO DESIGN FORMS OF LIFE LIKE THE MONGOS AND MANY ANIMALS AND PLANTS YOU CALL “GENETIC ENGINEERING” IS A VERY ADVANCED SCIENCE IN OUR CIVILIZATION FROM WHICH WE HAVE BENEFITTED GREATLY. REWRITING GENETICS HAS BECOME ONE OF OUR PRINCIPLE AND MOST IMPORTANT SCIENCES.

WE ALSO DO NOT HAVE ANY RACES; ALL OUR PEOPLE LOOK THE SAME. THERE ARE ONLY DIFFERENCES IN THEIR FACES, THEIR STRENGH, AND THEIR HEIGHT. THERE ARE ALSO DIFFERENCES IN THE LEVEL OF INTELLIGENCE AND TALENT. WE WERE FASCINATED THAT HUMANS VARY SO MUCH IN SKIN TONE FROM ONE REGION TO ANOTHER, THE EVOLUTION OF THIS DRIVEN BY THE LEVEL OF SUNLIGHT AT DIFFERENT LATITUDES. WE MUST WONDER IF THE SAME WOULD BE TRUE OF US IF OUR LANDMASS WAS DIFFERENT AND STRETCHED TO BOTH POLES OF OUR PLANET.

WE DO NOT KILL ANIMALS LIKE YOU DO FOR PROTEIN NOURISHMENT. OUR SPECIES ONLY EATS PLANTS, WHICH WE GROW IN FIELDS TENDED BY THE MONGOS. THE PLANTS ARE MOSTLY ENGINEERED. THEY PROVIDE US WITH THE RIGHT LEVEL OF CARBOHYDRATES, PROTEINS AND FATS.

IN LATER MESSAGES, WE WILL SEND YOU THE GENETIC SPECIFICATIONS OF MANY OF THE PLANTS ON OUR PLANET. SOME OF THEM MAY BE USEFUL TO YOU BUT WE OF COURSE DO NOT KNOW IF THEY WILL GROW IN YOUR ATMOSPHERE OR SOIL. WE USE FRUITS WHICH ARE VERY TASTY AND WHICH YOU DO NOT KNOW ON YOUR PLANET. WE WOULD ALSO BE PLEASED IF YOU COULD SEND US THE GENETIC CODE OF SOME OF YOUR FRUITS LIKE BANANAS, APPLES, ORGANGES, ETC.

OUR PLANET IS LARGER THAN YOURS WITH A DIAMETER OF 55,860 KM AT ITS EQUATOR. THE SURFACE OR OUR PLANET IS 720,000,000 km2. 155,000,000 km2 IS LANDMASS WHICH REPRESENTS 21.5% OF OUR PLANET. LIKE ON YOUR EARTH, WE ALSO HAVE LAKES AND MOUNTAINS.

LIKE YOUR PLANET, WE HAVE MANY SPECIES. WE HAVE LARGE AND SMALL VERTEBRATE ANIMALS LIKE YOUR BIRDS, MAMMALS, AND FISH. WE ALSO HAVE INVERTEBRATE EQUIVALENTS WHICH PLAY AN IMPORTANT ROLE IN OUR ECOSYSTEM.

WE HAVE DEVELOPED A LARGE BIOTECHNOLOGY KNOW-HOW TO DEVELOP PRODUCTS USING BACTERIA WHICH LIVE OFF VARIOUS WASTE CHEMICALS. THEY HELP US TO KEEP OUR PLANET CLEAN FROM WASTE AND PRODUCE SOME OF OUR FOOD. THEY ALSO HELP US ALSO TO EXTRACT VALUABLE ALLOYS.

OUR PEOPLE ARE LARGER THAN YOU (2.0 TO 2.30 METERS TALL ON AVERAGE) AND OUR MASS MULTIPLIED BY YOUR GRAVITY WOULD MAKE US WEIGH ABOUT 100 KG ON EARTH. LIKE YOU, WE ARE BILATERALLY SYMMECTRICAL. WE ARE BIPEDAL AND CARRY OUT WORK WITH OUR ARMS AND HANDS. OUR SPECIES ALSO HAS TWO EYES AND EARS AND A NOSE. IN ADDITION, WE HAVE TWO ANTENNAE ON OUR HEAD TO RECEIVE SONAR SIGNALS. WE ALSO HAVE A TAIL. WE DO NOT NEED TO DRESS AND USE ANY TEXTILES AS OUR SKIN IS COVERED BY A THIN FUR, WHICH KEEPS US WARM AND INSULATED FROM THE ENVIRONMENT. WE ARE NOT SENDING YOU ANY PHOTOS OF OUR PEOPLE AS WE REMEMBER HOW SHOCKED WE WERE WHEN WE FIRST SAW THE PHOTOS OF HUMANS. WITHOUT YOUR TEXTILES YOU LOOK SO NAKED. WE WILL DO THAT MUCH LATER WHEN YOU HAVE GOTTEN ACCUSTOMED TO OUR EXSISTANCE.

THE AVERAGE TEMPERATURE ON OUR PLANET IS 22 DEGREES CELCIUS. IT VARIES SOMEWHAT FROM REGION TO REGION BY ONLY 5 TO 7 DEGREES AS OUR PLANET DOES NOT HAVE MUCH DECLINATION TO OUR SUN AND OUR SINGLE LAND MASS IS CENTERED IN LATITUDE BETWEEN OUR POLES. WE ARE IMPRESSED AT THE VARIED TEMPERATURES AND ENVIRONMENTS HUMANS HAVE ADAPTED TO ON EARTH. YOUR EVOLUTION IN A WARM CLIMATE EXPLAINS YOUR HAIRLESSNESS BUT WE ARE CURIOUS WHY THOSE IN HIGHER LATITUDES DID NOT EVOLVE MORE HAIRINESS TO COUNTER THE COLD.

WE CAN SPEAK LIKE YOU HUMANS AND THAT HAS ALLOWED OUR SPECIES TO DEVELOP OUR INTELLIGENCE. OUR CHILDREN MATURE IN THE BODY OF OUR WOMEN IN 13,5 EARTH MONTHS. EDUCATION HAS BEEN REDUCED SINCE WE ARE NOW ABLE TO TRANSFER SOME KNOWLEDGE DIRECTLY TO THE BRAIN OF OUR CHILDREN AND ADULTS. THIS HAS BEEN ONE OF THE MOST SIGNIFICANT DEVELOPMENTS OF OUR SPECIES. THIS TECHNOLOGY ALLOWS US ALSO TO DOWNLOAD THE SETTINGS OF OUR BRAINS TO HOLOGRAPHIC COMPUTERS AND TRANSFER THESE SETTINGS TO OUR CHILDREN EARLY IN LIFE. THIS WAY, OUR PERSONALITY CONTINUES TO LIVE FROM ONE GENERATION TO THE NEXT AND OUR SPECIES BECOMES MORE INTELLIGENT FROM ONE GENERATION TO THE NEXT. THIS MEANS THAT WE NEVER DIE. ONLY OUR BODYS DIE AND ARE REPLACED. IT ALSO MEANS THAT SKILLS CAN BE TRANSFERRED FROM ONE GENERATION TO THE NEXT, AVOIDING THE LONG LEARNING PROCESS. FOR EXAMPLE, IF YOU WANT TO LEARN A MUSICAL INSTRUMENT, YOU SIMPLY DOWNLOAD THE SKILL TO YOUR BRAIN AND YOU BECOME A MUSICIAN OF THAT INSTRUMENT.

THERE IS HOWEVER A LIMIT TO OUR BRAIN CAPACITY, WHICH MEANS THAT A SELECTION OF THE KNOWLEGDE AND SKILLS WE ADOPT IS NECESSARY. WE WILL INFORM YOU LATER OF THE TECHNOLOGY NECESSARY TO DO THIS. WE MUST CAUTION YOU HOWEVER OF THE DANGERS ASSOCIATED WITH THIS SCIENCE. BECAUSE YOU HUMANS ENGAGE IN WARS TO KILL YOURSELVES, THIS TECHNOLOGY COULD BE VERY DANGEROUS TO YOU IF POORLY APPLIED OR IF IT FALLS INTO THE HANDS OF ILLINTENTIONED PEOPLE.

WE DRINK WATER LIKE YOU. OUR PEOPLE REACH AN AGE OF ABOUT 100 REVOLUTIONS AROUND OUR SUN WHICH TRANSLATES TO ABOUT 200 OF YOUR YEARS.

OUR CIVILIZATION HAS DEVELOPED OVER A PERIOD OF 60,000 OF YOUR YEARS WHICH IS MUCH LONGER THAN YOUR WESTERN CIVILIZATION, WHICH WE UNDERSTAND IS ONLY ABOUT 3,000 OF YOUR YEARS. IN COMPARISON, WE ARE THEREFORE A MUCH OLDER CIVILIZATION BUT WE UNDERSTAND WITH YOUR ICE AGE YOU DID NOT HAVE A CHANCE TO DEVELOP AGRICULTURE UNTIL 11,000 YEARS AGO. OUR CLIMATE ON OUR SINGLE CONTINENT HAS BEEN MORE STABLE AND WE DID NOT SUFFER THE RISE AND FALL OF THE NUMBER OF CIVILIZATIONS YOU HAD ON EARTH BEFORE YOUR MODERN ERA.

OUR ATMOSPHERE IS MADE UP OF 55.3% OXYGEN, 38.7% NITROGEN, AND 9.4% CARBON DIOXIDE. THIS IS MORE THAN DOUBLE THE CONTENT OF OXYGEN THAN ON YOUR EARTH. OUR SPECIES NEEDS MUCH MORE OXYGEN THAN YOUR SPECIES. THIS IS ONE OF MANY REASONS WE HAVE NEVER THOUGHT OF SENDING AN EXPEDITION TO YOUR EARTH. WE COULD NOT SURVIVE ON YOUR EARTH. ALSO, THE GRAVITATIONAL FORCE OF OUR PLANET IS STRONGER THAN ON EARTH. THIS IS BECAUSE OUR PLANET IS SOMEWHAT LARGER THAN EARTH. FOR THESE REASONS WE CAUTION YOU THAT HUMANS WOULD NOT DO WELL ON OUR PLANET EITHER. WE ALSO HAVE PERIODS OF WARM AND COLD WEATHER GIVEN THE POSITION OF OUR PLANET AROUND OUR SUN, BUT THESE VARIANCES ARE MILD.

GIVEN THE AGE OF OUR CIVILIZATION AND THE LONG EXSISTANCE OF OUR PEOPLE AND FROM OUR OBSERVATIONS OF HUMANS, WE BELIEVE THAT OUR CIVILIZATION IS MUCH MORE ADVANCED THAN YOURS.

ONE OF THE EARTH THINGS THAT HAS ALREADY REVOLUTIONIZED OUR CIVILIZATION IS MUSIC. PRIOR TO RECEIVING YOUR SIGNALS, WE DID NOT KNOW MUSIC. OUR VOCAL CORDS DO NOT ALLOW US TO SING. WE CAN SPEAK OUR LANGUAGE AND MAKE SOUNDS BUT NOT GENERATE SINGING SOUNDS. WHEN WE HEARD FOR THE FIRST TIME MOZART, BEETHOVEN, AND HYDEN, TO NAME A FEW, A NEW WORLD OF JOY, OF UNIMAGINABLE PLEASURE OPENED TO OUR EARS. THIS HAS BEEN A WONDERFUL GIFT TO US, WHICH WE APPRECIATE VERY MUCH AND WHICH NOW HAS BECOME PART OF OUR CULTURE. OUR KIDS THESE DAYS LIKE YOUR MUSIC AND WE HAVE STARTED TO RECEIVE YOUR JAZZ AND ROCK AND ROLL MUSIC. SOMETIMES WE THINK OUR YOUNG PEOPLE ARE GOING CRAZY WHEN THEY HEAR THIS MUSIC. KIDS THESE DAYS.

WE HAVE LEARNED TO READ MUSIC AND HAVE BUILT OUR OWN MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS USING YOUR INSTRUMENTS AS SAMPLES, ADJUSTED FOR THE SIZE OF OUR LIMBS AND ADJUSTED FOR OUR SPECIES.

OUR DWELLINGS AND WORKSPACES ARE LIKE YOURS BUT ALL ON THE GROULD LEVEL. WE DO NOT USE FURNITURE; WE SLEEP ON THE FLOOR. THIS IS DUE TO THE FORM OF OUR BODIES, OUR FUR, SIZE OF OUR PEOPLE, AND THE MANY QUAKES WE EXPERIENCE ALMOST DAILY. OUR BUILDINGS ARE MADE OF CONCRETE, GLASS, AND BUILDING MATERIALS WE HAVE DEVELOPED OVER TIME FROM OUR NATURAL RESOURCES. THEY CAN WITHSTAND LARGE SHOCKS FROM QUAKES AND GIVE US NECESSARY PROTECTION.

WE ONLY KNOW ELECTRIC VEHICLES AND TRAVEL USING SHIPS AND AIRCRAFT AND DRONES. HYDROCARBONS ARE NOT EXTRACTED FROM THE GROUND AND NOT USED AS FUEL IN OUR WORLD. FROM WHAT WE OBSERVE, YOU DO NOT USE VEHICLES USING HYDROGEN OR ELECTRIC ENERGY. THE CHEAP AND ABUNDANT PRODUCTION OF ELECTRICITY AND HYDROGEN YOU WILL LEARN FROM US.

The translation of the first transmission finished at this point. John sat back in his chair to take a deep breath and mull over what he had just read. This was much more than what he had imagined about another intelligent civilization. It was so totally strange and yet so much like humans. They already knew a great deal about humans. Although their information was only up to the year 1972, they had studied human history, looked at maps, seen many photographs and watched TV, and known their location in space as seen from Earth. This showed a deep understanding of astronomy. Yet, all the information they transmitted was fifty years old. They had to be further advanced now just as Earth was. They must have watched in horror the events of the Second World War and the Nazi concentration camps. All together, they must have had a poor impression about humans fighting wars and killing each other. From what they said, their civilization was much more academic and lacked the “killer instinct” that humans had developed in order to survive.

It was amazing. This civilization did not need money, as everything in their world was collectively available to everyone. Like ants, they did not have the urge to own something.

He may be the only person to have a glimpse of this civilization, unless someone else on Earth had also received and translated this signal.

He stretched aching shoulders from hunching over his desk. He’d done enough for one evening and decided to postpone further translation for tomorrow.

John wanted to think about the implications of all this for him, his family, and mankind. Could he keep this secret without being accused of withholding vital information from the government of the United States and mankind? How could he be assured that whatever information he received would be used to benefit people? There was a big danger of misuse.

Because he had only a rudimentary description of this intelligent species, he began to imagine what they looked like. Walking on two legs, over eight feet tall, 220 pounds, fur, two antennae on their head, and a tail. Wow! Clearly, they looked very different from humans and possessed vast amounts of intelligence. What could humans learn from them to perhaps make leaps in the development process? This idea excited him, and with this thought in mind, he bounced downstairs to have dinner with Mary.

She noted his chipper mood but criticized his wolfing down his meal. “Did you even taste that?” she asked. John hadn’t; he was too preoccupied with thoughts of the aliens’ message.

I must immediately acknowledge receipt of this message before continuing reading what I have received so far. He made up his mind to send a short message to inform this civilization of who he was and what he was doing, fully aware his message would only be received in the year 2078.

After dinner, John composed a short message to the people of the other planet:

My name is John Simon. I am a fifty-five-year-old electrical engineer living in Boston, Massachusetts, in the United States of America. I am a shortwave radio enthusiast and started to receive your coded messages a few days ago. With the assistance of a program written by a mathematician from MIT in Boston, I deciphered your code and was glad that it was written in the English language. This has permitted a rapid understanding of your message and the process of beginning to learn about your civilization. I have only begun to read your message and I will write back to you as I read more of your message.

While I am only one representative of my planet, I want to thank you for contacting us and letting us know we are not alone in the universe. I am sure we will benefit greatly from the advancements in your civilization. I have only peaceful intentions toward you, as you have expressed your peaceful intentions toward us. But I have not disclosed the fact that I have received your message to any person—not even my wife—given the great impact and sensitivity of this matter and the consequences for mankind and also considering the danger of misuse of this vital information.

As you have surmised, the human species is riddled with strife and war among nations, people, and organizations within nations. Given this situation, I have not yet decided to whom I will disclose this message, as this disclosure could cause more conflict. My immediate loyalty is to my country, the United States of America, but the news and content of your message has a dimension that goes beyond any nation. I must think about this.

Until I decide to whom I will disclose your message and decide who will assist me with the analysis and comprehension of your communication, I will keep a daily record and transcripts of your message in a safe place with instructions on what is to be done with this information should I die or be killed.

I will continue to decipher and read your message to understand more about you and your advancements before deciding what to do with it.

My next report to you will follow in 30 of our days.

John Simon

With the McDonnel program, he encoded his message using the code received from this civilization and sent it out on the same wavelength on which he had received the message.