First Contact

We discovered that they knew us.

First Contact

For those of us who were alive then, first contact was less of an instantaneous event than it might seem now. In fact, it played out over a couple months until in one live Holo moment, we were definitely not alone.

A research team on Mars had been focusing on the planet S2035P1, we’d known about the planet since 2035 but much greater detail could be detected with the latest sensor scopes. They found that S2035P1 was even more earth-like than we thought and was in fact inhabited.

Back in 2086 we had fossils of ancient life and of course, living specimens from Enceladus, Europa and other moons but intelligent, complex life had never been seen. To me, this discovery was an interesting paragraph and no more, I’d heard it before, show me the proof. However, the scientific community went into booster mode and SETI made a breakthrough when they found communication within that ten million year old light. The news spread around the Earth, Moon and Mars instantly, then it took a day or two for the collective populations to read it.

S2035P1 sent a one word message, “Hello”.

How many ways can "Hello" be interpreted? Pundits talked, documents were leaked and militaries went on high alert while politicians debated the implications of "Hello". That word was dissected a hundred ways every day.

During the frenzy of the first month nobody knew that Harry, the genius who deciphered the message, had immediately responded to it.

Harry had replied, “Hello, how’s your day?”. Harry tried to never be rude.

On an afternoon sometime in the second month of chaotic debate, governments and religious leaders everywhere cooperated to deliver an announcement regarding S2035P1, there would be a major speech made the following morning. My friends and I were hopeful of something concrete but fully expected a statement in politician speak that said, ‘Hell if we know.’.

We were glued to the Holo when Zoos walked to the podium. That first glimpse of a short biped with a misshapen face, eyes with no visible lids, an out of place nose, arms too long and legs too short with pale brownish, very soft skin was something we’ll never experience again.

“Hello, my day is fine.

My name is Zoos and I’m from the planet you know as S2035P1. We received an excellent response from our ‘Hello’ inquiry. You may have surmised it was sent it long ago knowing that when a planet's technology and society had developed sufficiently, we would receive an appropriate response.

I'm sure you're wondering about us, my home planet and your Earth are similar in size, climate, gravity and age and each have had some form of life for over three billion years.

My civilization’s biological form evolved on S2035P1 and became sentient about 120 million years ago. We were fortunate not to have a natural extinction occur in our first critical 25,000 years. I say this to illustrate that our civilization is nearly as old as your dinosaurs would be had they survived their extinction event. Like many technology based civilizations, we experienced several self-imposed catastrophes but were able to survive. You have not yet passed that threshold.

I was asked by your leader, Taylor Swift, to talk about what you can expect from us. The answer is you cannot expect anything. We will not teach or influence your society.

We have what can best be described as moral objections to interfering with the very primitive. There is also a practical reason we don't engage in uplifting civilizations, ‘You break it, you buy it.’ - to use an Earth colloquialism.

I must be very clear and you must understand that we will not influence your society nor be responsible for its well being. It’s unlikely that most of you living today will ever hear from us again.

At your stage of evolution we have found it appropriate to provide history regarding the civilization's planet. You will find 110 million years of data valuable and it is our hope that by learning your planet’s history, you may be able to avoid some bad decisions societies before you have made. Beyond that, we will not interfere.

Thank you for allowing me to talk today. It made my day fine. We of S2035P1 will continue to visit Earth and, if you survive, we look forward to our friendship.”.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is when it happened, that’s when we found out that our fledgling civilization is not alone. On our part it was the culmination of millennia (doesn't sound so long now) of advancement but the catalyst of the entire event was one polite, hard working genius.

Anthropologists, archaeologists, astrologers and AI have been busy with 110 million years of data and our benefactors were right, knowing Earth’s history, knowing the existence and history of civilizations that came before us has provided perspective. It will be a thousand years before we know if we were actually able to use it.