Dr. Xanoplatu, an alien
anthropologist, historian, and time traveler, materialized on stage wearing
the body of his ancestors, a giant green Praying Mantis with large yellow
eyes and small black pupils. He was speaking at a galactic cultural lecture,
inside a de-localized spherical space station, somewhere and some when in
a multi-versed space-time reality.
To a far less technologically evolved civilization, the space station was a true paradox of causality; for each of the alien species presently within is walls could not have possibly existed in the same time branch. Many were now extinct and others had yet to evolve, or never would in the frothy quantum foam of this bubble universe. However, the meta-verse itself happily entertained all possibilities, those that influenced everything, nothing, and the in between.
To maintain its complex and paradoxical nature of existence, the space station required tremendous amounts of power harnessed from an artificially produced singularity, a black hole.
The doctor looked around
with hyper-view eyes and launched into his-her presentation with no introduction,
which was generally customary of this insect species.
Galactic Civilizations
take time to form and Alien Civilizations come and go. Some star systems,
although more rare, foster the evolution of more than one intelligent species
with more than one planet in the habitable zone. The technology of alien
races varies greatly, but generally goes through a range of three basic types.
Dr. Xanoplatu’s clicking
language was seamlessly translated into each of the different languages of
the various species attending. The audience was an attentive assortment of
Type 2 beings, each having arrived at the seminar via starship and intergalactic
wormhole transportation network. As the doctor continued giving his-her lecture,
in the space nearby an image materialized showing a rotating 3D Milky Way
galaxy in early formation. The image was also transmitted into the minds
of other beings without eyes and notated in the infrared and x-ray spectrum.
However, most civilizations
tend to advance with each milestone; invention of language, use of tools,
agriculture, architecture, industry, computers, rockets, self-directed genetic
modification, nanoconstruction and so on. Each technological revolution leading
to the next, building upon the foundations of the previous one.
At this point the galaxy
began showing data markers for prespaceflight intelligent life. A time bar
scale displayed indicating the passage of billions of years ticking away as
the galaxy evolved and quickly rotated.
After about 3 billion
years most of the markers representing alien civilizations appeared, scattered
throughout the galaxy, they briefly pulsed, and then sadly vanished, becoming
extinct. Another image appeared nearby and began to cycle through alien language
symbols, stone and metal tools, and then building structures of all kinds.
The doctor continued with no interruption.
Near-type 1 beings
usually have intra-solar travel between nearby planets or moons, have constructed
space habitats, and may even be attempting interstellar travel to a nearby
star. A technological singularity is sometimes reached near this time, which
is a convergence of technologies leading to a point beyond which there is
maximum change and advancement is so rapid it becomes unpredictable.
Unfortunately, as
you are aware, this time is a very dangerous one for a young species. Many
civilizations become highly unstable, self-destructing under the pressures
of the constantly accelerating technological progress, most times resulting
in their extinction.
The cycling images
began to change into spacecraft of all types and shapes. Then space habitats
and colonies, followed by space weaponry. Violent images of space warfare
soon followed. Almost half of the remaining markers began to flash and winked
out.
The images changed
to those of dead worlds, and finally the bones or shells of strange aliens.
There were some murmurs from the audience and a definite roar from one of
the Dinosaur like species, but Dr. Xanoplatu continued. He-she had provided
time for a questions and answer section following the lecture. The doctor
paused a moment for the effect, taking a sip from a refreshing water bulb
hanging from his-her neck.
Finally, in order
to survive an approaching singularity and remove their aggressive and self-destructively
evolved behaviors, some alien species enter a transitional phase, an extensive
program of self-initiated genetic re-engineering.
Alien bodies were shown,
Apes, Reptiles, Birds, creatures indescribable, all morphing, becoming more
graceful or complicated, heads larger, eyes larger, and sometimes becoming
part or whole machines. Very precious few markers on the galaxy remained.
Images of aliens, many with artificial technological enhancements or overly
large brain cases were shown, some of them representative of actual species
in the room.
All parties who could
breathe an oxygen atmosphere and tolerate the room temperature had representatives
present in original species form. The remaining wore space suits. Strong
force fields were erected to prevent the potential spreading of cross-alien
diseases and for conference security reasons.
Finishing out the remainder
of his-her lecture, Dr. Xanoplatu indicated the presentation was over, and
he-she would now entertain questions.
The first question
was from the dinosaur species. He was larger than most of the others, except
for the atmospheric whale. Some of the species in the auditorium were represented
by holographic telepresence, physically one-twentieth their actual size.
Conversely, the smaller insect intelligence and the sentient bacterial colonies
were represented by scaled-up holographic avatars broadcast from their parked
starships. There were a few Artificials, software robotic intelligence's
and nanolife forms, which had replaced or succeeded their original biological
progenitors.
“What is inhibiting
the formation of galactic civilizations?” Asked the dinosaur from the Procyon
A system.
“Imagine a pond, a
very big pond, one the size of the galaxy in fact. Now throw a pebble into
that pond, and you notice waves forming, moving outwards from where the pebble
impacted the water. Now let’s suppose the waves are traveling at the speed
of light, so that if you threw a pebble into the middle of the pond, it would
still take a while for the waves to travel to the shores of the pond. Now,
if the waves where actually communication signals, and you threw a hundred
pebbles into the pond at once, but dispersed them randomly across the pond,
what do you think would happen?” Asked Dr. Xanoplatu.
“The waves would eventually
cross each other, and every pebble’s waves would eventually meet each other
to varying degrees of strength”, answered the dinosaur.
“Great, so every alien
race, represented by a pebble tossed into the galactic pond, would eventually
be able to communicate with every other”, stated Dr. Xanoplatu..
“That’s assuming they
tossed pebbles into the pond at nearly the same time,” explained the dinosaur.
“Yes, now you are beginning
to see. If say, one of the aliens tossed pebbles into the pond yesterday,
or maybe even a million years ago, or millions from now, and you tossed yours
in today, those waves would never really cross each other. Communications
would never occur, because you never took into consideration the dimension
of time.” Junkman’s voice seemed satisfied with itself.
“Timing and Civilization
Longevity, the formulation of a common galactic empire requires that multiple
alien species exist concurrently at the same time to achieve a lasting galactic
interchange. Most species go extinct too soon, some maybe in less than a
million years after achieving a rudimentary civilization. They don’t live
long enough to meet other species and formulate organized long-lived galactic
civilizations. We are attempting that now, but trace archaeological evidence
suggests it has been tried may times and failed within the last 3 billion
years.”
“We originally felt
that alien species should be able to stabilize themselves, without our interference
or intervention,” stated Dr. Xanoplatu. “We didn't want to become co-dependents
for every adolescent alien race to come along.”
“Why not use our time
travel vortex to visit the species, and make our presence known before the
extinction singularity actually occurs? That way we could avert their course
through evidence of our own presence, becoming a sort of social psychiatrist,”
asked the hive bacterial mind.
Dr. Xanoplatu thought
for a moment before replying, “We have tried this approach in the past. It
did not always meet with positive success, the target species self-destructed
even more quickly than the original time path predicted, sometimes taking
our own with them. Our analysis is inconclusive as to exactly why. No, we
must let events take their natural course. It is safer to only directly intervene
after the extinction singularity has occurred, then salvage what we can.”
“What about just letting
them know we exist, broadcasting a signal with a sort of helpful survival
guide? Self-evolve stupid beings, mature or perish,” hissed the snake-like
creature from Gliese 876.
“We have considered
this, but analysis shows we could actually cause more harm, than good. So
we are evaluating each case individually,” continued the doctor. “Let me
tell you about two intelligent species which emerged in nearby star systems,
within a time frame of about two million years of each other.”
“One is an extinct
ape-like race, who called themselves ‘Humans’. They developed space travel
and colonized worlds in their local star system before self-destructing in
a violent nanowar. The other is still in a living state within this time
frame, an artificial constructed nanolife form. We will call them ‘The Nanos’.
They became self aware
after their original creators, a reptilian species, self-destructed and went
extinct about 12 million years prior. The Nanos evolved consciousness, building
out a light speed transportation network to nearby star systems. They have
been investigating and collecting the remains of extinct alien species by
resurrecting them inside of virtual computer simulations, creating an alien
zoo, accurate to just bellow quantum level detail.” The doctor made available
references to detailed files.
“I have been very careful
to keep The Nanos unaware of my existence through the use of our considerably
more advanced time dilation technology. My plan is to contact a few of the
simulated Humans, and instruct them in how to escape their own simulation.
If this is successful, we should be able to revive and salvage other extinct
alien civilizations, from within their zoo. Eventually we may adopt this
approach ourselves, reviving species throughout the galaxy by a process of
reverse-extinction simulation, rather than through actual bubble universe
time travel.
These Humans will be our first test case of this new approach, and they will get a second chance at survival as a result,” said Dr. Xanoplatu clicking his insect pinchers abruptly, signifying his-her rare and primitive excitement, and the end of the questioning.