A letter from another world! - [game/fiction]

*** This letter is pure fiction ***
It is a letter I imagined entirely.

Just for the game, imagine that this would happen... What do you think will happen?

Let's say, most rulers of most countries on earth would receive this message. What do you think can happen next?

This is of course purely a game, but I think it would be interesting to see how people think their government would do with that, or heck, what you would do with it...

A message to the rulers of this planet you call Earth.

First of all, let me introduce us. I am the ruler of a planet that is by your means of travel very far away from yours. My real name is of little importance, but since you use that method of adressing creatures more than anything else, call me Kator.

I am the ruler of a civilisation mainly evolving on a planet that is situated many systems away from yours. Our planet would not be detectable by your current means of technology. We call it something in our language that would be close to 'Zeelon' in your language.

Expeditions from our planet have visited your planet for a long time now, a time that dates back to before your own history by far. Earliest visitations date back to a time when your planet was still cooling, when your star was still a very young stars.

We since then have visited you a great number of times, and we have indeed studied many species living on your planet. We have gathered through time a vast amount of information, information that has even sometimes been lost even on your planet. We have studied many of your languages, and we know where you stand in science, social and spiritual evolution.

In terms of your usual measurements, we can say that we are situated about 2500 light years away from you, in the same area of this galaxy that you call the Milky Way. Cosmologically speaking, we are very close, and we are actually your closest neighbour. Some other civilisations exist around us, but only one other has visited your planet (and ours) so far. Our evolution, and that of the other of your visitors, is now about 3 billions of your years ahead of you.

The main reason why we have decided, myself and the ruling council of our planet, to give you an opportunity to become friends. We can help you advance in your development. Our intentions are peaceful, with no hidden purpose.

In your very recent history, there have been a number of times when you fought our crafts. It also happened that you captured members of our expeditions, and the least we can say is that you didn't really welcomed them as friends.

As I stated before, our intentions are peaceful. The people on your planet are sufficiently evolved, we think, to accept the fact that they would not be alone in the universe. Surprisingly enough, in your past, that idea was not as strange as it is now for a number of people it seems.

By revealing to your world our existence, you will not only ease your own life (think of all the efforts done in the very recent past about hiding the few contacts that happened) but also our life. Indeed, we too have to be extremely careful about what we do when we visit your planet, because of the dangerous weapons that you use at times.

What we ask you is to let us freely come and go on your planet, with the promise that we will not in any case interfere with the normal evolution of it, would it be about the creatures that populate it, or with the planet itself and all its water, plants, etc.

In exchange for that, we will agree to start a mutual friendship agreement that will allow us to exchange information with you. There are, you can imagine, many things that you have not yet discovered, and we are ready to guide you gently into a new era of discoveries.

Think of all the benefits that this can bring for your civilisation.

There is no need to try to contact me again, several of our expeditions will soon make a formal contact with many people on your planet. It is obvious that if we don't cooperate in a peaceful way, contacts will have to stop, and all opportunities will have to be postponed in time.

Sincerely,

Kator

Posted twice... Read the next post.

[edit on 17-5-2009 by SugarCube]

Well, if we assume that the message was verified as an interception of an extraterrestrial message, my first reaction would be one of doubt based simply on the premise of the promise of friendship.

Do you have a dog? A cat? I am sure that you feel friendship to your pet, love, a protective nature. However, that love and friendship is based on the human need for love and the animals need for basic necessities and in the case of dogs, pack leadership. This does not denigrate the relationship, it just clarifies the mechanics of it.

However, what mechanics of friendship would exist between us and a race that was evolutionarily advanced by a few billion years? Would that really constitute friendship or would we be the dog to the visitor "masters"?

No matter our friendship with our own cats and dogs, if we want them off our favourite spot on the couch we hoof them off. If we want them to come to our side we tell them to "heel". A friendship of equality between such disparate races is a contradiction in terms.

We love our children but you're not likely to have a conversation about Kirkegaard's philosophy with a 5 year old, are you? There would only be an illusion of true friendship, the fact would remain that we would be the chimps to their ringmasters, whether or not they showed kindness to us.

reply to post by SugarCube


I am curious, why would you not have that conversation with your 5 year old? Children have more of an open mind and absorb information much faster and in more detail.

Why not just welcome them, and learn from our/their past mistakes problems. If they are that advanced, we could all learn something. Knoweldge is the most powerful thing. To Know something is better than to sit and think about it, make something up that might sound reasonable, then come up with your own conclusion. I would rather Know, even if it turned sour.

Interesting notion, OP!

I think if the U.S. government received this letter, they'd say to themselves, "hmmmmmm. This being uses British spelling. I wonder if we're ninth or tenth in line. What are the English up to?"

Sooooo, then they'd let the letter leak, and post about six agents on ATS to see if/how it got debunked!

Originally posted by argentus
This being uses British spelling. I wonder if we're ninth or tenth in line. What are the English up to?

Fact is, if we then suppose that it happens, I wonder how many governments would actually "leak" that... I mean, I could have imagined that they would broadcast that on the radio all over the world for instance, but that would kill the game to think about what indeed would the governments do...

I like to think: "what would the Belgian government would do if they receive that letter?"... And honestly, I can't decide on a precise answer... They surely will have exchanges with others before anything, but then... public or secret? hmm...

Besides, in response to sugarcube, I can only say that I don't adhere to your point of view. I don't think it would be the utopial friendship like in the movies, but it is based on a purely hypothetical situation. Besides, how could we really assume things on how an advanced civilisation could behave towards us?

Just as an example, humans build fences to prevent frogs from being killed on the roads, and even passages to let them go through, underneath the road! I, for one, consider that we are at least a bit more advanced than the frogs...