AN UNKNOWN WORLD

Tree Time Chi Kung #3

Below is a fully revised version of a post dated 10 April 2024. The text has been translated from Dutch into English with DeepL. It will be manually edited and streamlined soon.

This is a sequel to:

PLANT BLINDNESS

The humans use Arecibo to look for extraterrestrial intelligence. Their desire to make a connection is so strong that they’ve created an ear capable of hearing across the universe.

But I and my fellow parrots are right here. Why aren’t they interested in listening to our voices?

We are non-human species capable of communicating with them. Aren’t we exactly what humans are looking for? …

The Great Silence - Ted Chiang

Ted Chiang's gripping short story is set around the Arecibo Observatory in Porto Rico. In the dense rainforest, a group of parrots watches in wonder at man's efforts to contact another life form, which must be somewhere in the universe. Surely it cannot be that humans, are the only intelligent life in infinite space. A giant telescope has been built and is listening intently and continuously for a possible message, a hint - whispered or deafening - transmitted at the initiative of that other life form. Or sent in response to signals sent out by humans. For the telescope is used not only as an enormous ear, but also as an outsized megaphone. IS ANYONE THERE? Would someone pick up that cry and return a reply? ARE WE ALONE?

Arecibo Observatory.