The Contact Episode Two

by Albert Sartison

  THE CONTACT

  episode two

  by

  Albert Sartison

  Copyright © 2014 by Albert Sartison

  Second edition

  1.11

  Contents

  Finding a common language

  Dialogue between civilisations

  Unclear intentions

  Time to act

  Mars

  New circumstances

  Worst fears

  Finding a common language

  Sporadic applause broke out. Gradually it was taken up by others. A second later the whole hall was applauding. Cries of joy could be heard here and there through the noise.

  Steve was also infected by the general delight. He stood at his table and clapped wildly. He had tears in his eyes. This was probably his first really emotional reaction to the visit from an alien civilisation.

  When Steve had first realised whom he was dealing with a few days ago, it was as if an invisible hand inside him had compressed his emotions, not permitting the energy of delight to overflow outside. But now, in this hall, when so many eminent scientists around him were permitting themselves to show their feelings, the invisible hands inside Steve slackened their grip. Steve realised that the applause was for him too, as the discoverer of the object.

  “Quiet please, ladies and gentlemen,” Shelby called out.

  Shelby’s voice was drowned out. The hall continued to applaud.

  “Ladies and gentlemen! Please! Ladies and...” Shelby tried to pacify those applauding, but in vain. Smiling, he waved his hand and sat down. Let them clap. Delight is a human reaction. And in this case, it was appropriate.

  Gradually the sound of applause began to fade. Shelby got to his feet again.

  “Ladies and gentlemen, thank you. Please sit down. Thank you.”

  Without waiting for the very last of the excitement to die away, Shelby took the initiative again.

  “Colleagues, I ask you to analyse the situation. If anyone has any thoughts about the significance of these signals, will they please express their opinion,” asked Shelby.

  A serious working atmosphere settled over the hall again.

  “Steve, did those blips remind you of anything?” asked Clive. Without waiting for a reply, he gave an order to his computer, “Calculate ratio of amplitudes.”

  The computer copied the blips to Clive’s desktop monitor and supplemented the drawing with figures.

  There were ten blips altogether. The first one was the biggest, all the others looked tiny by comparison. Clive’s computer scaled their height logarithmically, otherwise the minute blips would scarcely have been visible against the background of the first one.

  Clive studied the monitor intently. It was apparent that his brain was experiencing labour pains and was about to give birth to a thought. Then his face lit up. He immediately pressed the button of his microphone. A message appeared on Shelby’s console indicating that someone from the astrophysics team was asking for the floor. Shelby gave his approval without hesitation.

  A bright blue light came on on his microphone, and Clive’s rapid breathing was heard throughout the hall. Gripping the microphone in his hand, Clive gave a little cough to clear his throat.

  “The ratios between the amplitudes of the signals correspond to the sizes of the objects in the Solar System. Blip A is the Sun, blip B is only about a six-hundredth the size of A: that is Mercury; blip C is Venus, and so on. Furthermore, the time intervals between the blips relate to each other as the mean distances between the orbits of the planets,” Clive burst out with his idea.

  After a pause for thought, some of the scientists in the hall nodded. Clive covered the microphone with his hand, leaned towards Steve and quipped, “It looks as if others beside us and Shelby know something about the sizes of the planets.”

  Steve grinned in approval.

  Shelby calculated something on his monitors. Then he glanced at the main screen, returned to the individual displays, nodded approvingly and switched on his microphone.

  “Excellent, Clive. You are the first to have decoded the first message of an alien civilisation in the history of mankind. Simply splendid!”

  Shelby did not try to conceal his ecstatic mood.

  “As we see, their star maps date back to the last century. They are still classing Pluto as a planet,” he joked, but immediately became serious again.

  “We have established contact, but that is only the beginning. Now we need to find a common language. One of our colleagues, Professor Slade, has already started on the question of how this can be achieved in practice.

  “His idea is based on certain universal concepts which must undoubtedly be known to any civilisation capable of interplanetary or even interstellar flight. Examples of these are knowledge about the Universe, or fundamental mathematical abstractions. Professor Slade, together with his fellow cyberneticist Professor Sullivan, proposes in this case to use geometric progression. It is quite widely known beyond the bounds of mathematics, because the processes it describes are frequently met in both nature and technology. For example, our civilisation discovered it as long ago as the time of Pythagoras. Professor Slade, you have the floor!”

  Shelby signalled the computer to switch Slade’s microphone on.

  “Thank you, Professor Shelby,” Slade’s voice rang out, “I venture to correct you. Pythagoras lived, if my memory does not betray me, approximately 500 years before our era, by which time geometric progression had already been known for at least nine centuries.

  “But that is beside the point. You are absolutely right that geometric progression has been known to us since time immemorial. Consequently the incomers must know it too, given that they are centuries ahead of us, at least in technology. It follows, therefore, that if we provide the alien intelligence with an appropriate series of numbers, in this case in the form of a set of pulses, it will be able to recognise the required pattern in them. Now for the most interesting part. How can we use mathematics to agree on a common language?

  “Together with my cybernetics colleagues, I have worked out the following algorithm. It consists of four steps. In the first one, we shall agree on elementary logic concepts such as ‘true’ and ‘false’. We shall send the intruder a series of figures in a certain progression. Ten elements should be sufficient for the progression to be recognised unambiguously. Then we shall send a unique marker corresponding in our understanding to the meaning ‘true’. That will be the first step. After that we shall send a second series. This will consist of elements of the same progression, but the last one will be a deliberate mistake. We shall assign the unique marker ‘false’ to this mathematical series.

  “Even if there are no intelligent living organisms inside the object, an artificial intelligence should have no problem in comparing the series, determining the pattern and finding the difference. Is that not so, Professor Sullivan?” said Slade, turning to Sullivan.

  Once Sullivan’s microphone became active, his already familiar bass voice filled the hall.

  “Quite true. Earth’s civilisation began studying artificial intelligence in the middle of the twentieth century, and by the end of it we already had enough knowledge of it to solve a riddle of that degree of complexity. Such a test is well within the capabilities of artificial neural networks of the first generation, or the second generation at most.”

  After saying that, Sullivan bowed jovially to the audience and sat down. He was very tall with an extremely powerful low voice and was always in the best of spirits. Sullivan instantly made the audience like him. Even Clive, who was largely untouched by warmth and humour, involuntarily yielded to Sullivan’s charm and smiled.

  The historians
asked for the floor.

  “Observing this discussion,” one of them said, “I can’t get it out of my head that we are thinking of the aliens’ civilisation as being something like ours, but as it will be in the future.

  “But take geometric progression, for example. We discovered it, according to our esteemed colleague Professor Slade, fourteen centuries before our era. From this we draw the conclusion that the aliens, given that they are developmentally ahead of us, will understand this mathematical construction just as we do.

  “That seems the most natural conclusion to me too, but what if we are mistaken? What if the aliens, contrary to what we think of as common sense, have developed unlike us, and the things we know are unknown to them?”

  The audience reacted with scepticism to this objection. The head of the biologists’ group asked for the floor.

  “From our point of view, the biological point of view, the only scientifically and theoretically justified and experimentally confirmed way that life can occur is through a natural process.

  “It begins, as you know, with chemical evolution. At first it is a reaction of inorganic chemistry, in the course of which complex molecules arise, including organic ones. Further development leads to self-replicating molecules, or biological evolution. The last stage is when the mechanism of competition for resources begins. This is well studied, and has been simulated many times in the laboratory.

  “DNA and RNA, which form the basis of life on our planet, comprise one of the variants of such self-replicators. There are other variants, some confirmed by experiment, others which exist only in theory, but they do exist. All these variants can differ from each other quite fundamentally, but one thing that is common to all of them is competition for resources. This is understandable; if you have created something and keep on doubling it, sooner or later you will fill all the available space and exhaust all the available resources. After this, the self-replicator will either die out because all energy and other resources have been used up, or with the aid of mutation, will undergo changes and specialise in free niches. That is to say, it will open up new resources for itself. Either way, competition ensues from this.

  “Consequently, if there is life on other planets, it will have developed according to the same evolutionary principles and rules that apply to Earth. So we can conclude that whoever may be inside this object, in this respect they are the same as we are. Not necessarily externally, not necessarily internally. But we and they are children of the same parents. Nature gave birth to us, and evolution brought us up.

  “I do not exclude other scenarios, but this is by far the most probable. In that case, the most rational attitude from our point of view is to consider the aliens as just like us, but as we will be in the future. Thank you.”

  Slade was fidgeting in his seat like an impatient pupil. Shelby noticed this and asked him:

  “Does your algorithm take into account a scenario in which the alien will not understand you?”

  “Of course it does! You didn’t allow me to finish. As I already said, our communication with the alien will take place in four steps. The first step is to send the correct elements of the progression. The second step is elements in the same progression but with a built-in error. And the third step is to give the object the opportunity to correct our error. We shall begin by sending the first elements of the progression, and when we reach the error, we’ll stop. This will indicate that we are expecting the object to think it through to the correct answer.

  “If the object answers correctly, this will be confirmation that it recognises the pattern we sent it and can calculate the missing element on this basis.

  “Then, as the fourth step, we shall carry out verification and send the object a series of true-false-true markers, after which we shall go into receiving mode. If there is mutual understanding between us, it will answer us accordingly: a series of correct elements, a series of incorrect ones, and then again a series of correct ones. This answer should be an unambiguous confirmation that we have understood one another.

  “Having successfully completed this stage, we shall have a rudimentary but powerful tool of mutual understanding, enabling us to ask questions and to reply ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to them.

  “Now all we have left to do is to think up series of semantic conventions for all the words of our common language, the elements of which are interconnected in some way. By sending simple riddles to the object and answering ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to its replies, we shall give it the opportunity of feeling out the correct answer, and thus we shall enrich our common language with another word – or rather, another semantic convention. Please do not forget that we shall be conversing with the object not in words, but in semantic conventions.

  “This method will enable us to define all the material objects to be found in space, beginning with mega-objects such as galaxies, including the distances between them and their location in space, and ending with micro-objects such as molecules, atoms and subatomic particles.

  “Then we can go on to defining concepts denoting types of interaction, for example the Sun ATTRACTS the planets towards it, protons and neutrons FORM the nucleus of an atom, the molecules of one substance REACT with those of another, and so on. After completing this stage, we shall be able to describe virtually all the processes of inanimate Nature.

  “When it comes to animate Nature, the problem becomes more difficult, since we cannot assume that the biological creatures inhabiting our planet are to be found somewhere else in the Universe and will be known to the alien. So we can no longer generate series of interconnected concepts. But on the other hand, we shall have a considerable vocabulary by then, so we can hope to synthesise the remaining words.

  “I must confess that we do not know if our efforts will be successful. Professor Sullivan and his group have conducted many simulations with different forms of artificial intellect and the results are encouraging. This is hopeful, but naturally we cannot guarantee success. Thank you for your attention.”

  General MacQueen, who up till then had been silently observing the discussion, asked for the floor, and when his microphone was switched on, addressed Professor Slade.

  “In my view, your concept is very intuitive, and I hope that our guest from another planet will think the same way. When, in your opinion, shall we be more or less ready to discuss urgent problems with the aliens?”

  Slade thought for a second, then turned to the cyberneticists. “I think this question would be better addressed to you.”

  Sullivan took the floor again.

  “We are able to automate the process by passing the task to our artificial intellect. We only have to formalise the task; it will actually be performed by special neural networks.

  “Theoretically, the computing power requirement during the dialogue will be higher on our side than on the object’s. I predict a difference of one to four. In other words, we shall have to carry out four times as many computing operations as the object.

  “It follows from this that the rate of creating a common lexicon will be determined by the speed of our computers. In that case, twelve hours will be more than enough. Furthermore, we shall require about the same time for formalising the problem; that is, for creating the neural network, teaching it, and calibrating it. Assuming no unforeseen difficulties, we should be able to communicate with the object by tomorrow morning. With certain limitations, naturally.”

  MacQueen nodded and scribbled a few notes on the tablet he had in his hand.

  After waiting a moment, Shelby turned to the hall and said: “Last chance to voice a criticism. If there are no objections, we shall commence the dialogue in accordance with the principles as explained by Professor Slade.”

  After pausing for a few moments, he made a sign to the operator.

  “The signal has been sent. Well, let’s hope that the object is clever enough to guess the answers to our riddles,” concluded Shelby.

  Dialogue between civilisations

  The neura
l networks which Sullivan planned to use for the search for analogies had an architecture which was a mixture of biological and artificial intellect. This gave him the advantages of both systems.

  The human brain, at least from the arrogant point of view of mankind, was the most complex organ ever created by Nature. Its greatest strength was its capacity for abstract thought and creativity. If the search for the solution of any task was fruitless, it was capable of finding an alternative way of achieving its aim, going beyond the confining limitations of its paradigm by using imagination. It seemed there were no problems that could not be solved by this astonishingly cunning combination of nerve cells, weighing barely more than two kilogrammes.

  But as with other tools, the brain’s defects served as a continuation of its achievements. The brain is a universal tool, and for this you have to pay a price in the form of low productivity in solving special problems. Having created the Theory of Relativity and quantum chromodynamics, it was hopelessly behind the simplest pocket calculator in its capacity to conduct elementary arithmetical calculations. A unified system combining the creativity of the biological brain and its capacity for education with the rapidity of action of electronic computers had long been mankind’s dream.

  In the twentieth century, the invention of the transistor inspired the hope that only one step was left to bringing this long-held dream to reality. Mankind hoped that by the millennium, it would be able to create an electronic brain that would surpass its biological prototype in the level of its cognitive capabilities.

  But it all proved to be much more difficult. Yes, computers developed at a rapid rate, and after a mere fifty years were filling all sorts of niches in everyday human life. But as shameful as it was to admit it, although electronic brains had achieved much, they were still only electrical idiots, barely capable of the level of cognitive capabilities of a chimpanzee. Mankind, gnashing its teeth, had no option but to admit that the achievement of singularity would have to be postponed indefinitely.