Encyclopaedia Galactica - Earth

Encyclopaedia Galactica – Earth

« What are you? From where did you come? I have never seen anything like you?” The Creator Raven looked at Man and was surprises to find that this strange new being ws so much like himself (An Eskimo creation myth).

The author of Neptune… has made it impossible for us to have any communication from this earth with the other great bodies of the universe, in our present state; and it is highly possible that he has likewise cut off all communication betwixt the serve, in all of them, enough to raise our curiosity, but not to satisfy it…

It does not appear to be suitable to the wisdom that shines throughout all nature, to suppose that we should see so far, and have our curiosity, so much raised… only to be disappointed at the end… This, therefore, naturally leads us to consider our present state as only the dawn or beginning or our existence, and as a state of preparation or probation for father advancement…

(Colin Maclaurin, 1748)

Yes, we have launched a few ships to the stars, from Pioneers 10 and 11, Voyagers 1 and 2 to some others… They are all backward and primitive craft, moving, compared to the immense interstellar distances, with the slowness of a race in a dream….

Summary of a newly emerged technical civilization from the Encyclopaedia Galactica (entry by Jon Lomberg and Carl Sagan)

Civilisation type: 1.0J

Society Code: 4G4 (call themselves Humanity)

Star: G2V, r = 9.844 kpc,0 – 00.05`24“, R = 206 28 49.

I believe that all that the human mind has ever accomplished is but the dream before the awakening… (Megan Jorgensen, quots). Image : © Elena

Planet: Third, a = 1.5X 10(13) cm, M= 6×10 (27) g, R=6.4×10(8) cm, p=8,6×10(4)s, P= 3.2×10(7)s.

Extraplanetary colonies: none.

Planet age: 1.45×10(17) s.

First locally initiated contact: 1.21×10(9) s ago.

Receipt first galactic nested code: application pending.

Biology: C, N, O, S, H2O, P04.

Deoxyribonucleic acid.

No genetic prosthesis.

Mobile heterotrophs, symbionts with photosynthetic autotrophs. Surface dwellers, monospecific, polychromatic 02 breathers. Fe-chelated tetrapyroles in circulatory fluid. Sexual mammals. m – 7×10(4) g, t – 2×10(9) s.

Genomes: 4×10(9).

Technology: exponentiating/fossil fuels/nuclear weapons/ organized warfare/environmental pollution.

Culture: more than 200 nation states, about 6 global powers; cultural and technological homogeneity underway.

Prepartum/postpartum: 0.21 (18).

Individual/communal: 0.31 (17).

Artisticétechnological: 0.14 (11).

Probability of survival (per 100 yr): 40%.