Nature of Our Civilization

Nature of Our Civilization

We would discover the nature of other civilizations. There would be many of them, each composed of organisms astonishingly different from anything on this planet. They would view the universe somewhat differently. They would have different arts and social functions. They would be interested in things we never thought of. By comparing our knowledge with theirs, we would grow immeasurably. And with our newly acquired information sorted into a computer memory, we would be able to see which sort of civilization lived where in the Galaxy.

Imagine a huge galactic computer, a repository, more or less up-to-date, of information on the nature and activities of all the civilizations in the Milky Way Galaxy, a great library of life in the Cosmos. Perhamps among the contents of the Encyclopaedoa Galactica will be a set of summaries of such civilizations, the information enigmatic, tantalizing, evocative – even after we succeed in translating it.

Eventually, taking as much time as we wished, we would decide to reply. We would transmit some information about ourselves – just the basic at first – as the start of a long interstellar dialogue which we would begin but which, because of the vast distances of interstellar space and the finite velocity of light, would be continued by our remote descendants. And someday, on a planet of some far distant star, a being very different from any of us would request a printout from the latest edition of the Encyclopaedia Galactica and acquire a little information about the newest society to join the community of galactic civilizations.

Nature of our Civilization. Photograph by Elena

Hypotetical computer summaries of two advanced civilizations from the Encyclopaedia Galactica (By Jon Lomberg and Carl Sagan):

Civilization Type: 1,8 L

Society Code 2A11 “We Who Survived”. Star F0V, specturm variable r = 9,717 kpc,

Planet : Sixth, a = 2,4 x 10(13)cm Extraplanetary colonies: None

Source civilization neutrino channel

Local Group polylogue

Biology metal-chelated organic semiconductors, types various

Cryogenic superconducting electrovores with neutron crystal dense packing and modular starminers; polytaxic various Genomes nonredunant bits/mean genome probability of survival 99%.

Polytaxic, monochromatic, no genetic prosthesis technology exponentiating, approaching asymptotic limit. Culture: global, nongregarious, polyspecific (2 genera, 41 species), atithmetic poetry. Received first galactic nestled code.