Opening page…
Whether to answer
A signal arrives from another star. Should we answer?
First contact begins with uncertainty about the intentions and minds on the other side.
Your answer
A little context
Your phone lights up with a number you don't recognize. Many people let it ring: it might be a friend's new number or someone who wants something, and answering tells them the line is live. Now imagine the call is coming from another star.
Read alongside it1
ReadingThe dark forestThe universe is a dark forest. Every civilization is an armed hunter stalking through the forest like a ghost, gently pushing aside branches that block the path and trying to tread without making a sound… If he finds other life — another hunter, an angel, or a demon, a delicate infant or a tottering old man, a fairy or a demigod — there's only one thing he can do: eliminate that other presence.
The universe is a dark forest. Every civilization is an armed hunter stalking through the forest like a ghost, gently pushing aside branches that block the path and trying to tread without making a sound… If he finds other life — another hunter, an angel, or a demon, a delicate infant or a tottering old man, a fairy or a demigod — there's only one thing he can do: eliminate that other presence.
Nearby questions
- Are people basically good?Mencius said anyone who saw a child about to fall into a well would feel a jolt of alarm. Xunzi answered that people are born selfish and only learn to be good. Answer from what you've seen people do when nobody was making them.
- Does anyone deserve to suffer?Imagine that punishing someone guilty would deter nobody, protect nobody and change nothing. Many people still feel it should happen.
- Born on the other sideWhat gives you a stronger claim to a safe, prosperous country than someone born just across its border?
- Is it ever right to break the law?Rosa Parks broke a law and is remembered as a hero. Plenty of people who break laws believe they are right too.
- Write the rules, then be bornYou must design society before finding out whether you will be rich or poor, healthy or ill, powerful or ignored. Which rules would you refuse to leave to luck?
