The Message in the Bottle and Lost in the Cosmos

by Walker Percy

  The starship has a transmission-receiver capability for the entire electromagnetic spectrum, but especially in the range of radio signals, since it is known of course that the Cosmos is filled with emissions in this part of the spectrum, from pulsars, quasars, radiation belts, and so on.

  The objective of the starship is to exchange information with other civilizations comparable with or superior to our own. It has been calculated that the probability that such civilizations exist is overwhelming. What the designers of the project hoped to learn was the level of technology of other civilizations, the degree of evolution, biology, type of metabolism, etc.

  The time is the year 2050 C.E. (Common Era, so called because, though the era is post-Christian, it proved useful to retain the year of Christ’s birth). The acceleration of vehicles to speeds approaching the speed of light is possible, the aging process is accordingly reduced, and the problems of communication delays are minimized.

  The assumption was made that as organisms evolve in the Cosmos, a level of intelligence will be reached so that it will be possible to transmit information. Mathematics and science might be used as the basis of a common language. Mathematics is the same everywhere. The prime numbers 1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13 … are prime everywhere. The physics of the Cosmos is the same. For example, since hydrogen is the most abundant atom in the Cosmos, one might use the proton and electron spin of the neutral hydrogen atom as the binary number 1. Using such a binary system, the project designers hoped that it might be possible to establish a vocabulary and transmit information about the earth and its star, for example, its position in relation to the fourteen major pulsars of the galaxy, and to put similar questions to other intelligences.

  Organisms transmitting signals were, in fact, encountered. The trouble was that the responses received were not acknowledgments or statements of information but were rather countersignals of one sort or another, responses which seemed to express something like excitement or alarm or anger, often actual movements of the organisms themselves. Thus, rather than information being obtained, various behaviors were encountered—hostile, aversive, coming close or going away, flight or fight, and in one case what appeared to be an attempt at sexual union.

  In fact, two such creatures were encountered in the solar system.

  (1) In the outer atmosphere of Jupiter, large gaseous clouds were sighted. It was determined that they were self-contained organisms of some intelligence because they were self-propelled, moving about by emitting jets of hydrogen. They ingested organic molecules and excreted helium and methane, and were observed to reproduce by fission. But despite every effort to communicate, e.g., by transmitting prime numbers in various frequencies of the electromagnetic spectrum, the only response of the clouds was to speed away or come close and surround the ship like a sportive school of whales—or to rise and sink like so many hot-air balloons.

  (2) Skirting Saturn’s moon Titan with its heavy atmosphere of methane, another sort of creature was encountered, small glittering anemone-like organisms with spicules of methane crystals and a beak-and-sucker mouth for devouring the brown sludge of organic molecules formed on Titan’s surface by the ultraviolet light of the sun. Upon the transmission of radio waves of the frequency 1420 megahertz, the creatures were thrown into violent excitement, for all the world like the behavior of male gypsy moths upon the reception of the female pheromone. They flocked to the ship and attached themselves to its tiles and windows, using their sucker-like mouths. It was not clear whether such a response was a manifestation of hunger or hostility or an attempt at sexual union.

  At last, five years later, near Proxima Centauri, communication was established with an extraterrestrial intelligence. Orbiting the third planet of Proxima Centauri (PC3), of PC’s twelve planets the one most resembling Earth, the earthship transmitted the prime numbers in the radio range of the electromagnetic spectrum. Almost immediately, the signal was returned—and imitated. But when the excited earthlings tried to descend, a glitch occurred in the controls, not once, but repeatedly—until it finally dawned on the crew that they were being held in orbit. Evidently, the earthship was being detained at a kind of checkpoint until its credentials were approved.

  It was necessary to hit upon a mathematical and semantic vocabulary. The former was easy, again using the physical properties of the hydrogen atom, assigning the binary number 1 to the transition between the parallel and antiparallel proton and electron spins of the neutral hydrogen atom. Such a transition emits a radio-frequency photon of wavelength 21 centimeters and a frequency of 1420 megahertz—the reason for selecting this channel of transmission. An indexical lexicon was agreed upon. Thus, certain binary numbers were assigned to the suns of Centauri by transmitting the number along with the angle or declination of the suns from the path of transmission. Similarly, other names were assigned to other features, the other referents being “pointed at” and “named,” e.g., light, dark, other planets, pulsars, big, little, red, blue, near, far, down, up, here, there, I (the earthship), you (PC3), and so on. Plurals and abstractions and tenses were agreed upon. Goodness was a property attributed to cosmic particles which were beneficial to the metabolism of the PC3 organisms, evil to the ultraviolet rays, which were harmful. Even metaphor was arrived at: I am M4 today, meaning I am your fourth moon, PC3's fourth moon being bright, small, racy, refractile as a diamond. Or I am M6—sluggish, blue, misshapen, bored. Consciousness was defined as that property of a creature by which he draws attention to something, talks about it, or thinks about it. It was designated by a binary number which we shall call C.

  A lexicon and syntax agreed upon, it was now possible for the earthship to transmit basic information about its origin, its sun, the geology, atmosphere, age of the planet earth, the biology of its organisms (e.g., C, H, O, S, H2O, PO4; deoxyribonucleic acid; mobile heterotrophs; surface dwellers; O2 breathers; sexual mammals, etc.), its technology (nuclear energic), its culture (two hundred nation-states, five global powers, sporadic brushfire warfare, environmental pollution), its science, its art (literary, iconic, musical)—a message ending with a sign-off and an invitation: Over and out—come back.

  There followed a long pause, then an explicit warning: Maintain orbit until certain questions are answered—then the transmission of a binary symbol which the earthlings translated as something like the Hebrew shalom—then the transmission of comparable summary of PC3 information, indicating an organism with a bromine metabolism, an older civilization than that of Earth, and a superior technology (exponentiating, approaching asymptotic limit). Culture: global, gregarious, 40,000 genera, one symbolic language (!) (cf. Earth’s thousands), reproduction: sexual (!), biology: non-senescent (!): did that mean they did not age or die?!???; art: mathematical-poetic.

  There then followed several transmissions from PC3 which the earthlings did not understand. They were

  T, Si → Sy = 1.35 × 1012 years (breakthrough)

  Si = atmospheric wave motion, tactile, radar return

  Sy = variable pitch frequencies combined with radar-return configurations, or SRs (sound-radar)

  Sn = SR, + SR2 (+ = assert)

  C = 1 (Int, Soc, Sy)

  Each item of information was followed by the query: “What’s yours?” Then: “What’s your C-type? Are you C1? C2? C3? Over and out. Come back.”

  A puzzled silence from the earthship transmitter, then: “Say sgain.” Then: “Say again longer [i.e., Explain]. What is C-type? What is Si? Sy? Si ? Sy breakthrough? T? Sn?

  After many weeks of transmissions, dogged human effort, and an unflagging good-humored patience from the PC3 transmitter, the following explanations were spelled out:

  T = time

  Si = sign

  Sy = symbol

  Sn = sentence

  T, Si → Sy 1.35 × 1012 years means how long ago in PC3 years we made the breakthrough from sign communication to symbol communication, i.e., 13,500,000 years.

  Before that, we communicated by touch, sounds of different pitches
, and a radar-like reception of reflected sound. Like a bat, said an earthling. Imagine bats flying blind and emitting squeaks of different musical pitches.

  Sy, or symbols, were formed by combining frequency clusters (e.g., chords of musical squeaks) with the percept or radar configuration formed by the radar-return of this or that object. Thus, instead of the word ball being applied to the round thing you earthlings play with, our primitive word was applied to the jagged radar-configuration of the double-bladed sickle with which our ancestors harvested our atmospheric algae. Our “words” or symbols are combinations of musical chords (for objects), arpeggios (for action words, verbs) with the corresponding radar percepts, just as your words ball, yellow, slice are combinations of sound configurations and visual percepts (though we don’t quite understand what you mean by “visual” and “see”).

  Sn is a sentence, uniting two of these sound-radar configurations, so:

  means: Your spaceship is descending.

  EARTHSHIP: True. Very interesting. We read. Request permission to land. We could exchange much more information by meeting and talking.

  PC3: Not quite yet. You haven’t answered our question about C-type.

  EARTHSHIP: What do you mean by type of consciousness?

  PC3: We are C1s. We wanted to know whether you are C1s or C2s or C3s.

  EARTHSHIP: What is a C1?

  PC3 (patiently): We told you. C = 1 (Int, Soc, Sy).

  EARTHSHIP: What does that mean?

  PC3 (patiently): It means that in order for the individual consciousness to be activated, it is required that there be a Soc, that is, a society, that is, two or more persons; an exchange of Sy, that is, symbols; and an Int, that is, an intersubjective relationship in which there is agreement about the symbol used and the thing that is talked about.

  EARTHSHIP: Oh.

  PC3: And you?

  EARTHSHIP: We’re much the same. Now may we request permission to—

  PC3: Just a moment. It is still necessary to establish your C-type. We are C1s, that is, first-order consciousness. Through the centuries we have learned by painful experience that there are at least two other C-types, C2s and C3s. C1s and C3s are benign. C2s are dangerous. Which are you?

  EARTHSHIP: Say again. What’s the difference?

  PC3: A C1 consciousness is a first-order consciousness, or what you would call a preternatural consciousness—according to the dictionary your computer transmitted.

  EARTHSHIP: It is? Say again. Preternatural?

  PC3: Well, something like the consciousness of a child grown mature and sophisticated but maintaining its innocence permanently and avoiding the malformations of self-consciousness, enjoying the beauty of our planet and each other and our science and art without weariness, boredom, fear, guilt, or shame. Like what you call the Helen Keller phenomenon.

  EARTHSHIP: How do you know about her?

  PC3: One of our cosmological linguists just arrived. This is he speaking. We’ve been monitoring you for years. Switch to Earth-L, English-speaking? German? French?

  EARTHSHIP: American English.

  PC3: Got it. I read. What can we do for you?

  EARTHSHIP: What do you mean by the Helen Keller phenomenon?

  PC3: The joy of consciousness and the discovery of the Cosmos through the mediation of symbols and the cooperation of others and the preservation of this joy against the incursions of boredom, fear, anger, despair, shame, and the love of war and death and the secret desire for the misfortune of others.

  EARTHSHIP: Check. Did you say shame?

  PC3: We have observed that C2s experience shame. For example, do you wear clothes?

  EARTHSHIP: Yes.

  PC3: Despite the controlled environment of your ship?

  EARTHSHIP: Yes.

  PC3: Why?

  EARTHSHIP: Ah, custom. Aesthetics.

  PC3: Aesthetics? Explain.

  EARTHSHIP: Later, when we land. May we land?

  PC3: Not yet. What is your C-type?

  EARTHSHIP: What is a C2 consciousness?

  PC3: A C2 consciousness is a consciousness which passes through a C1 stage and then for some reason falls into the pit of itself.

  EARTHSHIP: The pit of itself?

  PC3: In some evolving civilizations, for reasons which we don’t entirely understand, the evolution of consciousness is attended by a disaster of some sort which occurs shortly after the Sy breakthrough. It has something to do with the discovery of the self and the incapacity to deal with it, the consciousness becoming self-conscious but not knowing what to do with the self, not even knowing what its self is, and so ending by being that which it is not, saying that which is not, doing that which is not, and making others what they are not.

  EARTHSHIP: What does that mean?

  PC3: Playing roles, being phony, lying, cheating, stealing, and killing. To say nothing of exotic disordering of the reproductive apparatus of sexual creatures.

  EARTHSHIP: What does that mean?

  PC3: Exploitative sex.

  EARTHSHIP: Exploitative sex?

  PC3 (consulting computerized earth-slang dictionary): It seems to mean what you call “screwing everything in sight,” not only to and to but to and to and + + and + + —to mention a few of the simpler combinations.

  EARTHSHIP: That is what is called “freedom of sexual preference.”

  PC3: Call it what you like. We are not interested. What concerns us is our experience with C2s whom we have allowed to land on PC3. They are usually polite at first, but always turn hostile, deceptive, and end by attempting to screw (is that the right word?) any creatures on PC3 which have an opening or a protuberance. We could tolerate their odd sexual behavior, but they were also sentimental and cruel—or rather sentimental, therefore cruel. One goes with the other. They are mainly interested in self-esteem. We are afraid of C2s. They do not know themselves or what to do with themselves.

  EARTHSHIP: What about you? What do you do about your consciousness and your selves?

  PC3: That is no problem. For us, consciousness of self is no different from consciousness of anything else. A self here is an individual self yet also a self among other selves. C2 selves vary from moment to moment from self-grandiosity to self-refusal, from being the infinite great self in the world to being the worst and the least self—because C2 selves don’t know who they are.* Perhaps your difficulty comes from the sensory mode which you call “seeing.” You “see” things. But can you “see” yourself? Who are you?

  EARTHSHIP: I’m the second officer, the communications officer.

  PC3: No, I mean, who are you?

  EARTHSHIP: You mean my name? Captain—

  PC3 (patiently): No. Let’s begin with C-type. What’s your C-type? Are you C1, C2, or C3? You will not be given permission to descend until we establish that.

  EARTHSHIP (after a pause): What’s a C3 consciousness?

  PC3: A C3 consciousness is a C2 consciousness which has become aware of its predicament, sought help, and received it.

  EARTHSHIP: Help?

  PC3: If a C1 meets with disaster, falls into the pit of itself, and becomes a C2, it must become aware of its sickness and seek a remedy in order to be restored to the preternaturality of Cl. Well?

  EARTHSHIP: Well what?

  PC3: Which are you?

  EARTHSHIP: That is hard to say.

  PC3: Perhaps we can help you arrive at an answer. Would you answer a few questions?

  EARTHSHIP: Yes.

  PC3: You say your civilization has five superpowers.

  EARTHSHIP: Yes.

  PC3: Is there peace between you?

  EARTHSHIP: There was when we left.

  PC3: Aren’t you in communication with Earth?

  EARTHSHIP: We were until two years ago.

  PC3: Isn’t that strange?

  EARTHSHIP: Yes.

  PC3: Then you have reason to believe something is wrong on Earth?

  EARTHSHIP: Yes. (Quickly) Do you know anything?

  PC3: (evasively): Let’s
get on with the questions. How many wars have you had in the last hundred earth-years?

  EARTHSHIP: Big or little?

  PC3: Well, big.

  EARTHSHIP: Two—that we know of. Do you know of a third?

  PC3: How many lives were terminated before their natural C2 deaths?

  EARTHSHIP: You mean how many were killed?

  PC3: Yes.

  EARTHSHIP: Around a hundred million.

  PC3: Now you fear there might have been a third.

  EARTHSHIP: Yes. Do you know?

  PC3: What is the size of your crew?

  EARTHSHIP: Twelve in the beginning.

  PC3: How many of each sex?

  EARTHSHIP: Six.

  PC3: How did you arrive at the sexual distribution?

  EARTHSHIP: We felt that sexual needs must be taken into account, just like the needs for food, water, a stable environment, and so on. And though none of us has any prejudice against homosexuality, we were not yet sure enough of the dynamics of a homosexual group to take chances with the mission.

  PC3: Is there pair bonding among you?

  EARTHSHIP: No. Ours was designed as a communal and transcultural group interaction. Through extensive prelaunch exercises, we discovered we could get beyond the usual cultural and sexual hang-ups.

  PC3: How has it worked?

  EARTHSHIP: Among the nine survivors, very well until just recently.

  PC3: Nine survivors? What happened to the other three?

  EARTHSHIP (after a silence): They died.

  PC3: Were they killed?

  EARTHSHIP: Yes.

  PC3: Were they men?

  EARTHSHIP: Yes.

  PC3: Were they killed in quarrels over the women?