Bad Fiction

The Remix of You and Me

To you, thousands of years away from when I am,

Greetings. I am a representative of an alien from the star of what you humans call Sagittarius B2. I am about 400 lightyears away. I am writing to tell you the unforgivable sins your ancestors have committed.

A century ago, my civilization was a thriving technological utopia. However, just like your people, we were desperate to know whether we were the only species alive in this vast and boundless universe. We built hundreds of receivers, broadcasted thousands of messages, spent millions of resources on developing space technology.

We were so technologically advanced, almost any issues there were and would be were solved by artificial intelligence. Computers built smarter and more efficient versions of themselves, machines adapted and evolved on their own. Famine, war, pestilence was no more ever since we developed supercomputers. There was only one issue.

We were lonely.

The fear of being alone in the cosmos griped our hearts. The coldness and loneliness almost drove us into a descent of madness. What point was there to be perfect if not for us to help others in need? We let our Samaritan nature overcome us. Reaching a hand to help those in need became the sole purpose of our civilization.

And so began our search for others.

Around 20 years later after we began our quest, we discovered Earth. We picked up a faint radio signal around the Solar System. We recovered your spaceship, Voyager 1. More importantly, we acquired the Golden Record. Inside the disk was all the necessary information for us to contact your government.

We saw how primitive you are. Your information technology and advancements on space travel were far inferior to ours. However, your music moved our hearts. The raw emotion contained within the voices and the masterfully crafted melodies were something that we never knew could exist before.

Perhaps it was because we were so developed, we forgot the beauties of nature and emotion. You humans rekindled our passion for survival and love for music. For that, we are grateful.

From then on, we have repeatedly communicated with your government through a transmitter deployed on the back of your Moon. We talked about science, technology, culture, humanities, and most importantly, music. We taught you secrets of manufacturing the Dyson Sphere, harnessing infinite resources from the core of your star, methods to constructing Faster-Than-Light travel and wormholes and portals.

You told us the wisdom of philosophy and human nature, sent breathtaking pictures of your landscape, and showed us how your music is composed. Your greatest hits never fail to remind us of the beauty that is Earth and humanity.

We taught you science. In return, you showed us emotion. Science can eventually be learnt through persistent learning, but emotion has to be realized and cannot be developed artificially. Yet, you displayed raw emotion for us without having its secrets. For that, we are twice grateful.

Ten years earlier, your government successfully developed FTL travel and built particle cannons. You were as technologically developed as we were. We had a mutually beneficial relationship where we learnt from each other and taught without hiding anything. Your kind awakened our potential and saved us when we were on the brink of self-destruction. For that, we are thrice grateful. We will never be able to repay our debt, even after that day.

On that day, you sneaked up on us with wormholes and nuclear weapons. We were not prepared for your attack. And thus, we suffered great losses at your hands from the first wave of attack.

Our council realized that you made the first move in fear of us attacking you. How crazy! There was no reason for us to attack you at all! We had to make a decision on whether to launch a counter-attack onto you. We could have retaliated. We could have annihilated your troops with the press of a button. But we didn't.

We unanimously agreed that our kind was in too much debt to mankind, and we will never be able to repay them. And such, we wiped ourselves out by your hands. This envious, dark side of human nature amazed us. Never could we have thought that such deep hatred could run for beings that have done nothing hostile towards you.

I represent my people when I say this: we do not resent you. Your grace overwhelms your evil like how a sun outshines a star. And thus, our council made one last decision. To send this message through regular travel with a disc containing both mankind and Sagittarians' greatest hits. This process will take around 2000 years. By then, you should have hopefully washed away the evil parts of your kind. With this, we hope that you can remember your curiosity and friendliness and forget your animosity.

With this, I present to you: The Remix of You and Me.

With no regrets,

Nova, Artificial Intelligence of the Sagittarius B2 Government

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