Uncontacted by Rick Chesler

Author:Rick Chesler [Chesler, Rick]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2017-08-17T04:00:00+00:00

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Half an hour later, after Stel called his own lab to check on the linguists with the tribal subject (they reported he had clammed up again once the object was taken from the room), one of the computer techs walked out of the testing room and addressed his boss. “Dr. Hanlan, after initial testing, we’re ready to offer an early characterization of the device.”

“Excellent!” Hanlan waved to Stel and Antonio to accompany he and his technician to the testing room. Once there, the other technician pointed to the device, which had been connected by a modern computer cable with adapters to a machine of some sort.

“Let us begin by saying that this device, whatever it is exactly—and we’ll get to that in a second—represents very advanced technology. It’s clearly a sophisticated implementation…”

Stel cut in. “I don’t mean to be rude, but can you just tell us what it does, please? We’re extremely pressed for time.”

The technician who had been speaking raised his eyebrows and cleared his throat. “Of course. What we seem to have here is some kind of encoded information on hard media, which it seems to achieve using light.”

“Possibly even data encoded onto single atoms,” the other technician added, “but regardless of the exact mechanism, we’re confident that it contains some type of computer code, or programmed instructions, if you will.”

“I know what computer code is, thank you,” Stel huffed. “But what does it code for? What does it do?”

“We’re pretty sure it runs a simulation of sorts.”

“Like a probability model,” the technician’s cohort added.

Dr. Hanlan nodded to the screen on the machine they had connected to the device. “Can we see it in action?”

“Sure.” Both techs said it in unison, and the one closer to their machine pressed a key and pointed to the display. “Watch this.”

“I don’t see anything.” Antonio frowned at the empty black monitor.

“Not yet, but wait for it…there!” The tech operating the machine pointed to the display, where a single dot, a mere pixel point of white, was instantiated in the center of the screen.

“That’s it?” Stel asked. Clearly, those in the room who were not computer scientists had yet to be impressed.

“That’s definitely not it, the other tech said. “Watch this.”

As they continued to stare at the screen, the first dot split into two. “Just like last time,” the tech working the machine said. No sooner had he completed his sentence than the two dots had become four.

“Looks like a cellular mitosis demonstration,” Antonio put forth. They continued to watch as the pattern of dots, starting small and localized, rapidly grew and spread.

Stel shook his head, an openly critical expression on his face. “A program that does this was found guarded by a tribe in the Amazon rain forest? He took a step closer to Antonio. “Dr. Medina, you listen to me: if this is some kind of a hoax, some pathetic cry for attention, I can assure you that—“

Antonio shook his head slowly while making eye contact with Stel. “It’s not.

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