Author: Reon Chen, Alex Pochomulloev
Human system: Internet
The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a network of networks that consists of private, public, academic, business, and government networks of local to global scope, linked by a broad array of electronic, wireless, and optical networking technologies. （WIKIPEDIA）
The heptapods learn the world in a nonlinear way. To be specific, they can learn what will happen in the future and what is happening now at the same time.
We created the flow chart of the internet between the individual users. And they can learn all the processes of the internet immediately. As Chiang described in his article, the heptahops could give response to the graph and that was why Louise could finally communicate with them successful. In order to help the heptahops know what the medium means in the Internet, we added some typical graphs of the mediums in the internet such as the phones, laptops, etc. Also, we used some nonlinear language to help them figure out who launch the function of the Internet and who is the receiver of the internet.
Also, in order help the heptahops learn the meaning of computer language. We introduced a binary system to them. The binary system is like a specific semagram system such as the maths and physics, so that may be align with the usage pattern of the written language of heptahops.
As is shown in the graph 1, the Internet is a very complicated system. What is showed in the graph pioneer plaque 1 can be a node or the simplification of the Internet. In general, the pioneer plaque 1 is a part of the final pioneer plaque posted to the heptahops. According to Chiang’s article, the hetapods have simultaneous consciousness mode, which means they can recognize every mark, shape, part of the picture of the pioneer at the same time. Because of that, the pioneer plaque can help them learn both the huge and general framework of the Internet and some specific parts and nodes.
In the general pioneer plaque, we used the arrows to show the direction of the communication in the Internet instead of the chronological order of the communication. This kind of expression may align with the way hexapods understand the world to some extent.
A small science fiction
After the first meeting between humans and heptahops, NASA acquired a sound message from the universe. By repeatedly comparing the tracks, it was found that this was an invitation from aliens to communicate with humans on Mars for a second time. After careful consideration and in-depth cooperation with linguists, the man decided to launch a rocket called pioneer to Mars. To get more information from the second round of talks with aliens, the military has licensed a series of things, such as the Internet, human genetic models, weapons, and so on, to be made into pioneer plaques to communicate with aliens.
After global selection, Beta was eventually selected as the only astronaut in the pioneer.
With the launch center’s “three, two, one, ready to land,” vanguard landed steadily at the intended landing site. Beta slowly stepped off the rocket and saw a “looking glass” not far in front of her, with a typical alien text underneath it. Before the trip, beta had mastered the meaning of the known alien languages. But she didn’t have good command of using it, for the time schedule for her was too tight that she couldn’t express the aliens written language as skilled as her teacher, Louise. As she approached, she said to herself: according to Professor Louise, the word should mean communication, interaction. It should be here.
After a while, images of the heptahops appeared in the glass. Although Beta had seen the recording of the communication between human and aliens before, she felt really shocked so that she could say a word for a little while.
After several minutes’ silence, she came to her senses and recognized the great duty on her shoulders. She pointed to the alien text with her fingers, and said, let’s start.
The heptahop gave her a response.
She pulled out a pioneer plaque about the Internet from the special backpack behind her spacesuit.She raised the plaque to her chest and then pointed to the word “Internet” on the plaque.
No response.
“Okay”, she said, ” I will explained it step by step” . First, she pointed the written language of heptahop, on the plaque. The alien gave the response, he wrote the “human” in his language on the glass. “Well, nice beginning !’, she said. After that, she pointed the image of mobile phone, computer, iPad on the plaque and said these were the medium of the internet.
Silence, silence, and silence.
No response.
She held back until she caught a glimpse of the edge of the “looking glass“. Then, she came up with an idea. She pointed the glass first, the she pointed the medium. Successfully, the heptahop gave her the response. He drew another word on the glass, that seemed like the combination of the word “communication” and “material”.
After that the progress was going well. The heptahop could understand the binary system easily and could gave different responses to the human language and computer language.
Also, Because their written language has the characteristic of action directivity. That could make them easier to understand the arrows and the circulation on the plaque.
Finally, the alien gave a response. The word he wrote was more complicated than what Beta had seen before. It was also the nonlinear kind, with several reticular structures. Also, some circulated curves was added besides the reticular structures. There were also some points and what under the points was a small part of the word “medium” in heptahop B.