Posthuman Blues

A god-like intelligence wanting to understand the workings of our civilization might not be content with occasional "reconnaissance missions" or eavesdropping on our broadcasts. Perhaps nothing less than a robust, interactive simulation -- with the aliens playing the roles of indigenous inhabitants -- would suffice. In this case, for the simulation to bear anthropological fruit, it would behoove the aliens to think they really were Earthlings, complete with artificial memories. Only upon exiting the simulation would they remember their actual nature. So maybe Earth as we know it is actually an alien virtual reality constructed as a sort of "Jurassic Park" in which to observe human society from the inside out. Or maybe, less glamorously, we're all amnesiac participants in a vast nonhuman chat-room or first-person video game.

As a (presumed) Earthling, I like the idea that there's some nobler purpose to our existence, even if we're ultimately nothing more than a flux of electrons inside from unfathomable alien computer. Just as some of us enjoy historical simulations such as Renaissance fairs, an arbitrarily advanced civilization -- either alien or human -- might decide to reconstruct a time-period for educational purposes. Indeed, we are fortunate (?) to find ourselves living in such a pivotal time, possibly just years away from achieving the technological "Singularity" predicted by some futurists.

Humans have existed for untold thousands of years, but only recently have we developed the capability to transcend our home planet or, conversely, extinguish all life upon it. If we are in fact experiencing the early 21st century in "real time" (and not as a VR recording), then it's tempting to envision future scholars, endowed with immense computing power, creating a simulated version of our era -- and then, just maybe, immersing themselves in it for the sake of understanding.

This scenario is unabashedly hopeful, as it implies that there is a future for humankind. On a darker note, we could be the computational spawn of alien archaeologists, doomed to simulate our own impending demise.