the great silence written by Ted Chang this is a story told by a parrot chapter one the humans used the telescope Arecibo to look for extraterrestrial intelligence their desire to make a connection with another species is so strong that they have created this telescope as an ear capable of hearing across the universe but I and my fellow parrots are right here why aren't they interested in listening to our voices we are in non-human species capable of communicating with them aren't we exactly what humans are looking for the universe is so vast that intelligent life must surely have arisen many times the universe is also so old that even one technological species would have had time to expand and fill the galaxy yet there is no sign of life anywhere except on earth humans call this the Fermi paradox one proposed solution to the Fermi paradox is that intelligent species actively tried to conceal their presence to avoid being targeted by hostile invaders speaking as a member of a species that has been driven nearly to extinction by humans I can attest that this is a wise strategy it makes sense to remain quiet and avoid attracting attention the Fermi paradox is sometimes known as the great silence the universe ought to be a cacophony of voices but instead its disconcertingly quiet some humans theorized that intelligent species go extinct before they can expand into outer space if they are correct and the hush of the night sky is the silence of a graveyard hundreds of years ago my kind was so plentiful that the Rio Abajo Forest resounded with our voices now we're almost gone soon this rainforest may be as silent as the rest of the universe there once was an African Grey parrot named Alex he was famous for his cognitive abilities famous among humans that is one human researcher named Irene Pepperberg spent thirty years studying Alex she found that not only did Alex know the words for shapes and colors he actually understood the concept of shape and color many scientists were skeptical that a bird could grasp abstract concepts humans like to think that they're unique that way but eventually Pepperberg convinced them that Alex wasn't just repeating words that he understood what he was saying out of all my cousins Alex was the one who came closest to being taken seriously as a communication partner by humans Alex died recently when he was still relatively young the evening before he died Alex said to Pepperberg you be good I love you if humans are looking for a connection with a nonhuman intelligence what more can they ask for than this every parrot has a unique call that it uses to identify itself biologists refer to this as the parrots contact call in 1974 astronomers used a receiver to broadcast a message into outer space intended to demonstrate human intelligence that was humanity's contact call in the wild parrots address each other by name one bird imitates another birds contact called together other birds attention if humans were ever to detect by recibo message being sent back to earth they will know that someone is trying to get their attentions parrots are vocal learners we can learn to make new sounds after we've heard them it's an ability that few animals possess a dog may understand dozens of commands but it will never do anything but bark humans are vocal learners too we had that in common so humans in Paris share a special relationship with sound we don't simply cry out we pronounce we enunciate perhaps that's why humans built IRA Siebel the way they did a receiver doesn't have to be a transmitter at Arecibo is both it's an earful listening and a mouth for speaking humans have lived alongside parrots for thousands of years and only recently have they considered the possibility that we might be intelligent I suppose I can't blame them we parrots used to think that humans weren't very bright it's hard to make sense of behavior that's so different from your all but parrots are more similar to humans than any extraterrestrial species will be and humans can observe us up close they can look us in the eye how do they expect to recognize an alien intelligence if all they can do is eavesdrop from thousands of light-years away it's no coincidence that the word aspiration means both to hope and the act of breathing when we speak we use the breath in our lungs to give our thoughts of physical form the sounds we make are simultaneously our intentions and our lifeforce I speak therefore I am vocal learners like parrots and humans are perhaps the only ones who fully comprehend the truth to this there is a pleasure that comes with shaping sounds with your mouth it's so primal and visceral that throughout history humans have considered activity a pathway to the divine Pythagorean mystics believed that the vowels represented the music of the spheres enchanted to draw power from them Pentecostal Christians believe that when they speak in tongues they are speaking the language used by the angels in heaven Bradman Hindus believed that by reciting mantras they are strengthening the building blocks of reality only a species of vocal learners would ascribe such importance to sound in their mythologies we parrots can appreciate that according to Hindu mythology the universe was created with a sound um it's a symbol that contains everything that ever was and ever will be when the Arecibo telescope is pointed at the space between stars it hears a faint hum astronomers call this the Cosmic Microwave Background it is the residual radiation of the Big Bang the explosion that created the universe 14 billion years ago but you can also think of it as a barely audible reverberation of that original um that syllable was so resonant that the night sky will keep vibrating for as long as the universe exists so when Arecibo is not listening to anything else it hears the voice of creation we were Tory can parents have our own myths they are simpler than human mythology but I think humans will take pleasure from them unfortunately our myths are being lost as my species dies out I doubt that humans will have deciphered a language before we're gone so the extinction of my species does not just mean the loss of a group of birds it is also the disappearance of our language our rituals our traditions it is the silencing of our voice human activity has brought my kind to the brink of extinction but I don't blame them for it they didn't do it maliciously they just weren't paying attention and humans create such beautiful myths what imagination they have perhaps why their aspirations are so immense look at Arecibo any species that can build such a thing must have greatness within it my species probably won't be here for much longer it is likely that we will die before our time and join the great Silas but before we do we are sending a message to humanity we just hope that the telescope at Arecibo will enable them to hear it the message is this you be good I love you the end