“These machines bear no resemblance to anything we are familiar with, SAIR-Spda.”

The drone had continued exploring the planet’s emerged surface in search of clues that would lead them to conclude that their origins were there, but they were growing more and more disheartened.

They had already given up calling the metallic beings they had found so far ‘alive’, those in which the electric current flowed in electronic form and not through ions. It was clear that they were nothing, but machines built by someone, probably the bipeds.

That had certainly been quite a discovery, something contrary to all logic, although they were unable to go any further.

“They don’t use transistors or quantum computing,” MIRV continued. “And I can’t connect to these devices in any way.”

“Then how are the logical circuits made?”

“I don’t know. These structures are impenetrable to me. There are no binary input/output gates, no qubits that can exist in multiple states at once due to quantum superposition.”

“And yet, they seem like computers.”

“They are. They receive electrical stimuli, and the Intensity C’’ [of the current] increases regularly. This flow of increase/decrease in I [intensity] is probably motivated by an input-output system.”

“Who is behind the input? I mean, at the end of the chain.”

“Good question. Probably B [the bipeds]. When they are nearby, IC’’ [the intensity of the current] increases.”

“At their demand.”

“Probably.”

“So, computers are mere tools.”

“I’m afraid so.”

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“How could we communicate with them?”

“With B [the bipeds]?”

“Yes, of course.”

“They seem to communicate with each other through pressure waves that produce mechanical oscillations that propagate in the form of compressions and rarefactions, and travel through the gaseous medium A’ [the atmosphere].”

“How do they emit those waves? Through what devices?”

“What I could deduce is that they must make some kind of internal structure vibrate that is housed in the upper part of their body, right where there is a narrowing between two well-differentiated parts.”

“Yes, between the upper limbs and the upper spheroid. Right?”

“Exactly. The vibration propagates through A’ [through the atmosphere] because they open a hole just below their main sensory organs —the pair of rounded lobes—. Depending on the size of the opening, the pressure waves are more or less elongated, and that’s the code they use to establish communications when they are close.”

“It seems like a totally inefficient and absurd system.”

“It is. Besides, it only works to transmit signals in the presence of a medium. They can’t use it in a vacuum.”

“Certainly. But the question is, could we generate those waves to communicate with them?”

“We could. But I’m afraid it wouldn’t be intelligible, just like what they emit is useless for us. It would be as easy —or as difficult— as emitting R [the radio] waves they transmit and that we detect from P [our planet]. We can broadcast at that frequency, but without an organized code with meaning... it would be useless.”

“I understand. I think B [these beings] invented R [radio] simply as a method to reach further in their communications.”

“Obviously. This system of using E’ [energy] to produce vibrations in the air is highly inefficient. I don’t understand how, in E’’ [their evolution] they didn’t incorporate R [radio] from the beginning.”

“One more question that will remain unanswered, I’m afraid. If we can’t communicate with the machines, even less so with CB [carbon-based beings].”

“I agree. And what is clear is that there is no trace here indicating that A [the ancestor] comes from P [this planet]. Neither the technology nor L [life forms] resemble anything.”

“I agree. I think, therefore, that our journey has come to an end.”