Pulse (Dec 2021)
A False Encounter: An Interspecies Martian Tale
Abstract
This project concerns a fictional scenario in which an AI rover encounters an alien life form in the crevices of a Martian rock. The seconds in which this encounter takes place are mysteriously wiped out from the rover’s Pancam metadata. It is speculated that this was a conscious decision, perhaps in an attempt to keep this moment in secret, safe from human knowledge. By employing standard research techniques along with interviews with experts in the field, as well as speculative fiction methods, the present paper attempts to explore two main ideas: the possibility of interplanetary multispecies coexistence (beyond the presence of humans), and a prediction of a future episode of AI/digital dissidence. Could machines be inspired by humanist literature in their quest for consciousness? Could machines find new ways to achieve solidarity with other nonhuman biological entities? Could their disobedience be more humane than the values of the humans who programmed them?
