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An Elite: Dangerous Player Invents A Way To Talk With Aliens
If we were to encounter an alien race would we react with kindness or cruelty? It's a question at the heart of some of our favorite science fiction stories and one that a player in the space flight/combat/trading simulator Elite: Dangerous decided to answer.
According to a story on Kotaku, Benjamin "Heisenberg6626" Bahr started working to communicate with the game's Thargoids despite ongoing anti-alien sentiment among players and the lack of in-game methods of communication with Thargoids. Working with members of the Canonn Interstellar Research, a Thargoid alien investigation group (yes, we're still talking about a video game), Bahr began a year-long research process that recently culminated in "Project Mercury." Bahr essentially analyzed the structure of sounds that Thargoids make and created his own messages, the product of converting images into sounds. He's basically Amy Adams' character from Arrival. You can find a video of him sending one of these messages to a Thargoid below.
Of course, all of this is role-playing. Bahr can't actually send these messages to aliens – his message in the video is just part of the video production – however, it's still an oddly heartwarming moment and proof of the passion and ingenuity of Elite: Dangerous' community. Bahr's work also has a genuine message behind it. “It is never too late to start talking to each other,” Bahr says.
[Source: Kotaku]
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