Exploring the Human Civilization Enigma - Episode 4

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“I want to leave this planet, I want to leave this planet,” the shortest kept repeating as the sound of demolition kept rising in the street and the smoke leaked into the room. You are about to lose your nerve with the repeated words and the annoying noise of the demolition machines as the new day dawns; meanwhile, your three visitors are rotating vertically and horizontally in a strange manner. The fattest is getting thinner, the tallest is getting shorter, and the shortest is getting taller. The three become the same size, same height, and same look, you cannot recognize who is the tallest, who is the fattest and who is the shortest.

Before you ask about what happened to them, you hear one of them repeating the same sentence: I want to leave this planet, you recognize that it was the shortest, you see the other two creatures trying to calm him down, patting his shoulder to make him feel relaxed. The creature on the right talks to you: you must be wondering our friend about what happened to us? You node positively without saying a word, the creature on the left smiles because of your reaction then he adds: you have the right to ask how this happened because the key to knowledge is to question everything. Questioning is the key to understanding because questions must have answers and in order to answer you have to have knowledge and knowledge is gained through observation and learning, and learning is gained through persistency, and persistency is gained through ………

You know immediately that this creature is the fattest who always speaks like a robot, and he continues without stopping: our friend, our visit to you till now is a success, and we quite understood how things work on your planet, and how things happen. you are a peaceful and brave person because you interacted with us. The creature on the right interrupted him saying: the aim of our visit to your planet—as we previously told you—is to know how you reached this level of civilization and development. Till now, we did not finish our mission to understand the mysteries that helped you reach this level.

You point at him to stop talking and say: I am pretty sure that you re peaceful creatures, and you are not intending to harm me or anybody here, the most important thing is that I am sure that I am awake, not dreaming and that you are real, and today is Wednesday and this is my room, and that is my office. But let me …then you take a deep breath and continues what you were saying quietly: I want to know—and I think this is my right—where are you from? How you transform like this? How things work with you? What cultural level did you reach at your hometown? How do you transform like that and why?

Suddenly, you find them in their first look, and the tallest speaks: you have all the right to ask buddy, and as my friend previously said it is because of questioning neither the knowledge nor the civilization and inventions existed. In order not to increase your astonishment, I would like to tell you that we are totally different creatures than you; you are creatures that vary in shape, color, height and size, your shape suits the environment that you live in, and you have nothing to do to change your shape. Then the fattest adds: we, on the other hand, have super powers to control our genes, the cells found underneath our skin and the anatomy of our muscles; we can shape ourselves as we wish, we communicate through signs in all wave lengths that you are aware of on your planet and that you are not aware of yet. The shortest interrupts him: but I am insisting on leaving this planet, I do not want to stay on this planet anymore.

You smile and talk wisely without knowing why, maybe they influenced you, you reply to the shortest who is very furious: you have the right to leave this planet, and if you did I will not blame you because I owe you a lot, firstly you changed my way of thinking about how things work. As this way is the key to civilization and the main reason for development on our planet as your friend said, however, many on my planet—including me—do not do that.

But please keep calm and be patient, you and your friends in spite of all what you have seen did not see much yet. And you did not answer my questions about your hometown. The shortest takes a deep breath and sighs like humans and looks to his friend as if he is asking him about the possibility of answering your question about their identity and their hometown. There was a prolonged silence and when you get bored and is about to talk; the tallest speaks: I think buddy if you told anyone about our visit to you and about our conversations, he will not believe and thinks that you were dreaming or watched a science fiction movie or read a book about space aliens, or something like that. You nod. The fattest continues: but friend we have agreed now to tell you our secret but under one condition.

Illustrations by Mohamed Khamis.

The episode was published in SCIplanet printed magazine, Autumn 2014 issue.

 

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