=The Alien Unknown=
**Posted by:** Cryptid, Crow Astrobiologist <**__Info__ __Msg__ __Rep__**>
We currently know of five sapient alien species: Factors, Amphibs, Iktomi, Lucans, and Moravecians. Only one of them is not extinct. We have also found traces of what seem to be at least three other species, if not more. There are the various non-Iktomi ruins and artifacts on Sunrise as well as massive artifacts like Wormwood and the Olaf sphere, all of which were clearly built by someone and don’t appear to be the work of any of the known species. All of these unknown relics are also quite old, and there’s no evidence that the aliens that created them still exist. There are also, of course, the Pandora gates themselves. We originally thought the TITANs created them, but that now seems unlikely, as we have found many gates that are far, far older. The gate designs and ages also vary drastically, indicating that the gate network has been constructed by numerous species over eons. Yet we have met no live gate-building species. Given that every alien relic we’ve found via the Pandora gates is between tens of thousands of years and hundreds of millions of years old, I think it’s safe to say that all of the alien species we’ve encountered via the Pandora gates—so far—are extinct.
The only possible exceptions are the aliens contacted via the black boxes on Giza, and in that case, we have no idea what we encountered. They could be AGIs pretending to be aliens, uploaded aliens in simulspaces who don’t know they are uploads, or even some mechanism that formulates plausible messages by monitoring the user’s thoughts and expectations. Also, even on Giza, the makers of the black boxes seem to be long gone.
Looking at these species we do know of, it’s clear that alien intelligence evolves relatively frequently in our galaxy, but that it also typically doesn’t survive for all that long after developing advanced technology.  The Great Filter seems quite real, but its nature eludes us. While we have definitely found evidence of several other species using Pandora gates, we have not yet found traces of any sort of widespread interstellar colonization, either using the Pandora gates or via FTL starships like those allegedly used by the Factors.
Alternatively, perhaps the Factors are correct, and what kills off alien species is use of the Pandora gates. If that’s true, then maybe there are interstellar empires out there, but they either avoid worlds with working Pandora gates or disable these gates on all of their worlds. Regardless of what is actually happening, what we have seen is a number of extinct alien species and only one survivor. Those are frankly pretty scary odds. To make it worse, in at least some cases, the alien species seems to have died out due to unnatural causes. At this point, it’s helpful to review the range of current knowledge and theories about alien threats.
==Speculation on Hostile Civilizations==
When faced with so many dead species—some of which clearly died violently—we must address the possibility that there is an advanced alien civilization out there that is hostile to others, and which may be responsible for the extinction of most of the intelligent species we’ve encountered. We have no idea how old this civilization might be, but if the ruins are any indication, it may have existed for millions or even billions of years. It would presumably have technology far surpassing ours—perhaps not even
recognizable as such—and would most likely be postbiological. In fact, there’s a significant likelihood it would be dominated by ASIs, or perhaps be an ASI singleton, far more intelligent than even the TITANs. And, of course, it would have the capability to spread throughout the galaxy, either via wormhole gates, sublight Von Neumann probes, or possibly even FTL starcraft or other means. Such an elder civilization may very well have an invested interest in maintaining its dominance in the galaxy and might, as a matter of course, destroy any others that reach a certain technological level.
This theory dovetails nicely with certain speculations that the TITANs may have been infected with the exsurgent virus, given the virus’s advanced nature and alien characteristics. An advanced civ may have intentionally infected our species’ burgeoning ASIs and turned them against us, as they did with other species before us. Or to be truly paranoid, perhaps the TITANs were alien minds themselves, simply masquerading as our own creations. This leaves us wondering, however, why did the TITANs disappear before finishing us off? Was their programming faulty? Did they hurt us badly enough and simply expect us to die out on our own?
All of the above ideas presume that elder civilizations attempt to destroy younger ones, but what if the intention was not to destroy? An alternative option is that they were looking to assimilate our species into their own machine mind, so they corrupted our ASIs to forcibly upload our species and bring us all to them. Perhaps all of the aliens contacted via Giza’s black boxes are simply civilizations that were previously uploaded. Is the advanced civ aware of a Great Filter in our future and was harvesting our minds to protect us before we hit that point? Is such an assimilation really qualitatively different than destruction—at least for those left behind?
It is worth pointing out that we do not know the mechanism for how civilizations are wiped out, how the TITANs were subverted (if they were), or how the exsurgent virus was spread. When looking at ruins that are anywhere from tens of thousands to hundreds of millions of years old, it’s often hard to tell if the destruction took a few years or a century or two. Do these aliens simply lay traps, or do they actively interfere? The gates themselves seem like the most likely vector, but there are other possibilities: FTL incursions, “mousetraps” seeded to every solar system by bracewell probes, infectious transmissions sent across space, or means beyond our technological understanding. The fact that we do not know how gates are constructed is worrisome. The gate network could be under the active control of a hostile intelligence, or we could be facing aliens with the capability to open wormholes in the hearts of our major cities.
We of course have no proof that any such elder civilizations or intelligences exist—or that they still exist. They may have passed on long ago, leaving their machines behind to cleanse the galaxy long after they were gone. Perhaps there were two such advanced entities, and their machines are relics of a long-settled war. Though it is jarring to consider that entire civilizations may be getting wiped out by what is essentially an automated process, it may explain why the Fall was not a complete annihilation. Such processes and machines are subject to entropy, and over time are likely to become less efficient. Perhaps the Factors and transhumanity just happen to be among the first to survive the culling.
The obvious problem with all of these theories is that we have too little data to prove anything useful. Until we know more, all we have is a whole lot of speculation. However, a key feature to most of these ideas is that the gates, and space expansion in general, may be quite dangerous, as it increases our risk of exposure to dangerous aliens.
==The Factors' Warnings==
With that in mind, the Factor warnings do make a bit of sense. However, the presence in our solar system of the Factors poses another threat entirely: FTL spacecraft.
If the Factors truly do have the capability to travel between the stars, then we must assume that other extraterrestrial life also has this capability. The more of a presence we establish in the galaxy, the more we are likely to encounter another FTL-capable civilization. This puts our home system at risk, as we would have little capability to stop an alien invasion fleet. If the Factors do not have FTL capabilities, we are not necessarily safer. In that case, we are dealing with a species that is intentionally duplicitous, and likely uses the gates themselves. They most likely sought to limit our gate use with their warnings, which implies they may see us as a threat. They may also have finer control of the gates than we do, which explains why we haven’t found any Factor-colonized worlds with a gate—they may be locking us out. The fact that we have encountered signs of the Factors and even individual Factors on some gate-equipped worlds, and have yet to find Factor spacecraft in any extrasolar systems, reinforces this possibility.
If the Factors use neither FTL nor the gates, then that raises an even deeper mystery—how did they get to our solar system, and what are they doing here? Even if the Factors do not have FTL, we know they do have reactionless drives. Any species with such drives that is willing to use hibernation or generation ships can reach a number of nearby systems at sub-light speeds. For all we know, an alien armada is already crossing the void from a neighboring star.
==Other Alien Threats==
It’s possible that the galaxy is indeed teaming with life, but that this life is fairly paranoid. Perhaps surviving species find a way to disable or block the Pandora gates in their star systems and avoid making or responding to interstellar broadcasts, and otherwise successfully hunker down in their own star system. Short of building our own bracewell probes, we’re unlikely to learn if such species exist. Of course, if this is an optimal survival strategy, why did the Factors show up in a starship? It’s possible that they are a species that took this route and found that even paranoia can’t protect you from some threats, and some of the survivors fled here.
Though most of the civilizations we have encountered are long dead, even dead ones can present a threat. The threat represented by contact with advanced alien ruins cannot be underestimated. There are the obvious risks in finding potent weapons such as stored quantum black holes, self-replicating nanotechnology, or things we do not even understand. Then there are the risks of awaking a dormant threat, such as an alien version of a TITAN. Even more mundane technologies, however, can be devastating or disruptive. A reactionless drive or even simply a technique for creating antimatter at 5% efficiency could massively destabilize the solar system, especially if only one faction knew about and could use this technology.
It’s also worth noting than an encounter with a living alien civilization that is technologically equal or inferior to ours could still be cataclysmic. They may simply be bent on exterminating potential rivals, and could overwhelm us with sheer numbers. It’s rather chilling to consider that each and every gatecrash to a new world could be the start of an interstellar war.  While the odds of this happening are quite low, it is worth remembering that the galaxy is cold and hostile, and care not whether we survive or go extinct.
==Sidebar: Possible Alien Activity near Luca==
**Posted by:** Grailhunter, Sentinel <**__Info__ __Msg__ __Rep__**>
I never expected Luca to be a problem—no TITANs, no scarily advanced alien technology, just some old ruins made by primitives on a world where the major risks looked to be hypothermia and asteroids. I went there based on some rumors about TerraGenesis activities that turned out to be grossly exaggerated. Instead, the problem was the radio astronomy program. A couple of astronomers are doing a full stellar survey and ran into an anomaly: data that seemed to be an artificial signal. One of them responded. Thankfully, I was there, and both of them loved talking about what they’d heard and what they’d sent. 
I hoped that the signal was from someplace a dozen or more parsecs away and so not anyone’s problem for decades, but I decided to hack their feed and gain access to any response they got before they did. They received a response 27 hours later. There’s some sort of artificial construct beaming signals to Luca from less than 100 AU away. From the astronomers’ data, it seemed to be in some sort of very low-power mode, beaming signals towards Luca no more often than once every year or two—this is only the second signal they received; they thought the first one was an error. However, it just got a response and sent something back, so it might be powering up. I’m attaching the response; it appears to be short mathematical sequences. The astronomers never received this. I then set up the telescope so that it can’t send additional signals to that location without special authorization. The telescope will also requires special authorization to see if it’s received any future signals from whatever is sending them. I’m betting that one response won’t trigger anything but more signals and more watchfulness, but I could easily be wrong. Also, I think we want to know what the heck is out there.

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