When they entered they were directed to wait just outside a large council chamber, where the actual trained diplomat was standing and waiting for them. She did not look happy to see them.
"It communicates exclusively with its body language, and it moves very fast," she said promptly in a thick Russian accent. "A team of scientists arrived two nights ago and they have only just started understanding some of its language. They will be assisting us in the meeting."
And without another word she turned and entered the large council chamber.
Space had been cleared away to make room on the floor of the chamber for the alien to move around. The alien did seem to understand English, strangely enough, but it could not speak English. In order for it to speak in its on language it needed the extra space. Reporters crowded the edge of the room, recording the meeting. There were some baffled murmurs when Harris and Dan entered the room with the Russian diplomat.
Without further ado, the Valhallan ambassador bowed. It was a gesture of respect that his kind had adopted from the Etherians. Then he began to dance, telling the story of his journey to Etheria and into the simulation. He was careful to dance slowly and carefully, using dance moves as simple as he could use without missing any important information. Unfortunately, even with the story dumbed down, no one in the audience was able to understand much of it. No one except Dan.
"I'm sorry, did you say something about learning, or knowledge? We don't quite understand your language," said Dan, shocking the team of scientists as well as the Russian ambassador and every other official in the room.
After a few iterations in which Dan took extensive notes and the team of scientists helped him by drawing diagrams of every movement they saw, Dan finally started to piece the alien's message together.
"You say you came to this world to learn about current events here? And you plan to report what you learn to the rest of your people?"
The alien nodded, and continued to dance, elaborating on what it had said earlier.
The alien and its kind were concerned about the technological advancement of this world. (It had been literally translated as "progress of tools".) They were worried that there might be a great destruction, which might affect both this world and theirs.
"What do you mean by 'great destruction'?" asked the president of the United States, who had been held up and arrived partway through the meeting. "Do you mean nuclear weapons?"
The alien made a gesture with its arm to ask them to elaborate.
"He means weapons which cause huge explosions, which if used for war could destroy civilization due to international treaties," said the Secretary of State.
The alien shook its head, took a huge step back and made a defensive gesture. Worse.
"It's talking about AI," Harris wearily concluded under his breath. Everyone in the room heard him of course, and they all looked in his direction. "Probably," Harris added. "I mean, there aren't very many technologies expected to be invented in the near future that could threaten an alien civilization, are there?"
Some experts on the subject of global catastrophic risk were consulted, and it was determined that if there were any such technologies on the way, a properly aligned superintelligence would probably be able to deal with them pretty easily. But if not properly aligned, a superintelligence would be an extinction event for all life on earth and possibly on other worlds too. This was not received well by every official in the room. One crazy person even suggested that they try to destroy the world so that it didn't threaten other worlds.
Finally, one intelligent person in the room managed to ask the obvious question. The heroic tycoon stood up and asked the alien ambassador if any other civilization had created their own superintelligence before. The alien shook its head.
The Valhallans had long ago found an alternative way for their species to survive that didn't depend on superintelligence, but it was severely limited in the scope of its power and it was not something that could be successfully replicated on this world. And the Etherians had gods who carefully limited their technological progress in some respects and accelerated it in others. Although that part was left out due to the Nameless One's request for secrecy.
In any case, the invention of a superintelligence on this world was inevitable unless it was destroyed by something else first.
That long explanation took a really long time to translate and even afterwards nobody was quite sure they understood it all.
After the meeting, Harris and Dan were among those who were swamped with reporters.
"Back off!" said Dan. "My friend is claustrophobic!"
Harris wasn't actually claustrophobic, but small enclosed spaces and crowds made him uncomfortable enough that the excuse was convincing.
They left without another word to the reporters.
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