This is the silence of the marginal and imaginary regions. …
I have contemplated the history of signaling, including smoke signals, messages in bottles, mirror reflections, optical telegraphs, morse code, traffic signals, flag signals and more.
The universe of relativity depends upon the idea that communication cannot travel faster than the speed of light, yet quantum entanglement suggests otherwise. Our concept of the signal is an aspect of our idea of reality.
As I signal presence and listen for signs of life, I think of the messaging in Pioneer 10. Its fading signal reached Earth for the last time on April 27th, 2002. (You can learn more and see the plaque at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pioneer_plaque ). In about 2 million years it may arrive at Aldebaran, carrying a coded plaque to explain to aliens who we are and where to find us. Did this openness arise from innocence or is the need for connection greater than any potential risks in disclosing our location?
How and why would an alien respond upon finding and decoding the message in Pioneer? Perhaps the aliens would have the same desire for knowledge, understanding, and company that we do. Many other possibilities, across a spectrum from terrifying to magical, have been explored in the movies.
Why would anyone respond to a signal from the IMIR? Time is precious.
Stories are the clouds of the IMIR, drifting through, and sometimes raining down on islands near and far. By “islands” I mean regions of meaning that depend upon this rain to sustain life.
In the IMIR are stories that have never rained in any land and remain undiscovered.
Stories from the IMIR will be discovered and shared. I may not be the only one who discovers them, but I will start, and continue until there is another voice and perhaps other voices.
As Duchamp said, words are most useful as keys to the imagination through poetry [Calvin Tomkins, Duchamp (Henry Holt and Company Inc., New York, 1996), 394].
Stories and events will begin soon, but today I create a signal, keeping it simple, using means most likely to be available to the receiver.
.. … / .- -. -.– — -. ./ – …. . .-. .
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