“Commander Arcturus reporting back from Earth, sir.”
“Yes, Commander? Do you recommend initiating contact with them?”
“To be honest, I am torn on the issue.”
“As you know, they are mortal flesh containing a consciousness. But sir … their consciousnesses don’t pass on to a different flesh when the flesh dies.”
“Mmm, they return to one great consciousness, do they?”
“Nnnnnno, sir. There is no one great consciousness. They just *die*. They’re just gone.”
“BUH — WHA — well that’s preposterous, where do they get the new consciousness from?”
“They make a new one. A brand new one. Every time a new human is conceived, they build a new consciousness, and every time a human dies, that consciousness is gone forever. … … … Sir?”
“How do they have any kind of body of knowledge, then? … … … Well that seems incredibly inefficient, it would take years for one of them to learn enough to be able to do anything! But if you say this is how they do it … My stars, man, that means they would be *aware* that they had an expiration date! It means they would know the *new consciousnesses they made* would inevitably die!”
“Yes sir. Mortality weighs heavily upon them.”
“To think such a time-limited species could become intelligent and not any of the normal ones on this planet.”
“Ummmmm. All life on that planet is the same way.”
“… … … I am tempted to simply mark it down as the saddest goddamn thing in the entire universe and move on.”
“Thank you, sir, yes, I agree.”
“Frankly, I don’t think I could stand to go back. I … made a friend, you see.”
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