SUBJECT>I'm confused again... POSTER>Erin EMAIL>elazzaro@symantec.com DATE>July 11, 1997 at 10:14:01 EMAILNOTICES>no PREVIOUS> NEXT>2851 2852 2859 2863 LINKNAME> LINKURL>

The ETs can read and write English. Modern English, as far as I can tell. We have been assuming that they learned this by monitoring our radio and TV broadcasts. If that's true, then they know where we come from, they probably know what we look like, and they wouldn't confuse us with unrelated amphibians from somewhere else entirely. Also, they must have been monitoring quite a bit within the last 60 years. (They're very fluent, considering.)

However, their last few communications are difficult to understand, if you start by assuming they know who we are. Do they think the probes were sent by a hostile third race (the amphibians)? Why speak to them in English then? Are they afraid the Earth has been conquered by amphibians?

I see two possibilities:

1) The amphibians are a third race, more advanced than us, and have been speaking English longer than we have. (Tremendous WS could start from that point.) They destroyed the ET homeworld some time ago -- possibly before we started broadcasting; the ETs may have been unaware of us. When the ETs saw mechanical probes. they assumed they belonged to the amphibians, and this was confirmed when the probes proved to understand English.

2) The amphibians are English-speaking humans. Based on their technology, this would have to be some sort of secret conspiracy group, and the rest of us may be in danger from them. The ETs' "sleep" may have been quite short or relatively long, but not long enough for English to have changed much. The major question here is, Where did the amphibians get their technology?

Does anyone see a third possibility?