The Planets Are Occupied By Living Beings

<i>The Planets Are Occupied By Living Beings</i> A conversation with Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, the prophet. [[Begin.|Dialog 1]]

<i>The Planets Are Occupied By Living Beings</i> A conversation with Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, the prophet. -- Let us start with the most sublime. [[Go ahead.|Test Scroll 1]]

''//Where are they?//''^^[[8]]^^

<img src="https://s11.postimg.org/v2d3fodtf/tsiolkovskywtrans1.png"> <a href="https://itch.io/jam/fermi-paradox-jam" class="external" target="_blank">#fermijam</a> / <a href="https://twitter.com/allpalaces" class="external" target="_blank">author</a> / [[sources]]

writing © chiltonm (<a href="https://twitter.com/allpalaces" class="external" target="_blank">@allpalaces</a>) tsiolkovsky's icon © grace☾ (<a href="https://twitter.com/girl_krieg" class="external" target="_blank">@girl_krieg</a>) font is monda, twine is my savior bits drawn from:<div align="left"> * tsiolkovsky's collected manuscripts, with all love to <a href="http://tsiolkovsky.org/en/cosmic-philosophy-by-tsiolkovsky/" class="external" target="_blank">tsiolkovsky.org</a> for their translations * the wikipedia entry for the fermi paradox * michael kirkbride's <a href="https://www.imperial-library.info/content/forum-archives-michael-kirkbride/" class="external" target="_blank">fictional religious works</a> * the star diaries by stanisław lem * <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kosmicheskiy_reys" class="external" target="_blank">Космический рейс</a> * various russian orthodox websites</div> and other prophetic texts a million thanks to loren and katie for running <a href="https://itch.io/jam/fermi-paradox-jam" class="external" target="_blank">#fermijam</a>, without which i never would have made a game

//Go ahead.// In the beginning we walk from the Promised Land as the smallest order of thing, and in the end we sail in bronzed ships through the temporal and voided waves, and it is in the middle I find you, O speaker. Listen close: I say this once. We of precocious thought are the anchor. Count the passing of time on the space between fingers, and as that is, so are we alone. The constellation that keeps you company spits irrational, yes? [[I have never heard it speak.]]

//I do not offend you?// Am I not a more beautiful creature than that? I am always searching for peace with this curious illness, unaware of the tongues I speak, but for little more than a dormitory my situation is comfortable. As for all else on Earth, my daughter spreads word among the poor, my son among the dead, and I hold great pride for their deeds.^^[[6]]^^ Only my wife is an ambassador. She is greater than I. [[She is a saint.|Saint]] [[She is a satellite.|Satellite]]

//She is a saint.// In her aspiration to lay healing hands on mankind she has flown so high I cannot see her anymore. I survive in reluctant peace knowing it is she who watches and she who guards me in my desperation, as I sink further and further down. [[Are you scared?|Scared]] [[Do you miss her?|Miss]]

//She is a satellite.// She is a rocking boat, this void an ebbing shore, the space between us the infinite depth of a wave. She watches me as I scramble uselessly across the rock, reaching for her. [[Where is she anchored?|Anchor]] [[Do you miss her?|Miss]]

//Are you scared?// I fear, yes. I fear God and the void and my own tongue. I fear the ugly sucking call of the angels and I fear they would drown me, though I have faith in their benevolence. I fear the dependence on faith. I fear you, O speaker. Are you scared? [[No.]] [[Yes.]] [[I have been before.]]

//Do you miss her?// Yes, with the unconsionable guilt of any man's tremorous heart. I dream of a world with her, and with children, and with a steady sun. I have made peace with this lonliness. God would have me make it divine. [[God speaks to you.]]

//No.// You have a brave heart. God would find that cause to fear. [[God speaks to you.]]

//Yes.// Good. Prepare your confession. God would draw that blood by the heartstring and tie it, entangling in the knot His apprasial. You might find fear a blessing, O speaker, for it keeps us close to Him. [[God speaks to you.]]

//I have been before.// As you are now, and as you will be when the twin planes of Heaven and Hell reach their absolute radius and collapse into number. There's no need to be modest before God. [[God speaks to you.]]

//God speaks to you.// He emerges from the hovel He has built on the crest of an asteroid and begs favor from His creation. [[The prophet hears.|Hears]]

//The prophet hears.// The prophet does more than hear. [[The prophet listens.|Listens]] [[The prophet builds.|Builds]] [[The prophet speaks.|Speaks]]

//The prophet listens.// Would that he were so good. [[The prophet builds.|Builds]] [[The prophet speaks.|Speaks]]

//The prophet speaks.// In error and hubris. He throws hand and stone. He mistakes distance for weakness. God sets him right. They find him fetal in the dirt and clean him up, and they speak but he cannot hear. It is not unfamiliar but he believes he is beyond and that this is eternity, here in this village with his hands tied and his ears hollow and his eyes a lying organ with loyalty only to God. He is brought to his home and inside the stars dance in mockery. He is alone, though someone touches his hand. I truly believed I was going to die. [[I'm sorry.]]

//The prophet builds.// Not in this time. Not while we still lie dormant on this side of the ocean, reveling in our pretty ignorance. America lies beyond, as does creation. [[What, then?]]

//What, then?// The prophet speaks. [[The prophet speaks.|Speaks]]

//I'm sorry.// O speaker, O grand-child, O blood of mine. There is a hound in your mouth and it yearns to howl, but I beg you keep it shut. [[Because I spoke out of line?]] [[Because I spoke against God?]]

//Because I spoke out of line?// We are in the adolescence of humanity. Our matter grows too fast to be held by the marrow of our bones. We creak and jostle like old men. You do, too. Do not misinterpret my reprimand. Be careful with sacred words. [[Man was not made to be quiet.]]

//Because I spoke against God?// I am no hypocrite, but He is fickle, and we have so much further to go. [[Man was not made to be quiet.]]

//Where is she anchored?// Beside all of the other angels and good men; beside all of the protonymic forms that have attempted in their simplicity to become God. She was blessed with benevolence, and never had cause to hear His voice. Would that she would become Him. Against His alien consistency, perhaps She could be more useful. Her voice is kinder. [[She speaks to you.]] [[God speaks to you.]]

//She speaks to you.// She has sent her share of transmissions. They are a romantic binary; I keep them as safe as I can, but I have no secret places in this life. No, it is Him I fear. His voice hurts my ears. [[God speaks to you.]]

//I have never heard it speak.// Trust that its tongue is jumbled with coincidence. Broken down to fraction it is flourishing; brought to a human eye, revealed to be barren. Such is the universe as we have made it. A blessing, I am told. The youth will be assigned a bible of tasks, first among them to find a remedy. [[We are a social beast.]] [[We're better off alone.]]

//We are a social beast.// We are beasts of some such kind. The violence contained within us! It seems more fit for a zoo than a council. If we were safely caged and unable to wreak our savage glitch on the foreign, would we be friends then? Would the protozoan ascendant slip out of their harbors to watch our teeth gnash, our claws struggle to find purchase? Or would we break our chains and gobble them up, too? It is good that they stay away. We do not go on a visit to wolves, venomous snakes or gorillas. We only kill them.^^[[1]]^^ The perfect have no need to observe the plagued child left to die in this cradle. We will have to purge ourself. [[How?]]

//We're better off alone.// Perhaps. It is against our nature to be, though circumstance and destiny have played their part. We duplicate at such speed that I'm not sure we ever register the true extent of our lonliness. The blood-web we knit for ourself could be mistaken for eternity, were we truly blind. In any case, we should have grander ambition. Our civic duty is exploration: so long as we linger here, our existence is up for debate.^^[[2]]^^ The alliance of spirits contained within us is stunted. Thus we are doomed to ferment in this cradle, yes? We wait for our maker to carry us through the discomfort and awkwardness of growth, but we are mistaken. A caterpillar willingly spins a chrysallis; we are not absolved of responsibility to leave this cage simply because we forgot the creation of it. [[You see it as our fate.]] [[You see it as our duty.]]

//In 1933, Tsiolkovsky wrote <a href="https://ru.wikisource.org/wiki/%D0%9F%D0%BB%D0%B0%D0%BD%D0%B5%D1%82%D1%8B_%D0%B7%D0%B0%D1%81%D0%B5%D0%BB%D0%B5%D0%BD%D1%8B_%D0%B6%D0%B8%D0%B2%D1%8B%D0%BC%D0%B8_%D1%81%D1%83%D1%89%D0%B5%D1%81%D1%82%D0%B2%D0%B0%D0%BC%D0%B8_(%D0%A6%D0%B8%D0%BE%D0%BB%D0%BA%D0%BE%D0%B2%D1%81%D0%BA%D0%B8%D0%B9)" class="external" target="_blank">«Планеты заселены живыми существами»</a>, a treatise on the possible existence of extraterrestrial life. Within it, he mused on the barbarity of human civilization, and proposed that foreign bodies would have no interest in contact with a race that seemed primarily interested in waging war. It is generally considered his first prophetic work.// [[Return|We are a social beast.]]

//How?// Ascension. The human capacity for construct gives us no excuse, as it only requires time, effort and prayer. Think of the sea as a horizontal plane. Space--this void, this matter-less absence--can operate much the same. The code has been written by the angels who dive like doves between far-off stars: use it to build a ship buoyant enough.^^[[3]]^^ This is the destiny of man. Once freed of the gravity of Earth all else becomes little, and the real work can begin. [[So we look for a shipyard.]] [[So we look for a shipwright.]]

//So we look for a shipwright.// You will have to wait for her.^^[[4]]^^ She will be born once in Eden and again from the mouth of her schiff as byte by byte it reconstructs her. I lament that she is condemned to earthly life, though I look forward to her company. Whenever you reach her, begin the sacrament. It will require walking backwards. [[I may lose my balance.]]

//So we look for a shipyard.// A list of possible forges: <div align="left"> Jerusalem̵̡̦̰͕̣̙͍̠̳̪̬̹̞͕̪̼͖͝ͅͅ K̡̬ͫ̌̊͗͌̀͡alag̩̲̹̠ua ͕͖͓̦̝̝T̸̡ͥ̎̽ͧ͆́͐ͩ̅͏̸̗̩̟̺͕̰͖̲he̔͛̚ ̣̜̟̭̬̮̒ͣbone̲̺̟̲͉̮̮ͨ͗ͫͬ͑̒̇y̮̳͓͈̘͌̚ar͕̅̄ͦͪͩ̍͘ds ̬͈͕̤̤ͩ͋͐̋̂͘ͅa̴͓͙̜̰̹̠̥͖͎ͧ͂t ̯͈̫͈̞̈́ͣCahǒ̤͔̙̠̗̈̒̔̾͐̊̅͢kią̷̙̼̞͖̰̱͖͕̤̔̒̋ Ho̰̗̼̊ͤ̾̔͌̄̏üͮ͐stó͕̐n0ͯ̾̄̀1̈ͩ0̓̇̈́͆̀0̇̾̏1̸͗1̊̃̑͗ͫ҉1̔͟1͂ͥ̿̍ ̔̐ͦ͗ͬ0̉1ͨ̎0ͮ̏̒̚̚01ͭ1ͣ̿͆̏̑̿1ͧ̑ͮ͗1̨̇̑̊̒ ̄͜0͛ͦͧ0͋͋͌ͩ̂̐͂1̛͆̿̒̈ͩͪ̌0̧͊̈̔0͑̐͏000 01001100 01101111 01110010 01100100 00100000 01101111 01110101 01110010 00100000 01000111 01101111 01100100 00101100 00100000 01100001 01110011 00100000 01010100 01101000 01101111 01110101 00100000 01100001 01110010 01110100 00100000 01100111 01101111 01101111 01100100 00100000 01100001 01101110 01100100 00100000 01110100 01101000 01100101 00100000 01001100 01101111 01110110 01100101 01110010 00100000 01101111 01100110 00100000 01101101 01100001 01101110 01101011 01101001 01101110 01100100 00101100 00100000 01100110 01101111 01110010 01100111 01101001 01110110 01100101 00100000 01101101 01100101 00100000 01110111 01101000 01100101 01110010 01100101 01101001 01101110 00100000 01001001 00100000 01101000 01100001 01110110 01100101 00100000 01110011 01101001 01101110 01101110 01100101 01100100 00100000 01110100 01101111 01100100 01100001 01111001 00100000 01101001 01101110 00100000 01110111 01101111 01110010 01100100 00101100 00100000 01100100 01100101 01100101 01100100 00100000 01100001 01101110 01100100 00100000 01110100 01101000 01101111 01110101 01100111 01101000 01110100 00101110 00100000 01000111 01110010 01100001 01101110 01110100 00100000 01101101 01100101 00100000 01110000 01100101 01100001 01100011 01100101 01100110 01110101 01101100 00100000 01100001 01101110 01100100 00100000 01110101 01101110 01100100 01101001 01110011 01110100 01110101 01110010 01100010 01100101 01100100 00100000 01110011 01101100 01100101 01100101 01110000 00111011 00100000 01110011 01100101 01101110 01100100 00100000 01010100 01101000 01111001 00100000 01100111 01110101 01100001 01110010 01100100 01101001 01100001 01101110 00100000 01100001 01101110 01100111 01100101 01101100 00100000 01110100 01101111 00100000 01110000 01110010 01101111 01110100 01100101 01100011 01110100 00100000 01100001 01101110 01100100 00100000 01101011 01100101 01100101 01110000 00100000 01101101 01100101 00100000 01100110 01110010 01101111 01101101 00100000 01100001 01101100 01101100 00100000 01100101 01110110 01101001 01101100 00101110 00100000 01000110 01101111 01110010 00100000 01010100 01101000 01101111 01110101 00100000 01100001 01110010 01110100 00100000 01110100 01101000 01100101 00100000 01000111 01110101 01100001 01110010 01100100 01101001 01100001 01101110 00100000 01101111 01100110 00100000 01101111 01110101 01110010 00100000 01110011 01101111 01110101 01101100 01110011 00100000 01100001 01101110 01100100 00100000 01100010 01101111 01100100 01101001 01100101 01110011 00101100 00100000 01100001 01101110 01100100 00100000 01110101 01101110 01110100 01101111 00100000 01010100 01101000 01100101 01100101 00100000 01100100 01101111 00100000 01110111 01100101 00100000 01110011 01100101 01101110 01100100 00100000 01110101 01110000 00100000 01100111 01101100 01101111 01110010 01111001 00111010 00100000 01110100 01101111 00100000 01110100 01101000 01100101 00100000 01000110 01100001 01110100 01101000 01100101 01110010 00101100 00100000 01100001 01101110 01100100 00100000 01110100 01101111 00100000 01110100 01101000 01100101 00100000 01010011 01101111 01101110 00101100 00100000 01100001 01101110 01100100 00100000 01110100 01101111 00100000 01110100 01101000 01100101 00100000 01001000 01101111 01101100 01111001 00100000 01010011 01110000 01101001 01110010 01101001 01110100 00101100 00100000 01101110 01101111 01110111 00100000 01100001 01101110 01100100 00100000 01100101 01110110 01100101 01110010 00101100 00100000 01100001 01101110 01100100 00100000 01110101 01101110 01110100 01101111 00100000 01110100 01101000 01100101 00100000 01100001 01100111 01100101 01110011 00100000 01101111 01100110 00100000 01100001 01100111 01100101 01110011 00101110 00100000 01000001 01101101 01100101 01101110 00101110 </div> [[Perhaps not.]]

<img src="http://i.imgur.com/EHH5epb.gif"> [[Return|So we look for a shipwright.]]

//Perhaps not.// 01101110 01101111возможноnot. [[So we look for a shipwright.]]

//I may lose my balance.// It's a matter of practice. [[I will do my best.]]

//The above conversation with Tsiolkovsky was held during the last summer before his death, given as 1935 in the Soviet accounts, 2012 in American intelligence, and 3000 in the sacred texts. In its digital form, it is traditionally regarded as the living words of the [[prophet|Icon]].//

//Man was not made to be quiet.// Man was made to subvert creation, to emerge slick and audacious from the egg and stretch instantly for the sun.^^[[7]]^^ [[Are those your words?]] [[Are those God's words?]]

//«Единое «Я» или единый дух находится только в неизвестном примитивном атоме. Во всех других известных частицах содержится тем более духов, чем частица сложнее. Нам известны только союзы духов. Даже частицы эфира союз духов. Но союз этот очень прочен, почти неразрушим, так как сохраняется дециллионы лет. Множество духов в нём, вероятно, и чувствуют согласно. Слово чувство тут имеет только математическое значение, как пылинка, которую мы не вешаем, не меряем и не считаем за массу.» "A single “self”, or a single spirit, exists only in an unknown primitive atom. All other known particles contain the more spirits, the more complicated the particle is. Only unions of spirits are known to us. Even particles of aether are unions of spirits. But this union is very stable, almost indestructible, because lasts for decillions of years. A great number of spirits in it, possibly, feel concordantly. The word ‘feeling’ has only mathematical value here, like a speck of dust, which we do not weigh, do not measure and do not consider its mass. This is a conditional nonexistence."// Граждане вселенной (Citizens of the Universe), 1933. [[Return|We're better off alone.]]

//You see it as our fate.// Yes. Star-written and sacrosanct. [[How?]]

//You see it as our duty.// Yes. Undeniable and infinitely just. [[How?]]

<img src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0e/Chertrg_Tsiolkovsky.jpg" class="external" target="_blank"> [[Return|How?]]

//I will do my best.// A dutiful pilgrim. You and those like you will write our names throughout the sky and make us great.^^[[5]]^^ [[Are you not dutiful?]] [[Are you not coming?]]

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7aQPtSWWNw" class="external" target="_blank">//Tsiolkovsky occasionally leant voice to other work.//</a> [[Return|I will do my best.]]

//Are you not dutiful?// My duties differ from yours. The role I play is translator, traitor and tongue. I would never presume such a mobile honor. [[So you will be alone.]]

//Are you not coming?// O speaker, your sweetness is suffocating. But I am fragile and necessary to this plane, lest it collapse in search of friendlier souls. No, I would never presume that honor. [[So you will be alone.]]

//So you will be alone.// One day, yes. [[You said we are not meant to be alone.]]

//You said we are not meant to be alone.// I WILL BE ALONE I WILL BE ALONE I WILL BE ALONE I WILL BE ALONE [[Reach out, prophet.]]

//Reach out, prophet.// I WILL BE ALONE I WILL BE ALONE EVEN IF I AM THE LAST EVERY REASONABLE BEING MUST REACH OUT TO THE SPIRIT OF HISTORY I WILL BE ALONE I WILL BE ALONE EVEN IF EVEN IF EVEN IF I AM THE LAST EVEN IF I AM THE LAST I WILL BE ALONE I WILL BE ALONE I WILL BE ALONE I WILL BE ALONE I WILL BE ALONE? [[I do not offend you?]]

//Are those your words?// They are composed of the same unions, such that I find no fundamental difference. [[And so we create flight.]]

//Are those God's words?// They are composed of the same unions, such that He finds no fundamental difference. [[And so we create flight.]]

//Tsiolkovsky's son committed suicide in 1902; his daughter was arrested for revolutionary activity in 1911. She was responsible for the posthumous publishing of his works, and was canonized under the name Bl. 6EQUJ5.// [[Return|I do not offend you?]]

//And so we create flight.// From rust and ritual and soul. From seeping pus and lathered soap, from all hypocrisy and all things earnest, from the immutable power of the collective and the egomaniacal transaction of self and self. From every half-written fiction and every holy book, from every prayer of science, from every hypothesis of God. From every capricious remnant of computer and every unwavering bone of humanity. From every inch of malice contained within us, and every acre of fraternal love. The unerring digital offspring of your atheism and my faith will carry us. This tremendous monster, this dimension-struck form of metal and flesh, this devastating impossible beauty, this moon-ship, sh-he will touch the stars, sh-he will crawl from comet to comet with our sisters and brothers on hi-er back, and sh-he will bloom eternal from space-dark ocean to the incomprehensible sky. Once sh-he is past the atmosphere, and the conditions of our ship are strong enough to sustain life-- [[We will speak.]]

//We will speak.// <img src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/55/Arecibo_message.svg"> [[Are we not a more beautiful creature than that?]]

//Are we not a more beautiful creature than that?// What, then? It is not in me to write poetry. [[Perhaps they will go first.]]

//Perhaps they will go first.// O speaker, shall we wait? [[WE WAIT]]

WE WAIT WE WAIT WE WAIT WE WAIT WE WAIT [[ [...] ]]

[...] [...] [...] [...] [[ [Speak.] ]]

[[Where are they?|End Passage]]

//The connection between Tsiolkovsky and the primordial being is often theorized, but with insubstantial evidence towards either a scientific or religious end. Soviet scholars claimed that his words testified to the immutable sanctity of evolution. Clerics believe that he connected bacteria, like space travel, to the existence of God.// [[Return|Man was not made to be quiet.]]