Contact - Carl Sagan [91]
"Look, Vaygay, they know from our television transmissions that the Earth rotates, and that there are many different nations. The Olympic broadcast alone might have told them that. Subsequent transmissions from other nations would have nailed it down. So if they're as good as we think, they could have phased the transmission with the Earth's rotation, so only one nation got the Message. They chose not to do that. They want the Message to be received by everybody on the planet. They're expecting the Machine to be built by the whole planet. This can't be an all American or an all Russian project. It's not what our…client wants."
But she was not sure, she told him, that she would be playing any role in decisions on Machine construction or crew selection. She was returning to the United States the next day, mainly to get on top of the new radio data from the past few weeks. The Consortium plenary sessions seemed interminable, and no closing date had been set. Vaygay had been asked by his people to stay on at least a little longer. The Foreign Minister had just arrived and was now leading the Soviet delegation.
"I'm worried all this will end badly," he said. "There are so many things that can go wrong. Technological failures. Political failures. Human failures. And even if we get through all that, if we don't have a war because of the Machine, if we build it correctly and without blowing ourselves up, I'm still worried."
"About what? How do you mean?"
"The best that can happen is we will be made fools of."
"Who will?"
"Arroway, don't you understand?" A vein in Lunacharsky's neck throbbed. "I'm amazed you don't see it. The Earth is a…ghetto. Yes, a ghetto. All human beings are trapped here. We have heard vaguely that there are big cities out there beyond the ghetto, with broad boulevards filled with droshkys and beautiful perfumed women in furs. But the cities are too far away, and we are too poor ever to go there, even the richest of us. Anyway, we know they don't want us. That's why they've left us in this pathetic little village in the first place.
"And now along comes an invitation. As Xi said. Fancy, elegant. They have sent us an engraved card and an empty droshky. We are to send five villagers and the droshky will carry them to-who knows?-Warsaw. Or Moscow. Maybe even Paris. Of course, some are tempted to go. There will always be people who are flattered by the invitation, or who think it is a way to escape our shabby village.
"And what do you think will happen when we get there? Do you think the Grand Duke will have us to dinner? Will the President of the Academy ask us interesting questions about daily life in our filthy shtetl? Do you imagine the Russian Orthodox Metropolitan will engage us in learned discourse on comparative religion?
"No, Arroway. We will gawk at the big city, and they will laugh at us behind their hands. They will exhibit us to the curious. The more backward we are the better they'll feel, the more reassured they'll be.
"It's a quota system. Every few centuries, five of us get to spend a weekend on Vega. Have pity on the provincials, and make sure they know who their betters are."
CHAPTER 13
Babylon
With the basest of companions, I walked the streets of Babylon…
-AUGUSTINE Confessions, II, 3
THE CRAY 21 mainframe computer