Music is a universal language. Well, that is not completely true. There is more than one standard of music theory depending on where you are from in the world. The point is, we can still understand another human culture’s music. We can even love and respect another human culture’s music. Now, in the spirit of the brilliant film, Arrival, imagine a process for understanding one another that takes precedence over all else that we may hope to accomplish with a First Contact. We are already working on this. SETI has found a way to communicate with Humpback whales. To really have a legitimate conversation. In their wisdom, SETI realizes that the processes for learning communication is something that we must study in advance of the event of a First Contact. I would be mistaken to say that this is the only reason SETI sought this project out. SETI is a scientific community, and this was a scientific project. The often-misguided media around SETI always assumes: because aliens.
What we can learn from music is a harmony of source dialect. As Spock points out in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, all Vulcans learn music for its mathematical properties. Perhaps this element of science fiction can teach us something that we should be attuned to. If an alien race were to make First Contact, but only speak in a harmonic tongue, we would require a conductor to manage a team of composers. We would need to be careful not to be subjective in our interpretations. Precision would be paramount.
What would such a species seek to teach us? What would they want from our encounter? Would it be a simple greeting and welcoming into the unknown? Would such a species be unique among spacefaring humanoids? One can easily imagine how they may not be. One can look back on the development of language and perceive a possibility where music may have become primary over speech. It is believed that humans first communicated in sign language before spoken language was developed. However, it can easily be imagined that such a culture that early in human development had music. What was to stop them from developing that as primary in communication? What was to stop them? It seems it would have made communication with other neighboring communities easier if they all spoke within a musical dia-matrix.
It is easy to assume that communication would be central to this First Contact. Understanding. Forming the beginning of a relationship. However, why should we assume this crossing over into a new communication would be all they desired? Perhaps they would want to learn about our culture, our languages, our social developments and histories. Our cultural mores. This might even lead to an exchange in technology. Certainly, we would not have technology superior to theirs, but we do not know what they would value or assign worth to. They may feel that they could take a great deal from what we take for granted. With that in mind, we could gain a great deal from their exchange of technological innovations. It might even help us grow our cultural footprint outside of our immediate solar system. The possibilities are rather endless.
Whatever the benefits we could find ourselves with, it all came about from our first seeking to understand their musical tongue. And that only came about because we maintained studies in the arts and humanities. Art helped to allow our species to grow technologically. Art helped us communicate with an alien species with First Contact. Art is to thank for it all. Never be dismissive of the power of the arts and the mastering of artistic techniques as a lifelong profession, obsession, and skill building occupation as being central to what it means to be human. To have art is to be human. And it was being human that allowed us this successful First Contact.
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