Contact across the Solar System

"Why didn't you contact us earlier?"

Cristina leaned forward and pointed a finger at Orthon. He was startled at how strongly Cristina confronted him. "Let me get to the $64,000 question," she said.
"Why didn't the SSC contact us earlier? Not necessarily you, Orthon, but the SSC in general. We could have used your help a hell of a long time ago. Our history has had a huge amount of misery. Misery after misery after misery. Entirely preventable misery. I could spend several days talking about all the miseries that we've had to suffer, so I will focus on just one little bit of it."
"In my high-school years, I did a school project on the suffragettes in my nation and elsewhere. These were activists who pressed for women's right to vote. As I learned more about them, I learned about their amazing courage, and I became deeply impressed with them. They were fighting for a basic right in a democracy -- voting -- and they got jailed and they went on hunger strikes. I don't know if I could have done what they did, but I sometimes think of them in some of my own struggles."

"It wasn't just voting that women were often denied in the past. It was all sorts of things. Education, careers, leadership, you name it. Fortunately, that has changed, but it took a LOT of struggle to do so. When some women became antislavery activists way back when, some male fellow activists didn't like them speaking or doing anything more than low-level activism stuff. So these women became feminist activists. And so it was back in the Sixties, when many female activists discovered that many male activists wanted the same sort of thing out of them."

"Another thing. Some of your female residents in past centuries passed as men so they could have more freedom. Sometimes a lot more freedom. What a thing to have to go through. Why should it be necessary?"

"I think I'll stop here. I must repeat my question. Why didn't you contact us earlier?"

Orthon thought a while, then responded "Several reasons."
Cristina said "Could you please list them so I can write them down? I'd like to go over them one by one."
Orthon did, and Cristina wrote them down.
"Thanks," she said. "I appreciate your helping me here. Looks like a lot of territory to cover."

She checked her notes for anything related to those reasons, and she then said "Let's go over them."
"First, the Founders apparently didn't want you to contact us for a long time, though they allowed covert visits. What reason might there be for that?"
Orthon responded "The Founders continue to be an enigma for us. They are the ones who brought our ancestors to our homes in the worlds. Why they did it continues to be a mystery to us because the Founders do not communicate very much with us. The Founders have been responsible for much of our advancement, though it has mostly been by gentle nudging. They want us to do most of the work, as far as we can tell."
Ilmuth said "A good analogy is with your movie '2001: A Space Odyssey'. The Founders are like those mysterious black slabs that show up here and there in it. Very powerful, involved with humanity, but very aloof from us. They do hardly any communication with us. In the movie, there is a hint that these black slabs were involved in humanity's emergence, and the Founders have also given us some hints that they were responsible for doing that. They haven't been very forthcoming about details, however."
"So they genetically engineered us into existence? Without their meddling, we'd still be monkeys?" asked Cristina.
"That's more-or-less it, as far as we can tell. Just like those black slabs in that movie."
"But whatever they are doing, they've allowed you to contact us now."
"Yeah, but I don't want to speculate about that. They don't talk very much about themselves."
"I'd like to talk to those Founders. If at all possible. Tell them that I have a lot to talk about. A lot of questions for them."
"Good luck. We've tried, and we've never been very successful."

Cristina turned to the next reason. "Another one is wanting us to develop at our own pace until we are sufficiently mature, we as a society. Sort of like Star Trek's Prime Directive."
She continued "I don't know what to say about that. I really don't. Colonization has been devastating to many societies, but Western society has produced a lot of very nice things, and I would never want to turn my back on such things. Back in my anti-espionager days, I wrote an article praising Japan for escaping Western colonization but nevertheless adopting much of Western culture. They adopted much of our social organization, and they learned our science, and a lot of other stuff, while still keeping their cultural identity and many of their traditions. Yes, they adopted Western science but not Western religion."

She then said "The next reason is that improving Earth-people society would require a major effort, and it would be hard to recruit enough people for that task. Orthon, could you please explain in more detail?"
He checked his laptop and he said "That is indeed correct. We have considered that in the past, but it would take a lot of people, and what I have to say about us is rather unflattering."
Cristina responded "Orthon, it's great that you've confessed that."
Orthon continued "Not many of us would be willing to volunteer for such a task. They would live on a planet whose inhabitants have very backward technology, inhabitants who are very nasty and hostile, inhabitants who would likely be resentful of our efforts to educate and reform them."
"We figured that we would have to do that with contacts involving our technology, because we could not in good conscience let our technologies be used for wars and oppression and misery."
Kalna added "Just to name one example. Wernher von Braun. He wanted to develop rockets for getting into outer space, but what he got support for was attacking other nations. First Germany supported him for that, then the United States."
Orthon said "We did think of setting up colonies in various places on your planet, and using them as nuclei for a reformed Earth civilization. But that had problems of its own, like our technology leaking out and being used for military conquest and oppression. So we were stuck watching helplessly."

Cristina looked over her list and said "Another reason on your list is that many people of the Solar System Community consider Earth people backward and uncouth."
Orthon looked very embarrassed. "I'm ... it's something that I'm very reluctant to talk about."
"Since you mentioned it, I hope you can."
"I find it very ... embarrassing."
"Please try. I hope you can try."
"Very well. Some of us despise Earth people as dirty and violent and dangerous and amoral and superstitious and just about every bad thing that one can imagine."
"Sounds horrible," said Cristina.
Ilmuth said "Yes, there are a lot of anti-contacters. I have some video of some of them."
She then showed Kudelimi ranting about how Earth visitors would defile the worlds and how horrible it is that Orthon and his friends went ahead with contacts even though they concede everything that the anti-contacters have to say.
Cristina asked "What did she say about me?"
Ilmuth said "I'm warning you that she may say something very disquieting. It's about mind reading."
Cristina steeled herself and said "I think I'm ready."
Ilmuth then showed Kudelimi denouncing Cristina as illogical and flaky and then saying that she'd love to read Cristina's mind.
Cristina shook her head sadly. "So I have haters in the SSC also. What does she hate about me?"
"No idea. She thinks that you're hopelessly irrational or something like that."

Cristina continued "Another one on your list is a very weird one. Orthon, you say that some of your fellow SSC people are rather superstitious about contacting the people of my world. Could you please explain?"
Orthon checked his laptop and said "Sure thing. Some of us think that the Earth suffers from some sort of curse, some curse that makes its inhabitants suffer misfortune after misfortune after misfortune."
"So some of the SSC people believe that the Earth is jinxed or something? That the Earth generates bad luck or something like that?"
Orthon said "Yes, some of us seem to believe that. It's weird, but it's true. That's what some of us think about why Earth people seem so backward. Not many of us, but some of us. But that theory got support, if you want to call it that, from the Kinden Tarupa crash."

Cristina then said "I think I'm finished with this subject. Thank you for bearing with me. I can't help it if I seem to put you on the spot, but there's a lot that needed to be said. You've been so so helpful to me in answering my questions. Not just to me, but to everybody on Earth, and I'm sure in the SSC."