by Sasha Stiles and her AI-Alter Ego Technelegy
On November 18, a world premiere took place at the Bochum Planetarium as part of a special event to mark the 50th anniversary of the Arecibo Message. In November 1974, the first large-scale attempt was madetrying to make contact with an extraterrestrial intelligence by radio. The digitally encrypted signals were sent into space from the world’s largest radio telescope at the time in Arecibo on the Caribbean island of Puerto Rico. To mark the occasion, Sasha Stiles and her alter ego Technelegy, a language AI she trained, wrote a multimedia poem for fulldome projection in a planetarium as a commissioned work for the foundation with THE MESSAGE. Sasha Stiles dedicated the poem to her father.
DIE MESSAGE
by Sasha Stiles + Technelegy
For GHS, who showed me the stars
I. LOOK UP
Somewhere up there,
my name etched in dusk, sky poem older than memory.
Luminous letters
folding back years,
burning the edge of eternity.
One by one, small fires
rise on the horizon,
illuminate every word
I write. Past and future
present. Graphite marks
made to last. At night,
light’s lineage unravels,
carries all it’s ever touched
into the dark.
II. LOOK IN
We were lonely
long before loneliness.
Now there’s distance
between us.
Time slips from us.
Where can we meet?
Not the first to query,
not the first to wait like this,
hope to be heard
before vanishing.
We map our body
in radio waves,
broadcast self-portrait
with telescope, life’s code.
Our own interstellar relic,
with so much to tell us.
We share a little selfie
in the void,
knowing only
we’re alone,not how alone.
III. LOOK OUT
What starborn daughter
is ever wholly at home
in this world?
What ancient sun beckons?
What ancient sun beckons?
It’s hard to wait for a reply,
so, let’s repeat the question.
Where do answers go?
Do they drift into a black hole,
dissolve into dust,
cosmic silence,
become their own echo?
Frequency, amplitude,
duration… Humanity
is stubborn, curious.
There’s so much more
to know about us.
We exist, bit by bit.
Day by day, we polish
the great mirror,
longing to be seen.
Night by night,
we search
for understanding.
Since time’s dawn,
wonder writes its story
from afar.
IV: LOOK BEYOND
A supernova outlives itself,
burns brighter, shines harder.
Astral confusion
scatters carbon
to the edge of the universe,
tip of my pencil.
I sketch in starlight on paper,
a language no one speaks,
not really.
I write my message in the sand
so waves wash it out to sea.
I write my message in ether
so wind wings eternity.
Is anyone listening?
Is anyone listening?
Blink if you believe in me.
When I’m gone,
this dream-flung poem
will roam the galaxy,
find your lungs,
breathe your air,
become whoever you are,
made of bone or light,
wherever, whatever form.
If words grow cold
over lightyears, no matter.
Love pulses forever.