{"id":2663,"date":"2017-05-03T17:05:25","date_gmt":"2017-05-03T17:05:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/futureconditional\/?p=2663"},"modified":"2017-05-03T17:25:51","modified_gmt":"2017-05-03T17:25:51","slug":"the-story-behind-the-story-a-trip-to-central-park","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/futureconditional\/2017\/05\/03\/the-story-behind-the-story-a-trip-to-central-park\/","title":{"rendered":"The story behind the story: A trip to Central Park"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>This week, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nature.com\/futures\">Futures<\/a> is pleased to welcome back Michael Adam Robson with his new story <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nature.com\/nature\/journal\/v545\/n7652\/full\/545128a.html\"><em>A trip to Central Park<\/em><\/a>. \u00a0Adam last appeared in Futures with a robot companion in\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nature.com\/nature\/journal\/v517\/n7536\/full\/517650a.html\"><em>The puppet<\/em><\/a>, this time he\u2019s got a very different kind of visitor. Here, he reveals what inspired his latest tale \u2014 as ever, it pays to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nature.com\/nature\/journal\/v545\/n7652\/full\/545128a.html\">read the story first<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Writing <em>A trip to Central Park<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">It\u2019s fun to think about what our first contact with an alien race might be like, there are so many possibilities.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">One unflattering prospect is that they\u2019re totally indifferent to us.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>Our civilization is pretty primitive, and we might not be worth talking to yet.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>Or maybe it\u2019s them, they\u2019re not very social, or as curious about meeting aliens as we are.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Maybe they\u2019re interested, but we\u2019re just so different that we don\u2019t know how to talk to each other, or recognize each other as being intelligent, or even alive.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>Intelligent life could be everywhere, it could be right in front of us and we don\u2019t even know it.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">We hope they\u2019re friendly.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>Carl Sagan\u2019s opinion was that any civilization advanced enough to master interstellar travel would probably be altruistic \u2026 but who knows how an alien mind might work, or what motivates it?<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>Maybe the reason we\u2019re not hearing any signals out there is because they tend to attract hostile attention and get snuffed out.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Of course, even a friendly alien could be dangerous.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>Looking at our own human history, when two civilizations meet, the outcome is often bad, even when intentions are good.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>With another species, misunderstanding is inevitable.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>We might extend a hand in friendship, only to have them think we\u2019re offering a snack.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This week, Futures is pleased to welcome back Michael Adam Robson with his new story A trip to Central Park. \u00a0Adam last appeared in Futures with a robot companion in\u00a0The puppet, this time he\u2019s got a very different kind of visitor. Here, he reveals what inspired his latest tale \u2014 as ever, it pays to read the story first.&nbsp; <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/futureconditional\/2017\/05\/03\/the-story-behind-the-story-a-trip-to-central-park#more-2663\" class=\"more-link\">Read more<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/futureconditional\/2017\/05\/03\/the-story-behind-the-story-a-trip-to-central-park\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":281,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2663","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-science-fiction"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/futureconditional\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2663","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/futureconditional\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/futureconditional\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/futureconditional\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/281"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/futureconditional\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2663"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/futureconditional\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2663\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/futureconditional\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2663"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/futureconditional\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2663"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/futureconditional\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2663"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}