"These considerations lead me to believe that the first human interaction with extraterrestrial life will consist of contact with organisms similar to, if not identical to, earth bacteria or viruses.
...
It is living, breathing, walking, and talking. Only we cannot see it, because it is happening too slowly. Rock has a lifespan of three billion years. We have a lifespan of sixty or seventy years. We cannot see what is happening to this rock for the same reason that we cannot make out the tune on a record being played at the rate of one revolution every century.
...
The rock, for its part, is not even
aware of our existence because
we are alive for only a brief
instant of its lifespan. To
it, we are like flashes
in the dark.
aware of our existence because
we are alive for only a brief
instant of its lifespan. To
it, we are like flashes
in the dark.
..."
- Michael Chrichton (1942 - 2008)
The Andromeda Strain
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