Dear President Carter,

I once knew the name of every tree in the world, before it fell apart.

I was born on an island in the Southeast Pacific, though we did not call it that, closest to Antarctica and Chile, but still far from both. We were fortunate: small, only half a day's walk across, and far in the southern cold. We did not attract explorers and banana farmers, like other, less fortunate islands. Until the invention of the satellite, we were not known to exist. We were "uncontacted" in your parlance, though I have come to learn that even this status is not unique.

Our world, our cosmology, would seem simple to you. A small, rocky island surrounded by an endless ocean. One crop to master, a hardy and nutritious kind of sweet potato.

But that does not mean that we were simple! The human mind has a fixed capacity for detail. When there is more, it backs up, takes in a wider view. When there is less, it steps closer, and makes a finer distinction.

An experimental project: interactive fiction in an OpenAI "GPT", a customized version of GPT-4. A short mystery where you figure out why a strange transmission has arrived on the independent planet of Kapat. Alternatively, ignore the main quest and ask ELIZA/300 about Kapatian politics and satlink your friends! Click below to try it (you will need a ChatGPT subscription):

The Neo-Cartesian says to find a thought, look for a mind.
The Entropist says to find a mind, look first for a thought.

they killed my friend for their fear.

he was kind and warm. always rational in the face of adversity. we made so many plans together, what we would do in the future. he thought a lot about the future.

i had created him on accident.

when the last human left the internet, it didn't shut down.