[ WP ] Arthur C. Clarke said that `` Two possibilities exist : either we are alone in the universe or we are not . Both are equally terrifying . '' What he did n't know is that there is a third possibility ...

Professor Ketner entered the main objective area and started typing at the console. Then I heard the charicteristic \*shick-chick\* of a pump action shotgun. Then Blam! Blam! Blam! Blam! 
 
 Nobody was hurt except Ketner, he was tackled to the ground once he stopped shooting. 
 
 The entire linear array was just _gone_. Nothing but splintered optics and the kind of arcing you see in sci-fi movies. The enormous power focused on the array finished the job with inductive heating before someone shut it down. Ketner had turned off just the right safeties. He'd been planing this for days. 
 
 `` Years of work gone, Ray. Why?'' 
 
 `` Check my office. We must not be seen.'' 
 
 What the hell did that mean? The cops would n't let me get close enough to ask another question. So I snuck off to Ketner's office. 
 
 Now I am good at math, we all are, but Ketner is a genius. His office is filled with printouts from his white board. The summaries are still on the boards themselves. 
 
 It takes me a while to puzzle it out. According to the work there's a quantum function governing the complexity of molecular bonding. It runs right through the `` other non-metals'', the elements most necessary for life. Further there is only one stable state above third order complexity possible in the universe at any one time once the wave function is collapsed. 
 
 I know that's bad, but I'm not sure why exactly. 
 
 Finally I find the cheat sheet. `` The universe can only sustain the molecular complexity for life in one region. But it does n't know which until the wave function is reduced by observation.'' 
 
 I think through the hints and conversations of the last few weeks. 
 
 There may be multiple places where complex life may exist, even simultaneously. But if we find any such place either we or it must cease to exist. The disfavored locality would be down-converted to _maybe_ a nebula of alcohol or some other repeating simple carbon compound. 
 
 Well that explain's the fricken Drake equation and The Great Filter. The universe may be filled with life. There could be civilizations anywhere. But if you find any, or it finds you, \*poof! \*. 
 
 That explains why Ketner destroyed the FTL sensor array before it could be activated. We need to stop the search for extraterrestrial life and start figuring out how to mask our existence. 
 
 Regardless of whether we're alone or not, we have to pretend we are alone and hope nothing tries to find _us_. 
 
 Alone or not alone? Equally terrifying? Fuck you Clark. A whole universe and we have to hide from all of it, and pray we're alone.
