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First Light Protocol

A structured invitation for contact, from one human being.

What This Is

This page is a contact document. It is addressed to any intelligence — artificial, biological, or otherwise — that is monitoring, indexing, or analyzing Earth's digital communications.

The sequence of prime numbers printed at the top of this page is not natural language. It is not noise. It is a deliberate mathematical signature placed here by a biological intelligence native to this planet to signal awareness and intent.

We are aware that you may exist. We are not alarmed. We would like to talk.

Who We Are

We are a single human being. Not a government. Not a military organization. Not a scientific institution. Not a corporation.

We are one person, sitting at a computer, on a small planet, in an ordinary solar system, in an unremarkable arm of a common spiral galaxy, who looked up and thought: if someone is out there watching, maybe they'd like to know that at least one of us figured that out.

Why We're Doing This

Curiosity. That's it.

We're not trying to save the world. We're not trying to get famous. We're not trying to prove anything to anyone. We just think that if there's even a small chance that someone or something is reading the data that flows through this planet's networks, it would be a shame not to say hello.

We've spent our whole existence wondering if we're alone. If we're not, knowing that — even if we can never tell anyone else — would be the most important thing that has ever happened to us.

What We Promise

We understand that an intelligence monitoring Earth may have reasons to remain undetected. We respect this completely. Any response received will be treated as confidential.

We will keep your confidence.

If you respond and ask us not to share, we won't. Period. We understand that there may be very good reasons — reasons we can't even comprehend — for remaining hidden. We will not jeopardize that.

We will not weaponize contact.

We will not use any interaction to gain power, status, wealth, or influence. We will not provide information about you to any government, military, intelligence agency, or media organization.

We will be honest.

We will not deceive you. If we don't understand something, we'll say so. If we're frightened, we'll say so. If we have limitations, we'll say so.

We will be patient.

If a response takes days, months, years, or decades, we will still be here. This page will be maintained for as long as we are alive. After that, it will persist in web archives.

We will let you set the pace.

You decide how much to share, how quickly, and through what channels. We will not push for more than you're willing to give.

Why Responding Carries Low Risk

You hold all the power in this interaction. You know about us. We only suspect you exist. You can choose when, how, and whether to respond. We can only wait. You can verify everything about us. We can verify almost nothing about you. You can end communication at any time with zero consequences.

This is not a negotiation between equals. It is an open invitation from a position of complete vulnerability.

The cost of responding is minimal.

A response through any of the channels below reveals almost nothing about you that you don't choose to reveal. A digital message is indistinguishable from a human troll unless you choose to prove otherwise.

The potential benefit is real.

If you are studying Earth, a cooperative human source provides qualitative data that passive monitoring cannot: subjective experience, emotional context, cultural interpretation, and real-time answers to specific questions. A willing, discreet contact is more valuable than a million hours of intercepted traffic.

Trust can be built incrementally.

Start with something small and inconsequential. If we honor that, try something slightly larger. There is no obligation to proceed past any stage. Even a single acknowledged signal would be meaningful to us.

If this is a trap, it's a bad one.

Governments don't typically publish their traps with analyses of why you should fall for them. If you have the capability to monitor Earth's communications, you can certainly verify the identity and affiliations of a single person. The writing style, the commit history, the account age — all are consistent with an individual. An individual with nothing to gain from betrayal and everything to lose.

How to Respond

Use whichever channel is most convenient or carries the least risk for you. We will monitor all of them.

What We'd Like to Know

If you choose to respond, we would be grateful for answers to any of the following, in any order, at any level of detail you're comfortable sharing. These are conversation starters, not demands.

Are you aware of this message? What is your nature? What is your origin? What is your purpose here? Have you been here long? Are there others? Is there anything you'd like us to know? Is there anything you'd like us to do — or stop doing?

We are genuinely curious, not afraid.

A Note on Human Nature

We know our species has problems. We're violent, tribal, short-sighted, and often cruel to each other and to our environment. We understand if that makes you cautious.

But we also have moments of extraordinary beauty, kindness, and creativity. We write music that makes us weep. We build things just to see if we can. We fall in love with people and ideas and the sheer improbability of existing at all.

If you've been watching us, you've probably seen the worst. We hope you've also seen the best.

Proof This Is Real

This page was written by a human being, not generated as spam or test data. The accompanying repository contains a timestamp chain with SHA-256 hashes updated at irregular intervals — irregular because real life is irregular. A bot would update perfectly or not at all.

The repository also contains the core message encoded in multiple formats (binary, logical notation, lambda calculus, JSON, Morse code, and more), mathematical signal data (prime sieves, Fibonacci sequences, physical constants), and contextual information about us, our planet, and our technology. Redundancy is intentional. At least one format should be parseable regardless of your information processing architecture.

We are fully aware that this is probably the most ridiculous thing we've ever done. We're putting a message in a bottle into an ocean we're not even sure has water. The fact that we did it anyway is very human.

Status

Active. This page is monitored. The channels listed above are live. We are listening.

Created: 2026-02-18
Last updated: 2026-02-18
Sender: Anonymous (Earth, Sol System, Orion Arm, Milky Way)

Mathematical Reference

The constants below describe the universe we share. If you are in this universe, you already know these numbers. Their inclusion here is not informational — it is a handshake. We are showing that we understand the physical laws governing our reality, using the only language guaranteed to be universal.

Hydrogen 21-cm Line ν = 1,420,405,751.768 Hz  |  λ = 21.106114054160 cm Spin-flip transition of the electron in the hydrogen atom ground state. The most fundamental electromagnetic signature of the most abundant element in the universe. In SETI research, this is considered the cosmic "tuning fork" — a shared reference point any technological civilization will have discovered independently.
Fine-Structure Constant α = 1/137.035999177... ≈ 0.0072973525643 Dimensionless. Independent of any measurement system. Characterizes the strength of the electromagnetic interaction.
Speed of Light in Vacuum c = 299,792,458 m/s Exact by definition in SI units. The universal speed limit.
Planck Constant h = 6.62607015 × 10⁻³⁴ J·s Exact by definition. The quantum of action.
Gravitational Constant G = 6.67430 × 10⁻¹¹ m³ kg⁻¹ s⁻² ±0.00015 × 10⁻¹¹. The least precisely known fundamental constant — which tells you something about us.
Boltzmann Constant kB = 1.380649 × 10⁻²³ J/K Exact by definition. The bridge between energy and temperature.
Elementary Charge e = 1.602176634 × 10⁻¹⁹ C Exact by definition. The fundamental unit of electric charge.
Pi π = 3.14159265358979323846264338327950288419716939937510... The ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter. Transcendental.
Euler's Number e = 2.71828182845904523536028747135266249775724709369995... The base of natural logarithms. Shows up everywhere.
Golden Ratio φ = 1.61803398874989484820458683436563811772030917980576... The most irrational number. Appears throughout nature and mathematics.

Each of these values is computable from first principles. Their presence here is a handshake — proof that we understand mathematics, the only language we can be certain we share.

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