Excerpt from The Official NASA Procedures for Contact with Intelligent Extraterrestrial Life © National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Department of Extraterrestrial Affairs, 2029 (Classification Level AAA)

FAILURE TO COMMUNICATE

A cautionary note: Any IEL we encounter may be from a civilization so radically different from ours that our systems of communication are indecipherable to each other. Perhaps we simply won’t be able to understand their language, or maybe they will communicate in a way so alien to us that we will be unable to even process it.^I In this case, it may take a great deal of time to establish a rapport, although in time our top scientists will certainly be able to figure it out. In cases like this, do not get frustrated—and certainly do not take your frustrations out on the IEL. Instead, do your best to convey kindness, friendliness, and excitement that contact has been made.

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I. For example, they might use a range of the aural or visual spectrum that we can’t detect, or communicate using senses that we don’t even possess.