A False Encounter: An Interspecies Martian Tale

This project concerns a fictional scenario in which an AI rover encounters an alien life form
in the crevices of a Martian rock. The seconds in which this encounter takes place are
mysteriously wiped out from the rover’s Pancam metadata. It is speculated that this was
a conscious decision, perhaps in an attempt to keep this moment in secret, safe from human
knowledge. By employing standard research techniques along with interviews with experts
in the field, as well as speculative fiction methods, the present paper attempts to explore
two main ideas: the possibility of interplanetary multispecies coexistence (beyond the presence
of humans), and a prediction of a future episode of AI/digital dissidence. Could machines be
inspired by humanist literature in their quest for consciousness? Could machines find new
ways to achieve solidarity with other nonhuman biological entities? Could their disobedience be
more humane than the values of the humans who programmed them?