On a ridge top overlooking Los Angeles, a team of alien cryptographers are busy deciphering messages encoded in streams of light that circulate the city at night. I try explaining how those are like transport vessels, indirectly responsible for carrying genetic information from one generation to the next ..and thinking how âevolvedâ that mustâve sounded. They look at me with undecipherable expressions and I feel deflated ..like they saw right through that attempt at impression-formation. I hear them say it would take as many as four planets to sustain the level of eco-plundering they see. I imagine how threatened they must feel ..like weâre inter-planetary-expansionists or something. I try to explain that weâre really not like that ..we make progress more by stumbling around than by calculation. Another round of indecipherable expressions and I suddenly feel like I just admitted to whatever it was I was trying to deny. I try backing-up to start over again when I realize how pointless that would be ..they communicate telepathically. My thoughts are clearer to them than what I say ..same as my doubts and fears. They donât need invasive devices to probe my brain ..theyâve got a system of highly evolved sensors doing that.