Interstellar Text Message:
Fm: ~~@##@**@@^^..@~##’’~ .’~~
To: Professor Gerald Osbourne.
C/O Leeds University, UK, Earth, Sol, Orion Spur, Western Arm.
Sorry about the delay in getting back to you, it’s been mental this end! I’ve just returned from the conference at Pleiades. One of the topics of discussion was Earth, incidentally.
I’ve got the information you asked for, it’s taken from an old xenozoology report, I’ll send that through now:
Origins Of The Human Being.
Homo Sapiens Sapiens (Cro-Magnon, early human) first appeared at the southern equatorial fringes of the great African Rift Valley. It soon spread throughout the African continent and subsequently crossed into Europe and Asia. On entering Europe, it encountered Earth’s other advanced hominid: Neanderthal.
Cro-Magnon, few in number and detested by Neanderthal, was hunted down and almost pushed to extinction on that continent.
Then something inexplicable occurred:
The loss of conscious telepathy precipitated changes in Cro-Magnon. It was forced to evolve more advanced forms of spoken and written language and evolve a form of self-aware thought, unique unto itself. With these developments it became possible to propagate new ideas quickly, and to articulate more abstract notions. Cro-Magnon, now modern human, developed better and deadlier weapons, and it perfected the art of deception.
To the other hominids, the human had become a shadowy and fearsome adversary and invincible in battle.
Eventually the human stood alone as the sole hominid species on Earth; and alone as the sole non-telepathic intelligence in the galaxy.