Expedition Galaxy: Earth : 2025 : Day 002

Earth : 2025 : Day 002

Today, I achieved a research milestone in this peculiar world that humans call Earth. I discovered that there is indeed a system for acquiring nourishment, but it operates through a curious token based barter system called “money”.

Upon further inspection of my travel package, I realized it includes both instructions and a communication device that was left at my residence that is proving to be most helpful in understanding my surroundings. However, I am having to transcribe these characters carefully, as my translator is having difficulties. My stipend appears to be accessible through flat rectangles with representations of structures and sustenance on them called “debt cards” and “gift cards.”

When I chose the expedition package for touring Earth, I opted for the travel package most similar to what humans on this planet appear to favor; it is called “working class.” The package did come with warnings, however, once my initial stipend of tokens is depleted, I will have no choice but to rely on the goodwill of my neighbors or secure something called a “job.”

I could have had different accessories and activities had I chosen a different package. Evidently, life on Earth is a completely different experience if I had chosen a package that included a rectangle called an “apple”. It includes something called blue bubbles that evidently indicate social status within human hierarchy. I ended up deciding to choose the package that included a rectangular item called an android. It seems to malfunction somewhat frequently. Whether this is due to design or user error will require further research.

This “job” that I must find is evidently the means by which humans obtain more money and gift cards for trading necessities. So far, the most important things for my survival here appear to be a job, money, and gift cards.

The instructions seem very vague, unclear, and somewhat contradictory, as they explain it would prove difficult to obtain a job since I am what is called an undocumented resident. Yet the instructions also advise not to necessarily share that information with my neighbors.

I find this an oddly inefficient system for welcoming newcomers. Neither of the options presented, relying on neighbors or procuring a “job,” seem immediately attainable to me. I do not know my neighbors, and even if I did, I could not tell them why I cannot get this thing called a “job.” Still, I am intrigued, for it seems to hold the key to sustaining life on Earth. I wonder what it looks like.

While I do not yet know any humans personally, I do know where humans gather. Tomorrow, I plan to visit the green area nestled within the gray composite material. The humans who camp there appear to live a most pleasurable existence, enjoying the great outdoors without apparent concern, some drinking that liquid and calling out. Perhaps they have jobs! That makes perfect sense! Of course, they will have insights into how one might obtain a job. They can spend so much time there because they have acquired jobs.

One curious observation puzzles me. The humans who camp outside do not share the same features as those who move purposefully between transport vessels and structures. Nor do they resemble Jimmy Carter, or at least how he was presented him from the images I had seen previously. Yet the campers and the time advanced Jimmy Carter I saw when I arrived at the information station do share a certain similarity, a quality absent in the hurried humans moving about. They seem to be reducing in energy over time. This must be related to their jobs. Is the purpose of humanity to procure a job and then begin the process of decomposition? That hardly seems likely… does it?