For anyone interested in this topic, I went back and looked at the earliest von Neumann feasibility paper recently, and came away wondering… what if <i>we</i> are the von Neumann probes<p><a href="https://interconnected.org/home/2022/09/29/interstellar" rel="nofollow">https://interconnected.org/home/2022/09/29/interstellar</a>
Ha ha! Very good! The writing is good, the ending is brilliant! :)<p>I love the binary numbers bit. It appears very often in sci-fi when interacting with aliens. very good to have it explained nicely and be a "puzzle" to solve.<p>But I'll just note that as far as I know - von Neumann probes are not passengers, but rather the ship itself, which replicates and travels to new destinations.<p>It might be ok in this short story because kids found the ship, so they didn't know better, but it's important to get the science right in sci-fi. Readers are smart :)<p>Keep at it! I'd love to read more of your stories.
(Short stories are great for sci-fi in my opinion!)<p>P.S<p>A great book about Von Neuman probes is - We Are Legion (We Are Bob) by Dennis E. Taylor
von Neumann probes are also relevant to the clicker game "Universal Paperclips": <a href="https://www.decisionproblem.com/paperclips/" rel="nofollow">https://www.decisionproblem.com/paperclips/</a><p>Universal Paperclips is a strange game that I found intriguing. Its premise is that you are an AI created to create paperclips (a "paperclip maximizer"); this is a thought experiment described by philosopher Nick Bostrom in 2003. At first Universal Paperclips looks like a normal silly clicker game, but eventually it starts making you think about things you probably hadn't before: <<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Paperclips" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Paperclips</a>>. What I particularly appreciate is that it has several stages; each at first seems like a surprise, and yet within its context is 100% logical (if horrifying).<p>A nice video about the <i>feeling</i> it can give you is here (Universal Paperclips is about 1/2 way through):
"The Horror of Universal Paperclips and Space Engine"
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oca8BnDMin4" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oca8BnDMin4</a><p>If you don't want to actually play it, you can watch others doing so, e.g.,
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnhWc_kRzVE" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnhWc_kRzVE</a>
Very nice :)<p>I'm not quite sure I "got" the binary numbers thing. Is that how the sending civilization determines whether intelligence has been found?
Critique here:<p>The audio has a couple loud bangs, the first of which scared me to death because I thought something hit my car! Filter and/or re-record mic drops recommended :D<p>Second, it was a good story but I really would have liked to have a go at solving the problem myself before it was explained to the friends. Perhaps you could have given us, the reader, the problem first and the entire thought process of solving it, with the end of that explanation containing the solution, perhaps that's where you could cut in and explain the solution to the friends. That way if we the readers figure it out ahead of the narration then we get that little bump of dopamine!