Sagan uses the "First Contact" scenario to examine how different segments of society—science, religion, and government—respond to the unknown.
: How the sheer scale of building "The Machine" necessitates an end to Cold War squabbles and the development of "Machindo" (the Way of the Machine). Contact Carl Sagan Epub
The inciting incident of Contact —the reception of a signal from the star Vega—is meticulously crafted. Unlike the pulpy "invasions" of earlier science fiction, Sagan’s scenario is grounded in the protocols of SETI. The signal is not an audio greeting, but a complex series of pulses that, upon decryption, reveal the blueprint for a Machine. Sagan uses the "First Contact" scenario to examine
