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Plot twist: when they get to the location, they find a similar plate already there from the last time earthlings climbed out of the mud.



And after decoding and translating it starts with "We're no strangers to love..."


…but the reading device (not a microscope but some unrecognizable tech) did not survive.


> not a microscope but some unrecognizable tech

But that is the beauty of a microscope. It is not some “unrecognizable tech”. Seeing tiny things in detail is a basic skill many new civilisations can re-discover on their own. It doesn’t matter if it is our human descendants, smart octopuses or the silurians. They will be interested in seeing tiny things and thus they will construct their equivalent of microscopes.

The important thing is sign-posting. How will they know where to look?


Why would octopuses be interested in seeing tiny things?


If they develop a civilization, they'll want to develop technology that requires tiny parts (e.g. computers).


Any decently-designed library like this is going to have some type of easily-read instruction sheet that shows how the bulk of the data is encoded and how to read it, perhaps with plans for a device to do so.


Yes but it is very possible such a README does not survive, is lost, or separated from the library.


is it a tall, black obelisk?




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