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|title=Existence

|author=David Brin

|publisher=Orbit

|date=June 2012

|summary=A mammoth undertaking - for writer and reader - as the definitions of mankind get surveyed by this dense, literary but ultimately most worthwhile sci-fi.

}}

We are a few decades further into the 21st Century at the start of this sci-fi novel. The world is buckling under climate change, and over-population. Those with enough funds are completely wired into a virtual world, but wherever they live out their existence things are going to be changed, when a space-based labourer, clearing space junk from orbit, finds an alien artifact containing contact with various races in a sort of memory bank cum virtual reality. Where are the aliens that had previously been so silent while we sought for them with our Search for ExtraTerrestrial Intelligence? What is the purpose and message behind this capsule? And who can be sure that this alleged First Contact was actually the first?