> Ted Chiang's 1991 short story Understand is worthwhile.

Great story, as are most of his. It reminded me of the Dark Forest Theory [0] from the Remembrance of Earth's Past trilogy [1].

[0] https://bigthink.com/surprising-science/the-dark-forest-theo... [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remembrance_of_Earth%27s_Past