Why did the alien misunderstand the instruction?
We asked it to 'take out the trash', but it thought we said 'take out the space trash'. Now the planet is overrun with unwanted space debris.
It's not just a problem with the alien, though. Our own species is guilty of miscommunication too. Like, have you ever asked someone to 'hold on a minute' and they just stand there, frozen in place, waiting for a minute? It's a real problem.
So, we're trying to learn from our mistakes. We're practicing active listening and clear speech. But sometimes, we just get lost in translation. Like when we try to say 'no offense' and mean 'you're a terrible person', but end up saying 'I have no offense' and it comes out sounding like we're talking about the lack of defense in our neighborhood.
It's a delicate balance between being clear and being clear-ish. But we're getting there. Slowly. Painfully. And with a lot of unnecessary space trash.