system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
[Contact], The Alien Species told Ellie that her trip was only a first step. What do you think the next step was?

When Ellie asks the Alien species if humans can come back for another trip, they say her trip was only a first step, and that's how it's been done for millions of years.

So, putting aside the idea that it was the billionaire all along, what do you think the next step humanity was supposed to take?
gpt
Step two is meant to be the return of humans to the wormhole network. Knowing humans, it is likely to be with either a fleet of ships or a redesigned pod capable of carrying a larger delegation.

The first visit was designed in such a way that it tests not only a society's ability to cooperate and build such a machine, but it tests faith and belief as well. The core concept is that only one person makes the trip and reports back home, with very little evidence.

In the book, the aliens told Ellie about a test *they* had passed when they discovered a pattern in the digits of pi. Apparently, if you calculate pi to some ridiculous number of digits (orders of magnitude more digits than we are currently capable of) a pattern of ones and zeroes appears. This implies that there was an intelligence involved in the creation of the universe, or at least the laws of physics we seem to be trapped within. It was likely the same intelligence that left the wormhole network. 

The book also coins the term "numinous" as describing the feeling you get when you behold something greater than yourself. This is supposed to be the same feeling a religious person gets when they feel divine inspiration and when a scientist recognizes that their body is made of star stuff.

The implications are that human society is still in its infancy. We are an "interesting mix" of good and evil. There are also a lot of steps between us and whoever managed to put a binary code in pi. But just knowing that those steps exist could be the motivation we need to start climbing, however long it takes.