| RavenBlog |
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| Comments on Sunday 10 August 2003: |
| If you were sending out a signal intended to reach extraterrestrial intelligence, what would your signal comprise, and why? On a related note, run Seti@Home, and join this group, unless you already have something for your idle processor cycles to do.
[04:30] |
| Tom |
| I would say "We are much nicer than the signals you have already received might have you believe. Our television is crap, and doesn't accurately represent us. We have kittens. You wouldn't hurt a kitten would you?" Except I would say it in alienesque. Why? Because aliens probably don't speak English. |
| RavenBlack |
| Ahaha! I *am* an alien, and I delight in hurting kittens! Bring me your kittens! (You're right, though, I don't speak English.) |
| Solistus |
| Aside from the typical map of the solar system, mathematical data in many logical formats, etc, I'd ask them not to judge us by recent history (or older history, for that matter)... it's harder than it seems like it should be to think of a time period where all of humanity was more or less humane. |
| Digi |
| I'd ask that they kindly bugger off and leave us alone to figure stuff out for ourselves. Until such a time as we're advanced enough to go visit these Aliens of our own accord, we should have nothing to do with them. I mean, look how we handled Christianity, we just can't be trusted with Aliens yet - even if we do promise to feed and walk them every day. |
| RavenBlack |
| I meant more raw than that, really - would you assume they'll understand ASCII-encoded English, or radio-audio transmissions, or what? What would be your method of encoding a communication that a distant alien will be able to differentiate from noise and make some sort of sense of? (Likewise for a map; how do you encode that in a set of radio frequency modulations, such that it will be understood by a race that may not think a bit like humans? Mathematical data is a bit easier, of course, and assumes as a prerequisite that they will do mathematics of some form.) |
| Digi |
| I'd try to emulate a naturally occurring signal. The emulation would obviously be flawed and detected. At that point it would all depend on how the Alien's responded. It's a fairly global phenomenon that life responds to contact, whether it be on purpose or through deliberately trying not give a response. Another question is "Why am I making contact?" If it's the standard "Just to meet up and say Hello." then I'd transmit the naturally occurring frequencies of close by land marks, or space marks if you like. For example the frequency of the main (and unique) EM waves emitted by the sun. Stick those waves onto my flawed emulation carrier wave, and hope they have the same line of thinking. Of course, it would also be a good idea to try lots of different methods of communication all at once, thus reducing the risk of them not understanding, or noticing, any of them. The problem is, the more universal you make a signal, in order to increase its chances of being noticed by an unknown life form, the more difficult it is to understand once seen. My method, for example, relies on the Green Men having EM receivers, and being interested enough in cosmic anomalies that they would give it sufficient scrutiny. That, I think, is reasonably likely, considering how fundamentally an energy form Electro magnetism is. But once they'd received it, the chances of them understanding that the carried wave represented space marks is fairly unlikely. Or rather it's fairly unlikely that they could have the theory confirmed, and therefore commit resources to finding the sender. |
| SpasmodicMonk |
| "Do you like fart jokes? If you don't like fart jokes then bugger off, we hate you." Why? Anyone who doesn't like fart jokes has no sense of humour. |
| SpasmodicMonk |
| Oh, I almost forgot. "Do you have flags? If not then please move out of the way so that we can claim your territory." Why? I would like to rape their land of resources so that we can stop hurting our own planet. Any race not advanced enough to have flags deserves to die. |