Write a message for aliens and win 1mn
- Thread starter Wabbit
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Relostar Devil
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Kishi Uzumaki
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Sasuke Uchiha Susanoo
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I will tell them watching anime will get them to places, even though they probably have visited us and everything else which is literally getting places. Still, I would recommend them to start off with some action like Boku no Pico :Sparks:
I heart its a great anime.
Yeah, not really.
I heart its a great anime.
Yeah, not really.
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The most interesting aspect of sending a message to aliens is how, precisely, to go about placing it in a literary medium.
Aliens are aliens. Simply writing a message would be indecipherable scribblings that relate to many human concepts that these beings can't be expected to grasp or understand simply from looking at a bunch of intricate patterns intended to represent a verbal dialect.
Even the 'universal' concept of math has to be reduced to a fundamental simplicity before we can even begin to expect aliens to understand what the hell we're trying to do with our scribblings. Sure - if we plastered enough arithmetic across a plaque and linked it into some geometric constants, they'd probably get the idea that we are trying to express math and that we are most familiar with a base-ten system (there is no reason to suspect aliens use a base-ten system) - but it's a rather inefficient way of trying to teach aliens how the hell to read our ape-scribble.
-
|
|-
||
|--
|-|
This is a pattern that represents a binary counting sequence. Aliens should be able to recognize the pattern and infer it is a numerical sequence.
- 0
| 1 .
|- 2 ..
|| 3 ...
|-- 4 ....
|-| 5 .....
||- 6
||| 7
|--| 9
|-|- 10
This type of sequence establishes that we use a base-ten numerical system of account - or that we are generally most comfortable in it. It also denotes that we use zero as a placeholder for empty, but relevant, positions.
So, after we have that, we can begin to work on basic geometric expressions to establish that we're not completely without observational and deductive capabilities - for example, the classic example of a right triangle with the specified ratios. We can also use these geometric concepts to introduce them to how we generally express mathematical formulas - what we use to denote multiplication, division, subtraction, addition, exponents, etc.
Once we've done that, we can move into the realm of expressions of mathematical theory that denote we are curious about things like sets and the like.
Aliens capable of space travel -probably- have similar concepts. It's not that we are trying to teach them - just that we are trying to introduce them to -how- we express those similar ideas.
Establishing metric standards (such as length and time) so that we can actually tell them things like how tall our average person is, or our average lifespan, etc...
For this, we usually have to resort to properties of atoms - such as transition times, spectral emissions of gasses, or something that gets across the point that what we determine to be a second is x number of however long it takes a specific (and well known) atom to do something that is constant.
Both Pioneer probes carried plaques with them that attempted largely the same - even going so far as to try and denote where our solar system was by denoting the estimated distance to several nearby pulsars of specific periods.
Voyager did one better:
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Frankly, it seems like we've already covered much of this territory.
That isn't to say there aren't other ideas out there, but what can be properly codified into a system that could potentially last millions of years of space travel and be effective at communicating with a species that shares absolutely nothing of our anatomy and may even be a completely different biological structure or system?
I suppose we could denote discoveries that try to express our attempts to discover the universe and utilize its properties - such as what I would denote as our first 'truly artificial' invention - the semiconductor junction. We could describe how we have advanced into an electronic age and that we have developed the notion of using these properties to form computers.
Hell - depending upon how other species develop technologically - that may be something they missed. It may be new information to them. Somewhat doubtful, but life, where it exists, has historically found all manner of ways. Expecting technology to be a purely linear thing would be silly.
The thing is that saying "hey... we're here..." is about the only thing that makes any sense. We've no idea what else to talk about because it's a purely one-sided conversation.
There was even a considerable amount of debate over the content of the Pioneer plaques and the idea that we were actually going to go ahead and tell aliens where we were. While the chance of being discovered was small... what if it is a group of hostile aliens?
Sure - we have no reason to expect aliens to be hostile. It's a hell of a long way to travel to start a bunch of shit. There are plenty of uninhabited areas with plenty of resources or other such things. But, at the same time - perhaps they're in the business of chopping up new and unique organisms and experimenting on them and figuring out how to re-engineer them for their own purposes. We do the same to bacteria, viruses, plants and even some animals. Aliens could have completely different perspectives on the morality of experimenting on sentience. To us - we are the apex predator and the only other creature we can hold an intelligent conversation with. To aliens - we may be a curious bipedal creature on a planet with an interesting reproductive standard and a strange fixation with panels of light patterns.
We like to think aliens would be peaceful and moral by our standards - but they're alien and their objectives don't have to make any sense to us.
So there was considerable debate as to whether or not it was a good idea to let aliens know where to find the cat that was curious enough to be killed. SETI had similar debates about whether or not to actively begin broadcasting into the cosmos to try and let other civilizations know we were here (if they were listening).