Universal Translator Might be Needed to Understand ET

space.com ^ | 01/27/05 | Douglas Vakoch

[KevinDavis]

Will we ever find a primer for decoding messages from extraterrestrials? Last month, anthropologists who gathered for a major conference in Atlanta, Georgia heard some news that will be sobering for SETI enthusiasts: it may be much more difficult to understand extraterrestrials than many scientists have thought before.

Among the sessions held during December’s annual meeting of the American Anthropological Association was one called "Anthropology, Archaeology, and Interstellar Communication: Science and the Knowledge of Distant Worlds." The session included papers by scholars from such diverse fields as astronomy, archaeology, anthropology, and psychology. Is there a Cosmic Rosetta Stone, they asked, drawing parallels to Earth’s own Rosetta Stone, which provided the key to decoding Egyptian hieroglyphics? Will we ever find a comparable primer for decrypting any messages we might receive some day from extraterrestrials?

[r9etb]

One of the books/authors I truly could not stand. LOL!

LOL! Me neither -- too flippant.

[RadioAstronomer]

Would current search patterns recognize that as a signal?

Just seeing a narrowband signal is enough to suggest a non-natural emanation.

[Just mythoughts]

Sounds a whole lot like something or someone is in control of what we are allowed to see and hear.

Some place it is written that not all were given eyes to see and ears to hear. No I have not been "PINGED"!

[RadioAstronomer]

Aliens 40 light years out should be picking up TV broadcasts of the 3 Stooges. That may cause them to blow us into the sun.

Actually no. TV just doesn't get out there very far. .3 light years is about the max estimated distance. Thusly, episodes of "I Love Lucy" or "The Three Stooges" are not going to the stars.

[RadioAstronomer]

Sounds a whole lot like something or someone is in control of what we are allowed to see and hear.

Physics

No I have not been "PINGED"!

????

[Physicist]

or lasers (how many of us don't need glasses thanks to the surgical use of lasers?).

I've said this before on FR: the most relevant question ever asked in the field of eye health is "how do ammonia molecules behave when you wiggle them with microwaves?"

Others may have different opinions about that, of course.

[Physicist]

I remember a story, I think it was by Asimov, wherein two alien starships encounter each other. As the linguists feverishly work to develop a means of communication, the bottom-rung radio operators quickly manage to talk to each other. The basis of understanding? Jokes.

[RadioAstronomer]

I've said this before on FR: the most relevant question ever asked in the field of eye health is "how do ammonia molecules behave when you wiggle them with microwaves?"

Indeed. Lead to the invention of the laser. :-)

[Calpernia]

>>> R=8x10-6(PeA/T)1/2(t/B)1/4 light years.

??????

I preferred the Beep, Beep, Beep posts :))

LOL!

How are you R.A.?

[Just mythoughts]

"Will we ever find a comparable primer for decrypting any messages we might receive some day from extraterrestrials?"


I do not have the "decoder" and do not receive messages is meaning of "PINGED".

I do not discount "extraterrestrials", for all we know and can physically see they could be anywhere or everywhere. Like everything there is a negative and a positive.

[R. Scott]

Or never take us seriously!
But considering the violence in the Three Stooges movies they might just fear us enough to leave us alone.

[Frank_Discussion]

Dulce: Wierd stuff extraordinaire.

[R. Scott]

Thusly, episodes of "I Love Lucy" or "The Three Stooges" are not going to the stars.

Maybe to their starships?

[RadioAstronomer]

I remember a story, I think it was by Asimov, wherein two alien starships encounter each other. As the linguists feverishly work to develop a means of communication, the bottom-rung radio operators quickly manage to talk to each other. The basis of understanding? Jokes.

Dirty jokes at that. :-)

Another contact sort story I liked was how do you ensure the other race cannot follow you home? They ended up exchanging spacecraft. :-)

[RadioAstronomer]

Doing ok! I have an eye exam in an hour, so I cannot stay on FR much longer this morning. Sigh!

[RadioAstronomer]

Thanks. :-)

[RadioAstronomer]

Maybe to their starships?

Means they are here. :-)

[Protagoras]

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[RadioAstronomer]

3.848324921739467e+88₁₀

LOL!

[Protagoras]

I think I left out a zero

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10000110010101111001001000000111011101101001011011000110
11000010000001100011011011110110110101101101011101010110
111001101001011000110110000101110100011001010010000001101100
0110100101101011011001010010000001110100011010000110100101110011