Posted on 12/18/2007 2:29:34 PM PST by blam
ET too bored by Earth transmissions to respond
16:35 18 December 2007
NewScientist.com news service
Tom Simonite
Messages sent into space directed at extraterrestrials may have been too boring to earn a reply, say two astrophysicists trying to improve on their previous alien chat lines.
Humans have so far sent four messages into space intended for alien listeners. But they have largely been made up of mathematically coded descriptions of some physics and chemistry, with some basic biology and descriptions of humans thrown in.
Those topics will not prove gripping reading to other civilisations, says Canadian astrophysicist Yvan Dutil. If a civilisation is advanced enough to understand the message, they will already know most of its contents, he says: "After reading it, they will be none the wiser about us humans and our achievements. In some ways, we may have been wasting our telescope time."
In 1999 and 2003, Dutil and fellow researcher Stephane Dumas beamed messages in a language of their own design into space. Now, they are working to compose more interesting messages.
"The question is, what is interesting to an extraterrestrial?" Dutil told New Scientist. "We think the answer is using some common ground to communicate things about humanity that will be new or different to them – like social features of our society." Fortunately those subjects are already being described mathematically by economists, physicists and sociologists, he adds.
Vexing problems
One topic the two researchers are already composing messages about is the so-called 'cake cutting problem'. "How do you share out resources is a classical problem for all civilisations," he says.
Democracy is also a potentially eye- or antenna- catching subject. "The maths shows that with more than two choices,
(Excerpt) Read more at space.newscientist.com ...
I think you're correct. Listen...I think they mention something about Paul McCartney
That's because they want a 2 light-year commitment contract.
So you really think that’s his finger, huh?
I live on a small planet in a remote arm of the galaxy, and I never thought this would happen to me.....
At least it ain’t brown...is it?
Dear Klaatu,
My name is BARBARA BUSH, mother of American President (EARTH) George W. Bush, wife of former American President (EARTH) George H. W. Bush.
I have recently inherited the sum of TEN TRILLION DOLLARS ($ - US - EARTH) but cannot obtain the money, located in GENEVA SWITZERLAND (EARTH), due to ongoing legalisms.
If you Mr. Klaatu go to the bank, I will happily give you 1/10 (ONE TRILLION DOLLARS US, EARTH) of the money. Please respond IMMEDIATELY if you are interested in flying your saucer to us. I have no desire in bamboozling you.
With warm and cordially greeting,
Mrs. Barbara Bush
Excellent.... glad I left the actual writing to the professionals! ;-)
LOL.
Didn’t NASA send some chuck Berry music out with the voyager mission?
Send porn. That should get their interest ;-)
"Hey Xenons! We pimp your women for cash."
I for one welcome our Insect Overlords.
The aliens checked us out, but all they saw was billions and billions of Tards.
Well, McCartney did that say Venus and Mars are alright tonight.
Speaking of which, I believe Mars will making its closest approach this year in less than twenty minutes...
If I was ET I’d probably not respond either.
This planet is a freak show.....kinda like the interstellar Gong Show but without “Gene Gene the dancin’ machine”.
ET’s only concern with us is if we become a pest. I expect they would have no problem weeding planet Earth of advanced hominids.
Imagine, if you were taking a stroll on a beach and picked up a plugged wooden 'bottle' which, when you opened it, had a note inside.
Written on the note are a bunch of odd scrawlings which you surmise might be writing. You might throw away the bottle and note right then and there, but just imagine that you actually try to decipher the message and succeed.
On the note is a message from an isolated, and technologically primitive tribe in some jungle in Southeast Asia (the similar tribes in Latin America and Africa don't tend to have coastline). The message asks for you to send a message to the tribe and gives rudimentary instructions on how to travel to them.
Since just writing a message and tossing it into the ocean and hoping that it will drift to the tribe is highly improbable, and crucially because the tribe doesn't have access to the internet, telephones, etc., you would have to go to the airport, buy a ticket to the closest airport to the tribe's location, take some ground transport after arrival, and then walk on foot to meet the tribe. You get the feeling that there is a slim but existent chance that the tribe might kill you due to cultural incompatibility.
At many steps in this process it would be reasonable to just not go ahead with it--there would be little to gain from the tribe, after all.
So for such aliens, they might have to build devices from scratch which for them are outdated just to contact some species which (from their point of view) has little to offer them. Another option would be to physically meet them. But there are risks involved in that.
So why try to contact them?
Anyway, that's take on this scenario.
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