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Search for Terrestrial Intelligence
joshv writes: "Scientists have prepared a new message to be beamed out to the stars. Unlike the messages of the past this one tries to include some basic resistance to the noise that might be introduced in transit. The CETI project page contains a link to the new message. It a big bag of 0's and 1's. About 10% noise has been added. Can you crack the code? Details of the project as well as an interview with the one of the creators of the new message can be found in this New Scientist article. A hint to decoding: think simple raster based images and remember your powers of 2." Might want to get your copy of Beyond Contact or at least look at the first message they sent.
As if the type of message we send is relevent...If 'they' are advanced enough to recieve and translate a message of ours, making it with less noise, this language or that language, is for naught. Either someone/thing gets the message, or they do not. There is no in between.
This reminds me of some story from the beginnings of SETI back in the late 60's or early 70's; some big-wig scientist brought a message to the table and said "this is what we should send to ET." All the other big-wig scientists spent a while looking it over and finally said "we give, what does it mean?" The first big-wig explained that it was a message which made no cultural or biological assumptions about the listener, and was based on resonant frequencies of hydrogen and such, etc. All the scientists agreed that it was a very good message to send to ET, but the fact remains that some of the world's finest scientific minds could not figure out what it meant.
So, if we require a hint to figure this message out ourselves, what makes us think ET won't just ignore it as a random burst of static?
I mean, I speak english, I live on earth, and the pictures by themselves are meaningless to me.
Lawrence Lessig is my personal hero.
If it knows that it lives in, say, slot #9, there is not still a 50/50 chance. Instead the probability is 90% that there only are 10 agents because of observational bias.
Huh? Given the following results of flipping a coin, what is the probability that the next flip will be a H:
HHHHHHHHHHH
50%. Because only a 2^12 chance of having a sequence HHHHHHHHHHHH in a series of 12 flips, that is no greater or no less than any other sequence, such as HHTTHTHHTTHH. Just because you are in the 9th slot, that does not affect the outcome of the occupancy of the other 99 slots. Obviously, the first 10 are always filled in your example. So the fact that something occupies those slots does not in any way affect the probability that the other 90 will be filled, at least in your example.
And in the real world, there's no way of knowing if even the other slots are filled
Another probability exercise I've heard is which is more likely, that we are unique in the history of the universe and will continue to be unique in the future of the universe or that we are in the middle of the "bell curve" of life/intelligence distribution throughout the universe? Given that the universe has existed for around 12 billion years and will continue to exist for quite a number more, and that there are rather large number of planets now and were a rather large number in the past and that the odds are that there will be planets in the future, is it more likely that we are the rule or the exception?
It is like the joke about the guy who always carried a bomb whenever he flew because the odds of there being two bombs on a plane were astronomical. There is no dependent relationship between the two acts, so he didn't affect the probability at all.
Of course IANAPE (Probability Expert) so I'm willing to be shown the error of my ways.
Is it really prudent to be advertising our location like this? Why is it always assumed that any alien civilization that hears a message from us would want to be our friends?
As so many others have pointed out... how the heck are these aliens supposed to actually get anything meaningful out of this? Assuming they even notice this transmission (forget whether or not they EXIST..), why is it supposed to occur to them that this is a 2-dimensional image? That it is exactly 127 pixels wide? (Yes I noticed the bars down the sides. That's barely even useful, if you know nothing about the incoming signal whatsoever.) That what they see has any meaning at all? Why wouldn't they first assume it to be a serialized language, or a soundclip, or......? I suppose the important thing is that there is a transmission at all, which will say "Hey, somebody out there is broadcasting!" But seriously. If I saw some 5x5 pixel bitmap floating across my holodeck, do you think I'd have any CLUE what it was? As others pointed out.. I'm human. I speak English. And I can't make out squat on that thing! Alright.. I just won't question it. Clearly I don't get this whole SETI thing...
The streets shall flow with the blood of the Guberminky.