How To Talk To Aliens

Frederic Friedel writes: "In their efforts to talk to alien civilizations human beings are currently engaged in sending pictures based on a rectangular array of dots, arranged from left to right and top to bottom. But is this stategy sound? For instance what if the aliens do not see in pictures at all, or if they think in vector graphics rather than bitmap? On ChessBase.com grandmaster John Nunn proposes sending them a trading machine instead."

Comments

What do they want to hear?

[suso]

One potential problem I think we face is that the potential aliens that we could talk to will have a wide timeframe of technological development. Some of them may be incredibly advanced and maybe already communicating with many other civilizations themselves (call this time C). So the question then becomes, why would they bother listening to us or would they even care what we are saying? On the other hand, there may be life out there, but it might be underdeveloped (call this time B) and cannot even hear us yet.

Although I think that it is highly likely that their are other civilizations out there, I think that the number of such civilizations that we can currently contact that are between times B and C may be small.

Right now the human race seems to think that whatever they say is worth listening too, much like stories posted by people on slashdot, in their webblogs, or this very comment. But sufficiently advanced minds aren't always interested in these things.

So I think a better way to go about it is, what could we send to an advanced civilization that would be interesting to them? Not to us.

Re:What do they want to hear?

[Richie1984]

But sufficiently advanced minds aren't always interested in these things.

That's just how I feel when reading about these efforts at communicating with alien civilisations, and recieving their signals. Just because the human race has had a tendancy to explore the unknown, doesn't mean an alien race will feel the same. For all we know, they could be well aware of our existance, but not care one bit.

Re:What do they want to hear?

[nine-times]

But sufficiently advanced minds aren't always interested in these things.

I dunno.... I'm usually pretty interested in my dog's attempts to communicate. We study ancient/primative cultures. There's no reason to think that aliens wouldn't find us cute.

Re:What do they want to hear?

[Meagermanx]

I always thought that curiosity and scientific advancement went hand in hand. If these aliens are so advanced, then wouldn't they be inclined to be curious about other species?

Re:I got a better idea

[pklong]

You never know, they might be picking up our p0rn transmissions already and trying to figure out our mating rituals.

I dread to think what their conclusions would be!

Meaningful communication?

[perkr]

Even if we manage to send data in an understandable format, how do alies actaully go about and *understand* it. In communication studies they talk about common ground, two parts of a communiaction must share a basic notion of the primtive concepts. However an alien race might have completely different concepts to begin with. How do they see that they receive a message with our intent? There are patterns in everything, but you need some basic things to hold onto to seperate noise patterns from what you really want to see.

Interstellar Digital Rights Management

[argent]

Won't work on aliens any more than it'll work on humans.

If you send someone some information and the key to unlock that information then you haven't actually protected yourself.

Over the top

[mmarlett]

How can he suggest that a bitmap image is too complicated but that having the aliens compile an AI we send them is easy cheesy? Why would we send them what would have to be a supermassive program full of mostly encrypted data and assume that they would figure out how to run it but not figure out how to crack the encryption. It's like saying, "Instead of sending them a photo of a submarine, let's send them the blueprints and the parts (but with some parts of the blueprints blacked out and those parts in a sealed black box)." It just doesn't make sense.

What if they are stupid?

[PhilHibbs]

For instance what if the aliens do not see in pictures at all, or if they think in vector graphics rather than bitmap?

Huh? What method of visual representation do we "think in"? My brain does not work on bitmaps, or vectors, but on a pattern-analysing neural nework. In other words, my brain is not limited to a single representation scheme, and I seriously doubt that an alien culture capable of receiving these messages would be so limited.

Good at chess but childish logic

[PepeGSay]

Check out this little gem "I think there are good ways round the first objection. The AI program would continually check its own integrity and its ability to modify itself. If these checks failed then it could self-destruct. The aliens would then have to start again with a fresh copy of the program which would, at the least, be irritating.

The article starts off pretty good, but devolves into some rather circular and odd logic. He does bring up an interesting problem, but he should have just given us an outline of the solution... instead of the drivel that finishes the article.

Convergent evolution

[5n3ak3rp1mp]

There are many instances of so-called "convergent evolution" in nature. Perhaps due to the fact that the laws of physics are (likely) pretty much the same throughout the universe, and that the phylogeny out there is due in part to those laws (two eyes and two ears to see and hear in stereo, nose below eyes and mouth below nose in most creatures, 2 limbs on each side of the body, bilateral symmetry etc.) My conclusion is that perhaps, the way we communicate is *more likely than you think* to be similar to the way a completely independently-developing intelligent race of beings might communicate.