I first encountered the word when I was researching a pictograph based system for communication that was developed by Yvan Dutil and Stephane Dumas.
I wish I could claim credit for the buzzword, but it belongs to others. Besides, it's a pretty good description of what's going on.
Not to split hairs, but I am mainly interested in the techniques for composing messages that describe themselves, or are at least easy to decode. Maybe that doesn't come across in the article, but I am not trying to sell people on the details of the examples in the article. I am more interested in prompting people to think about the process of creating messages that have embedded information about how to use them.
I think that we've ignored this area for some time, and that if enough people focus on it, this will lead to some useful inventions.
My two cents...
Brian McConnell
Why I wrote this article (and the book)
on
Anticryptography
·
· Score: 2
Since my article stirred up a discussion, I thought I'd post some comments here.
One of the reasons I wrote this book has more to do with communications and programming than it does SETI. What got me interested in this project wasn't the idea that we would receive a message that changes humanity forever blah blah blah, but the challenge of building a system that describes itself (at least in part).
SETI is an interesting program, and involves many different fields of study. Whether it succeeds or fails, it is a useful metaphor for challenges we face in computing and communication here on Earth. So, even if the searches never detect anything, I think we'll benefit by gaming out strategies for communicating with other civilizations.
For some people, this will be a fun exercise, and possibly the basis for a competition. Maybe this is pointless, but I am guessing that people will discover some real-world applications as a result of doing this (like a software component version control system that works well).
The point of this wasn't to push a particular system or way of doing things, but to focus people's attention on the general concept of building messages that describe themselves. If enough people get involved in this discussion, it's bound to lead to someone inventing something useful. Even if it doesn't, it's still interesting stuff to think about.
While this will be the first optical telescope dedicated to SETI research, the idea of searching for continuous or pulsed laser beacons is not new. It was proposed by Charles Townes and R N Schwartz in a 1961 paper on the subject on inter-stellar laser communication. It's interesting to note that the idea of using laser's for inter-stellar communication is about as old as lasers themselves.
Several groups at Berkeley, Harvard and Princeton are working on OSETI projects that operate on a part-time basis, or piggy back on other experiments. There is also an Australian OSETI project underway, as well as several privately operated OSETI observatories.
There is a great deal of interesting work being done in optical SETI, with both new facilities and detection hardware under development. The reason for the sudden upswing in interest has a lot to do with the growth of optical communication, and is not a sign that researchers are abandoning the microwave band. The basic consensus is that nobody really knows which signaling format would be preferred (if any), and so we need to look at the largest possible search space.
Brian McConnell, Author
Beyond Contact : A Guide to SETI & Communicating with Alien Civilizations (upcoming SETI book from O'Reilly & Associates)
Slashdot Mirror
I wish I could claim credit for the buzzword, but it belongs to others. Besides, it's a pretty good description of what's going on.
Not to split hairs, but I am mainly interested in the techniques for composing messages that describe themselves, or are at least easy to decode. Maybe that doesn't come across in the article, but I am not trying to sell people on the details of the examples in the article. I am more interested in prompting people to think about the process of creating messages that have embedded information about how to use them.
I think that we've ignored this area for some time, and that if enough people focus on it, this will lead to some useful inventions.
My two cents...
Brian McConnell
One of the reasons I wrote this book has more to do with communications and programming than it does SETI. What got me interested in this project wasn't the idea that we would receive a message that changes humanity forever blah blah blah, but the challenge of building a system that describes itself (at least in part).
SETI is an interesting program, and involves many different fields of study. Whether it succeeds or fails, it is a useful metaphor for challenges we face in computing and communication here on Earth. So, even if the searches never detect anything, I think we'll benefit by gaming out strategies for communicating with other civilizations.
For some people, this will be a fun exercise, and possibly the basis for a competition. Maybe this is pointless, but I am guessing that people will discover some real-world applications as a result of doing this (like a software component version control system that works well).
The point of this wasn't to push a particular system or way of doing things, but to focus people's attention on the general concept of building messages that describe themselves. If enough people get involved in this discussion, it's bound to lead to someone inventing something useful. Even if it doesn't, it's still interesting stuff to think about.
My two cents...
Brian McConnell
While this will be the first optical telescope dedicated to SETI research, the idea of searching for continuous or pulsed laser beacons is not new. It was proposed by Charles Townes and R N Schwartz in a 1961 paper on the subject on inter-stellar laser communication. It's interesting to note that the idea of using laser's for inter-stellar communication is about as old as lasers themselves. Several groups at Berkeley, Harvard and Princeton are working on OSETI projects that operate on a part-time basis, or piggy back on other experiments. There is also an Australian OSETI project underway, as well as several privately operated OSETI observatories. There is a great deal of interesting work being done in optical SETI, with both new facilities and detection hardware under development. The reason for the sudden upswing in interest has a lot to do with the growth of optical communication, and is not a sign that researchers are abandoning the microwave band. The basic consensus is that nobody really knows which signaling format would be preferred (if any), and so we need to look at the largest possible search space. Brian McConnell, Author Beyond Contact : A Guide to SETI & Communicating with Alien Civilizations (upcoming SETI book from O'Reilly & Associates)