Good questions and many have tried to think of logical means to do the
communication. Using coded files, using the "water hole" frequencies, etc.
Sagan and others speculated onthe period of time a civilization might even
be interested in communications. I have my opinions as to the "right"
frequencies but they are at odds with the "experts". I am sure if we ever
hear signals they will be the reuslt of a SETI like search or purely
conincidental while we are doing something else.
The problem of "encoding" a messange so any intelligent species capable of
recieving it can also interpret it has been discussed as well, Drake's
message send after the Arecibo refurbishment was one, Sagans graphic panels
on the Pioneers and the "records" on the Voyagers are early attempts. It
seems to me the only way to communicate with any hope at all of finding
listeners is by casting a big net "use of a broadband (inefficient) signal"
-- then hope some one out there has invented a receiver.
Mickey
-----Original Message-----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
Sent: Friday, December 08, 2000 3:08 PM
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Message in a Bottle
In a message dated 12/8/2000 8:27:57 AM Alaskan Standard Time,
[EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
<< Alien Voyagers could be zipping past the solar system as we write. The
fact
we have a hard time finding objects (NEO's) 1km in diameter a few million
miles of earth would indicate that locating a 3-4 meter silent spacecraft
missing the solar system by billions of miles would indicate that its
unlikely we or anyone else would ever detect the craft traversing our
region
of space. Even if it came with in a million miles of earth I doubt we'd
seen
it. >>
Putting a bit more philosophical thought into this brought me inevitably
back
to the underlying question: How do you talk to a cockroach?
Consider: how does a presumeably galactic civilization, with presumeably
higher intelligence than anything on Earth today, figure out how to talk
across the distances of time and space, to another species that might not
even be born yet?
How does a completely alien creature communicate with a human, in an
unambiguous way? How does it make a communication device that is big
enough,
bold enough, to be seen for many light years, and last for millenia?
This, of course, is begging the question, why it would even WANT to do so.
After all, there's no profit in doing anything for someone who is not
related
to you, and may be born 1,000,000 years in the future. It's all too
speculative, etc.
So, presuming that an alien intelligence is truly so alien as to want to
make
a communication with someone it does not know, and may never actually know,
and presuming that it can make a communication 'time capsule' effectively,
what form would it take? Clearly, little gold plaques ala' Voyager are not
going to be enough. Enigmatic monoliths probably won't do the trick either.
You need something big and bold, and which clearly violates normal physics
enough that it will be recognized.
At this point, a science fiction author might jump in and volunteer quasars
or something, as that cosmic lighthouse. Perhaps messages might be encoded
in viral DNA -- a self-replicating message able to survive the ages.
Perhaps, as a prior writer noted, the universe might be filled with Alien
Voyagers; we just haven't recognized them yet?
-- John Harlow Byrne, enquirious as ever
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