Chris Horrocks (![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} chorrocks) wrote,@ 2005-02-10 10:22:00 |
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Do we have to spell things out for E.T.?
For decades, researchers involved in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence have puzzled over how to code (and decode) messages meant for other civilizations. That goes for science-fiction tales such as Contact as well as a long list of real-life attempts to send messages, beginning with the Pioneer plaque and the Arecibo message in the early 1970s.
Such messages usually use intricate coding, including hieroglyphs that refer to the wavelength of the hydrogen transition and mathematical functions. But Seth Shostak, senior astronomer at the California-based SETI Institute, suggests that you needn’t bother with all that cosmic cryptography. Streaming a cached copy of the Internet should do just fine, he says.
More
See also:
Drake Equation | Fermi Paradox | Kardashev Scale | Astrosociobiology | Project Orion | Project Daedalus
For decades, researchers involved in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence have puzzled over how to code (and decode) messages meant for other civilizations. That goes for science-fiction tales such as Contact as well as a long list of real-life attempts to send messages, beginning with the Pioneer plaque and the Arecibo message in the early 1970s.
Such messages usually use intricate coding, including hieroglyphs that refer to the wavelength of the hydrogen transition and mathematical functions. But Seth Shostak, senior astronomer at the California-based SETI Institute, suggests that you needn’t bother with all that cosmic cryptography. Streaming a cached copy of the Internet should do just fine, he says.
More
See also:
Drake Equation | Fermi Paradox | Kardashev Scale | Astrosociobiology | Project Orion | Project Daedalus
