How to talk to aliens

[Stargazer]

Yes obviously we must find it first, so that's why I said it would be the next step, though strictly the dialogue part is not for the Search for ETI project...

[pgrmdave]

While we are looking for it, it would be better to prepare to find it than to, when we do find it, not know what to do.

[Turtle]

Since the original post asks for speculation, we don't need to wait for anything. Using radio to send our signal it becomes in effect a stream as soon as we turn it on & that stream has a leading edge & at that leading edge we put the basic math as I suggested & from that build the logic & then follows in the stream the development to our language. Then the rest is message; what we want to ask I would think.

[Curiousgeorge]

actually, i believe that light is the answer for communication. transmitted in simple mathmatical flashes, yes containing lots of information. we have fiber optics.. why dont we dig a little deeper into that? transmitting mass amounts of information at the speed of light would be valuable on many levels.. though i am just guessing.

[TeleMad]

Originally Posted by Curiousgeorge

actually, i believe that light is the answer for communication. ... transmitting mass amounts of information at the speed of light would be valuable on many levels.. though i am just guessing.

Radio waves do travel at the speed of light. But since radio waves are of lower frequencies than visible light, they require much less energy to generate.

[C1ay]

This begs the question, do we really want to find alien life? Will the first life we find be the hunter looking for food or a diplomat looking for a relationship? I see it as a 50-50 chance which is really not that good of odds when you think about it. What does everyone else think?

[Buffy]

I think that its a virtual certainty that we will encounter a species like the Vogons who either want to build an interspace bypass right where our solar system is, or force us to listen to the most horrible poetry in the galaxy.

I've had an average of 5 computer's running Seti@home for about 6 years now, though. I'm pretty sure I want us to find the Vogons before they find us.

Cheers,
Buffy

[Thomas]

Greetings Earthlings,

I AM VONTORK, OF THE KLINGON EMPIRE:

Listen to me, I believe that your weak forms of comunication cannot possibly span the vast reaches and light years of the galaxy. If you want to communicate with us, you must figure out a way to fold space and use a wormhole to transmit signals in the form of energy from one location to another.

That little voyager spacecraft of yours (the one that's traveling 11 mile per second past pluto to the unknown regions) It might have worked if it had not splated on my windshield this morning.

But SERIOUSLY, I do think the vast distances are very challanging to our forms of communication, even if they travel at light speed.

[C1ay]

Originally Posted by Buffy

I've had an average of 5 computer's running Seti@home for about 6 years now, though. I'm pretty sure I want us to find the Vogons before they find us.

Of course SETI is just a listening project as opposed to a broadcasting project so it should help us find them more than helping them find us. Honestly, even though the odds aren't very good that any life we meet will be friendly, I've always wanted to be on the greeting team to meet any alien we might encounter. If I end up being their lunch then I guess it will help everyone else know what's coming.

[pgrmdave]

I think that worrying about the possibilities is slightly xenophobic, and ignores that because we cannot know something completely different from ourselves, we cannot truly guess at the possibilities.