Posted on 12/18/2007 2:29:34 PM PST by blam
ET too bored by Earth transmissions to respond
16:35 18 December 2007
NewScientist.com news service
Tom Simonite
Messages sent into space directed at extraterrestrials may have been too boring to earn a reply, say two astrophysicists trying to improve on their previous alien chat lines.
Humans have so far sent four messages into space intended for alien listeners. But they have largely been made up of mathematically coded descriptions of some physics and chemistry, with some basic biology and descriptions of humans thrown in.
Those topics will not prove gripping reading to other civilisations, says Canadian astrophysicist Yvan Dutil. If a civilisation is advanced enough to understand the message, they will already know most of its contents, he says: "After reading it, they will be none the wiser about us humans and our achievements. In some ways, we may have been wasting our telescope time."
In 1999 and 2003, Dutil and fellow researcher Stephane Dumas beamed messages in a language of their own design into space. Now, they are working to compose more interesting messages.
"The question is, what is interesting to an extraterrestrial?" Dutil told New Scientist. "We think the answer is using some common ground to communicate things about humanity that will be new or different to them – like social features of our society." Fortunately those subjects are already being described mathematically by economists, physicists and sociologists, he adds.
Vexing problems
One topic the two researchers are already composing messages about is the so-called 'cake cutting problem'. "How do you share out resources is a classical problem for all civilisations," he says.
Democracy is also a potentially eye- or antenna- catching subject. "The maths shows that with more than two choices,
(Excerpt) Read more at space.newscientist.com ...
they are to busy laughing about global warming.
Send them E.T. They could have a flying bike here!
Maybe they are using quantum modulation to communicate.
The galactic internet is all around us!
But we’re too stupid yet to jack in.
Unfortunately, the ET’s have been intercepting MTV and rap videos and are seriously considering whiping out the planet.
When I was younger, my mom would say, “If ET can phone home, why cant you?” I think I will forward this too her for a good laugh.
But have they tried the Martian “ack ack ack?”
We’ll be beaming the 2008 Democratic National Convention out into space. Why would any self-respecting ET be caught dead on such a planet?
Old Star Trek reruns.
“We know that every human social network behaves as a gas...”
LOL
Bake slowly for seven hours, pull apart meat and mix with Earth sauce, serve on a bed of Earth vegetation, with cold sweet Earth tea.
Let the Nigerians write the message....
Aliens are only listening for whale songs anyway.
Send them Star Wars or Star Trek movies, and they will will be scared sh—less of us.
Penthouse Forum letters might pique their interest.
Do, Do, Duh, Duh, Duhhhh
I think you're correct. Listen...I think they mention something about Paul McCartney
That's because they want a 2 light-year commitment contract.
So you really think that’s his finger, huh?
I live on a small planet in a remote arm of the galaxy, and I never thought this would happen to me.....
At least it ain’t brown...is it?
Dear Klaatu,
My name is BARBARA BUSH, mother of American President (EARTH) George W. Bush, wife of former American President (EARTH) George H. W. Bush.
I have recently inherited the sum of TEN TRILLION DOLLARS ($ - US - EARTH) but cannot obtain the money, located in GENEVA SWITZERLAND (EARTH), due to ongoing legalisms.
If you Mr. Klaatu go to the bank, I will happily give you 1/10 (ONE TRILLION DOLLARS US, EARTH) of the money. Please respond IMMEDIATELY if you are interested in flying your saucer to us. I have no desire in bamboozling you.
With warm and cordially greeting,
Mrs. Barbara Bush
Excellent.... glad I left the actual writing to the professionals! ;-)
LOL.
Didn’t NASA send some chuck Berry music out with the voyager mission?
Send porn. That should get their interest ;-)
"Hey Xenons! We pimp your women for cash."
I for one welcome our Insect Overlords.
The aliens checked us out, but all they saw was billions and billions of Tards.
Well, McCartney did that say Venus and Mars are alright tonight.
Speaking of which, I believe Mars will making its closest approach this year in less than twenty minutes...
If I was ET I’d probably not respond either.
This planet is a freak show.....kinda like the interstellar Gong Show but without “Gene Gene the dancin’ machine”.
ET’s only concern with us is if we become a pest. I expect they would have no problem weeding planet Earth of advanced hominids.
Imagine, if you were taking a stroll on a beach and picked up a plugged wooden 'bottle' which, when you opened it, had a note inside.
Written on the note are a bunch of odd scrawlings which you surmise might be writing. You might throw away the bottle and note right then and there, but just imagine that you actually try to decipher the message and succeed.
On the note is a message from an isolated, and technologically primitive tribe in some jungle in Southeast Asia (the similar tribes in Latin America and Africa don't tend to have coastline). The message asks for you to send a message to the tribe and gives rudimentary instructions on how to travel to them.
Since just writing a message and tossing it into the ocean and hoping that it will drift to the tribe is highly improbable, and crucially because the tribe doesn't have access to the internet, telephones, etc., you would have to go to the airport, buy a ticket to the closest airport to the tribe's location, take some ground transport after arrival, and then walk on foot to meet the tribe. You get the feeling that there is a slim but existent chance that the tribe might kill you due to cultural incompatibility.
At many steps in this process it would be reasonable to just not go ahead with it--there would be little to gain from the tribe, after all.
So for such aliens, they might have to build devices from scratch which for them are outdated just to contact some species which (from their point of view) has little to offer them. Another option would be to physically meet them. But there are risks involved in that.
So why try to contact them?
Anyway, that's take on this scenario.
Boobs. Girls got them. Guys like them.
'Course, if we want them to stay away, a few pics of Helen Thomas or the Hilinator would do....
Too true! If insects on Mars were trying to communicate with us on 2.5MHz AM HF frequencies, then we on spread spectrum 2.4GHz WiFi internet would totally miss it, miss it on cell phones, miss it on DishTV (and NFL Network..)
Only some little old lady with an old tube Heathkit would hear anything, and then go back to sleep.
I could not agree more. War is disgusting and I saw it first hand in Iraq with mass graves etc. etc. etc. Thank God for President Bush. I really think our distant cousins are keeping their distance from us because we are not civilized according to their standards. I know they are there because I had hands on experience with the Roswell debris. It was not ours!!
We have heard nothing. It is possible that we are the first to reach this level. It is possible that we are the only ones out there.
Especially if only random chance put us together.
Uummm, Heathkit never made kits that could receive anything near that frequency range. AND little old ladies probably couldn’t find rosin core solder or even a pencil tip iron for assembly. meh.
I for one hope we don't send them the latest anti-virus software updates or a morse code translation guide
In the book “Communication with Extraterrestial Intelligence” (Sagan editor — CETI was the old acronym) Thomas J Gold (”Deep Life”, “Power from the Earth”) said “But I am not really willing to accept your premise, because it may well be that the means of communications they have are of a kind that we do not know how to receive, and that they would not have the means of communicating with sufficiently powerful radio or optical signals. That is something which, technologically, is too difficult for them but they would have some other means we would not recognize.” (see also p 210)
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