First Contact

Please keep in mind that the following is fictional and represents only what might occur when Earthlings begin to directly communicate with extra-terrestrials (ET).

Say What? Earliest contact between space scientists and extra-terrestrials was a mystifying stream of odd symbols and spurts of energy that were essentially indecipherable. Lots of arguments of whether what we were hearing or seeing on our equipment was a communication attempt or just more electro-cosmic garbage. What eventually convinced us that we were seeing a communication attempt was both the repetitiveness of much of the so-called noise, and also the apparent schedule of transmissions.  They were not continuous, they occurred at specific intervals and lasted for a set instant of time. The next challenge was to see if we could derive a language or code that would allow us to both decipher the incoming signals and to respond in the same code or language. No, we were not seeing or hearing in English: “Good Day Earthlings, this is ET calling.”

Patterns of Meaning: As we continued to analyze the communications we found a repetitive sequence. This sequence was the same each time we detected another transmission so we assumed that this was a “feeler” message to see if any other entity detected the signals and tried to respond. Well, here we are and that is exactly what we are tying to do; “Good Day ET, this is Earth calling.” Obviously this is not what we would attempt to transmit either. At least we would not try that in the beginning anymore than the extra-terrestrials were.

Additionally, the intervals between the “feeler” were quite long and indicated that most likely it was coming from a great distance or their system only transmitted at very infrequent intervals. How could we tell which was the case? Another possibility was cosmic energy interference. This could be particularly true if the communication was coming from light years away. Alas, there are no quick and ready answers.

Mathematical Key

A Common Language: There definitely was rhyme and reason in what we were receiving and the challenge was to determine the structure of the signals or more specifically, its language. In the cosmos, the common language is mathematics, but within cultures there can be unique applications of that language that produce differences in meaning just as with the many languages here on Earth. So, just like interpreters we begin to look for common elements which we labeled “mathematical cognates”. These are mathematical expression exactly the same as some of ours. The key for code breaking. We are on our way to understanding the “feeler”.

COMING SOON: THE BREAKTHROUGH!

IMAGE CREDITS:

Header Image:  An astrophotograph of the Caldwell 30 galaxy. Courtesy of Waddell Robey and the powerful telescopes of Slooh.com (c) 2008

The SETI Array:  The SETI radio-telescope array – courtesy of trendsupdate.com

IT’S REALLY TRUE!

Yes, ET exists, we just have not met yet. He and or she are out there in our galaxy and beyond. For now we must just imagine what it will be like to be in touch with our cosmic neighbors. We will do this by creating and presenting here a series of email exchanges between ET and us and you. Yes, in your comments you may ask us to pass along your own greetings to ET. We will do that and also relay comments back from ET to you.

Sure it is all sci-fi right now, but one day either here or on some communication link, suddenly the words we read are real and come directly from our ET friends. That’s right, friends.  Despite the worries and warnings of many of our fellow Earthlings, we believe our ET contacts will become our friends. How do we know this? Well, haven’t you been to the Star Wars Cantina?

If you are tapping your feet, at least smiling and most like happily laughing then you are getting what we believe to be the real way of life for our ET friends. Yep, just like us.  Now they may look different or they may not.  We don’t know that yet. Most importantly, we must not rely on sci-fi art to create in our minds what ET will really look like. Heck, they could be more striking, more beautiful  than any of us.  Can we handle that?

Now here is a B I G request. If you visit this blog site and you like what you read, please take the private, personal oath to only refer to possible life forms throughout the cosmos as extra-terrestrials (ET) not aliens.  This latter label has too often been interpreted to imply some person or group as hostile to Earth and its inhabitants. Until proven otherwise, we must believe that our cosmic neighbors are NOT hostile.  In fact, it will be necessary for us to prove we are NOT hostile before we may ever make direct contact with ET.

So welcome aboard and we hope you enjoy the ET Dialogs and that you will participate by adding your greetings and comments on our comments section of this blog. We promise you we will pass back to you any replies from ET.

Oh, yes when that day does come and we meetup with ET. Let us hope we have learned that regardless of how things may look, or how different the other world may be, we are one in the cosmos, and so there can be both great joy and unity.

IMAGE CREDIT:

The header image for this blog is an extract from a astrophograph of the Caldwell 30 galaxy. Courtesy of Waddell Robey and the powerful telescopes at Slooh.com (c)2008