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
The ET Dialogs 