[extropy-chat] Multimedia Communication in the Cosmos

[Terry W. Colvin]

Forwarding permission was given by William R. Corliss.

Science Frontiers, No. 158, Mar-Apr, 2005, p. 3
< http://www.science-frontiers.com >


UNCLASSIFIED

Multimedia Communication in the Cosmos

There are at least three ways in which extraterrestrial entities might
communicate with us across the abyss of deep space.  Unfortunately, we are
tuning into only one of these "channels."


*Electromagnetic signals*.  For over 40 years we have been listening for
interstellar electromagnetic traffic.  The SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial
Intelligence) antennas have picked up only a very few nonrandom, potentially
intelligent, electromagnetic emissions that raised any excitement.  Example:
the famous WOW signal of 1977. (SF#64)

The latest suspicious signal has been picked up three times and been given
the designation SHGbo2+143.  It seems to emanate from a point between Pisces
and Aries.  But it is weak and there are no obvious stars in that location.
It may be some unrecognized natural phenomenon.  What caught SETI's attention
is SHGbo2+143's frequency drift of 8-37 Hertz away from the 1420 Megahertz
carrier frequency, which is one of the main frequencies emitted by
interstellar hydrogen.

(Reich, Eugenie Samuel; "Not Long Ago, in a Galaxy Far Away...," *New
Scientist*, p. 6, September 4, 2004)


*Inscribed matter*.  Humans are too anxious to meet aliens, and may have
selected a poor medium with which to contact ET; that is, electromagnetic
waves.

C. Rose and G. Wright favor instead inscribed matter.  Quoting from their
paper's abstract:

   Here we show that if haste is unimportant, sending messages
   inscribed on some material can be strikingly more energy
   efficient than communicating by electromagnetic waves.
   Because messages require protection from cosmic radiation and
   small messages would be difficult to find among the material
   clutter near a recipient, "inscribed matter" is more
   effective for long archival messages (as opposed to
   potentially short "we exist" announcements).  The results
   suggest that our initial contact with extraterrestrial
   civilizations may be more likely to occur through physical
   artifacts---essentially messages in a bottle---than via
   electromagnetic communication.

Rose and Wright suggest such inscribed matter might well be located at stable
locations in the solar system, such as the several Lagrange points around
earth and other planets.  Illuminating these points with radar might return
echoes pinpointing the "message-containing bottles," particularly if they
are equipped with electromagnetic reflectors.

(Rose, Christopher, and Wright, Gregory "Inscribed Matter as an
Energy-Efficient Means of Communication with an Extraterrestrial
Civilization,: *Nature*, 431:47, 2004)


*Comment*.  Alien artifacts might require a more advanced degree of
intelligence than knowledge of radar to find and decipher them.  Example:
the monolith in *2001: A Space Odyssey*.


*Biomessages*.  Actually, extraterrestrial messages would probably be even
more subtle than monoliths.  P. Davies writes:

   A better solution would be a legion of small, cheap, self-repairing
   and self-replicating machines that can keep editing and copying
   information and perpetuate themselves over immense durations in
   the face of unforeseen environmental hazards.  Fortunately, such
   machines already exist.  They are called living cells.  The cells
   in our bodies for example, contain messages written by Mother
   Nature millions of years ago.

   So might ET have inserted a message into the genomes, perhaps by
   delivering carefully crafted viruses in tiny space probes to
   infect host cells with message-laden DNA?

The space probes could be interstellar dust grains carrying viruses or
bacteria---like panspermia, but carrying information rather than the seeds
of life.  In fact, there are many long stretches of "nonsense DNA" that
have remained conserved from species to species through millions of years
of evolution.  We just haven't read our biomail!

(Davies, Paul; "Do We Have to Spell It out?" *New Scientist*, p. 30,
August 7, 2004)


[Science Frontiers is a bimonthly collection of digests of scientific
anomalies in the current literature.  Published by the Sourcebook Project,
P.O. Box 107, Glen Arm, MD 21057.  Annual subscription: $8.00.]


-- 
"Only a zit on the wart on the heinie of progress." Copyright 1992, Frank Rice


Terry W. Colvin, Sierra Vista, Arizona (USA) < fortean1 at mindspring.com >
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