[ExI] Communication with aliens (was Re: The Reality of Categories)

[Emlyn]

> For example:
> http://www.orionsarm.com/worlds/Whisper.html
> - how would you hack this grass so that you could communicate?
>
> - Bryan

That's almost a straight steal from an old Ursula LeGuin story (can't
remember the name - I think in that story the vegetation communicated
via the root systems).

Anyway, communication would be possible, but hard :-) You've got the
innards of the computer available and studyable, just by using a lot
of microphones, so if you can figure out how it works, you should be
able to hack it pretty severely, eg by replacing large sections of
plants with "speakers" playing back signals generated by your own
simulation system. Then, you could project yourself into the system.

The above assumes of course that the critters inside the plant
computer are open to communication. The problem of communicating with
beings who don't want to communicate is a different thing altogether,
it requires opening a channel of communication as above, and then
becomes a problem of persuasion.

Emlyn