Friday, January 28, 2005

Universal Translator Might be Needed to Understand ET





"But not everyone is so sanguine about using science and math as universal languages. Anthropologist Ben Finney of the University of Hawai'i challenged the standard assumptions several years ago, by drawing on lessons learned from decoding Egyptian and Mayan hieroglypics -- a story recounted in Atlanta. 'SETI scientists reasoned that advanced ET would de-encrypt their messages through prime numbers, pi, the Planck constant and other presumed cosmic universals so that new members of the Galactic club could immediately begin deciphering them,' Finney explained. 'I questioned this reasoning on the basis of terrestrial experience in deciphering ancient Egyptian and Mayan inscriptions.'"

Maybe radio SETI is growing up after all.

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