Communicating with Aliens
Here's a web page that talks about how to communicate with aliens.
In case it comes up.
The concrete challenge however is that when extraterrestrials are contacted (SETI), or land (UFOs), somebody is presumably going to be considered as appropriately briefed to communicate with them. The media, and science fiction, have explored many possible scenarios. The two most typical are:
- aliens are met by (or handed over to) some branch of military intelligence for secret "negotiations"
- aliens are met by John and Jane Doe who have only media scenarios, common sense, and their prejudices to guide them
And how have such people been prepared for this encounter? Is there a manual (on the Web) to assist in this process, or at least to indicate the possible traps? Does this emergency website offer links to sources of guidance? Does it offer interactive facilities -- like some health sites -- to enable those faced with such a challenge to clarify their options in the light of any information that emerges at different stages of the early interaction with the aliens?
Before true communication can occur, we would have to negotiate our differences, not only figuring out what the differences are, but what they imply and how we compensate for them. Some of the areas we might differ:
- Language
- Behavioral context
- Behavioral attributes
- Different agendas, knowledge, temporal or spacial contexts
- Different species
- Different modes of communication, trust and confidence
- Different values
- Different sense of values, aesthetics, team work, privacy, personal hygiene, maturity
So, who should we put on the committee to communicate with aliens? According to this paper:
- Martial arts (aikido, etc) -- vigilance, preparedness, respect for opponent (Black belt)
- Performer, aesthete -- responsiveness, reframing, expression
- Communicator, facilitator, empath, humorist -- (Peter Ustinov)
- "Operator", trader, con-man -- opportunism, vigilance (it takes one to know one)
- Biologist, species empath -- understanding
- Jesuit -- avocatus diaboli
- Taoist / Mullah Nasrrudin -- crazy wisdom response to the moment
- Anthropologist, linguist, protocol
- Theoretician, physics, mathematics (Richard Feynman)
- Game player
- Philosopher
- Lawyer
I think the most interesting question is, how do you tell if aliens are intelligent? All the measures we have (no matter how we argue them) are culturally and societally based. We don't have a clear way to tell whether dogs or dolphins or lions are intelligent, though we presume that they are not (in the human sense). We will not have a way to tell that aliens are intelligent, though we will presume that they are. I've often wondered what difference this makes in how we approach things--assuming that it's an intelligent being with whom we can't communicate versus assuming that it's an unintelligent being with whom we can't communicate....