How would aliens of different species communicate?

How would a large group of vastly diverse aliens communicate? Not trying to be silly, but imagine a race that developed a communication system similar to what we perceive in dolphins. Even if we got to the point where we could understand them clearly, we would not be able to speak their language. Ultimately, each participant in the conversation would have to be fluent in interpreting the other's language. You wouldn't have to speak it (you speak your own language), you would just need to be able to understand what the other was saying.

But back to the dolphin example, if their communication range was outside of our hearing range, we would physically not be able to understand all of what was said. Just seems like there are too many natural boundaries for this to ever be a reality, even for highly evolved societies. A "universal" language doesn't seem possible either, even one based on a type of sign language (may not have the proper appendages required to make some of the signs).

I guess telepathy is the only real possibility, but I believe that if such an ability is possible, it is highly dependant on the makeup of the brain tissue participating in the "conversation". Each side must have adapted and evolved the ability (it's not an inherent ability in our stage of development), and the method of broadcasting would be significanly different among various species. Just as an AM radio can't interpret FM signals, even though they use basically the same transmission medium. But then again, an ear is an ear is an ear. They can all hear the same sound, so maybe the telepathy thing works in a similar way. The AM radio can "hear" the FM signal, it just doesn't know what it's saying. Anyone who had evolved a telepathic reception ability would only need to learn to interpret another species' broadcast.

Again, the whole telepathy thing is purely my own belief, not based on any actual facts. We have several people on this board who claim to be in telepathic contact with aliens all the time, so maybe I am way out to lunch on this.

The semi-advanced way:

Binary.

Its the lowest form of communication that everything can be translated to. Assuming it is an *advanced* alien that is. (sidenote: And of course it doesnt have to be 0 and 1, just two different signs)

The real issue is that the aliens have to work with us... We fail in communicating with dolphins because they dont put much effort into communicating with us. We can actually see better behaviour in cats and dogs for mutual communication, probably the reason we "understand" (well in a way) each other better.

Now imagine an alien species that can express their thoughts in hand movement and writing/drawing and possibly complex speech, and communication should be pretty easy after a while.

And yes I ignored telepathy since that is an unknown factor.

[edit on 20-10-2004 by merka]

[edit on 20-10-2004 by merka]

with a babelfish offcourse

ok what i think is they could use telepathy. Instead of sending sounds or words, they could send pictures to eachother.

i think a mathematical translation of each species language would be the ticket, binary- yes. Math is universal. Wish I liked it more. Ick.

As long as its not how they say goodebye in the film Scary Movie 3!! Ow

01001000 01101001 00100000 01001001 00100000 01100001 01101101 00100000 01100011 01101111 01110010 01101110 00100000 01100110 01110010 01101111 01101101 00100000 01110100 01101000 01100101 00100000 01110000 01101100 01100001 01101110 01100101 01110100 00100000 01110101 01110010 01100001 01101110 01110101 01110011 00100000 01001001 00100000 01100001 01101101 00100000 01110000 01101100 01100101 01100001 01110011 01100101 01100100 00100000 01110100 01101111 00100000 01110011 01110100 01101001 01101110 01101011 00100000 01111001 01101111 01110101

01001000 01101001 00100000 01001001 00100000 01100001 01101101 00100000 01100011 01101111 01110010 01101110 00100000 01100110 01110010 01101111 01101101 00100000 01110100 01101000 01100101 00100000 01110000 01101100 01100001 01101110 01100101 01110100 00100000 01110101 01110010 01100001 01101110 01110101 01110011 00100000 01001001 00100000 01100001 01101101 00100000 01110000 01101100 01100101 01100001 01110011 01100101 01100100 00100000 01110100 01101111 00100000 01110011 01110100 01101001 01101110 01101011 00100000 01111001 01101111 01110101

Yep.

Originally posted by godservant
01001000 01101001 00100000 01001001 00100000 01100001 01101101 00100000 01100011 01101111 01110010 01101110 00100000 01100110 01110010 01101111 01101101 00100000 01110100 01101000 01100101 00100000 01110000 01101100 01100001 01101110 01100101 01110100 00100000 01110101 01110010 01100001 01101110 01110101 01110011 00100000 01001001 00100000 01100001 01101101 00100000 01110000 01101100 01100101 01100001 01110011 01100101 01100100 00100000 01110100 01101111 00100000 01110011 01110100 01101001 01101110 01101011 00100000 01111001 01101111 01110101

How primitive form of communication?!!

����5��������滳�����ؿ��������� hey, this is an encyclopedia encrypted in the molecular structure of an alien artifact...! Easy to read, no doubt.!

How would aliens of different species communicate?

Telepathy, definitely. I think aliens are smarter than us, too, they probably know hundreds of languages like C3PO does. They are not of this earth.

Originally posted by godservant
01001000 01101001 00100000 01001001 00100000 01100001 01101101 00100000 01100011 01101111 01110010 01101110 00100000 01100110 01110010 01101111 01101101 00100000 01110100 01101000 01100101 00100000 01110000 01101100 01100001 01101110 01100101 01110100 00100000 01110101 01110010 01100001 01101110 01110101 01110011 00100000 01001001 00100000 01100001 01101101 00100000 01110000 01101100 01100101 01100001 01110011 01100101 01100100 00100000 01110100 01101111 00100000 01110011 01110100 01101001 01101110 01101011 00100000 01111001 01101111 01110101

Makes you wonder, what if it really does stink there?

There is one universal language, that every race and species speaks, the language of visuals, feelings and thought. So telepathy would be how they would communicate. They could also have machines capable of reading thought/brain waves and decyphering what they mean.

As for binary, I am sure they have a much more advanced mathematical language. Think of the code in a single cell of DNA, it is enough to create a full size human being. I would think they would have quantum computers, where they can have superposioned states, rather than just on and off.

If the alien species is not telepathic, and does not have computer techology - then sign language, gestures and pictures etc.

Originally posted by Indigo_Child
As for binary, I am sure they have a much more advanced mathematical language. Think of the code in a single cell of DNA, it is enough to create a full size human being. I would think they would have quantum computers, where they can have superposioned states, rather than just on and off.

But even if they HAVE more hyper advanced technology, binary true/false states is the simplest advanced system one got, thus what you would try to use first in communication with less advanced species, after the regular handsignals/noise/drawings of course.

I think aliens are smarter than us, too, they probably know hundreds of languages like C3PO does.

Define smarter. Would they KNOW more are do they simply have better BRAINCAPACITY? Big difference. We are at "alien" technology and knowledge level compared to the average person 2000 years ago, yet most people know only 1 language just as ancient man, some know 2-3 and a few know more. (although I have to say that in modern times we are leaning towards 2 languages as standard, Internet English (ie highly Americanized and often misspelled with various 1337 variants) and your native toungue).

[edit on 20-10-2004 by merka]

OK I dont know if this could work but for those who have seen SG1 you woudl know about the 4 MAJOR races....Anywyas, because they needed a way of comunicating, they used a system of using something that is found EVERYWHERE in the universe...They communicated via the use of the Elements that compose the universe......

At the end of the day who is to say that a race would use BINARY, I know its on off, but still who knows.....

Never gave any of this much thought but when I go he speaks in English using telepathy I have no trouble with it. I understand they can communicate in any language with telepathy.
I AM ONLY TALKING ABOUT THE ONES I GO TO I DON'T KNOW ABOUT THE OTHER'S

I agree that mathematics would be a useful tool in communicating complex problems and solutions.

I believe a more universal language would be music. Music can be soothing or get a persons (or beings) adrenaline to flowing. Without words, music can be communicated to mean a variety of emotions.

That's just MHO.

Remember Close Encounters of a Third Kind? It's theme was based on just several different notes.

[edit on 20/10/04 by Intelearthling]

Originally posted by observe50
Never gave any of this much thought but when I go he speaks in English using telepathy I have no trouble with it. I understand they can communicate in any language with telepathy.
I AM ONLY TALKING ABOUT THE ONES I GO TO I DON'T KNOW ABOUT THE OTHER'S

I have never experienced telepathy. I guess I assumed that since it is a neurological method of communication, that it would operate on a principle more like our memories. Generally, things are stored and retrieved as abstract entities, based on our experiences. We might remember an apple on a table, but we don't store a separate apple in our memories each time we remember a scene with an apple in it. We KNOW what an apple looks like, so we store a reference to an apple that we can use to reconstruct the image in our mind. We might remember outstanding qualities about the apple, such as it's size or color, or if it had a bite taken out of it. I assumed telepathy would trigger a more "visual" sensation than a spoken language one.

Still, the "speakers" would each need to know a common language in a telepathic exchange, if it's based off of speech patterns.

But that raises another question. Anyone remember a movie called "The Gods Must Be Crazy"? The tribe in that movie used a lot of clicking and gutteral sounds in their speech. Would there be a telepathic word equivalent of a click, teeth chatter or some other body gesture that was a necessary part of the language?

[edit on 20-10-2004 by cabotage]

When he talked to me by telepathy the best way I can describe it would be thought transfer if that makes any sense.
Not getting into the exact words he spoke to me what he basically said was that I would be able to do it one day but I would have to try hard and for a long time.
I think I have the basic idea on how to do it but I can't seem to keep my mind free of thought every time I think I am just about there I realize that I might be doing so and lose focus and it's gone so to say.

Well, that's my two cents worth waiting for you all to tell me I'm a penny short. lol

hmm......we communicate with other primates, but they must be taught how to communicate with us, and are finding out that KoKo is very intelligent for his/her species.

Originally posted by TheBigD
hmm......we communicate with other primates, but they must be taught how to communicate with us, and are finding out that KoKo is very intelligent for his/her species.

Koko is a her. She has been taught how to communicate using a simple set of sign language. Sign language is a great tool for bridging a language barrier, especially deafness. It's a very cumbersome method of communication, though. The speaker cannot perform any significant tasks while signing and the listener must maintain visual focus on the speaker. Our version of sign language wouldn't work well with an aquatic species that did not evolve extendible limbs.

That's an interesting thought. Is it possible for marine life to evolve to a level of intelligence comparable to humans without developing a sophisticated method of manipulating it's environment (such as growing arms and legs)? Imagine a water world where the predominant species were fish like beings with "high" intelligence and fin-like appendages (no real arms, legs or hands). I don't think it's possible to attain that level of intelligence without a significant ability to manipulate your environment. They would likely evolve hand in hand. Pun intended.

That isn't a bad idea, but it still used math to convey info through musical notes. Telepathy I guess is the easy way for trans-species communication, but the takes into account that the "target" of said telepathy is capable of recieving that message coherently or at all. All methods have the task of relaying complex info in relatively simple forms. I think that is the toughest part of language. How do you make it simple, but the ideas can be conveyed clearly?