How would aliens of different species communicate?

I disagree, at some level, math is universal. One is always one, and zero is zero. "They" may call it something else, but it's representaion is the same.

Originally posted by Der Kapitan
I disagree, at some level, math is universal. One is always one, and zero is zero. "They" may call it something else, but it's representaion is the same.

You cant do much math with 1 and 0, but you can do binary with two states, yes. Maybe aliens are suckers for counting though, can survive with one state, lol.

At any rate, why do WE have to wonder? If a smarter rate decides to talk to us, we only have to nod and go along with whatever they do

Originally posted by Der Kapitan
I disagree, at some level, math is universal. One is always one, and zero is zero. "They" may call it something else, but it's representaion is the same.

Zero=Nothing and One=a basic unit. We use this to create logic programs, which is fine for our limited intelligence.

Aliens on the other hand may find this "alien" to them. It is said that Albert Einstein could grasp the concept behind 2+2=4. I don't know whether this is true or not, if it is, then aliens may not be able to grasp our Binary system.

You cannot express a spoken language using mathematics. How could you possible compliment someone with an equation? "I like your new haircut, where did you get it?"

It may be possible to express emotion using music, assuming they had the same perceptions as we do, but you could not express anything of a technical nature. And, as someone already pointed out, it would require that their range of hearing fell into a spectrum similar to ours, which will probably not always be the case.

I was half serious on the charades comment. If you want to examine ways to communicate with another species, look at our own planet. We "communicate" with animals through body language. They communicate back to us the same way. It doesn't matter how intelligent or dopey the aliens are (assuming the exist), charades is the simplest form of communication. it doesn't require a computer, and understanding of binary, or any other established number system. You just need your own body and an ability to move it

A bunch of 1's and 0's isn't going to tell a dog where it's bowl is, but pointing towards the bowl will...

We need a place to start and get the ball rolling, right? So wouldn't binary be that good starting place. Learn each other's language basics and then we can compliment each others hair dos.

I think, average aliens communicate with words and sentences, just like us. They also write letters/numbers/symbols like we do. It's another thing, that they can "speak" through telepathy...

If the alien's spoke with mouth sounds, like people and most animals on earth, we could be able to understand each other.

When we are little, we are bought up to speak the language of our environment, so my idea would be, bring someone up on earth, speaking english or what ever, then plonk that person on the alien's planet, let the aliens bring the person up and the human will learn a second language. That person will be the linguistic link between humans and aliens.

If a person is bought up by dogs (which has happened) that person behaves like a dog and barks like a dog. Whether that person can actually have a convosation with a dog we don't know because we don't even know if dogs are capable of that. One of these children was introduced into human culture and now behaves like a human.

The point I'm getting at is, humans can adapt to different cultures, we could adapt to aliens, we could learn their language.


However, if these aliens are telepathic (or what ever the word is for it [never been 100% sure]), humans could not adapt to that. We have no way of speaking to each other with our minds. A few people claim they are telepathic, but no-one knows for sure. People (in general) lie, always have done always will. It must be an instinct or something.

Binary could be a feasable way of communicating. But what makes you think alien life uses maths? They might have another logical way of doing things. Their maths could be vastly different from ours. 1's and 0's probably mean nothing to them (if they exist) I understand you could use anything aslong as there are 2 things, but either way, aliens would have to use these 2 things to fit their language. It fits human languages, not necessarily alien though.

Slightly off topic: Why do NASA assume alien life needs water? The thing with alien life is...it is alien, unknown. They might not need water to survive.


Just my 0.02

Originally posted by Der Kapitan
I disagree, at some level, math is universal. One is always one, and zero is zero. "They" may call it something else, but it's representaion is the same.

Prove it!

Or if you prefer, let's say instead that I disagree. Prove me wrong!

Math, like all science, is founded upon assumptions.

I claim that not all life forms may share our assumptions, you seem to claim that they do, or at least can.

I think that your belief is itself founded upon an assumption, which is why I challenge it.

Jeez, Um, Okay.... Thus is how I see it. Please disagree, I'm not a high paid Research Guy or nuthin'.......

Let's say you have a single object in front of you, a square or something. It's there, occuping space. There's just "one" of them. To me, an alien, no matter what he/she/it calls it, Alien sees one object there. The same for no object present. Alien will have some concept of zero. How would that Alien express that to another of it's species? I only mean that an Alien species surely would have some concept of "numbers"in some fashion. Then- possibly that could be used as the basic introduction between species in the form of a simple code. It doesn't necessarily have to be, I agree, but I think that approach should be looked at along with other cognitive methods. Pictures, sounds, etc.

[edit on 25-10-2004 by Der Kapitan]

The basics of counting are not based on assumptions. An alien race may not call the numbers the same thing, or write them the same way, but I agree with Der Kapitan: "One is always one, and zero is always zero". Something is there, or it isn't. Absolutely no assumptions required.

We group our numbers by 10s because we have 10 fingers. A race with 16 "fingers" would have likely developed something similar to our hexadecimal system. That last statement is definately based on an assumption, but the fact is that if they had evolved any level of intelligence, then they would be able to distinguish between 1 and 0.

So, it looks like Morse Code is the universal language. Time to break out the Cub Scout Manual again.