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ZL2VAL > SETI 17.01.03 17:58l 76 Lines 3746 Bytes #-7722 (0) @ WW
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Subj: An Interstellar Language?
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From: ZL2VAL@ZL2AB.#46.NZL.OC
To : SETI@WW
Computer Code: An Interstellar Language?
By Douglas Vakoch
Special to SPACE.com
posted: 07:00 am ET
16 January 2002
If some day we decide to transmit intentional messages to the stars,
rather than solely listen as current SETI programs do, what would we
say? What sort of first impression would we want to give our celestial
correspondents?
As an attempt to put our best foot forward, we might want to convey the
idea that humans are familiar with the rules of fair play. And what
better way than by showing the rules in action? But how would we format
such an interstellar message?
Artificial intelligence expert Marvin Minsky suggested one natural
possibility thirty years ago. At a major US-Soviet conference, he
proposed that instead of sending detailed descriptions of complex
systems, bit by tedious bit, there was an obvious alternative: send
computer programs that mimic these systems instead. The key is to be
clear about the individual steps that go into an accurate account.
For example, to generate the Fibonnacci series—a mathematical sequence
related to many natural phenomena and also to human aesthetic
judgments—we start by adding "1 + 1." We then take the result of this
addition, "2," and add it to the last number that was used to get this
sum (that is, the second "1"). We then repeat this process over and
over: "1 + 1 = 2," "1 + 2 = 3," "2 + 3 = 5," "3 + 5 = 8," "5 + 8 = 13,"
and so on. We can specify these simple rules of addition very clearly
in a computer program, and we will always get the same series: 1, 1, 2,
3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, and so on. In an interstellar message that
attempts to communicate the Fibonnacci series, we could provide the
recipients with a run of the program that they could use to check their
understanding of the program.
But where would we start in teaching the basics of programming? Much of
the foundation has already been laid in the most comprehensive
interstellar message constructed to date. In this 1960 book called
Lincos, short for Lingua Cosmica, Dutch mathematician Hans Freudenthal
showed how we might introduce extraterrestrials to even very complex
notions of logic and mathematics. His strategy was to construct an
interstellar tutorial that went slowly, step by step. For example,
after illustrating addition by numerous examples, multiplication can be
introduced as an extension, adding the same number to itself some
specified number of times. Similarly, multiplication serves as a
steppingstone to the concept of squaring or cubing a number—of
multiplying it by itself two or three times.
As we will see in our next column, we might take a similar approach to
describe notions of human reciprocity. Though notions of sharing and
promise keeping may seem beyond calculation, computer programs provide
a good start for modeling the basics of these human social
interactions. And if the intelligent beings who operate radio
telescopes on other worlds are as reliant on computers as we are, such
interstellar computer code might well provide extraterrestrials with a
meaningful introduction to some of the essentials of human behavior.
====================================
73 de Alan
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