Re: How do you say 'Hello' to an alien?

Andreas Johansson wrote:
> I think the compositors of the Arecibo message assumed any repicients would be
> familiar with binary notation, and therefore likely to recognize it. I shan't
> try to guess the odds of an alien civilization as a whole being acquainted to
> binary numbers, but merely pessimistically note that positional notation seems
> to come anything but naturally to many humans I know.
Surely any alien life form with computer technology would be familiar
with binary notation, even if it's only an historical curiosity, because
their computers have long since advanced beyond binary.

But, why does it matter if they know what the message means?  Isn't it
enough that it's artificial?

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