Sorry, I was talking in general terms about alien cultures rather than the
Arecibo message per se. Mind you, there was one bright idea a French
scientist had in the early C20, of digging a giant right-angled triangle
trench in the Sahara (with a square on each side) and then filling it with
oil and igniting it. The idea was to demostrate that we knew about
Pythagoras' theorem to the Martians. Arthur C. Clarke said (again, this is a
paraphrase!) "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from
magic". As a 'nuts-and-bolts' SF writer, you'd expect him to say something
like that. But the quote implies that the primitive observer *cannot make
the distinction* - not that the two things are the same.
I like your idea of biological radio receivers - I get an image of Dumbo,
but with really vast ears!
Mike
> If they intercept the Arecibo message, I think we can count on them being
> familiar with radio communication. Now, biological radio receivers are
> probably possible, but I think it unlikely that a species would naturally
> evolve the kind of receiver needed to intercept an interstellar signal of
the
> kind where dealing with. And to paraphrase Clarke, magic which works is
simply
> a kind of technology. Radio technology therefore ought to be common ground
> with anyone who's at all likely to receive the message.
>
> Andreas
>
> > > > 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.
> >
> >
> >
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