I posted thoughts similar to this on the Skeptic Friends website under the poll question "Do Aliens Exist?"

It's interesting to me that the concept of picking up an alien signal seems to mirror our technology and society rather than a signal as discovered in nature. What I mean is this:
Early radio pioneers wondered about signals from Mars, and attempted to hear something. They did hear "signals" but their discoveries mirrored Lowell’s visual misinterpretations of “canals.” Later, Carl Sagan, Frank Drake, Jill Tarter and other SETI pioneers conceive of alien signals possibly being picked up at an optimum frequency based on hydrogen. This seems like a very good idea. Drake proposes his equation, another good place to start.
As the personal computer and the Internet develop, Carl Sagan writes “Contact” wherein an alien signal is, in a sense, akin to a set of instructions. Sagan and others proposed alien signals constructed like websites. The signal is a series of mathematical clues, leading to instructions. The instructions are an interactive program. The aliens are temporal creatures like us, and realize that they may not actually be around when the signal is received. Instead, they offer an interactive message. In Sagan’s book, the message leads to instructions on how to build a machine to transport us to other worlds via a wormhole. A one-way signal that opens like a website partially solves the problem of communication which "ljbrs" outlined to a degree.

Now, imagine back in 1929, Marconi or somebody gets a message that leads to advanced mathematics, that in turn leads to plastics, diodes, transistors, (remember those?) and even computer chips and a hard drive. The message tells 1929 people how to build a modern personal computer. Something they have no concept of. Then the message instructs them how to download it, and poof! a self-contain interactive program is created. Communication then proceeds between us and the alien's program, which reflects who they are (or were.)

The depressing part is, no one has thought of this until after the PC got going. (Why would they?) But they should try to think that way. That's my point. It could be that our methods of seeking ET only mirror us, that if they are really out there, we are not picking up their methods. They're too far away. Or we just are not second guessing them well enough.
Finally, there’s the whole idea that "life" is a different thing from "alien life with which we could communicate." I for one would be very excited indeed if microbes were discovered on Mars or Europa.

I think Tim Thompson's ideas are first rate. We learn by looking even if we don't find anything right away. We learn how to learn in this area. (Maybe we should design and send the interactive signal that allows alien civilizations to talk to us via a proxy computer program?) Eventually, over time, if we don’t go extinct, humans will also push out into the distant solar system and maybe far beyond.

Chip

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Chip on 2002-05-09 15:20 ]</font>