An alien message...

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

…from us. (sorry, but it got your attention, right?)

You’re probably familiar with the first intentional, simple message sent by humanity (or a small scientific subset thereof) to the stars in 1974…
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap000123.html

Have you seen the second, more-complex message sent in 1999?
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap010109.html
This is just the first page, but there is a link for more info.

Observation…
Ironically, even though the messages were created by humans, don’t they look alien? I wonder how long it would take for humans to decipher such a message. Probably not too long on the second one, but the first one seems to have some more obscure components (some parts are mathematical, others are pictorial).

2

My favorite “aliens respond to Earthlings’ broadcast message” story is still Star Trek IV. With the whales.

3

Yeah, that probe kicked butt, so to speak. It was certainly better than ST#1 (V-ger) and Starman, but my favorite is Contact.

4

*Originally posted by Phobos *

More complex? I’ve never figured the first one out, completely, but the second one only took me a few minutes.

5

Although our technology isn’t quite there (or anywhere near it), my favorite is the Star Trek:TNG episode where they come across a probe which taps into Picard’s mind - and he lives the life of a person from that planet inside his head all within the scope of a few hours of his own time. That, in my opinion, was an excellent idea and the best TNG episode made.

6

Ok, bigger, more logical. The first message (my first link) is the entire message, and like I said, it seems a bit confusing. The second link is just the first page of the message, and like you said, it seems easier to decipher.