# OK, prove you're an alien! (Chronos, Bad Astromomer, Saltire) **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 10, 2002, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-prove-youre-an-alien-chronos-bad-astromomer-saltire/136146 "2002-11-10T15:53:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Badge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4bbf92/32.png) [@Badge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Badge)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2002, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-prove-youre-an-alien-chronos-bad-astromomer-saltire/136146/1 "2002-11-10T15:53:04Z")
I recently read Carl Sagan’s book, _Demon Haunted World_. At one point Dr. Sagan suggests an interesting intellectual challenge. If a person were to claim to be an alien/have contact with aliens/be from the future, what knowledge could he or she (or it) possess that would tend to prove their claim? In other words, what should a time traveler or interplanetary traveler know that we don’t know? For simplicity, assume that this person would be familiar with our basis of knowledge, scientific and mathematical processes, etc. Also, this is a test of what they _know_. Pulling out a working time machine or pocket cold fusion reactor would be a little too easy. ---
**Author:** ![Achernar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e274bd/32.png) [@Achernar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Achernar)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2002, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-prove-youre-an-alien-chronos-bad-astromomer-saltire/136146/2 "2002-11-10T15:58:17Z")
Well, provided, of course, they knew in advance that they would be met with this challenge, they could, for instance, give the properties of an as-yet-undiscovered but still pretty easy to find extrasolar planet. We could probably verify their claim after a few observations, if they chose it right. ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2002, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-prove-youre-an-alien-chronos-bad-astromomer-saltire/136146/3 "2002-11-10T17:02:22Z")
They could tell who is going to win the Superbowl, weeks befor the two teams playing in the game are even known. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2002, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-prove-youre-an-alien-chronos-bad-astromomer-saltire/136146/4 "2002-11-10T20:51:15Z")
Since I am able to travel faster than light, I can tell you the exact details of a supernova that I observed last week the light from the explosion is due to arrive here tomorrow morning at just before 9:32 GMT. ---
**Author:** ![Duckster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duckster/32/1244_2.png) [@Duckster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duckster)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2002, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-prove-youre-an-alien-chronos-bad-astromomer-saltire/136146/5 "2002-11-10T21:27:51Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Mangetout \* > Since I am able to travel faster than light, I can tell you the exact details of a supernova that I observed last week the light from the explosion is due to arrive here tomorrow morning at just before 9:32 GMT. As always, **Mangetout** with another bright idea. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Eutychus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Eutychus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eutychus)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2002, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-prove-youre-an-alien-chronos-bad-astromomer-saltire/136146/6 "2002-11-10T22:48:00Z")
meep. ---
**Author:** ![anya\_marie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ebca7d/32.png) [@anya\_marie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/anya_marie)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2002, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-prove-youre-an-alien-chronos-bad-astromomer-saltire/136146/7 "2002-11-10T22:57:50Z")
Yektu goty dhsa krev! ---
**Author:** ![DreadCthulhu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/db5fbb/32.png) [@DreadCthulhu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DreadCthulhu)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2002, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-prove-youre-an-alien-chronos-bad-astromomer-saltire/136146/8 "2002-11-10T23:06:41Z")
I think my tentacles would be proof enough. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2002, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-prove-youre-an-alien-chronos-bad-astromomer-saltire/136146/9 "2002-11-10T23:06:41Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Duckster \* > \*\*As always, **Mangetout** with another bright idea. 😃 \*\* Not original material, I’m afraid. ---
**Author:** ![agentfroot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/779978/32.png) [@agentfroot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/agentfroot)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2002, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-prove-youre-an-alien-chronos-bad-astromomer-saltire/136146/10 "2002-11-11T00:05:48Z")
_pulls out Etheban ID card_ You see? I dyed my hair and skin to conceal my REAL identity! I couldn’t do anything about the height, so I went along with the “I’m NATURALLY short” excuse. Oh, that thing? It’s not MY tentacle. My pet squid is just hiding in my pocket. Heh heh… ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2002, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-prove-youre-an-alien-chronos-bad-astromomer-saltire/136146/11 "2002-11-11T03:29:01Z")
Heck, doesn’t Virginia having a democratic governor while Maryland has a republican one answer all questions? Of course there are aliens. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2002, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-prove-youre-an-alien-chronos-bad-astromomer-saltire/136146/12 "2002-11-11T03:50:36Z")
Spaceship to cross the interplanetary gulfs – 10,000,000 quatloos Hyperdrive license – 5,000,000 credits Fuel t travel all the way to the Sol System – 100,000 carats of perfect blue-white diamonds > [@](#): > > _pulls out Etheban ID card_ Proving you’re an alien - priceless For life’s special moments, there’s EthebanCard ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2002, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-prove-youre-an-alien-chronos-bad-astromomer-saltire/136146/13 "2002-11-11T17:16:13Z")
A friend of mine used to wear a medallion that had a crop circle pattern engraved in it. She’d ask people if they knew what it meant. If they knew, that meant they were aliens. I recognized it, but just laughed and said I didn’t know. Had I been quicker off the mark, I would have said, “Sure. ‘No services this exit.’ Why?” ---
**Author:** ![Fornit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c89c15/32.png) [@Fornit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fornit)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2002, 6:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-prove-youre-an-alien-chronos-bad-astromomer-saltire/136146/14 "2002-11-12T06:05:51Z")
GORT KLAATU BARADA NIKTO 😉 ---
**Author:** ![AndrewL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@AndrewL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AndrewL)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2002, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-prove-youre-an-alien-chronos-bad-astromomer-saltire/136146/15 "2002-11-12T18:39:00Z")
Isn’t there some mathematical question that can be asked? For example, provide the complete prime factorization of some extremely large number that’s large enough to make it difficult for us to solve, yet easy to verify a solution. While that alone wouldn’t prove alien-ness, it should weed out 99% of the hoaxers. Then you can get onto more difficult problems. ---
**Author:** ![h.sapiens](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e0b2c6/32.png) [@h.sapiens](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/h.sapiens)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2002, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-prove-youre-an-alien-chronos-bad-astromomer-saltire/136146/16 "2002-11-12T21:29:28Z")
In the book, Sagan suggests asking for a simple proof of Fermat’s last theorem or the Goldbach Conjecture. I’m sure any unproven math theorem would do. Maybe the 4-color map thing. ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2002, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-prove-youre-an-alien-chronos-bad-astromomer-saltire/136146/17 "2002-11-12T21:54:17Z")
yeah, but what if we’re the only one who go in for that particular kind of math? ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2002, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-prove-youre-an-alien-chronos-bad-astromomer-saltire/136146/18 "2002-11-12T22:21:45Z")
Try turning the question around: You’re picked up from Earth and dropped on an alien world. Your consciousness is somehow transferred into a physical form that fits into the alien environment. Prove you’re really a being from another planet. The suggestion about higher mathematical functions suffers in this scenario. Imagine, for example, you get in a speedboat here on Earth and go to a remote island. You encounter an isolated culture without modern technology. If they ask you how the outboard motor on your boat works, can you explain it? Yes, a minority of engineering-minded folks know about internal combustion and pistons and crankshafts and all of that, but nine people out of ten wouldn’t be able to answer beyond “you attach the fuel line, yank the cord until it comes on, and steer, and the little spinny propeller thing pushes you forward.” The demonstration performed by Kevin Spacey’s character in _K-Pax_, creating an interstellar diagram, is very impressive, and would be difficult to explain away, but I find it more than a little implausible that the “average” star traveller would be able to do that. ---
**Author:** ![Tars\_Tarkas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Tars\_Tarkas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tars_Tarkas)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2002, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-prove-youre-an-alien-chronos-bad-astromomer-saltire/136146/19 "2002-11-14T01:17:34Z")
> [@](#): > > \*\*h.sapiens > \*\*In the book, Sagan suggests asking for a simple proof of Fermat’s last theorem or the Goldbach Conjecture. I’m sure any unproven math theorem would do. Maybe the 4-color map thing. What? please. What if the alien majored in gym? (like ALF did) > [@](#): > > **DreadCthulhu** I think my tentacles would be proof enough. Stay away from the Japanese schoolgirls!!! ---
**Author:** ![Michael\_Ellis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/977dab/32.png) [@Michael\_Ellis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Michael_Ellis)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2002, 8:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-prove-youre-an-alien-chronos-bad-astromomer-saltire/136146/20 "2002-11-14T08:31:49Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Tars Tarkas \* > \*\*Stay away from the Japanese schoolgirls!!! \*\* Y’know, this sentance said more about you than it did about him. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-prove-youre-an-alien-chronos-bad-astromomer-saltire/136146.md?page=2)