# OK, prove you're an alien! (Chronos, Bad Astromomer, Saltire)

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-prove-youre-an-alien-chronos-bad-astromomer-saltire/136146>\
**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:** 3\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![iamthewalrus\_3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/258eb7/32.png) [@iamthewalrus\_3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamthewalrus_3)\
**Post date:** [November 14, 2002, 11:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-prove-youre-an-alien-chronos-bad-astromomer-saltire/136146/21 "2002-11-14T11:40:06Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> 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.

Of course, that assumes that there is such a proof. While both have been proven, the proofs are by no means simple. But there’s no reason to believe that “simple” proofs exist within our mathematical structure.

And, hey, as long as we’re asking the alien to prove open or difficult problems, why not ask for a polynomial time solution to an NP-complete problem?

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**Author:** ![TheLoadedDog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/35a633/32.png) [@TheLoadedDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheLoadedDog)\
**Post date:** [November 14, 2002, 12:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-prove-youre-an-alien-chronos-bad-astromomer-saltire/136146/22 "2002-11-14T12:59:26Z")

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I dunno. It’d be cool proving you were an alien, but in doing so you’d be making some serious history, it’d be the biggest news story ever, etc etc. The thing is, it’s something you could only do _once_. I’d be inclined not to rush it, and to spin out the time beforehand, pretending to be a human who just happens to know or do lots of amazing weird shit. All very _A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court_. It would be somewhat cool.

It also reminds me of this passage from HHGTTG:

> [@](#):
>
> ‘Unfortunately I got stuck on the Earth for rather longer than I indended’,  
> said Ford. ‘I came for a week and got stuck for fifteen years.’
> 
> ‘But how did you get there in the first place then?’
> 
> ‘Easy, I got a lift with a teaser.’
> 
> ‘A teaser?’
> 
> ‘Yeah.’
> 
> ‘Er, what is…’
> 
> ‘A teaser? Teasers are usually rich kids with nothing to do. They cruise around looking for planets which haven’t made interstellar contact yet and buzz them.’
> 
> ‘Buzz them?’ Arthur began to feel that Ford was enjoying making life difficult for him.
> 
> ‘Yeah,’ said Ford, ‘they buzz them. They find some isolated spot with very few people around, then land right by some poor unsuspecting soul whom no one’s ever going to believe and them strut up and down in front of him wearing silly antennae on their head and making beep beep noises. Rather childish really.’

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**Author:** ![DreadCthulhu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/db5fbb/32.png) [@DreadCthulhu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DreadCthulhu)\
**Post date:** [November 14, 2002, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-prove-youre-an-alien-chronos-bad-astromomer-saltire/136146/23 "2002-11-14T20:31:25Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> \*\*
> 
> Stay away from the Japanese schoolgirls!!! \*\*

The scary thing is, I was actually in Japan a couple of weeks ago.

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