# Prime numbers and aliens **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 7, 2022, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prime-numbers-and-aliens/967587 "2022-07-07T23:17:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Lucas\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lucas_jackson/32/303_2.png) [@Lucas\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucas_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2022, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prime-numbers-and-aliens/967587/41 "2022-07-12T23:22:42Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Now, maybe throwing things was a necessary ability to be able to get where we got, but that’s because, without throwing weapons, there are still a number of predators who would be a serious threat to us. We could have come up with ways to to protect ourselves without throwing things, I suspect throwing things at large animals was firstly a way to get meat. Anything is possible, of course, but I don’t see a sapient elephant building a rocket or a radio. They just don’t have the dexterity. ---
**Author:** ![Francis\_Vaughan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/francis_vaughan/32/3093_2.png) [@Francis\_Vaughan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Francis_Vaughan)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2022, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prime-numbers-and-aliens/967587/42 "2022-07-12T23:25:01Z")
> [@muldoonthief](#): > > Just to be pedantic - Pioneer 10 & 11 had the [plaque](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pioneer_plaque) with the naked images/menu selections on it. The Voyagers had [Golden Records](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voyager_Golden_Record), with instructions on the back to build a record player. Well spotted. I always get them wrong. Given I was around when they launched I really should be more on top of that. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2022, 1:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prime-numbers-and-aliens/967587/43 "2022-07-13T13:20:50Z")
Just remember that the Voyagers were launched later, and so had the more advanced message. > [@Lucas\_Jackson](#): > > Anything is possible, of course, but I don’t see a sapient elephant building a rocket or a radio. They just don’t have the dexterity. Maybe they don’t right now (I’m not necessarily convinced of that, but let’s go with it), but then, they don’t have the intelligence right now, either. There’s no reason they couldn’t evolve greater dexterity alongside evolving greater intelligence. As-is, they’re already pretty close to the top, in both intelligence and dexterity, as animals go, so I don’t think it’s ludicrous to suppose that a sapient species might have already been large enough to need not fear any other species. ---
**Author:** ![Folacin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/folacin/32/3195_2.png) [@Folacin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Folacin)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2022, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prime-numbers-and-aliens/967587/44 "2022-07-13T17:49:34Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > a sapient species might have already been large enough to need not fear any other species. I wonder how much fear of other species drove our increase in intelligence? If stronger instead of smarter _homo habilus_ (or some ancestor species) had out-reproduced their rivals? ---
**Author:** ![Great\_Antibob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47c2d/32.png) [@Great\_Antibob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Great_Antibob)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2022, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prime-numbers-and-aliens/967587/45 "2022-07-13T18:34:51Z")
Seems like an anthropocentric fallacy. There’s evidence of the ability for primitive tool use among corvids, octopuses (or whatever your preferred plural is), primates, dolphins and even elephants. One can argue about their ability to fashion and use more complex tools, but that seems a matter of difference of degree rather than of kind. So on our very own planet, we have examples of several different species with very different appendages and physiologies that can all use some sort of tool, each in unique ways. It does not require a huge leap to imagine that in the context of a different planet with different circumstances and evolutionary pressures, creatures could evolve in a way to increase the dexterity and precision with which they can manipulate tools even with appendages that do not resemble ours. That seems to be how it worked for humans, after all. Other primates have opposable thumbs but none have thumbs that allow the versatility of human hands. ---
**Author:** ![Heracles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heracles/32/487_2.png) [@Heracles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Heracles)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2022, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prime-numbers-and-aliens/967587/46 "2022-07-13T18:47:29Z")
> [@Great\_Antibob](#): > > It does not require a huge leap to imagine that in the context of a different planet with different circumstances and evolutionary pressures, creatures could evolve in a way to increase the dexterity and precision with which they can manipulate tools even with appendages that do not resemble ours. I agree with this. Human dexterity is a product of technology/history as much as opposable thumbs. Over time, a civilisation of [Pierson’s Puppeteers](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierson%27s_Puppeteers) (two dexterous mouths, no hands) could build spears, hammers, chopsticks, sushi, windjammers, internal combustion engines, microchips and eventually transparent spaceship hulls. Speaking of speculative fiction, I recently read Anathem by Neal Stephenson. There was a spaceship with a prominent display of Pythagoras’ theorem (well, the [Adrakhonic equivalent](https://anathem.fandom.com/wiki/Adrakhonic_Theorem) ) painted on the hull as a call to fellow scientists from alien worlds they encountered. ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2022, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prime-numbers-and-aliens/967587/47 "2022-07-14T15:55:01Z")
In the classic movie [Red Planet Mars (1952)](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0045073/reference/), when the earthlings send a numeric message to Mars to see if they understand. (IIRC), they send out the numbers 3, 1, 4, 1, and 5. If they get those numbers back, plus a 9 (and more), they will realize that the Martians realize they’re sending pi. Which indeed happened! Luckily, the Martians also used base 10. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2022, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prime-numbers-and-aliens/967587/48 "2022-07-14T19:13:00Z")
And the Martians also use pi instead of tau, and the Martians routinely shorten decimal expansions by truncation instead of rounding. Yeah, that one’s a lot more far-fetched. It could work, but it’d take a bit of luck. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2022, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prime-numbers-and-aliens/967587/49 "2022-07-14T22:02:13Z")
So when they came, the Martians brought pie? ---
**Author:** ![BlinkingDuck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/eada6e/32.png) [@BlinkingDuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlinkingDuck)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2022, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prime-numbers-and-aliens/967587/50 "2022-07-21T18:03:54Z")
My old eyes saw “Plumbers and Aliens”…I am sad now 😉 ---
**Author:** ![bordelond](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bordelond/32/150_2.png) [@bordelond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bordelond)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2022, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prime-numbers-and-aliens/967587/51 "2022-07-21T18:35:13Z")
> [@BlinkingDuck](#): > > My old eyes saw “Plumbers and Aliens”…I am sad now. _(Not a bad username/topic combo)_ ---
**Author:** ![Lucas\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lucas_jackson/32/303_2.png) [@Lucas\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucas_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2022, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prime-numbers-and-aliens/967587/52 "2022-07-21T18:37:06Z")
> [@BlinkingDuck](#): > > My old eyes saw “Plumbers and Aliens”…I am sad now 😉 A plumber, an alien and a blinking duck walked into a bar… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prime-numbers-and-aliens/967587.md?page=2)