# Universal Yardsticks? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 21, 2025, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/universal-yardsticks/1014612 "2025-02-21T02:27:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Jasmine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jasmine/32/2964_2.png) [@Jasmine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jasmine)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2025, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/universal-yardsticks/1014612/21 "2025-02-21T19:06:31Z")
> [@Pardel-Lux](#): > > “Look at us! We are the human race, this is who we are. And who, pray tell, are you?” If they understand English or any other spoken/written earthly language, then they know a whole lot more than that. We won’t have to introduce ourselves. If they don’t mathematics is the universal language, not words. I think this is moot. Any alien race observing us sees a greedy, violent, self-destructive, and emotionally primitive race. I think they would wisely avoid making any contact. We have absolutely nothing to offer them. ---
**Author:** ![Pardel-Lux](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pardel-lux/32/20182_2.png) [@Pardel-Lux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pardel-Lux)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2025, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/universal-yardsticks/1014612/22 "2025-02-21T19:09:17Z")
> [@Jasmine](#): > > Any alien race observing us Huh? We seem to be talking way past each other. And whoever they are, I am sure they don’t speak English. Nor any other human language, not even Chinese or Latin. ---
**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:** [February 21, 2025, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/universal-yardsticks/1014612/23 "2025-02-21T21:47:39Z")
The single most important message, by far, for any intelligent species in the Universe to send to any other is simply “We exist”. Anything beyond that is details. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2025, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/universal-yardsticks/1014612/24 "2025-02-22T01:21:48Z")
Let’s just get right ot the point and send them a cookbook. ---
**Author:** ![EnolaStraight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/41988e/32.png) [@EnolaStraight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EnolaStraight)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2025, 4:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/universal-yardsticks/1014612/25 "2025-02-22T04:49:23Z")
The only way the message can be received in probe form is in space: the probe can’t land, so it…and the message…would be destroyed in a crash or burning up in an atmosphere. We assume it will be intercepted as it transits through a solar system by a civilization with a spacecraft that can track and catch up to it. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2025, 4:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/universal-yardsticks/1014612/26 "2025-02-22T04:55:30Z")
> [@EnolaStraight](#): > > We assume it will be intercepted as it transits through a solar system by a civilization with a spacecraft that can track and catch up to it. Who is this “we” doing the assuming? It has virtually zero chance of that happening. ---
**Author:** ![glee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b5a626/32.png) [@glee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glee)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2025, 10:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/universal-yardsticks/1014612/27 "2025-02-22T10:29:06Z")
> [@dtilque](#): > > Let’s just get right ot the point and send them a cookbook. Even better, send them Chuck Berry\*. 😀 [Chuck Berry with Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band “Johnny B. Goode” | Concert for the Rock Hall](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6swgiM9vSEE) \*with Bruce as well 🕶 ---
**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:** [February 22, 2025, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/universal-yardsticks/1014612/28 "2025-02-22T13:27:38Z")
As I mentioned in another thread recently, the message on the probe has already been received by its intended audience. The message was to ourselves. ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2025, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/universal-yardsticks/1014612/29 "2025-02-22T22:56:41Z")
> [@Pardel-Lux](#): > > What is the point of that? They surely know those constants as well as we do. This redundant messages serve to establish a common ground, set a communication form (language, code, medium…) and start communicating the interesting things. This was a major premise in the movie “Contact.” Yes, I know it is a movie but it was written by Carl Sagan and he put a fair bit of thought into how this would work. In the movie the first transmission from the aliens we get is Hitler’s opening of the 1936 Olympics which had the first broadcast of TV of sufficient power into space. The aliens recorded it and sent it back as a “we heard you.” Then, the aliens send a string of prime numbers to get the communication ball rolling. Presumably any species able to send broadcasts into space know about prime numbers. ETA: I think I have that reversed. First were the primes to get our attention that the signal was not random noise and then the video was found. ---
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2025, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/universal-yardsticks/1014612/30 "2025-02-23T15:36:25Z")
> [@Pardel-Lux](#): > > What is the point of that? They surely know those constants as well as we do. The point is to create a common reference in order to start communicating. We have to start with something we know they know and that is invariant with time and space. ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2025, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/universal-yardsticks/1014612/31 "2025-02-23T16:04:23Z")
> [@solost](#): > > …to the embarrassment of the male nude. But hey, it’s cold in space! 10^34 Planck lengths is perfectly acceptable [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/universal-yardsticks/1014612.md?page=1)