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| M13 star cluster |
November 16
1974: A puzzle for future Alien linguists to solve, a message containing information on mankind and the planet we inhabit, is broadcast to the M13 star cluster, 50 000 light-years from us.
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EXTRA for today, from Mikael Parkvall's Limits of Language:
TALKING TO ALIENS
In the late 18th century, the Genèvoise spiritist medium Hélène Smith (nom de plume of Catherine Élise Müller) held séances for her friends. In altered states of consciousness, she told her audience about her previous lives, some of which included space travel. During a visit to planet Mars, Smith claimed to have acquired fluency in Martian, some of which she wrote down in an exotic-looking script.
Unlike many other such samples, Smith’s Martian was highly structured and regular. Its consistency convinced some that her language was not mere glossolalic gibberish, but a true language—possibly even real Martian. Upon closer inspection, however, it turned out that not only was the “Martian” phonology identical to that of Smith’s native French, but the grammatical structure of the language was also such that there was a one-to-one correspondence between French and “Martian.” Clearly, the language Smith had allegedly acquired during her trips to Mars was but an amateurish relexification of French.
While this, the best known case of alleged extraterrestrial communication, turned out to be a fake, alien communication strategies is a most serious field of research. Earthlings have several times sent messages in which we tell a little about ourselves into outer space, hoping that somebody Out There might receive them and understand them. But how should we compose our message in order to facilitate comprehension by whatever intelligent life forms there may be beyond our solar system? I will not try to summarize the state of the art of this research here, but would like to recommend McConnell (2001), which provides a most interesting discussion of the subject.
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