Re: Sukhotin's algorithm

[Adams Douglas <adamsd@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Dennis wrote:
> 	I too hope to see it in my lifetime.  Scientific 
> American had an article that put the first real number
> I've
> seen on this.  On the wavelength most commonly
> monitored at
> Arecibo, there's no life within 50 light-years.

At least no intelligent life beaming or leaking radio energy at us
at that frequency.

NASA did a very interesting study a few years back on turning that
idea around and figuring out what an Arecibo-like radio telescope
could pick up from Earth at 50 light years, and what ET eavesdroppers
could deduce about us from such signals. Turns out the most visible
signals are missile-defense early warning radars and television
stations (however, it is a myth that ETs can watch old transmissions
of Uncle Miltie for the very simple reason that all those carrier
waves add up and completely overwhelm the program content--how much
can you see if you're watching, say, every channel 4 on Earth at once?).
Since these signals are usually aimed at the local horizon, you
can also watch the Earth rotate as the transmitters rotate into
and out of view. One could also assume this would aid is plotting
the distrbution of continents, or at least population.

ObVoynich: I've often wondered if the percieved intent of the encoder
of a message affects one's ability to decode it. Many perceive the
VMs as ciphered or encoded--deliberately intended to be hard to
read. The sample ET transmissions I've seen, as well as the ones
we have sent, are all designed to be easy to decipher from our
point of view. But some truly alien cultures might have such
differing assumptions and priorities from us that what was easy
for them might be hard for us. What if you presented the VMs to a
naive researcher and told them it was just such a transmission? I
wonder if they might have a few extra insights that way?

-Adams

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