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ELI5: How we would communicate with aliens if they ever landed and publicly tried to talk to us. (self.explainlikeimfive)
submitted 3 years ago by indaochan
[–]severoon 1 point2 points3 points 3 years ago (0 children)
Communication between beings requires some level of consciousness and shared experience. Presumably, if we were to make contact with aliens, they would be intelligent enough to have traveled to us, which would imply they have at least some capabilities that would be the basis of shared experience (sight, for example). Either that, or we traveled to them, in which case all bets are off and we would have to study them enough to determine if they have any sense that would provide a shared experience with humans, and if so, what that sense is.
Let us define "intelligent" life as life that has at least one sense in common with humans that serves as a basis for shared experience of the universe, as well as the ability to grasp at least basic abstractions. With just these two things, you can build a simple language based on identifying invariants.
What do I mean by "identifying invariants"? Well, let's say I show you a symbol next to a group of three similar objects (pillows, say). Then I show you the same symbol next to a group of three rocks. Then next to three bicycles. Then that symbol next to three books. Three trashcans. Etc. I bet you can already guess which symbol I'd be showing you. I can do the same for 1, 2, 4, 5, etc. Each time I repeat this process with a different symbol, you learn to associate that symbol and maybe a sound as well (if you can hear) with some aspect of the things I'm associating with that symbol/sound. So, you learn that symbol means this invariant.
Better yet, I can get you to associate a sound, say, with its meaning even if you can't hear...well, not directly, anyway. As long as you have the technology available to detect sound and transform it into some form that you can directly perceive, as long as you can map unique sounds to unique perceptions, we're in business.
This might seem a bit futuristic and maybe even a little far-fetched, until you consider that this is more or less how babies and young kids begin to learn language.
[–]Bahamut966 1 point2 points3 points 3 years ago (0 children)
/r/futurewhatif is a great sub for this kind of question!
If I were to guess, we'd probably use a mathematical system to start, much like the engravings on the voyager craft.
[–]ThrowinBows32 0 points1 point2 points 3 years ago (0 children)
I think there is a right answer: math.
Math has universal constants that are the same no matter what. Certainly, an alien race intelligent enough for space travel would recognize Pythagorean Theorem, the equation for pi, and so forth, even if they didn't use the same letter/number system. If an alien race landed and we wanted to at least show we were a somewhat intelligent life form, that would be the way to go.
[–]LondonPilot 0 points1 point2 points 3 years ago (1 child)
Unlike captainbitchdick, I don't think the answer to this question needs to be pure conjecture.
Surely the way we'd learn to communicate with aliens would be the same way we learn to communicate with tribes who speak languages we don't know?
I've done a quick google search, and found that there are several uncontacted tribes in the world which speak languages not known to the rest of the world, but I haven't been able to find anything describing how we'd start to learn such a language. My guess would be pointing and speaking, but this is just a guess.
But for a factual answer to your question, rather than conjecture, I'd re-phrase it in terms of uncontacted or recently-contacted tribes, rather than aliens.
[–][deleted] -2 points-1 points0 points 3 years ago (0 children)
Can I suggest that this subreddit isn't really appropriate for this question, since there's nothing to be "explained", let alone like you're 5. Any answer would be conjecture.
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