Alien Etiquette 101

it's instantly relatable. Everybody has to deal with it, and uh, opinions are not going to vary too much, you know, right, Yeah, that's it's not a lightning rod subject usually, and unless there's a right lightning rods are the subject, I guess. Yeah, then then that's an entirely different elevator you're in, and it's a pithy subject. You don't just spend a lot of time on it. Yeah. So yeah, so it's in's instantly relatable. But then you know it's they're all these

cultural things too. Just you know, you're talking to somebody that you have no idea where they're coming from. On um on saye like hand gestures um like uh I believe it was Amanda Arnold, how Stuff Works editor who blogs for Cool Stuff on the Planet. She did this really cool blog entry about how like different hand signals, how they mean vastly different things, you know, depending on

where you are in the world. Like, you know, thumbs up is great here some you know, other places you'll get you know attacked for that, um, you know, making a little like wolf sign with your hands, like over here, that means you're like rocking out or you know, or enjoying heavy metal. Other places it's you're saying something like really bad about somebody's mother, right, showing the bottom of your foot too, right, you can pass your legs, yeah

like that actually, um yeah, that's like Thailand. That's a huge thing there. And when my wife and I visited there, like that was something that's like we're just really on edge the whole time, Like, oh my goodness, you know, make sure I do not gesture with my feet when I sit down, you know, make sure I don't you know, cross my legs so that I'm pointing the bottom of my foot at somebody. And even in the airport, like

leaving um and flying on the Thailand air Uh. They they had like a separate container to for your shoes to be x rayed in then separate from the rest of your stuff, because the idea of putting your shoes in with your pocket things is just, you know, not acceptable, It's insane. Yeah. So it's like I'm I'm kind of kind of like washed off on me, and I still find myself like I'll be in a meeting like here at work, and I'll be like, oh, my goodness, did I just point the bottom of my foot at my boss?

What am I thinking? You know? And then I have to remind myself he doesn't care because he's not tie right. But Yeah, So I think what that kind of makes me think of is how difficult it is to actually communicate with one another. Yeah, and that's just on this planet.

So when we start talking about the possibility of speaking with other worlds and you know, other you know, interstellar civilizations, uh, it just gets entirely more complicated, right, because I mean, how we how would you even know what the cultural

norms are of another civilization? Yeah? Or what what do you have in common with something that lives, you know, on the other side of the galaxy and evolved, you know, in completely different situations, which leads us to our subject today, which is all right, if we do actually engage in conversation with these beings. Yeah, what's the adequate yea, what do we do? How do we behave? What do we talk about? How do we talk about it? Yeah? Who's regulating this anyway? Yeah? Yeah, it turns out a lot

of people are giving it some serious thought. Yeah, and it's really it's been in the news lately for a couple of reasons. One I think it's because there were some ex military personnel who signed an affic David that basically said, hey, we saw some UFOs hovering of our military silences. Um, you know, we've got to put that out in the open. And then there was what has turned out to be a false rumor that Malaysian asked your physicist Maslin Offman was to become the UN spokesperson

for Earth just in case aliens engaged us. So it's like the aliens, you know, contact us, and it's it's the middle of the night in Malaysia. Then people are like, whoa hold on, give us, give us thirty minutes. We have to go wake somebody up. Yeah, and they're like, hey, Offman, you're on you're on deck, right, and so that again that turns out to be false. But definitely aliens are on the mind. And in fact, there's a booking company that places bets that actually has a hundred to one odds.

They're offering this that either the U S President or the serving British Prime Minister will announce existence of e t s within a year of the bet being placed. I wonder if you can place bets on whether it will be announced like during elections, you know, or in the lead up to elections, Like how would that like? What? What are what works? Like? If you're if you want to be re elected, do you you tell everybody they're aliens? Or do you you set on it right right? I

don't know. We need to talk to some bookies about this, all the different factors that contribute to the odds, but in any case, it's definitely on our minds. And there are a couple of reasons for that. I mean, beyond the fact that it's been in the news. One of that. One of the reasons is because of the Setti Institute. Yeah, and these folks they make it their job to search for extraterrestrial intelligence. That's what they do day in, day

out satellites. UM. There list basically cosmic eavesdroppers, if you will, searching for some sort of signal that our little green friends are out there, and they're really pondering in a really significant way, what would happen if they were out there? What if we did establish contact? Yeah, and a lot

of this UM. One of the key ingredients in in in their belief and a lot of people believe that there there is intelligent life out there somewhere is the Drake equation, which is if if you look at the entire equation, it's like the one that looks like inn

equals are with a little star by it. Uh, you know, fd N E f L f I, f c L and these all stand for different things like in equals the number of communicative civilizations are equals the rate of formation of suitable stars FP is the fraction of those

stars with planets. Uh. Then you know it breaks down along lines of like the you know, number of Earth like world per planetary system, the fraction of those planets that where life actually develops, the fraction of life sites where intelligence develops, um, you know, and and uh and contendering like communication issues as well, So it's we we don't really we can't always say definitively what the value would be for each of these letters, but we can

we can sort of make we can make educated guesses. So we make educated guesses, and then when we plug up, plug all those numbers into the equation, we get a sort of a rough, very rough, you know, estimate of how many intelligent civilizations there might be. And based on Drake's um own current solution to his own equation, the Drake equation, uh, he thinks there would be ten thousand, uh, communitive civilizations in the Milky Way, right, And again this

is kind of this is rough science. So there are a lot of different parts of this equation that criticism. Yeah, people will put in different numbers and say, actually it's not ten thousand, it's more like one. Yeah. Yeah, So it varies tremendously, but it's a it's something that gives

people a lot of Um. I don't know if hope is really the word, because I mean, I think there's a lot of concern and know a little fear about the possibility there being something out there, But a lot of people, you know, continue to work, you know far you know it's set because they believe there's a really good chance that it's there. And if it's there, we need to know about it. Line up, you know, protocol, right. And I think the fact too that astronomers have discovered

that there are three planets beyond our Solar system. There's the idea that one of them could be an earthlike planet in their for could produce life forms. So, given given everything that's been in the news, the fact that study is is making this grand exploration into the question of extraterrestrial life, the Drake equation, I think what what it's all pointing to is, Okay, it could It could happen in two years, it could happen in forty years.

We're not quite certain. We've got some math and science to bear out different results. But what if it did happen tomorrow? Yeah, what would we do? Would it just be it would be in a situation where would just be chaos? Would it just you know, be everybody with a radio station and TV going on and pretending to be the spokesman for humanity, right, introducing themselves with the President of the United States or president of the Ukraine.

I don't know people using it as a you know, an excuse to appeal to voters or to slam that,

you know, candidates. You know, the sky's the limit, you know, So you end up having to have some sort of protocol in place, you know, some sort of maybe a decision making body, but at least a body that can you know, direct policy and let a thought into how can you effectively communicate given that, as you said before at the top of the podcast, that it's hard enough for us to communicate with one another, let alone some sort of being out there. Yeah, because like in the elevator,

the message is pretty simple. It's hey guy, Um, I'm a normal dude too. The fact that we're talking to each other and in this owner and stuck in this elevator together, it's not weird at all, right, right, that we're sealed up right now, You're right, and that that is really if you're reading between the lines, that's saying. You're saying I won't threaten you, You won't threaten me either, right. Um, Yes, the weather is great outside. So what what have we

actively been telling aliens or think that we've been telling them? Well, it's I like to kind of think of it in terms of Facebook. Um, not because Facebook is constantly on my mind, though I do have to use it for work,

so I guess it is. But but like in Facebook, you have like your profile right everything you know, profiles out there, and certain aspects, certain corners of that profile, depending on how you have your setting, may be locked so that if there if someone's not your friend on Facebook, they can't see everything about you. Maybe they can only see your picture and some you know, basic stats and you have no idea who's looking at it. You know, it could be people from high school that you don't

want to have contact with. It could be crazy people in other countries, um, you know, aliens surfing the Internet. And that's the thing. We have a lot of information out there that's just sort of leaked away from the planet and is you know, conceivably available, such as TV and radio signals. So that's what from the last fifty years we've been we've had some leakage, so to speak.

And it's you know, there are actually some really cool charts online that show like just how far they've spread into what, you know, what stars, these different you know shows have reached. You know, there are portions of the of the Milky Way that are you know, geting um, you know, they're getting the untouchables, or they're getting Gilgigins Island. You know, they're getting you know, Buck Rogers there. It's just you know, it's like cultural leakage, you know, through

television and just sort of expanding outward. So if some being were cosmic doing some cosmic eavesdropping, that being would say, wow, this these people are kind of nuts. Maybe they've gone through a lot of strife, They've created a lot of strife, They've had moments of grace, and they have Jersey Shore. Yeah. Yeah, So it's like what kind of message you're sending. It's like, especially they choose to like focus just on say the Second World War and Jersey Shore. You know, right, you

know they could you could. It's it's pretty I mean, I hate to be too pessimistic, but if you had to compile an argument for the eradication of Earth just you know, based on television programming, you could probably make a pretty strong argument. You know, but you're right, it's it's a bleak thought. But yeah, and then and then there's all like if Heaven forbid aliens get a hold of our Internet. I mean, it's there's just so much

stuff out there. You know. It's like our we we put like so much of our our culture and our global civilization into television, into the Internet and into these things, and it's not necessarily the best um argument for who we are or not the argument we want to put

forth to other planets. Would would be like if you had your complete Facebook all the way open to everybody in the world, you know, and like, you know, potential employer logs on and they're like, oh, you know, he's really a fan of you know, these films that are kind of weird or oh that. You know, it's like his profile pictures is Halloween costume and he looks like somebody I don't want to employ, you know. It's you know,

it's that it's that kind of thing. We have a lot of stuff that we don't necessarily want to put out there for public you know, consumption in the universe. Yeah, So where to begin? I mean, we're going to describe ourselves. What's the best way to do? I mean, I mean, we're we're pretty complex, multi multifaceted human beings. Um. It makes me think of one of the first things to go out there in a in a very um an actually organized way, which is the Pioneer plaque, Yes, nineteen

seventy two. Uh, this was a plaque that was adhered to Pioneers eleven and twelve the spacecraft, and it had an image on or has an image floating around right now of a woman, a man, the Solar System, the sun, essentially a side section of the spacecraft. A couple other things on there. Yeah, there's um maybe like a hydrogen

hydrogen molecule, molecule diagram. Um, there's a they also have on the map of the Solar System that shows the directory of the craft to show where it came from, where it's going, and uh, and some other stuff too to judge, like is there's some stuff in there about

the frequencies of pulsar um. They'll enable other civilizations to potentially determine the time that has lapsed since the Pioneer was launched, you know, things of that nature, and you know, and just to sort of show that like, hey, these

are the this is the ship. You know, these are the creatures that made the ship, and this is a general idea of their you know, scientific proficiency, right and sort of like where it's sort of like where we are in the world, um you know, I mean the solar system, where earths in the solar system, the side section of the aircraft as it relates to the dimensions of a human being as well, So trying to get

some sort of scope on that. But what I think is really interesting about this is if an alien were to intercept this, I still think it would be a little bit baffling. Yeah, because who's to you know, we we bring a little uh anthropomorphic chauvinism to just about anything. So you know what if you know, you look at these these these people, I mean, we look at and we know it's an the very at least we you know, you know it's an animal, and you know, and we

know it's a human. But that, you know, that doesn't mean another you know, civilization, you know, another alien species would be able to look at that and figure out what it was, you know, I mean like is it a living thing? Is it sculpture? Is it you know, is it a rock formation? You know? Is it just lines?

I mean, like you think of things like um like like just human you know, neurological things like face blindness and the like, you know, things that that prohibit the mind from understanding, um, a form something out of context. So yeah, they could look at it and see nothing they I mean, maybe they could tell at the very least that it is not a natural, you know, composition.

But who's to say they could decide for anything beyond that, right, And it might even look like a cave drawing to them, you know, so so primitive that they have to stare at it for a very long time. Say whoa, wait, hold on, I think this is some sort of object that it was useful to them. But I think what I want to look at the drawing a little closer, because I think it more than saying anything to aliens, I think it says a lot to us as as

a culture. Um. And if you look at the drawing, you've got the male and the female and they're both nude. And by the way, this caused some controversy when it first came out. Oh yeah, there was. I have to read this. I got this out of UH one of

Sagan's books. This is a copy of a letter that went into Los Angeles Times, UH and the times it published, you know, a picture of that image on the front of the newspaper, and this this person wrote in and said, I must say I was shocked by the blatant display of both male and female sex organs on the front page of the Times. Surely this type of sexual exploitation is below the standards of our community. That below the standards our community has come to expect from the Times.

Isn't it enough that we must tolerate the bombardment of pornography through the media of film and smut magazines. Isn't it bad enough that our own space agency officials have found it necessary to spread this filth even beyond our own solar system. It's kind of awesome you think about, especially in the context of this image. Is really actually puritanical looking at it now, But at the time, yeah, it was interstellar pornography. They thought that, some people thought.

And you have, um, the male who is he's signifying a sort of good will chester with his hand up. He looks very awkward. I think he does like I do. You think it just drives home just how ridiculous masculine nudity is anyway, saying he looks really uncomfortable, he really wishes he had his clothes on, I think. And then you have the female standing next to him, and the weird thing about her is that because she's not signifying

at all. She's not waving, so that's saying something right there. Yeah, like she's going to be an antisocial Yeah yeah, it's like, how okay? And this is this is the female. She doesn't speak, and the other thing is right right, I am the master of the universe, I think, is what maybe that's saying. And the female is shifted slightly to one hip, so one of her legs is um sort of like at a forty five degreeing. I don't know how you would describe that, and she it looks a

little suggestive. And if I were an alien and I could start to kind of pick up on some of the nuances here, I might think that she would be open to dinner and drinks later. Well, but a part of that is that she does look more natural and that the guy just looks like just very stuff. You know, she does she does. She actually looks like she's she's used to being naked a lot. And it's the seventies right when this is being drawn, so it's very possible

that this is modeled after someone. Well. Another interesting you know, aspect of that, speaking of her nudity in particular, is a NaSTA official censor this image before you go out.

It was originally uh and this is this according to like to say, you know a lot of people like it's been discussed enough that it's just not Nobody Nasty even denies it that they they decided to edit her a little bit so that she's not completely anatomically correct, Like she's more Barbie Doll than you know, smut magazine rights the language of the La Times, right, I mean, to be specific, the line that would define the Volvo's

this's correct was e racist. Yeah, and I mean with the male it's it's still very simple, but it's obviously you know, there's some frank and beans or something going. I mean, you know, it's like I can imagine like aliens look in this and be like, well, where does that even go? How does this work? I don't, Yeah, I don't. I don't get this. Really, these are two different a sexual species, right, they lay eggs in the water and then yeah, I wouldn't be able to get

a lick of sense out of this. I think I was an alien. But it is fascinating because it really is kind of spelling out who we who we think we are. Um at least in nineteen seventy two. And the other thing I was thinking about is, Okay, so the plaque we know is going to exist well beyond our lifetimes, So I don't know, forty years from now, someone can intercept this, So we as a as a race might look very different or evolve into a very

different type of being than what's represented in nineteen seventy two. Yeah, not to mention, um, you know how much like I mean, just you know, this is just that this is the human body, and it's like you know, un costumed form, you know, and when you talk about like the you know, the future revolution of humans and how like wearable computer technology factors into it, I mean, it's this may not really be a complete picture of you know, even if

if biologically we don't evolve all that much, will this be a good you know, image of what human society is? Um? You know, you know this that that far into the future, like right, so because we'll have certain as presumably you will have certain uh types of equipment attached to our

it's at least we think this right now. And if we indeed, if technology ends up, if we end up having more of almost a symbiotic relationship with our technology, you know, factoring in things like the idea of a technological singularity where computers you know exceed you know, human capacity, and and you know, maybe we end up with something kind of like in the the n and Bank Banks culture novels, where you have like computers are kind of like looking after people and taking care of all the

the real serious stuff, while humans have kind of, um uh, you know, this kind of you know, free society where they kind of do what they want, don't have to worry about, you know, any kind of serious situations. Like maybe in that respect, it's it makes sense that voyagers there in the background, and maybe they'll say, hey, there's the computerized machine that's that's actually does everything, and they are these are the naked people that just kind of

do what they want. There's their gut in the background, right, Um, but that's that's what I think is just this is very interesting. It's a little time capsule of that shot out there, but it's not the only one, right. Yeah, we follow this up with the voyager missions and we in a little we're a little more robust with this

this mission. My understanding of sagan Um I wanted to actually include like more like naked like photographs, you know, I mean, you know, nothing like you know, something very yeah, clinical, you know, just to show exactly this is the this is the human organism. And that was that was you know, completely censored, and I think they went with a silhouette instead. But we also included the Golden Records. Yeah, and the Golden Records, in which, uh they're like what hundred sixteen

images on this record? There are greetings and fifty nine languages. There's uh, bits of ephemera, so to speak, a sound of a kiss, wind and thunder birds, whales, other animals, fifty five languages, um printed messages from President Carter. I don't know, I don't know why I'm laughing about that. He's a wonderful man. But yes, for I guess it's just the quality of oh well, it's nineteen seventy seven. Again, here's this representation of life specifically in this one year,

in this universe, which is kind of funny. And we included I think some classical music, yeah, yeah, and I mean and it is definitely a fuller representation of the human experience in n rather than this sort of crude line drawing um from the pioneer plaque. But I think what's interesting about it too is that um and actually

this was a piece on NPR that they did. They talked about how Carl second and and drew in his second wife, how that that period in time that UM, that Golden Record is, in a weird way, sort of an example of their versioning relationship and when they were falling in love. And I thought it was interesting is that they also recorded the electrical impulses of Anne's brain

and her nervous system, turning them into sound. And then the hope was that maybe in a one million years or one thousand million years actually, um, some alien civilization might be able to turn that data back into thoughts. And at the time when she when they were recording that, she actually meditated, and she was meditating on the awe of love and being in love. So, I mean, it's such a romantic scientific thing. You gotta love it. It is, I mean, and it's a great story of scientists and love.

It's just yeah, it's it's well if you haven't heard it, it's well worth looking up. Yeah. Absolutely, But yeah, here's here's another piece of um or pieces of data that we've thrown or we've flung into space trying to explain who we are. Yeah, it's interesting to include like the music in the art because I was reading some stuff from Paul Davies, be cosmologist, who's um really awesome guy.

I got to interview it for a Discovery News article earlier this year and just you know, just very just brilliant dude, very relatable though, and can just break down these topics with these but he pointed out that like art in music are are, they're very tied to our cognitive architecture. Like in one sense, like music is like a great example of who we are, but it's something that an alien species could easily have no frame of

reference and just totally not appreciate on any level. You know, right, it might be some kind of weird squawking thing that we Yeah. Yeah, so in in a way it's like it's the perfect example of who we are, but there's a very good chance nobody could read it. Which is interesting because um in in talking about how we could communicate with aliens, and this is this is what study has really been queuing itself up to do or actually

to think about. Music has has come up as one of the ways that might be a language that we could share. Yeah, and um, And what I'm thinking about too is that that there was a workshop that the Study Institute had in Paris in two thousand and two, and the invited people from all the disciplines and they got them in a room and said, let's really start thinking in a very serious way about how we can communicate with aliens effectively and what sort of modes we

can do that in. How can you now? No, this was an actual workshop, but the college credit came later because I can just imagine like a lot of jocks signing up for that one thing and it's gonna be an easy course. Yeah, they're gonna be like, we just say, hey, not to stereotype jocks, because you wouldn't say that. Then maybe you never know, there could be scientists out there and we salute you. Prove me wrong. But there was.

There was actually a college credit that you could get at the University of Wyoming in two thousand and eight, and it was a program sponsored by NASA and the UH. The name of it is called Interstellar Message Composition. They have eleven students. The students were asked ponder how aliens might communicate, whether they'd be able to translate human language, and if they'd be able to see or hear them. So those were just some thoughts to get them going

thinking outside the terrestrial box. Yeah, yeah, this is this is their um, their college think tank, I suppose. So, I mean, if you look at what studies doing is actually pretty interesting, is that they are picking the brains of everyone they can about about this problem of communication, how do we do it and how do we do it effectively? And one of the communications that came out of it was from a student who wrote a poem about menstruation with syllables arranged in the fibonacci sequence. A

poem about menstruation. Yes, now you know women, do you represent populations? So, I mean that might be an interesting tidbit too share with the aliens, though out of context, I don't know that. Um, it seems like I don't know. I'm just thinking, like when I meet people, like the first ing out of there, like I feel like I have met people before for the first thing they say does relate demonstration, and it it kind of makes the

rest of the conversation a little awkward for me. Well, so if this is a perfect point that the actually Um, people have been making about what we're going to say to aliens, like do we do you just you know, do you lock down sort of uh like Facebook style some parts of your personal profile so that you don't scare people off. Me, You don't necessarily if you meet your neighbors, say hey, I'm so and so in about an hour, I'm going to be completely ripped and like,

you know, naked in my backyard. I mean, these are not things that you normally say to someone if you're that person who does that. Um. But now, Douglas vatch Off, back off, excuse me, completely wrong. Douglas Vakoch, who is studies interstellar communication guru, basically says, you know what, we should be trying parent about who we are. UM, not necessarily being talking about minstruation or um binge drinking, but

being more transparent about who we are as a human race. UM, that we we do have a lot of strife, that we do have warfare. I mean, he feels like being honest out of the gate is going to put us in a in a better position. What's like with any relationship, It's kind of the idea, it's like if you hide too much of who you are if this relationship is going to blossom, then that stuff's going to come out right, right, So like, don't lie. It's like, oh, we've never had worse.

What are you talking about? Did you get that out of that leaked? Yeah? Just a show about that. Yeah, but you let you let him know, you know, off the bat, Yeah yeah yeah. So I mean I do

think that's interesting. And then I think the other really interesting part of this UM, this effort to try to communicate, is that people are in particular study are trying to regulate it, and space lawyers are getting in on the action UM and helping to create protocols so that not just every time to can Harry, can you know, put something out there UM and try to communicate with aliens and we can do it in a responsible way, yeah, or or not everybody can do like h Like in

two thousand and eight when Dorito's used the observatory in small bar to being a commercial forty two light years across the galaxy. So that was a little disappointing. Yeah, I have a metaphorical tier just going down the pace right now. But it's just so sad, and I guess that's why you need space lawyers right not just to to um take up litigation over disputes among astronauts, but to possibly say, hey, that you know you're violating Code xx j Y seven. Don't please three thats don't do

that again. UM. To go back briefly to Paul Davies. Davies is actually on a on set. He's a he's actually the chair of st he's a post Detection task group. And UM, so the idea of being that if we detect human life, then they call up like the task force, and Davies and company like march into like a I guess, like a special control room and start you know, figuring

out what they're gonna say. But I read an interview where where Davies pointed out what he thought were like the key things to hit and during you know, any kind of communication with an alien civilization. And and he said that you you want to hit the number one.

There's no um, you know, single government on the planet, which I guess is good in case they're like, you know, they just tune in and just you know catch something out of like a really destabilized region, you know, or some like or you know, you know, you can use your imagination any you know, corner of the world that is maybe not the best. Uh. Well, I guess every corner, no corner of the world is like a good representation of the whole. So you wouldn't you know, want them

to give that impression, you know. Um. And then also, no, there's no unitary political philosophy or ideology again, you know, if they were just to tune in and just like you know, pick any religion, pick any you know, um political party in the world, and you can probably pick out some really extreme things that would you know, make them raise an eyebrow or whatever the alien you know equivalent is. Uh. And then he also said that it would be important to stress that we're a great place

for freedom, if not anarchy. Uh. And so that we're and that we're putting we'd want to put together, you know, like the best possible coherent package about what we are. You know. Again, it would be kind of like, you know, not saying we don't have wars, but here's an example of what's great about us to be like a users manual. Yeah, here's Earth and human beings and this is how we work. Yeah, it's like, here's here's a list, this is us words

at all. But here's we're gonna highlight some stuff that's really good, you know, like you know, you highlight the music and the art and the humanitarian stuff, but don't like cross you know, it doesn't need to look like a like a declassified CIA document where you've you've you've marked out every horrible thing that done. And and then I guess too, it wouldn't be like the onions are dumb world either. We want to take out some of

the sarcasm. But one thing that Davy is also stressed is that he thinks that in communicating with another another, you know, civilization, it's kind of like that the whole we were talking about the weather being like the one thing that we would have in common with the stranger and the elevator, Well, Davy says, the one thing we would have in common with this, uh, this galactic stranger, it would be mathematics. So all these things that we just listed, we'd have to somehow find a way to

communicate them through pure mathematics, which is quite a challenge. Yeah, and again that's I think this is why study is thinking about this now and inviting so many people into the conversation. Um artist, musicians, astrophysicists, UM, anybody to say what is what is the common language that we can speak in? UM? And I do think the music thing is really interesting. But again, right if you don't have a context, but music is based on mathematics, and what

sort of mathematics would they be using anyway? UM? Again would it would our mathematics look so um primitive that it would just be like, what what are these scratchings here? I really like the idea of the future where all communications with an alien species are conducted by like really talented DJs. So it's like you want to you want to convey a certain feeling that we have, like he goes, guy goes in, like grabs records and starts like mixing

stuff together. I left that too. I like your idea of that you did this with the unit hemispheric um brains, where if if you were only using one side of your brain. I think that you wanted to have some sort of system where you could tell people like, hey, don't don't ask me a really hard question right now, I can't have my brain. So I'm liking this too. Yeah, I think that music could be a wonderful way to

for us to try to communicate with each other. Well, you, uh, everybody listening out there, you have to tell us what you think you're, if you're human or if you're an alien. I don't know, I just putting that out there. We might have some alien listeners. Yeah, d D D d D, thanks for listening. For more on this and thousands of other topics, visit how stuff works dot com, the house stuff works dot com. My phone app is coming soon. Get access to our content in a new way, articles, videos,

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