Abstract
While SETI has yet to detect a signal from an extraterrestrial civilization, animal communication research offers an analogy of what we might expect as we attempt to understand an alien communication system. We can also use techniques from animal communication research to quantify different aspects of communication systems and to rank them in terms of their sophistication. Before we get into the details of parsing and understanding a message from another civilization, it is helpful to explore how we are attempting to communicate with “aliens” here on Earth.
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Notes
- 1.
Email conversation with Con Slobodchikoff on June 22, 2020.
References
Vakoch, D. & J. Punske. (eds.). Xenolinguistics: Toward a Science of Extraterrestrial Language.
Hanser, Sean, Doyle, Laurance, McCowan, Brenda, Jenkins, Jon. Information Theory Applied to Animal Communication Systems and Its Possible Applications to SETI. Bioastronomy 2002: Life Among The Stars IAU Symposium, Vol 213, 2004.
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McConnell, B.S. (2021). Animal Communication. In: The Alien Communication Handbook. Astronomers' Universe. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-74845-6_3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-74845-6_3
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