WarpMyMind

Hi. Please forgive the slightly dramatic title, but I couldn't resist it. A while back there was a discussion regarding file feedback systems on this site and the importance of feedback in general*, and Slutinmyhead said:

"I only share my files for the feedback. Otherwise, I might as well be uploading them into outer space."

This gave me an idea that I have been thinking about on and off since. It fascinates me. I want to send a mind control file into space! Seriously. Obviously there are a number of problems with this, many of which could be terminal to the project. However, I consider this to be a scientific experiment and I intend to proceed methodically.

My first priority then is to create a file that would be worthy of space travel. Leaving aside all other issues for the time being, I am concentrating on how to communicate with as wide a variety of intelligent lifeforms as possible. Please do not tell me that aliens don't exist, I am making an assumption that they exist - sometimes you have to assume that something is there in order to discover it. If I can create such a file, I will consider it a triumph in its own right. But I could use a little help here.

To communicate with other intelligent life, we have to consider the nature of intelligence. People who have seen the film Contact will know that this idea has already been explored, using mathematics to initiate communication between species that are alien to one another. In the film, a signal was received from space that appeared to be a list of prime numbers, thereby indicating the significance of these numbers. In this way, the beings sending the signal were declaring themselves as intelligent lifeforms. This would be a logical way to proceed.

On the other hand, a more organic approach might work better, especially if we are dealing with lifeforms that are more basic than we expect. Using images and sounds to appeal to the instinctive urges of life, rather than relying on logic. After all the purpose of this file is to communicate with as wide a variety of intelligent lifeforms as possible.

Perhaps we can use both at the same time? I would welcome any ideas that people want to share.
Cheers
ZAP



* http://www.warpmymind.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=5664&start=0&postdays=0&postorder=asc&highlight=

Not only that, but if relating to them on that more primitive level you mentioned, how are they receiving this data?

Not to mention, the instinctive urges on Earth are common to most mammals at least, but we have no way of knowing how truly alien an alien would be.

Their food could be rocks, or something we don't even have on earth. They may not need sleep. They could reproduce by budding, or if they have sexual reproduction, it may be TOTALLY incompatible with our notions of sex.

I'm reminded of a Star Trek Enterprise episode where they met a species that, although vaguely humanoid, was offended by EATING...because eating was as private as copulation in their culture.

We don't know that any potential aliens have a biology even resembling something we would consider life in the conventional sense, is all I was saying. They might NOT have instincts that would be at all familiar to us.

What if they obtained all their energy from photosynthesis and absorbed nutrients through their skin? Would they even HAVE skin?

I don't mean to say it's a bad idea, but the possibilities being incomprehensibly large, it would be hard to prepare a recording for such a job. That's why NASA has invested so much into 'universal' communication techniques for the various spacecraft sent beyond our solar system.

But upon seeing the engraved images of nude humans, there is no reason to suppose they would deduce that our heads contained our thinking, seeing, hearing, and tasting organs, nor that the strange formations between our legs were for reproduction.

I dunno about sending hypnosis into space, but having more space-themed hypnosis files might be fun.

So I guess that I'm better at starting things than I am at finishing them, but when I do finish something I want it to be real. Space-themed hypnosis? *shudder* :p

This one's still on the back burner...