Oh, mercy, what a subject to tackle! I mean, I guess it's a good idea to try to have something in place just in case, but--there is no way to know, for sure, until and if they arrive here--or we have gone out and found some. Your article says, wouldn't it be nice if we introduced colors to a species that had never seen any? Well, what if they can't see colors? Then where would we be? I've read (fiction) that indicates that math might be best, since there are probably standard physics that hold true for any vehicles. But what (ha) if they have different symbols than we do? I'm thinking that perhaps simple pictures might be best (stick figures, planetary system), but what if the aliens can only see in 3 dimensions or something? Or like in Predator, by heat sensing only? There's just no way to guess ahead of time, despite Hollywood's and sci-fi writers' attempts to show us what we can "expect".
