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people tend to think in terms of largeness. Look at the size of the planet Jupiter. But what about smallness?
Eek. Sounds Heideggerian. Is that a word?
What if there are microcosms of undetected galaxies and solar systems out there the size of a single cell, or perhaps even as small as an atom? And what if the most advanced life in the universe inhabits one of these microscopic worlds? Then they could easily be flitting their miniature spacecraft around us all the time, even into and out of our nostrils and ears, completely unsensed or unseen observers...or manipulators. The same could be said for the other relativity of size...what if the entire universe as we perceive it is just a germ on somebody else's laboratory slide?...hmmmm?
There's a cool sf book you might find interesting if the genre sits well with you. It's by John Forward and titled Dragon's Egg. I think Star Trek: TNG plagiarized (or 'adapted') it in one episode.
k
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Carpal Tunnel
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The Voyager spacecraft will be the third and fourth human artifacts to escape entirely from the solar system. Pioneers 10 and 11 ... both carried small metal plaques identifying their time and place of origin for the benefit of any other spacefarers that might find them in the distant future. ... NASA placed a more ambitious message aboard Voyager 1 and 2-a kind of time capsule, intended to communicate a story of our world to extraterrestrials. http://vraptor.jpl.nasa.gov/voyager/record.htmlBut for an even more detailed record of the voyager message, see the official site, http://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/
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Carpal Tunnel
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How would you communicate with ETs?
Are we asking the wrong question, given that we are searching for intelligent life (SETI)?
Recall that it is only very recently that mankind developed such techniques as we have for extraterrestrial communication (radio, for example), beyond simple eyesight. If one were to "rank" the technological abilities of all the various life-forms (however many there may be) able to communicate across space, we earthly humans, being the neophytes, would rank at the very bottom of the bell curve. The vast majority of the others would be, by longer-extended study and experience, far more able than we to communicate over vast gaps of space and gaps of culture.
It follows that our efforts are better devoted to studying how to detect their communications, not on how to develop our own. The proper question, I'd think, is not, "How would you communicate with ETI's?" but rather "How would ETI's
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How would you communicate with ETs?
How would ET's communicat with us?
Are we asking the wrong question (given that we are searching for intelligent life; (SETI)?
It is only very recently that mankind developed the techniques as we have for extraterrestrial communication (radio, for example), other than simple eyesight. If one "ranked" the technological abilities of the various life-forms (however many there may be) that can communicate across space, we earthly humans, being the neophytes, would rank at the very bottom of the bell curve. The vast majority would be, by longer-extended study and experience, far more able than we to communicate over vast gaps of space and of culture.
It follows that our efforts are better devoted to studying how to detect their communications, not how to develop our own. The proper question, I'd think, is not, "How would you communicate with ETI's?" but rather "How would ETI's communicate with us?" Considering that question, we are better able to set up facilities appropriate to detect whatever communications may be coming our way.
In other words, it would be more efficient for us to work on optimizing our ability to listen, not our ability to talk.
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There have been lots of attempts to anwer the communications problem in works of fiction.
One of the most readable was that of C.S. Lewis, who was a professional philologist, a theologian by avocation. In the first book of his sci-fi trilogy, Out of the Silent Planet, his hero, Ransom, has to learn the language of the inhabitants of another planet which turns out to be Mars. Ransom is also a philologist and works it out on philological principles. Quite interesting. In the second of the series, Perelandra, he carries this a bit further and posits a theory that there is an original language common to the entire universe.
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Shades of Noam Chomsky ... but he recanted. Fortunately AFTER I'd written my dissertation!  edit I've now had a number of PMs asking what the hey I meant by the remark above. It was in response to posits a theory that there is an original language common to the entire universeNoam Chomsky posited the concept that there is a universal meaning to language, an underlying structure which we use because we's human. No one ever found the structure, and Chomsky later said he was probably wrong. That's all!
The idiot also known as Capfka ...
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How would you communicate with ETs? With a *scat singing voice, as it is devoid of any specific meaning represented by "languages", yet it, in combination with my emotional "*whys" Hi, Jackie, would render the clearest, unmisinterpretable messsage. Scat being used here in the most general sense... if one needs to gauge *levels of scat. 
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levels of scat"Kneedeep, kneedeep", said the frog... 
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