• NEW! LOWEST RATES EVER -- SUPPORT THE SHOW AND ENJOY THE VERY BEST PREMIUM PARACAST EXPERIENCE! Welcome to The Paracast+, eight years young! For a low subscription fee, you can download the ad-free version of The Paracast and the exclusive, member-only, After The Paracast bonus podcast, featuring color commentary, exclusive interviews, the continuation of interviews that began on the main episode of The Paracast. We also offer lifetime memberships! Flash! Take advantage of our lowest rates ever! Act now! It's easier than ever to susbcribe! You can sign up right here!

    Subscribe to The Paracast Newsletter!

Why Mathematics?

Forums New posts

Free episodes:

campbell71

campbell71

Skilled Investigator
I've just finished reading an article about SETI when I noticed that one of the talking heads said: "The only thing that we've got in common [with aliens] has got to be at a mathematics and physics level"

The question is why?
Why not something audio or visual... why maths?
 
It's because 1+1=2 no matter where you are.

I understand what you mean, but maths the language of the universe... it seems too simple... too obvious....
 
Its a logical premise imo, for example if we got a signal repeating the first 10 prime numbers in sequence, it would be a safe bet that it came from an intellect and not random noise.

You dont need language to do this either, a simple beep will do ie

Beep beep.................beep beep beep............beep beep beep beep beep..................beep beep beep beep beep beep beep............beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep ....etc etc.

You could have a zillion diffent languages out there, but as Angelo said 1+1 will always equal 2, thus numbers and maths will always be a common lexicon
 
Well, mathematics should be universal, I guess. Question is if they even care about looking for radiation that carries mathematical transmissions, if their technology is way beyond that.

About physics, there was something about there being the possibility that the laws of nature are not that universal as was thought before. I think some scientist (quantum physicist probably) said that there might be regions in the universe where they are slightly or even very different. Question is, are these regions anomalous or is ours? My guess would be the first, though.

So, yes, maybe maths and physics are the only things we would have in common. I could speculate about consciousness being something universal and thus, conscious and intelligent beings might not be that different from us after all in terms of thinking processes, but that would only lead to people calling me creationist, which I'm absolutely not. Just so you know :D

Btw: I liked the "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" idea about them knowing music. That would mean that they have auditory senses, though, which is not that far-fetched, assuming that they developed within an atmosphere dense enough to carry sound. But sound and music are different things. They might be totally unmusical.
 
Back
Top