Thread: Any other passions in life besides music?

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Post by Joseph Ponessa October 27, 2015 (1061 of 1066)
audioholik said:

The problem is our radio signals are a very recent human development, so they haven't reached long distances yet.

I'm glad you mentioned that.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but we are sending both light signals and radio signals to other worlds, and the former travel faster than the latter. So there will be a transmission delay. If the earth blew up, they would see it happen, but would continue to receive our slow-poke radio transmissions for some time thereafter.
The same thing is true the other direction. Everything we receive from the far-off stars is history, but the light is more recent history than any radio transmission they might have sent. Light-code signals (smoke signals, laser signals) would be speedier than radio. But would we understand their version of Morse code any more than their ordinary language, whatever form it might take? Clicks like the Hottentots? Tones like the Vietnamese? Gestures like the Italians? Grunts like the Neanderthals? Mind-links? Vocalizations? We might be already receiving transmissions and be unable to recognize them as language.
They might be so shocked by our music that they would not want to talk to us, anyway. I hope that our broadcast television doesn't discourage them too much once those signals begin to arrive. How embarrassing!

Post by audioholik October 27, 2015 (1062 of 1066)
Joseph Ponessa said:

I'm glad you mentioned that.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but we are sending both light signals and radio signals to other worlds, and the former travel faster than the latter.

Actually both light and radio signals travel at the speed of light in a vacuum. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_wave That's why in the planetary.org link it was mentioned that our radio broadcasts have thus far travelled the distance of 100 light years.

>would we understand their version of Morse code any more than their ordinary language, whatever form it might take? Clicks like the Hottentots? Tones like the Vietnamese? Gestures like the Italians? Grunts like the Neanderthals? Mind-links? Vocalizations? We might be already receiving transmissions and be unable to recognize them as language.

It would be virtually impossible for us to decipher the contents of an alien transmission, however we should be able to establish, with high degree of probability, whether the signal we're receiving is generated by aliens. And that in and of itself would be a monumental discovery!

Post by Joseph Ponessa October 27, 2015 (1063 of 1066)
audioholik said:

Actually both light and radio signals travel at the speed of light in a vacuum.

Thanks for the info.
Hopefully their sets will be tuned to BBC, and that will put our best foot forward.
God help us if they are tuned to any of Berlusconi's channels.

Post by Lute October 28, 2015 (1064 of 1066)

Post by audioholik November 3, 2015 (1065 of 1066)
Lute said:

Here's another fun video on the scale of everything...http://www.businessinsider.com/animated-scale-universe-atom-human-earth-galaxy-2015-9

One can't get enough of these ;)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HEheh1BH34Q

Post by Lute November 14, 2015 (1066 of 1066)

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