kung fu generation

'74

read something interesting over the weekend.

in 1974 a radio telescope called arecibo sent a signal out in the direction of a cluster of stars far far away. it contained information on the human race. these stars were 25000 light years away, so for our signal to reach them, it would take 25000 years and another 25000 years for a reply. so the sent signal was more a demonstration of human technological achievement than a real attempt to communicate with aliens.

the message sent was in the format of binary code. for those unfamiliar with binary, it's all the 10010011000101001 things la. (i can never create a binary series im satisfied with, its either too many zeroes or ones.)
the numbers that we use (1, 2, 3, 4...26) is in base 10. dasmean count to nine then carry 1 into the 10's column and count again in the units column, till we reach 99. then we have to carry 1 into the 100's column then start back.
binary is in base 2. so dasmean you start with 0, 1, and then carry 1 into the 10's column. so running binary would be 0, 1, 10, 11, 100, 101, 111, 1000, 1001...26.

the binary code had 1679 digits; now this was interesting, why 1679 was picked. 1679 is a multiple of 2 prime numbers, 73 and 23. so the alien picking the signal up can only arrange the long code by 73 rows and 23 columns or the other way round. if arranged by 73 rows and 23 columns, this matrix can be seen:




ya what, figure 2.


and then if you colour in the 1s and leave the 0s as blank, you'll see a little graphic.





the different colours are the different segments of the code.
reading from right to left, top to bottom, it shows the following:

the numbers 1-10;
the atomic numbers of the elements hydrogen, carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, and phosphorus, components in DNA;
the formulas for the sugars and bases in the nucleotides of DNA;
the number of nucleotides in DNA;
a graphic of the double helix structure of DNA;
a graphic figure of a man and the height of an average man;
the human population of earth;
a graphic of the solar system;
a graphic of the arecibo radio telescope and the diameter of the transmitting antenna dish;

then, in 2001, a crop circle containing a modified form of the code was formed in some field somewhere.



the change that struck me the most was the representation of the crop circle. in 2000, a crop circle was formed in the same field. it is as if the aliens are replying the signal that was never meant to be received. in the original code, it was a graphic representation of the arecibo space telescope, symbolising our efforts to communicate. the whole binary code thing is like sending a message up to inform the aliens of our existence, while in their reply, it's a crop circle of a crop circle.


they are acknowledging our existence.



some further explanation on the changes made by them aliens.


silicon inserted;
they're telling us that instead of being carbon-based like us, they're silicon-based organisms.

DNA altered;
their DNA structure is more complexed than ours

change in population;
the altered figure is pretty simple, as the signal arecibo sent was sent in 1974, current population would be larger. either that or it's the total population of humans and aliens on earth. there is a theory that aliens aren't really aliens, but just that they are of the 4th dimension, and they can see us but we can't see them.

the "grey" and corresponding height;
in the same format we provided the height of an average man, they provided the height of an average alien or "grey" - a little above 1m. there's something interesting paddy told me about human evolution the other day. im not really sure of the details but it vaguely goes like this. inside our skulls is a bone which looks shaped like a butterfly's wings. it holds the brain in the upper half of our skull. they found the same bone in primates, except that the bone was tilted more and ours was more horizontal, giving a human skull more brain space. it is said that as time goes along, the human "butterfly" bone will tilt more and more in the other direction giving more and more brain space as time goes along, eventually pushing our foreheads outwards.

changes in solar system;
as the signal was sent out in the direction of a group of stars so far out, the signal provided information on our solar system. it was a graphic representation of the sun, and the then nine planets (pluto has been declassified as a planet). the signal had the dot representing the earth highlighted showing we lived on earth. in the reply however, mars, jupiter and saturn were highlighted together with earth. this could mean that they were residing on these four planets, and again why we have yet to find life on those planets is that they are of the 4th dimension.

posted by Benedict @ 6:35 AM