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Possible Pictorial Messages For Communication With Extraterrestrial Intelligences, Douglas Vakoch

Journal of the Minnesota Academy of Science

If we want to communicate with extraterrestrial intelligences, we must encode information we wish to transmit. I have designed some messages which could be sent to other intelligences. There are three possible message types: linguistic, formalized (like computer languages) and pictorial. I chose to study pictorial. I limited my investigation to two-dimensional messages. By using a square format with prime numbers as the lengths of sides, the decoding process would be made easier. Like the prime number, square format, the use of a group of pulses as a name for the object shown in the picture had previously been suggested. …