Hello, Earth, Do You Read Me?

HOW might the first intelligence from an extraterrestrial civilization be transmitted to earth? Basing his answer on a concept originally proposed in 1961 by Cornell Astronomer Frank Drake, Electrical Engineer Bernard Oliver composed a sample universal message that could conceivably have been sent from some distant planet. The information would be contained in a series of irregularly spaced pulses picked up by radio telescopes tuned to a wave length of 21 cm. (the natural frequency of radiation from a hydrogen atom and an obvious choice of an advanced civilization). Translated into print, the message would consist of an apparently meaningless sequence of 1,271 ones (for pulses) and zeros (for gaps between the pulses).

After pondering the number 1,271, scientists of any technological society would soon recognize that it was the product of two prime numbers, 31 and 41. That would suggest that the ones and zeros might make sense if they were laid out either as 31 lines containing 41 digits each, or 41 lines of 31 digits. Breaking the message into 41 lines produces only a confusing clutter of zeros and ones, but in 31 lines (shown above), an organized pattern emerges. When that pattern is clarified by substituting dark spots for the ones and blank spaces for the zeros, it speaks volumes to scientific cryptographers. The most obvious information is that the transmitting race consists of two-legged, two-armed creatures who exist as two different sexes and care for their young. The male figure is pointing to the fourth in a line of eight dots extending directly down from a sunlike circle in the upper left portion of the diagram. Thus it can be assumed that the intelligent race lives on the fourth planet circling the distant star.

The message also makes it evident that the transmitting race has learned spaceflight. How else would it know that there is water on the third planet (as shown by the waves extending from the third dot) with aquatic life flourishing beneath it? To the left of each of the planets are dots that can easily be identified as binary numbers. By assuming that the number opposite the first planet is one, the second planet two, and so on, scientists can spot the alien binary code. Giving their imaginations free rein, they can also recognize that the three groups of dots to the right of the star represent atomic diagrams: hydrogen (with one electron circling a central nucleus), carbon (six electrons and a nucleus) and oxygen (eight electrons and a nucleus). The atoms chosen suggest that life on the distant planet is based on a carbohydrate chemistry.

Using the binary number system represented by the dots opposite the planets, it can be concluded that the three dots above the female's raised arm represent the number six and probably indicate that the alien race has six-fingered hands. Finally, the bracket at the lower right seems to measure the height of the adults and is labeled at mid-point by the binary number eleven. Because the only length that the senders and receivers know in common is the 21-cm. wave length of the transmitted signal, it can be assumed that the adults are eleven of those wave lengths, or 71 ft. tall.

Since Drake and Oliver developed their universal code in the early 1960s, the Russians have programmed computers to recognize such binary messages, convert them into two-dimensional arrays and then perform a statistical analysis of each resulting pattern to determine if it conveys enough information to be a message from an intelligent race. Their effort should pay off in the speedy deciphering of the first extraterrestrial message --if it ever comes.

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