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SF-2026-001126UnverifiedTheology & Ancient Texts

1965 NSA Intel Excerpt - Communication with Extraterrestrial Intelligence

This declassified NSA Technical Journal essay by cryptologist Lambros D. Callimahos discusses the scientific premise that extraterrestrial intelligence likely exists and the cryptologic problem of communicating with it. Drawing on the substance of a panel discussion held during the 1965 IEEE Conference on Military Electronics in Washington, D.C. (23 September 1965), it cites radio astronomers including Sir Bernard Lovell and Frank Drake, references Drake's 1960 Project Ozma search of Epsilon Eridani and Tau Ceti at the 1420.405752 MHz hydrogen line, and describes hypothetical 'raster' pictogram messages such as Bernard M. Oliver's 1271-bit design from a 1961 Green Bank conference. Callimahos frames the challenge as 'inverse cryptography'—designing symbolism intended to be maximally easy to decode—reviewing prior schemes by Hogben ('Astraglossa,' 1952) and Freudenthal ('Lincos,' 1960), and presenting his own worked example of a 30-transmission mathematics-first message from a hypothetical inhabited planet. The piece is speculative and scientific rather than a report of any actual contact.

nsa.govIncident Sep 23, 1965Released 2004Discovered Jul 6, 2026351.0 KBdocument
sha256:7b876fe424c30ddefe8b

Description

An NSA Technical Journal article by cryptologist Lambros D. Callimahos examining how humanity might recognize, decode, and reply to signals from extraterrestrial civilizations, drawing on radio astronomy, the search for intelligent signals, and 'inverse cryptography' techniques for building a comprehensible cosmic language.

Claims

  • The 1420.405752 MHz hydrogen line is a natural universal frequency on which interstellar communication could be sought.

    70%
  • Mathematics and 'inverse cryptography' offer the most practical basis for constructing a message comprehensible to an alien intelligence.

    60%
  • The 1420.405752 MHz hydrogen line is a natural universal frequency other intelligent beings would recognize for interstellar communication.

    60%
  • A raster-format binary message (1271 bits) can convey a pictogram depicting the sender's biology, chemistry, and planetary system.

    60%
  • Mathematics and 'inverse cryptography' provide the most viable basis for constructing comprehensible interstellar messages.

    55%
  • The existence of extraterrestrial intelligence is taken for granted by most scientists, with perhaps a billion civilizations that could have arisen in the galaxy.

    30%
  • Most scientists take the existence of extraterrestrial intelligence for granted, with an estimated ~100 million suitable stars in our galaxy and about one billion possible civilizations.

    30%
  • Superior civilizations may have already signaled Earth thousands of years ago, or destroyed themselves through technological crises.

    20%
  • Advanced extraterrestrial civilizations likely far exceed human technology and may have attempted to contact Earth thousands of years ago.

    20%

Events

  1. Sep 22, 1965

    1965 IEEE Conference on Military Electronics panel

    Panel discussion titled 'Communication with Extraterrestrial Intelligence' in Washington, D.C., whose substance became this article.

  2. Dec 31, 1959

    Project Ozma

    Frank Drake's spring 1960 attempt to detect intelligent signals from Epsilon Eridani and Tau Ceti at the 21 cm hydrogen line.

  3. Dec 31, 1960

    Green Bank communication conference

    Conference on interplanetary communication after which Bernard M. Oliver devised a hypothetical 1271-bit raster message.

  4. Dec 31, 1960

    Green Bank conference

    Meeting at Green Bank on the possibility of interplanetary communication where Oliver devised his raster message.

Dates mentioned

1952196019611965-09-231799September 1965

Keywords

Entities

Extracted text (OCR)
Communication with Extraterrestrial Intelligence 1
BY LAMBROS D. CALLIMAHOS

Unclassified
We are not alone in the universe. A few years ago, this notion
seemed farfetched; today, the existence of extraterrestrial intelligence
is taken for granted by most scientists. Sir Bernard Lovell, one of
the world's leading radio astronomers, has calculated that, even allowing for a margin of error of 50003, there must be in our own galaxy
about 100 million stars which have planets of the right chemistry,
dimensions, and temperature to support organic evolution. If we
consider that our own galaxy, the Milky Way, is but one of at least a
billion other galaxies similar to ours in the observable universe, the
number of stars that could support some form of life is, to reach for
a word, astronomical. As to advanced (by miserable earth standards)
forms of life, Dr. Frank D. Drake of the National Radio Astronomy
Observatory at Green Bank, West Virginia, has stated that, putting
all our knowledge together, the number of civilizations which could
have arisen by now is about one billion. The next question is, "Where
is everybody?"
The nearest neighbor to our solar system is Alpha Centauri, only 4.3
light years away; but, according to Dr. Su-Shu Huang of the National
Aeronautics and Space Administration, its planetary system is
probably too young for the emergence of life. Two other heavenly
friends, Epsilon Eridani and Tau Ceti, about 11 light years away, are
stronger contenders for harboring life. Nevertheless, if superior
civilizations are abundant, the nearest would probably be at least 100
light years away; therefore, it would take 200 years for a reply to be
forthcoming, a small matter of seven generations. This should, however, make little difference to us, in view of the enormous potential gain
from our contact with a superior civilization. Unless we're terribly
conceited (a very unscientific demeanor), we must assume that the
"others" are far more advanced than we are.· Even a 50-year gap
would be tremendous; a 500-year gap staggers the imagination, and as
1

The substance of this article was presented at a panel discussion of the same title
during the 1965 IEEE Conference on Military Electronics held in Washin~on, D. C., on
23 September 196.5. Besides the author as cryptologist, the other members of the panel
were Dr. Paul Garvin, linguist; Dr .•John C. Lilly, delphinologist; Dr. William 0. Davis,
physicist; and Fr. Francis J. Heyden, S. J., astronomer. The moderator was Dr. Harold
Wrioster, Director of Infonnation Services of the Air Force Office of Scit:ntitic Research.

EXTRATERRESTRIAL INTELLIGENCE

'

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for a 5000-year gap . . . (By the way, if they are as much as 50 years
behind us, forget it!) It is quite possible that "others" have satellite
probes in space, retransmitting to "them" anything that sounds nonrandom to the probe. But they have probably called us several
thousand years ago, and are waiting for an answer; or worse yet, they
have given up; or, more probably, they have reached such impressive
technological advances that they have destroyed themselves. 2
Epsilon Eridani and Tau Ceti were the targets on which Dr. Drake
focussed his attention in the spring of 1960 in Project Ozma, an
attempt to detect possible intelligent signals from outer space. The
frequency selected for listening was 1420.405752 megacycles per
second, or a wave length of 21 cm. This particular frequency, postulated independently by two professors on the faculty of Cornell
University, Giuseppe Cocconi and Philip Morrison, happens to be the
radiation frequency of atomic or free hydrogen which permeates space
in great clouds; moreover, this frequency is within the range of
radio frequencies able to pass through the earth's atmosphere. Presumably, the significance of this frequency would be known to other
intelligent beings in the universe who understand radio theory. We're
still talking about radio waves as the communication medium; other
possible media might be masers, lasers, or the as yet undiscovered and
unnamed "rasers." A technology superior to ours might even have
learned how to modulate a beam of neutrinos (weightless, uncharged
particles that physicists on earth find it difficult even to detect); if so,
"they" may have to wait a century or two before we learn how to build
a neutrino receiver.
If another civilization were trying to establish communication with
us, it would first embark on attention-getting signals of such a nature
that we could distinguish them from random cosmic noise; once we
receive a recognizable signal, we have a good chance of understanding
the message. For example, they could start with trains of signals
corresponding to the natural numbers 1, 2, 3, . . . , followed perhaps
by prime numbers. They might continue with equal-length extended
signals consisting of start and stop impulses, with occasional pulses in
i
In this connection, Professor losif Shklovsky, Russia's greatest radio astronomer,
has the following to say in the September 1965 issue of Soviet Life:
"Profound crises lie in wait for a developing civilization and one of them may well prove
fatal. We are already familiar with several such critical [situations]:
(a) Self-destruction as a result of a thermonuclear catastrophe or some other discovery
which may have unpredictable and uncontrollable consequences.
(b) Genetic danger,
(c) Overproduction of infonnation.
(d) Restricted capacity of the individual's brain which can lead to excessive specialization, with consequent dangers of degeneration.
(e) A crisis precipitated by the creation of artificial intelligent beings."

108

L. D. CALLIMAHOS

between; when these signals are aligned flush over one another, they
would show a circle, the Pythagorean Theorem, or similar geometric
design. These attention-getting signals would be followed by early
"language lessons," interspersed with items of technical information to
help bring us up to the level of our superiors, "them."
It may be assumed that the sense of sight, or an equivalent, is
possessed by all higher forms of life; the problems of communication
could thus be greatly simplified through the medium of a "raster"
representation such as that of a television screen. After a conference
held at Green Bank in 1961 to discuss the possibility of communication
with other planets, one of the participants, Bernard M. Oliver, made
up a hypothetical message on the raster principle. The message,
consisting of 1271 binary digits or "bits," is shown in Fig. 1. Since
1271 has but two prime factors, 31 and 41, we would naturally be led
to write out the message in raster form, in 41 lines of 31 bits each, or
in 31 lines of 41 bits each; the latter case reveals a greater nonrandomness in the patterns disclosed, indicating that these are the correct
dimensions. In Fig. 2 is the write-out of the message, in which the
binary 1 's have been replaced by a dot and the O's left as blank spaces.
Now for its interpretation.
There are dots at the four corners of the pictogram as reference
points, marking the outlines of the rectangle. At the upper left is a
representation of the sun; directly underneath in a column are dots
representing 8 planets, identified by the appropriate binary coding to
their left, preceded by a binary point as a marker. The erect, twolegged beings illustrated are obviously bisexual and mammalian; one
hand of the male figure points to the fourth planet where they apparently reside. At the top of the pictogram may be seen representations of hydrogen, carbon, and oxygen atoms, indicating that the
chemical structure of life on their planet is similar to ours. From the
third planet there emerges a wavy line, showing that it is covered with
water; the representation of a fish shows that they must have visited us
and therefore have space travel. One hand of the female figure points
to a six (preceded by the usual binary point), perhaps implying that
there are six fingers on each hand; we could therefore assume that
their number system is probably to the base 12. At the right of the
female figure may be seen a bracket, in the middle of which is eleven in
binary form (preceded by a binary point): this implies that the beings
are 11 units high. A reasonable interpretation is that the unit is 21
cm., the wave length of the transmission, making them about 7 Vi feet
tall, which should be all right for average Martians.
In 1952 the British mathematician Lancelot Hogben delivered an
address before the British Interplanetary Society entitled "Astraglossa,
or First Steps in Celestial Syntax." Hogben pointed out that number
109

EXTRATERRESTRIAL INTELLIGENCE
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f '

l 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 c c
l 0 0 0 0 l l l 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 l 0 0 0 0 0 l 0 0 0 0 0 0 l 0 0 0 0 0 l 0 0
0 0 0 0 0 l 0 0 0 l 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
0 0 0 0 0 0 l 0 0 0 l 0 0 0 0 l 0 0 0 0 0 0 l 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0
0000000100010000010000001000000001000100
0 l 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 l l l 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 c 0 0
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 l 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 l 0 J
0 0 0 l 0 0 0 0 l 1 0 0 0 l 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 l 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 c c 0
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 l l 0 0 0 0 l l 0 0 0 0 1 l 0 0 0 0 l 1 0
l l 0 l 1 0 l l 0 l 0 0 l l 0 0 0 0 l 1 0 0 l 0 l l 0 0 l 0 l l 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 0
l 0 0 l 0 0 l 0 0 l 0 l 0 l 0 0 1 0 0 l 0 0 0 0 l l 0 0 0 0 l l 0 0 0 0 l 1 0 0
0 0 l l 0 0 0 0 l l 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 l 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 l l 1 1 l 0 l 0 0
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 l 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 l 0 1 l 0 l l l 0 0 l 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 l l 1 l 0 l
0000000000000000000000000000100000000000
0 0 0 0 0 0 l 0 0 0 l 0 0 l l l 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 l 0 l 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
0 0 0 0 0 0 l 0 l 0 0 l 0 0 0 0 l l 0 0 l 0 l 0 l l l 0 0 l 0 l 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 l 0 l 0 0 l 0 0 0 0 l 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 l 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 c 0
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 l 0 0 l 0 0 0 0 0 l 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 l l l l l 0 0 0 0 0
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 l l 1 l 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 l 1 0 l 0 l 0 0 0 0 0 0 l 0 1 0 1 0 0 0
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 l 0 l 0 l 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 l 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 l 0 0 0 l 0 l 0
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 l 0 l 0 0 0 l 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 l 0 0 0 l 0 0
l 0 0 0 l 0 0 0 1 0 0 l l 0 l l 0 0 1 l l 0 l l 0 l l 0 l 0 0 0 0 0 l 0 0 0 1 0
0 0 1 0 l 0 1 0 l 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 l 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1
0 0 0 l 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 l 0 0 0 l 0 0 0 0 0 0 l 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 1
0 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 l 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 l 1 1 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 l 0 1
0 l 0 0 0 0 0 l 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 l 0 0 0 l 0 0 0 0 0 0 l 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0
0 0 0 l 0 0 0 0 l l 1 0 0 0 0 l 0 0 0 0 0 l 0 0 0 0 0 l 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0
0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 l 0 0 0 l 0 0 0 l 0 0 0 0 0 l 0 0 0 0 0 l l 0 0 0 l l 0 0 0 0 l
0 0 0 0 0 l 0 0 0 l 0 0 0 l 0 0 0 l 0 0 0 0 0 l 0 0 0 0 0 l l 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1
1 0 0 0 0 0 l 1 0 l 1 0 0 0 1 1 0 1 l 0 0 0 0 0 l 1 0 0 l 1 l

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Fig. 2.

110

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•

L. D. CALLIMAHOS

is the most universal concept for establishing communication between
intelligent beings; therefore, mathematics forms the basis for the first
steps in extraterrestrial communication. He then illustrated how he
could transmit pulses representing integers, and distinctive signals or
"radioglyphs" representing "+ ", " - ", "= ", and so on. Morrison
later carried out the basic idea a little further, using different pulse
shapes to represent elementary mathematical symbols. An entirely
different approach was developed by Hans Freudenthal, Professor of
Mathematics at the University of Utrecht, who in 1960 published a
book entitled "Lincos: Design of a Language for Cosmic Intercourse."
"Lincos," an acronym of "lingua cosmica," tries to establish a communication of ideas through symbolic logic, but the general consensus
of those who have taken the trouble to study his book is that his plan
is too difficult. After all, the object of the exercise is getting ideas
across to another party, whose thinking processes may be entirely
different from our own. In other words, what we need to develop is
an "inverse cryptography," or communication symbolism specially
designed, not to hide meaning, but to be as easy as possible to comprehend. Cleverness on the part of the sender is then the important
factor, not reliance on ingenuity of the recipient. The inverse
cryptographer-somehow, this term doesn't sound quite right-must
make his meaning clear to the recipient, even if the latter does not
possess a cosmic equivalent of the Rosetta Stone. 3
As an illustration of how much information could be conveyed with a
minimum of material, and as an example of facile inverse cryptography,
let us consider a message I have devised to be typical of what we might
expect of an initial communication from outer space. In Fig. 3 is
shown a series of transmissions which could have come from another
inhabited planet, many light years away. The 32 arbitrary symbols
are representations for the 32 different signals (combinations of beeps,
or distinctive pulse shapes) heard on a frequency of 1420.4 megacycles.
The punctuation marks are not part of the message, but here represent
different time lapses: adjacent symbols are sent with a short pause (1
unit) between them; a space between symbols means a longer pause
(2 units); commas, semicolons, and periods indicate pauses of 4, 8, and
16 units, respectively. Between transmissions (numbered here for
reference purposes) there is a time lapse of 32 units.
The first transmission, (1), is obviously an enumeration of the 32
different symbols which will be used in the communications; in transmission (2) is the clear implication that A represents the integer 1, B
3

The Rosetta Stone is a piece of black basalt found in 1799 near the Rosetta mouth
of the Nile, bearing a bilingual inscription (in Egyptian hieroglyphics, Egyptian demotic,
and Greek) with which Jean Fran<;ois Champollion was able to solve the mystery of the
Egyptian hieroglyphs.

111

L. D. CALLIMAHOS

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r

A. 8.

D. E.

T.

r. G.

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H. I. J. K. L. II. N. 0. P. Q. R. s. T. u. v. II. x. Y. z.
A.. 8. c. D. E. r. G. H. I. J. K. L. II. N. 0. P. Q. R .

u. v. II. x. Y. z.

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12)

A A. B: A A A. C; A A A A. D; A A A A A. E; A A A A A A, F; A A A A A A A. G:
AAAAAAAA, H: AAAAAAAAA. I: AAAAAAAAAA. J.

13)

A K A L B: A K A K A L C; A K A K A K A L D. A K A L B: B K A L C; C K A L D.
BK CLE; EL BK C; F K D L J; J L DK F. ELKE; KELE.

(4)

C II A L B; D II A L C; G II E L B; E II G L II B.

(5)

D K N L D; G K N L G;

(6)

J L AN; J K A L AA; J K B LAB; AA K A L AB.

r II r L N; E II E L II.
J K J L BN; J K J K J L CN;

IN K C L IC.
(7)

B 0 C L F: D 0 B L H: E 0 B LAN; D 0 AN L DH.

(8)

F P C L B; H P B L D: J P B L E; J P E L B.

(91

AP J L Q J; AP ANN L Q ANN; Q J. P J L Q ANN.

(10)

Q J L R A; Q J 0 B L R B; A R E II A L R E L E 0 Q J.
Q ANN 0 B L R NB.

(UI

H L H; G S C. C S G.

(12)

D T A; D T B; D T C; D L D; D U E; D U F; DU G.

(131

FIRII V GN; ANNN K C V AJlllll; AN P C V CRC.

·i

~i

Q ANN L R NA;

D K A L C K B; D K C S E K A; E K A S D K C.

J T I: J U AA.

(141

II E K A X L E K A; B II E K A X L II B 0 E X K II B 0 A X L B 0 F.

115)

C Y B L I; E Y B L BE; B Y E L CB; 11 D K A X Y B L BE.

116)

BE Z B L E; FD Z B L H; BG Z C L C; ABE Z C L E.
BE Z B L II E: II ABE Z C L II E. BE Z B L Kii E.

II AI K F X Z B L E.

117)

D • L D 0 C 0 B 0 A L BD; E • L E 0 D 0 C 0 B 0 A L ABN: H • L DNCBN.

118)

& P D L A II

(19)

I L A K Q II A • X K Q 11 B • X K Q 11 C • X K Q 11 D • X K.

(20)

e E K A # L 11 E K A X; B e E K A # L B 11 E K A X;
B e E K II D K C X # L B II E K G X. e B # t D # L II B X 11 D X L B 0 D.
I Y t & 0 II II A X Z B # K A L N.

C2ll

:1

II

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Q C K Q E II Q G K Q I II.

& V CRADAEI.

I V BRGAHBH.

(221

B K C L e @NNA #; B K C LE. C 0 D L t @NNA #; C 0 D L AB.
D Y B L e @NNA #; D Y B L AF.

(23)

B K C L E:
t @NNC #.

e @NNB #.

B K D L E;

e @NNC #.

E Y B L BE; t @NNB #.

F Y B L C E;

e @NNB #. H U C; t @ NNC #. & V BRGAHBH; e @NNC #.
C L e @NND #. E. G. AA. AC. AG. e @NND #. AHA e @NND #.

I T E;

e @NND #.

(24)

B L

(25)

e @llllE # L B 0 & e @A #; e @NNF # L & e @A # Y B. e @A # L e @NNG #.
e @llNE # L B & e @NNG #; e @NNF # L & e @NNG # Y 8.

126)

e @NNH # L D 0 Q C 0 & e @NNG # Y C.

(27)

Q B K Q D K Q H K Q A.F K Q CB V A;
Q B K Q D K Q H K Q AF K Q CB K e @NNI # L A.

(281

C K e @A # L G; e @A # L D. I K e @A # LAB: e @A # L C.
FD Z e @A # L H; e @A # L B.
t @A # L A. R GG, II R GG. J P C, &. K, 11. e @HNI #.
e @B # L A. R GG, II R GG. J P C, &. K. 11. e @NNI #.
e @C # LA. R GG, II R GG, J P C, &, K, 11. e @NNI #.

(291

e @llllE # L B & e @B #; t @NNF # L & e @B # Y B.
e @NAN # L B e @C # K B t @D #; e @NA.A # Le @C # O t

(30)

@D #.

e @llllE # L e @NAB #. t @NAC #; e @NNF # L t @NAO#. e @MAC #.
e @NAN # L e @NAB#. t @NAE #; t @NAA # L t @NAO #. t @NAE #.

l'ig. 3.

112

EXTRATERRESTRIAL INTELLIGENCE

the integer 2, ... , J the integer 10. In the first twenty transmissions
there are introduced symbols for the introductory expository treatment
in teaching us their mathematics. Among the items treated are:
addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division; decimal notation
and the concept of zero; inequalities and approximation; powers and
roots; and definitions of 7r and e. Transmission (21) adds nothing
new to the 31 symbols recovered thus far, but it does quote one of the
most beautiful concepts in pure mathematics: they are telling us that,
if they can teach us such a complex notion at this early stage, we will
be staggered by what they will teach us by the 200th or the 2000th
transmission. Beginning with transmission (22), words and wordcluster concepts are introduced, so that by the time we come to
transmission (30), we now are understanding, in a manner of speaking,
pure Venerean. Furthermore, we can now see how we could recover
the code they are using on us, and which will obviously consist of
thousands upon thousands of code groups with different meanings;
this is easily appreciated by anyone who takes the trouble to fathom
4
the meaning of all 30 transmissions in the foregoing example.
Even right after this first message, if we are in direct communication
with that planet, we shall have questions to put to "them": the proof of
Fermat's Last Theorem, Goldbach's conjecture, 5 and many other
unsolved problems in mathematics and the natural sciences. It will
not be difficult for "them" to demonstrate their intellectual and technological superiority (first of all, don't forget it was they who were
able to call us!). If "they" _but know the seventh digit of the "fine
structure constant," they are ages ahead of us (we know only the first
five for sure, suspect the sixth). This number, 137.039 ... , is the
ratio, among others, of the speed of light to the speed of the hydrogen
electron; it may take a century to calculate this constant to 9 digits.
And after we resolve our pressing scientific questions, it might be
appropriate to make discreet inquiries as to how we could live in
harmony and peace with our fellow man-that is, if we aren't eaten or
otherwise ingested by the superior civilization that had the good
fortune to contact us. But as far as the cryptologist is concerned, he
(and generations of his descendants who might experience the supreme
•The solution may be found on p. 115;_ bu~ eschew the premature ~k.
• With what he has learned from this example of space communication, let the
reader fonnulate theie two questions directly for transmission to "them," in a clear and
compact fonn; the solutions appear on pg. 109. For the reader who is a little rusty on
classic unsolved problems in mathematics, Fennat's Last Theorem states that no integral
values of z, y, and z can be found to satisfy the equation z" + y" = z", if n
is an integer greater than 2; Goldbach's "notorious" conjecture ("notorious" only because
other mathematicians failed to make the conjecture themselves) states that every even
number greater than 2 can be expressed as the sum of two primes.

113

L. D. CALLIMAHOS

thrill of their lives when we hear from "them") must keep a level head,
not get excited, and be prepared to cope with problems the like of
which he has never seen-out of this world, so to speak.

114

Symbols

A1

I

B 2
c 3
D4
E 5

J

F 6
G 7

HB

9
10

K+
L

=

MN 0

0 x
p

y power
Q reciprocal
R decimal point z root
s :;t.
* factorial
T >
& 1r
u <
$ e
¢ [
v ""'
W(
# ]
X)
@code

Code values
001 question
007 radius
013 circle
002 true
008 volume or sphere
014 afea
003 false
009 ... (ellipsis)
015 rectangle
004 prime
010 perimeter of rect.
005 circum. of circle
011 area of rectangle
006 area of circle
012 perimeter
999
Code values l, 2, 3 ... 99 = :x:, y, z . . . (abstractions, unknowns,
variables).
Fermat's Last Theorem:
¢@A# Y¢@D # K¢@B # Y ¢@D # L¢@C # Y¢@D #. ¢@D #LB;
¢@ NNB #. ¢@ D # L C, D, E, ¢ @ NNI #; ¢ @ NNB NNA #.

Goldbach's Conjecture:
B ¢ @A #. B ¢@A # L ¢ @ B #; ¢ @ B # TB. ¢@ B # L ¢@ C # K ¢@ D #;
¢@C # L¢@NND #,¢@D # L¢@NND #. ¢@NNB NNA #.

3 0 N3D ITI3J..NI 'TVI l:IJ..S3l:IH3J..Vl:IJ..X3



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