From: ChuckKuecker (ckuecker@mcs.net)
Date: Thu Apr 30 1998 - 07:34:44 MDT
At 22:49 4/29/98 -0500, you wrote:
>>The bit about challenging other humans to decode a signal misses the basic
>>fact that whoever send us a signal will almost certainly NOT be even
>vaguely
>>human..What if they communicate via odor, or some other strange medium? An
>>image as such might not even be concievable to them..
>>
>
>I don't know. Seems to me that one attribute generally favored by natural
>selection is increased awareness of one's environment. Vision has proven to
>be a very effective means of processing information about the environment
>and vision is the most important sensory modality for humans. It would be
>pretty surprising to me if it weren't important in most alien species (if
>they exist) as well.
>
That is true here on Earth. What about beings evolved in the atmosphere of a
gas giant? Or on a planet circling a brown dwarf? There might not be enough
ambient radiation to make vision possible.
I would expect that non-visually oriented intelligences would never develop
astronomy, and so probably would never develop space travel, or get out to
meet other races - but what if WE go to meet them? Would we ever be able to
communicate? Would we be able to even see them as intelligent?
Chuck Kuecker
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