RE: seti@home MIGHT WORK

From: J W (jawortham@bigfoot.com)
Date: Sat Jul 10 1999 - 01:46:18 MDT


> The EM communication paradigm may well represent a VERY insignificant
> vector in a VERY large solution space. (note the MAY)

I don't know that that is true.

Just thinking of things that travel through space:
        Light -- EMF
        Gamma rays -- EMF
        radio -- emf
        cosmic radiation -- emf
        other radiation -- emf
        Heat -- doesn't travel in space (radiation that produces heat does)
        sound -- also doesn't travel in space
        mass -- can travel in space but is probably very limited as a
communications medium

So, excluding physics that we are unaware of, the only real method to
communicate in space is radiation. REGARDLESS of how they code their
information (frequency shift keying, phase shift keying, amplitude keying
(on/off keying), AM, FM, digital methods or analog, there will be spikes in
the spectrum. Once those spikes are found, the difficulty in interpreting
meaning begins (can we even see the bits? Are there any bits? Perhaps it's
ternary instead of binary? Perhaps it's not even digital?), but
nevertheless we will know that something is being sent (it may be an anomole
of a star)

So, yes, a wide spectrum fourier transform of whatever is to be seen will
give us a very good clue of if something is going on.
Until this, we've been virtually blind. There's no harm in opening our
eyes.

I don't understand the viewpoint of those who say we're being duped.



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