From: vernon jenkins (vernon.jenkins@virgin.net)
Date: Mon Nov 25 2002 - 16:53:23 EST
----- Original Message -----
From: "Glenn Morton" <glenn.morton@btinternet.com>
To: "vernon jenkins" <vernon.jenkins@virgin.net>; <asa@calvin.edu>
Sent: Sunday, November 24, 2002 10:43 AM
Subject: Aliens (was:RE: Dembski and Caesar cyphers)
Vernon had said: "... the repeated transmission of a long sequence of prime
numbers would suffice (to alert any intelligent receptor to the fact that
the signal had emanated from an intelligent source.)
Glenn's response:
> Why? The finding of the Fibonacci series in plant growth doesn't
> automatically indicate design except for those who decide apriori that
> design is there. (see Brian Goodwin, How the Leopard Changed Its Spots,
(New
> York: Simon and Schuster, 1994), p. 132). Finding mathematical patterns
in
> nature can't automatically be ascribed to design until one rules out a
> purely natural process.
>
<cut>
Glenn, I suggest that the receipt of a repeated sequence of just 10 prime
numbers within the range 900,000 - 1,100,000 would be interpreted by SETI
as proof positive that an alien intelligence had been detected.
(And with some justification, for the probability of this event happening
naturally is of the order of 3x10^-12).*
>>The universal absolutes represented by the natural numbers and their
simple
> >derivatives are obvious media by means of which proof of
> >intelligence may be
> >readily conveyed - whether across distance or time.
>
> I would say that finding mathematical sequences in the electromagnetic
> spectrum coming from a distant star would get our attention. But the only
> way to be sure it is designed intelligently is to communicate with it.
>
But wouldn't you agree that the foregoing example of an valid 'intelligence
test' is a necessary preliminary to establishing meaningful communication in
the longer term? For while the information conveyed by the sequence of
primes would mean little in itself it would surely prompt the receptor to
look more closely at any other signals emanating from the same source -
surely the only logical way forward.
Vernon
*approximately 1 in 14 of the numbers in this range will be prime
>
> glenn
>
> see http://www.glenn.morton.btinternet.co.uk/dmd.htm
> for lots of creation/evolution information
> anthropology/geology/paleontology/theology\
> personal stories of struggle
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.4 : Wed Nov 27 2002 - 20:44:57 EST