Scientists try various possibilities in case we had to communicate with aliens

The search for intelligent aliens generates some interest, so much that sometimes it is difficult to delimit between reality and fantasy.

On August 21, 1924 a group of American scientists promoted a "day of radio silence", inviting citizens to have the radio receivers silent for five minutes every hour. In this way, a group of astronomers would use a powerful radio receiver tied to an airship to try to capture any possible radio signal coming from Mars.

What did you hear? Nothing. Silence.

And silence has been the depressing routine for intelligent extraterrestrial signal hunters. However, certain groups still hold out hope. The galaxy is a large, very large place, and we have just begun the search. Perhaps there will come a day when scientists hear an answer from the "other side of the phone."

That is precisely the purpose of the SETI Institute, founded in 1984, 70 years after that radio experiment. It is a research center where we analyze possible ways to get in touch with extraterrestrial civilizations.

But let's say we got it, we contacted some alien civilization. At that moment, how would we communicate with them?

For starters, it would be very slow conversations. Even if that intelligent signal came from the closest star to us, Proxima Centauri, the messages would take more than four years to arrive, plus another four years to receive an answer. That is, eight years to receive an answer to a simple "What about?", "Well, thank you". Patience will be the key.

That is why scientists and thinkers have contributed their ideas to facilitate a hypothetical communication between two civilizations. Thus, the famous astrophysicist Carl Sagan opted for mathematics as a language. The British scientist Lancelot Thomas Hogben devised a language called "Astraglossa", a method based on radio signals, which would send short pulses representing numbers and long pulses that would involve simple mathematical operations.

Would there be a guarantee of understanding? No. While the Astraglossa may make sense to Hogben and other earthly scientists, it could be gibberish to the aliens. "We could be completely incomprehensible. There are currently some 7,000 languages ​​on the planet and only 50% are written. Therefore, we can not guarantee that extraterrestrials have writing, "said Sheri Wells-Jensen, an astronomer at the SETI Institute.

Wells-Jensen is committed to a different approach: conversing less and sharing more. "We would send written material, but also sounds, visuals, maybe brain recordings." And if Wells-Jensen's idea does not seem to be enough, SETI Institute's Seth Shostak suggested that we broadcast the entire internet: "Such a message with text, images, videos and sounds would allow some clever extraterrestrials to decipher a lot about our society and even ask questions that could be answered with the material in question. "

If this approach works, it could facilitate meaningful dialogue. Even if it does not work, we could at least laugh at the idea of ​​showing the presenter of 'Alien Generation' to true aliens.