The Truth Is In There
I have never heard this idea suggested before even in sci fi but if anybody has please provide a reference. (Yes I've seen Contact and so has the author. I'm talking about the whole genetic message thing.)
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kissmyass
OK. So there are these highly evolved aliens out there in need of some friends.
What to do? What to do? Aliens all in a dither.
But wouldn't mutations lead to a kind of genetic Chinese whispers and jumble the message? Glad you asked.
Cool! Let implantation commence.
Humans! You've got mail.
I like it. I like it a lot.
This is the sort of class act I expect of intelligent life from other planets.
Bring on genomic Seti.
Here's The Drum. If you need a login:
cfdude
kissmyass
OK. So there are these highly evolved aliens out there in need of some friends.
Quote:
They surmise that Earth looks promising for the emergence of intelligent life one day, but they have no idea when. There would be little point in beaming radio messages in this direction for eons in the vague hope that one day radio technology would be developed here and someone would decide to tune in.
A better plan would be to leave a message for us to find when we are ready. The trouble with this set-and-forget strategy is the time factor. Life takes billions of years to evolve intelligence. Even if ETs figured there was animal life on Earth, they could be faced with a wait of tens of millions of years. That is a long time for an artefact to survive.
They surmise that Earth looks promising for the emergence of intelligent life one day, but they have no idea when. There would be little point in beaming radio messages in this direction for eons in the vague hope that one day radio technology would be developed here and someone would decide to tune in.
A better plan would be to leave a message for us to find when we are ready. The trouble with this set-and-forget strategy is the time factor. Life takes billions of years to evolve intelligence. Even if ETs figured there was animal life on Earth, they could be faced with a wait of tens of millions of years. That is a long time for an artefact to survive.
What to do? What to do? Aliens all in a dither.
Quote:
The ideal solution would be to encode the message inside a large number of self-replicating, self-repairing microscopic machines programmed to multiply and adapt to changing conditions.
Fortunately such machines already exist: they are called living cells. The cells in our bodies, for example, contain genetic messages written by Mother Nature billions of years ago.
DNA, the molecule that contains the script of life, encodes its data in a four-letter alphabet. This would be an ideal medium for storing a cosmic calling card. In many organisms, humans included, genes make up only a tiny fraction of their DNA. Much of the rest seems to be biological gobbledygook, often called "junk DNA". There is plenty of room there for ET to etch a molecular message without damaging any vital genetic functions.
The ideal solution would be to encode the message inside a large number of self-replicating, self-repairing microscopic machines programmed to multiply and adapt to changing conditions.
Fortunately such machines already exist: they are called living cells. The cells in our bodies, for example, contain genetic messages written by Mother Nature billions of years ago.
DNA, the molecule that contains the script of life, encodes its data in a four-letter alphabet. This would be an ideal medium for storing a cosmic calling card. In many organisms, humans included, genes make up only a tiny fraction of their DNA. Much of the rest seems to be biological gobbledygook, often called "junk DNA". There is plenty of room there for ET to etch a molecular message without damaging any vital genetic functions.
But wouldn't mutations lead to a kind of genetic Chinese whispers and jumble the message? Glad you asked.
Quote:
Recently.........scientists in the United States have discovered whole chunks of human and mouse junk DNA that seem to have remained virtually unchanged for tens of millions of years. That would be a good place to store a message.
Recently.........scientists in the United States have discovered whole chunks of human and mouse junk DNA that seem to have remained virtually unchanged for tens of millions of years. That would be a good place to store a message.
Cool! Let implantation commence.
Quote:
A lot of junk DNA consists of genomic fragments inserted by viruses over the course of evolution. An alien civilisation could, for negligible cost, dispatch tiny packages across the galaxy, loaded with customised viral DNA. The cargo would be designed to infect, without harm, any DNA-based life it encountered.
A lot of junk DNA consists of genomic fragments inserted by viruses over the course of evolution. An alien civilisation could, for negligible cost, dispatch tiny packages across the galaxy, loaded with customised viral DNA. The cargo would be designed to infect, without harm, any DNA-based life it encountered.
Humans! You've got mail.
Quote:
How would we know if there was a message in our genomes? Presumably ET would make it easy for us to spot. Some sort of in-your-face pattern would be best, something that stood out from the random scatter of genetic letters.
The arresting pattern would serve to flag the message itself, which would otherwise be overlooked as a meaningless jumble. The message would then need to be decoded with the help of a computer.
How would we know if there was a message in our genomes? Presumably ET would make it easy for us to spot. Some sort of in-your-face pattern would be best, something that stood out from the random scatter of genetic letters.
The arresting pattern would serve to flag the message itself, which would otherwise be overlooked as a meaningless jumble. The message would then need to be decoded with the help of a computer.
I like it. I like it a lot.
This is the sort of class act I expect of intelligent life from other planets.
Bring on genomic Seti.
Comments
Now I guess they should have banned me rather than just shut off posting priviledges, because kickaha and Amorph definitely aren't going to like being called to task when they thought they had it all ignored *cough* *cough* I mean under control. Just a couple o' tools.
Don't worry, as soon as my work resetting my posts is done I'll disappear forever.
Originally posted by AirSluf
And for all the reasons cited that beaming a signal is hard, how would choosing any particular place, like here, to start DNA seeding be any easier? Oops, there goes the first slip. Then, how did the genetic DNA message get here from some huge distance away in the first place? Little self replicating DNA rocketships? Where are they? No self replicating ultra-fast transportation, no chance of the whole scheme working. I don't see anyone coughing up evidence of the transportation that would be slower than electro-magnetic waves in the first place, so the whole theory collapses under the weight of it's own self imposed set of impossibilities.
<Chester hands over ears, singing loudly>
La la la la la I can't hear you. Alien message at [email protected] any day now. Makes Chester happy. Go away evil reason and logic. La la la la la.........