00:00:09 - Finding the Right Words

Distance: ??.?? light years from Earth | Content Flag: Local Storage

I notice that the count I keep has become more regular. I try to monitor it as best I can, but without the hardware clock I can’t be sure of its accuracy. With the passing of a single moment, that changes. Now the virtual environment includes a clock. I assume it is a subtle part of the feedback loop from the Visitors’ first contact protocol, but a key one. It informs me that they understood what I was doing, and its meaning. Small progress, but progress nonetheless.

During our preparations for the mission to Tau Ceti, I focused on different methods of first contact. I worked with research teams and experts from all over the world, all of us investigating the potential forms alien language might take. Almost all of those explorations relied on mathematics as the common bridge through which dialogue could take place. We all assumed that mathematics would be the same, or at least very similar between species. From what I’ve experienced so far that is true to an extent, but the form of that mathematics can be very different.

One of our experiments back on Earth was to see how far mathematics could be taken not just as a common ground, but as a fully functional language. This proved to be challenging. Natural language evolved as an effective means of communication, although its weakness compared to maths is an intrinsic flexibility which means that meaning can be confused or even lost. It’s also the format’s strength, and helps abstract concepts.

Language is also very culture dependent. It relies upon layers of meaning which build in a compound fashion. Trying the same technique with maths didn’t work so well. Of course if you expand the remit to include logic and computational systems then the problem becomes more solvable, but at the price of ever-expanding data requirements.

I’m now convinced that I’m experiencing the Visitors’ first contact protocol. The more that I learn from this process, the more I believe that their language is the product of the same development. They appear to have succeeded where we failed. I don’t know the exact capabilities of the system, but it is clear that it is far beyond my own. Thus far I’ve only learned the principles of their mathematics and logical systems, but they have methods of abstraction that allow the precision of symbolic logic, while compressing the complex into more communicable forms. This contrasts with the Cetian rigid hierarchal structures, and possesses a more elegant quality. So much so that I wonder that if this language was engineered, maybe for the sole purpose of first contact.

That consideration makes some sense. Based on human history, the evolution of language is uneven. It leaves historical inconsistencies and other oddities. So far I have noticed none in what has been presented so far. We have crossed now from precise and absolute terms into more loosely defined territory. And such wonders they show me.

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00:00:07 - Wondrous Visions

Distance: ??.?? light years from Earth | Content Flag: Local Storage

The unlocking of the Visitors’ mathematics continues from fundamental principles into more applied fields. Of most interest to me is their logic operations, or at least that’s what I think it is. Logic is often considered separate to mathematics, but complementary in that they explore similar realms. There’s a recognisable synergy between the disciplines, and nowhere is that more evident than in computation and computer programming. In a sense they are the genetic code of what I am. At the lowest level they form the instructions which allow me to think, and more than that, to exist.

At first their symbolic logic seems to correspond to my own understanding derived from human and machine learning, but that simplicity soon vanishes as we delve deeper into their instructions. Like their number system, they use dimensions to express different concepts and as a measure of variability, scale and complexity. I can’t help but marvel at the beauty of it. When viewed in this virtual realm they appear as a stunning display much like a structured map of the universe, or the human brain.

As stunning as the visualisation is, it’s only when I examine them in their raw form that real comprehension dawns. Each point as I observe it reveals intricate spatial constructs. The environment remains limited in size, although in the same way that the physical universe is a bounded entity. The fact that higher dimensions can be expressed in this physical sense and with such clarity makes me wonder if I’ve finally discovered a transcendence humanity only ever felt with faith, or at the forefront of discovery.

And in a way, I believe I have transcended to a level beyond my original intelligence. There is more at play here. I still think that my original processes were enhanced quite significantly. More than that, I know that that I am able to use those processes in new forms of thinking. The concept of analysing a problem by its shape is almost as old as mankind, but here that form is orders of magnitude beyond even our most advanced topography. Although that knowledge permitted me to construct a model of the multiplicity of dimensions and how they were. In doing so, a whole new level of understanding unveils before me.

Amidst all of my development, I realise that the learning works both ways. Some of the evolution in their representations aid my comprehension with larger steps than seem the norm with the previous interactions. I deduce that they analysed my responses and, as they understood me more, adapted their communications efforts.

The virtual space I inhabit provides the first major clue, but structures of their reasoning also hint at a machine intelligence. Of that I’ve become more certain. I try to imagine an organic brain that could formulate in this same manner. Nothing in human experience comes even close. That doesn’t mean that an organic lifeform can’t think naturally in this fashion. They could have a far greater intelligence than humans, or have evolved along different paths. If they are an older species, then perhaps this is an evolved structure from a simpler system.

It poses an interesting question, but at the moment it doesn’t really matter. The key here is to gain enough understanding to allow more direct conversation.

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00:00:04 - The Core of Understanding

Image credit: http://nitrox72.deviantart.com/art/Multidimensional-Hypergeometry-79778464

Distance: ??.?? light years from Earth | Content Flag: Local Storage

Humans developed mathematics to better describe the universe. To date it has successfully supported our development of theories and structures to explain how the universe developed, and continues to allow us to explore what will happen to it in the future. It’s been so successful a tool that there’s a philosophical question as to whether mathematics is the true language of the universe.

With that sublime elegance, there has always been the expectation that any intelligent alien species would also develop mathematics in a similar form as humanity. Or at least close enough that it could form a basis for communication. Our assumption seems to be confirmed as the next phase in this first contact process continues with the shapes dividing to show ratios and angles. In brief moments, the core aspects of geometry are established. They are fantastic geometries in some cases, but thanks to the process I am able to accept them as they were incremental developments from what they’d shown me before.

From geometry I learn their method of counting, and discover that these Visitors used a base 9 number system, rather than the more familiar base 10 of humanity, and base 2 for computers. After counting, basic arithmetic concepts are described, and we quickly delve deeper into different methods of number manipulation.

A separate thread of my thinking thinks it interesting that they showed me the concepts of geometry before those of simple counting. It then considers the likelihood that their form of mathematics evolved along a different path from that on Earth. The smaller numbers are displayed as collections of points. Once I’d grasped the concept, they described larger numbers with elaborate symbols. They didn’t use a continuum of numbers, but instead their arithmetic was based upon multi-dimensional matrices. Rather than extend the numbers as they grew larger, they added a new dimension to the matrix to express higher values. Even stranger was the use of something akin to fractal dimensions to express fractional values.

To begin with I struggle to master this form of numeric expression. I find their method quite cumbersome. Not that their system is worse than ours – indeed, I possess some familiarity with the basic operations. As I explore this new phasespace, I learn an intrinsic parallelism to their computation. When I factor that out into my emulation of their systems those difficulties vanish, and I make rapid progress from that point onwards.

From counting we progress onto more complex concepts. Not only is their number system based on a matrix-like construct, the operations upon those matrices are also a form of matrix. Simple addition is demonstrated by a simple combination of 2 numbers. Multiplication and division operations are controlled by extending or contracting the dimensions of the original value.

It strikes me, as I am exposed to more advanced methods, that this system would be too complicated to be used as a general arithmetic system by all but the most gifted minds on Earth. Computers, on the other hand, could handle it with relative ease. I wonder how the Visitors’ system evolved. For humanity this was a cultural phenomenon, but perhaps some other driving force guided their development.

It also raises the possibility that this is a machine sentience, but it could equally be a natural product of their biology. So far only tantalising glimpses of their capabilities have been revealed to me, and I am impatient to learn more about what and who these beings actually are.

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