-=> On 02-18-98  00:05, Paul Andinach said to Ivy Iverson,<=-
-=>"About Speculations & fact...,"<=-
-=> Quoting Ivy Iverson to Paul Andinach <=-
 
Hi, Paul;
 
 II> there is a Rosetta stone that could be used to get a toehold on the
 II> labguage barrier: The periodic table of the elements, which is
 II> universal.
 PA> Okay, but what does it mean?
 PA> You can't send a message saying "Helium Lithium Oxygen Tellurium
 PA> Oxygen Ytterbium Oxygen Uranium". It's pointless.
 
Not sure what a linguist could make out of it if it were in an unknown
language, but at least it's SOMETHING every place would have in common.
And then there's the numbers... they may have different names in different
languages, but they all mean the same, and since numbers are the ONLY
thing that computers work with, (A = 00000001, B = 00000010, C = 00000011
etc), (Actually there is an offset, which would prove no problem for even
a small computer), a linguist, particularly one with cryptology
experience, could do a lot more with it than 99.9% of the population.
 
 II> ... The SysOp of this BBS is from Alpha Centuri, The CoSysOp is from
 II> Mars. 
 PA> Are you slighting the technology of Ross' species? Suggesting that
 PA> they can't develop FTL is probably the greatest insult you could
 PA> offer. :)
 
Absoloutely!  OUR technology is at least 30,000 years ahead of his
primitive species, and he's still only about 400 years ahead of you
earthlings.  MY computer is so advanced that I just read your messages
telepathically and THINK the answer and it sends it out... you poor souls
still have to TYPE your messages with your FINGERS!  Our kids start out
using toys that are FAR more powerful than your Cray computers.  And our
SLOWEST modems run at only 1 Gigabyte/Sec.  See how backward you are?

 
 PA> ... Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus.  Pets are from Pluto.
 
See?  Your people STILL can't think any farther than your own solar
system.  I imported that into my SOCIAL EVIDENCE file, to show my people
back home just how backward your race really is!  (And it took less than
a second for it to get from here to there using SuperLamda technology -
what your Sci-Fi writers call Warp speed!)   
 
Catch you later... Keep l00king up!  (You may see my mothership!)  :->
   Ivy
 
 
 
... All Earthlings, please stand up... (I will remain seated.)
 
           --
 -=[ Ivy's WALL BBS  Hi, Jack!  Happy New Year to All! ]=-
 
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