Tuesday, May 20, 2008

if we could talk with the aliens.

Maybe he is right after all. (?)

Earlier this month, I reported the story of a legislator in Denver, Colorado who wants his city to form an Extraterrestrial Affairs Commission... just in case a alien spacecraft someday collides with a school bus.

Strange? Apparently not. It seems that the University of Wyoming is offering a course that addresses the same sort of concern.

The university is offering a credited course to its English students entitled "Interstellar Message Composition." The course, which is sponsored in part by NASA (!), investigates how humans might be able to communicate with aliens someday.

The course tackles such vital issues as:
  • would aliens be able to hear?
  • would they be able to speak?
  • if not, how could we communicate with them?
  • if we say something, what should it be?
  • would they be able to translate what we say?
"We’ve thought a lot about how we might communicate with other worlds, but we haven’t thought much about what we’d actually say," said Professor Jeffrey Lockwood in an interview with ABC News.

Douglas Vakoch, director of the program adds, "It’s really critical to have people start thinking about it and it makes sense to start with writers. These are people who are really trying to express the human condition."

Fortunately, progress is being made into this new field. For example, Dixie Thoman wrote a poem in "mathematically harmonious order" that speaks about menstruation. No other alien-enlightening works have been reported.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/1989062/Nasa-sponsors-course-on-how-to-talk-to-aliens.html

okay. let's see. we contact aliens and one of the first things we give them is a poem about menstruation? hmmmm.... good thinking. give her an A.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh my WORD!!! I laughed out loud over the fine print you wrote at the end of this article. Delightful and sooo funny! I love it.

I still am not totally sure if these are REAL names and profs or if ALL this is made up. :) :) LOL

Regardless it CRACKS ME UP!!
You just gotta love it.
Hi to Maine,
Robin

FriendinME said...

Robin,

Glad you liked it. :) Just so you know, everything on this site is real and true (unless I note it otherwise).

I only post stories that come from reliable news sources (never news transfered from another blog or stories people tell me). One reason I post a link at the bottom of each article is to allow readers to follow up... and show that I didn't make it up. :)

Thanks for your notes. I like reading your comments.

I said hello to Maine again for you. Beautiful day here.