ABSTRACT
Circumstances in which humans may establish communication with an alien intelligence can be divided into two main possibilities. The first, more likely, scenario involves humans decoding signals (probably a pattern of “regular noise” in some sensory form) that has been transmitted across interstellar space, and then figuring out how best to encode an understandable response. The second, a physical visit from ET, although quite unlikely, would involve (at least at present) devising a program to teach what are likely more advanced beings (as they will have figured out how to come here) how to learn enough of our human system to establish some form of two-way communication. In the first case, human knowledge of a variety of ways in which nonhumans communicate with one another could inform our decoding capacities; here (given my area of expertise), I examine how our understanding of various aspects of birdsong might be of interest. In the second case, protocols designed by humans who have established communication with other species would be most likely to facilitate acquisition of human systems by aliens; here, I discuss my studies of interspecies communication with grey parrots. In both circumstances, what will be critical is the realization, to paraphrase Hugh Lofting (whose fictional protagonist, Dr. Doolittle, supposedly communicated with most creatures on Earth), that aliens’ ideas about everything are likely to be quite different from ours, and thus their communication systems for conveying those ideas are also likely to be very different from ours.
