ABSTRACT
In popular media, it is usually assumed that we will be able to decode the language of aliens, once we come into contact with them. A recent movie, Arrival, portrays linguists learning an alien language. However, is this a realistic scenario? I argue that it is not. Even if aliens had a language that produced signals within our range of hearing or vision, the difficulties of decoding those signals would be immense. We have but to look at our own history of trying to decode human languages that are currently not deciphered to understand that we have not been very good in this process. Also, while it is becoming increasingly apparent that many animals on our planet have their own languages, we have generally failed to understand those languages. In communicating with aliens, we would need a Rosetta Stone that would allow us to decode their language, and unless the aliens provide us with a Rosetta Stone, we would be very unlikely to understand what they are saying. Even the assumption that mathematics is a universal language may not hold true if aliens do not understand our symbols and we do not understand theirs, or if they perceive their world in a different way from us. However, if aliens are sufficiently technologically advanced to reach us, perhaps their technology would give us the tools to understand their language, or make it possible for them to understand ours.
