Ok I've been thinking for some time now, what if we were exposed to an intelligent being from another world outside our own, how would we communicate with this being and how would we form some type of linguistics that could make it easy for us to share communications? By being aware that this species of Alien must have been studying humans for some time they would have the ability to understand us but we would lack the knowledge and understanding to communicate back. Do you think humans will ever be on the level of intelligence to understand an Alien species if we already struggle to understand other species on our own planet?

Humans can teach a dog to sit and a dolphin to do tricks but we still lack the understanding of how they communicate to each other in their own environment, do you think this will affect our own interpretation of a foreign alien language if the possibility of being exposed to such things ever occurs?

Please share your thoughts.

Possibly through photos or just gestures... initially.

Yeah it would seem that way, I don't think humans have the intelligence to communicate in any other way really.

Remember in the film Close Ecounters Of The Third Kind they used tones with hand signals i would imagine something very similar to that at first

I dont think it would be much of a stretch to say they would have the technology to communicate with whom ever they choose.
The problem would be enticing a conversation.

Ive been considering the same thing lately but with a different approach.
That is, how do they communicate with each other? And can that communication be intercepted?
Thier was a case where contact was initiated and the contacted person was instructed on how to modify a cb radio
to pick up a frequency for further communication. And they did have conversations. I remember being very skeptical
of the case, but it does remind me to the fact they must communicate in the very least to coordinate trajectory's and
places to meet, refuel, collect resources etc..

Telepathy has been widely reported with occupant encounters. Based on this, is logical to assume then that most intellectually advanced aliens will have learned to communicate this way. For those that do not communicate in this way...yes gestures would be the best first step.

It seems like "Telepathy" would be more of a biological function rather than a state of human intellectual evolution.

Even ants have antenna's. Wouldnt we need some sort of faculty for reception?

From stories from thousands of abductees, the majority of the different alien species that have been reported (which are many, the Greys being the most common), are able to communicate and speak with us in any language, depending on the location of where they abducted the person, and without any sort of noticeable accent. I imagine if they are capable of traversing the galaxy or possibly even known universe, than it would not be at all difficult for them to learn our various languages and speak them properly.

However, like others were mentioning, some alien species seem to possess the capabilities to communicate telepathically with one another, again, the Greys being the most commonly known for using this method. Given that they evidently have no teeth and that their mouths are so small, one could only assume they need their mouths only as an alternative means of breathing, just as we ourselves breathe through out mouths when are hearts are beating faster (ie. during exercise, fear, etc.). They may or may not have the capabilities of speaking through their mouths as we do. Or, alternatively, perhaps they once were able to and that was their main form of communicating, but, perhaps either through biological changes that occurred through evolution or their own understanding of their bodies through technology (or even a combination of the two), they began using telepathy rather than the much less effect verbal speech. I would think if they can commune through their minds, they are also able to send, not just their thoughts, but their very pictures and images they can imagine in their heads as well. Some abductees have even reported this instance.

I think, as long as the aliens out there can learn our languages and speak to us in an understandable manor, than we have no need to worry about communicating with them via their own language. It would, without a doubt I'm sure, be interesting to learn.

This post has been edited by Grey Martian: Mar 30 2008, 06:56 PM

I think that math may be the best way to communicate. It is the only universal language that we know of.

Yes you made a very good point. For an alien being to have any level of understanding about the natural universe around them mathematics is a major part in the potential ability to control the environment around us/them. But the only flaw in the ability to use mathematics as a form of communication would be a language and or writing much different to our own, think of trying to decipher the Egyptian hieroglyphics without having any idea of what the symbol actually mean and each symbol having multiple meaning or even a total sentence structure in the one symbol. It would be impossible, but come to think of it the aliens would probably already know how to speak with us in some form I just doubt mankind and our ability to communicate without becoming hostile.

Aliens use telepathy to communicate between species, including humans. Some humans have this ability as well. They seem to be born with it and need training to bring it to it's full potential. As far as their own languages are concerned, the short greys communicate by a warbling sound. I have heard a loud warbling sound when I was a kid. I think that it was from their PA system telling outside parties to come back before takeoff. I was not the only one who heard it. My dad heard it too at the same time. My neighbours had heard the same sounds from various locations around the area. We can't use sound with some species to communicate with. I'll give you an example. I call them the spider people. They have eight legs and a bulbous abdomen carried above their legs. They have two tiny feeble white tentacles that they retract between their legs when not in use. They have two eyes at the juncture between their abdomen and their legs. They are all covered in short stiff bristles. They are about two feet tall and are carrion eaters. They don't eat earth meat. It makes them sick. They rely on food recyclers and food stores brought with them. The only ship that I have seen them use is a cube about 100 foot on a side. My brother has told me about them and I have heard other people talk about a fear of huge spiders. They are extremely scary to most people. I was not frightened of them when I was introduced. I found that when we compared thoughts, they were much like human beings in the way they view the universe except for their advanced technology. They love to laugh and sing. The trouble is, when they use their own language amongst themselves, they sound like a high-pitched buzzing. My ears are very good. I was tested in a physics lab by my friends and only two of us out of eight could hear 20000 Hz. The other person, a woman, could hear 22000 Hz. Nobody could believe that I could hear 20000 Hz. Being male, I wasn't supposed to hear that high a frequency. No matter how good my ears are, I still couldn't hear the higher frequencies used by these beings! They just couldn't produce a sound low enough for me to hear a language.
Telepathy also is a great translator. You think thoughts in your own language and connect with others in theirs by transmitting feelings and images. Their minds do the translating on the fly.

Well, I think guns would send a pretty clear message.

If they have the capability to understand us, I would think that they could find a way to learn our language as well, therefore able to communicate directly with us. Even if they are physically unable to speak like us, sign languages of sorts as well as pictures could be used. I just believe that if they are intelligent enough to understand us, they could easily find a way to duplicate it. Simple enough, eh?

The universal language of controlled mathematics. If you want to communicate with aliens for real, go get a pHd in mathematics, and away you go!

I do not see how a Phd in mathematics would make one any more prone to successful communication than the next.
Correlating our meaning of numbers to theirs could result in our unintentionally insulting them and that might lead to.....hmmmmm.

1 Think aloud. If he does not respond....

2 Then try sign language...carefully. If that don't work...

3 Go with the mathematic...but get ready to run

Emotional affect...its seems to be the universal language. The problem is that humans have a tendency to deny the presence or validity of emotions in all creatures except themselves. I think we do so, however, merely as an attempt to justify actions which our own reason finds us guilty of.

Many species of life on Earth communicate using chemical processors such as Hormones, Pheromones, and some cases artificial chemical/scents, although humans still possess and use these chemicals most people do seem to of lost the ability to act on or understand them.

Aliens may well use chemical processes to communicate with each other, and with other life forms they come in contact with, it could explain why some receptive people feel at ease and can communicate with the beings, while others cannot ( some witnesses report a strange pungent odour at the scene that makes them feel ill, and only hear buzzing or clicking sounds from the beings without any understanding.

That's possible too. One thing that I am stuck on is the presumption that any advanced intelligences would have progressed past the necessities of biological communicators. What do you think?

I, too, am of the opinion that any biochemical communication is rather more suited to lower life forms than to a super-intelligent advanced race. Even humans, who still to a small degree communicate via pheromones etc., still do not rely on this as any form of truly deep or meaningful form of communication.

This post has been edited by senhuan: Apr 9 2008, 07:45 PM

I wonder, too, if we are not using too much of an archaic method in our search for extraterrestrial signals. Perhaps the frequencies that we are searching on are too slow? Radio waves are slow.