jaimeastorga2000 comments on Convincing ET of our rationality - Less Wrong

2 Post author: TheRev 11 January 2011 05:32PM

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Comment author: [deleted] 11 January 2011 07:43:17PM *  4 points [-]

Since somebody already laid out the groundwork for situations like these, I guess I would start with that.

Once they know our numbers, we can hopefully start defining operations like addition, multiplication, and exponentiation, then move on to algebra and calculus. Great, so now they know we know some math. To show them we know science, regurgitating scientific knowledge might work, but I think they would be slightly more impressed with a prediction that utilizes that knowledge, followed by observation and confirmation. The number of seconds it takes an object to fall from a given height, calculated beforehand and then measured, or the number of days until some celestial phenomenon, represented by, for example, making a pile of pebbles for each unit of time you expect the event to take and taking away one pebble at each interval (expecting the punchline to occur at no pebbles), would be worth considering as attempts.

Comment author: TheRev 11 January 2011 08:21:03PM 1 point [-]

I love that link. It reminds me of a poster I once saw which gave instructions on how to make electric generators, fixed wing aircraft, penicillin, and the like for prospective time travelers.

Comment author: WrongBot 11 January 2011 08:26:19PM 2 points [-]

I own that poster in t-shirt form. (The original is here.)

Comment author: [deleted] 11 January 2011 08:24:12PM 1 point [-]

Oh yeah, this one. They are so similar that I can only conclude that they were either made by the same person, or someone is copying someone.