Do You Copy?

A review of communication in Science Fiction by angerbda

"The universe is a pretty big place. If it's just us, seems like an awful waste of space."
―Carl Sagan, Contact

As Science Fiction goes, one wonders how explorers can go from one planet to another, one universe to another and have almost no issue with communication. Many ways, many tools, have been invented in series, books, films, to explain the magic of interplanetary exchange.

Communication covered different aspects, from the message sent or received to the way it is expressed and the tools or devices used for spreading it.

1. Message received 

Without visiting the Science Fiction department, actual activities on Earth have been dedicated to research for extraterrestrial life. A good part of those projects are sending communication to space, and listen to possible message coming from space.

https://www.evolving-science.com/sites/default/files/field/image/Seti.jpg

There have been, until now, eleven (11) Interstellar Radio Messages (IRMs) projects sending messages through space. The first one dates from 1962 and consisted in a transmission in Morse code toward Venus. Following this first communication, other messages followed, a mix of soundings, actual music (the song "Accross the Universe" by the Beattles has been sent in 2008), sequences of numbers and formulas and representations of our world and human body encoded (the Arecibo message in 1974), etc.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/55/Arecibo_message.svg

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cc/AreciboMessageShifted.svg

In the recent years, a crowdfunded project has emerged, the Lone Signal, sending through space a main message, similar to previous projects in the sense that it was using a universal binary encoding, representing numbers, mathematical formulas and various symbols each using specific frequencies. The specificity of this project was, however, the ability from the general public to send along the main message a tweet-like message, 144 characters of their choosing, A Rosetta Stone of sort sent to Space.

Another well known project of a sent message is the Voyager Golden Record.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7b/The_Sounds_of_Earth_-_GPN-2000-001976.jpg

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/56/The_Sounds_of_Earth_Record_Cover_-_GPN-2000-001978.jpg

This project consisted in two phonographic records made of gold sent aboard Voyager in 1977. The contents were various, images, natural sounds, music, greetings in different languages, etc.

Those messages being sent, either IRMs or aboard spacecrafts were as much as "bottles into the cosmic ocean", as Carl Sagan said, than time-capsule, intended to communicate the story of a present of humans on Earth to extraterrestrials future.

"This is a present from a small, distant world, a token of our sounds, our science, our images, our music, our thoughts and our feelings. We are attempting to survive our time so we may live into yours."

— President Jimmy Carter

Messages sent from Earth to Space had not been the only transmissions recorded in the past fifty (50) years or so. During this time, many signals have been received and decrypted, or attempts at decryption have been made, at least.

The most known received message is probably the Wow! signal, a radio signal received in 1977, in provenance from the Sagittarius constellation.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d3/Wow_signal.jpg

The Wow! Signal is all Earth was expected in term of extraterrestrial communication. Since then, we are listening attentively any and all transmission from space, trying to decipher a message of other life among the stars. Some of those messages, even though they do not come from an intelligent species living out there, are quite amazing...

https://youtu.be/SGjIJaMqnUI

https://youtu.be/CMhmUvCT46Y

https://youtu.be/lZ5ZvVZ4jWk

This brings to the subject of this article-slash-review: communication in Science Fiction.

As it was for the Wow! Signal, Dr Ellie Arroway discovers in Contact a signal, a repetition of a sequence of prime numbers, a message definitely from an intelligent source and not just the reverberation of sound in the void of space. This leads to the question about what would be considered a common language for communication with extraterrestrial life.

Prime numbers, binary code seem to be privileged. Music and colour are also in favour; one can think of the five (5) notes in Close Encounter of the Third Kind. When the time comes to directly contact the visitors, lights, colour and music is used, suggesting that music would be the language of the Universe.

https://youtu.be/ubmcr5FmkRU

2. The Universal Translator

The problem of communication, when coming to understand messages and transmission from other intelligent species, or humans from another verse or another time, met in Science Fiction stories or series, is often simplified by the introduction of the "Universal Translator". This handy technology gets around the small screen, inked pages and under the keyboard of computer games.

Doctor Who's Tardis uses a telepathic field that enables an automatic translation of most comprehensible languages, both written and spoken. There is a downside of a "telepathic translation", however, when a word has no concept associated in the other language.

Communication through telepathic mind occurs also in McCaffrey The Tower and the Hiveseries. When contacted by an alien species, the telepath does not see the difference with a regular human telepathic communication as the comprehension of another language is transparent through their talent.

In Farscape, translator microbes, a bacteria is injected to Crichton enabling the host to understand other languages. Similarly, the Babel Fish in the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, once inserted in the auditory canal, provides translation to its host.

In Neuromancer, Gibson introduces technology, small chips plugged into sockets installed behind the user's ear, providing the ability to speak and understand other language, among other skills, as long as they are plugged.

Nevertheless, the most common way for the Universal Translator to work, and to be imagined in Science Fiction in general, could be described at the Star Treck way, a language matrix programmed that enables an almost instant translation of all languages.

3. Hailing Frequencies open

When talking about communication in Science Fiction, Lieutenant Uhura is probably one of the first name coming to mind.

https://www.etonline.com/sites/default/files/styles/max_1280x720/public/images/2014-06/640_Nichelle_Nichols_Star_T.jpg?itok=tqYFNm1

As a translator and communications officer aboard the Enterprise, she she is the go to person when the crew needs to understand messages from hailing ships. However, when on a planet, the handled Universal Translator device let Captain Kirk understand any language by scanning the brainwaves of the person or alien near him.

https://metvcdn.metv.com/wne1C-1443805293-459-blog-startrek_universaltranslator.png

In most of the SciFi series, films, or stories, the characters communicates through handled tools similar to phone or ear-plug type of devices. In some cases, a bigger machine is used, as when Johnny connects to the grid to find information in Johnny Mnemonic, or when Neo is plugged to enter the Matrix.

https://adjameson.files.wordpress.com/2018/04/2018-04-15-15_58_43-greenshot.jpg?w=500

http://img.codelyoko.fr/upload/files/1345902566_962.png

Communication with our loved ones in a Science Fiction settings is equally quite a challenge. Mobility is a must, visibility, a nice to have. How it translates into the "tool of the future" in the mind of past men can give a nice visual.

https://lanehayes.files.wordpress.com/2013/09/video1.jpg?w=650

From the videophone to the holographic projection, a simple step is needed.

https://cdn.dnaindia.com/sites/default/files/styles/full/public/2017/01/26/542427-hologram.jpg

And why not using holographic representation as the tool itself to communicate? another step is taken...

https://www.clean-rooms.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/hologram2.jpg

As communication is also a matter of transportation, let's see how sending people to faraway places has evolved.

Not having to fly a spaceship in bumpy atmospheres, avoiding having to find the perfect place to land, and not needing smaller craft for this purpose is what makes the success of the teleportation. Beam me up Scotty!

https://cdn.pocket-lint.com/r/s/320x/assets/images/117563-apps-news-star-trek-fans-to-be-beamed-up-by-augmented-reality-app-no-need-for-scotty-image1-DMT0F9PjhQ.jpg

One wonders, though, whether any accident ever occurred where a person was recombined after being 'beamed' in a wrong order, missing some parts or gaining some extra bits...

Travelling through star system is however getting easier when portals can open pretty much wherever you want. No need of the proximity to a planet any-more, just dial up the coordinates on a fancy rotary phone

http://www.veronicasicoe.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/5194d7b21bffc53686-1024x576.jpg

Between the two, the solution for communication ways could be the use of the Universe "expressway", wormholes.

https://b5thoughts.files.wordpress.com/2008/05/vlcsnap-223846.png

From understanding the messages received and finding a universal language to be understood by extraterrestrial life, to travelling into space, communication in Science Fiction has always been a challenge. Some authors or scriptwriters will take shortcut to simplify the barriers of language or distance, others will take the scientific approach with the potential hiccups along the line.

How do you communicate in your stories?