The decoding problem: do we need to search for extra terrestrial intelligence in order to search for extraterrestrial intelligence?

摘要

Abstract: There is a widespread and perhaps uncritically accepted assumption on the part of SETI researchers and popularizers that we could tell what an ETI might be trying to tell us. We raise difficulties for this assumption. If the assumption is abandoned, a lot follows. We might even be able to argue, in a novel way, that SETI will be utterly futile.!8