>Typical, the only possible peice of input I could have and someone has
>already put it in a work of fiction! :)
You should feel extremely gratified that your mind works along the same
lines as Carl Sagan's.
>Of course the really anoying thing about this kind of signal is that if you
>didn't use a polarization sensitive receiver you would only get a constant
>level of signal it would have been very anoying to discover astronomers had
>been looking at eti signals for years without seeing them for what they are.
In the book, the constant carrier was (and would in reality be) quite
easily recognized as of intelligent extra-terrestrial origin, but the
Project Argus (yep! That's what Carl called it in the book!) team spent
forever searching for "hidden" modulation before they stumbled across the
CP trick. Actually, that's one of the first things SETIzens would think to
look for (even before having read the book). In fact, when I read the book
the first time, before Carl had spilled the beans, I found myself almost
shouting to the characters, "hey, dummies, did you think of checking for
polarization circularity?"
If you haven't yet read "Contact," do so!
>Thanks anyway, i'll get back to developing computer games where I bellong.
On the contrary, James, you belong right hear with us. Don't go away --
we value your participation.
Regards, Paul
-----------------------------------------------------------------
H. Paul Shuch, Ph.D. Executive Director, The SETI League, Inc.
433 Liberty Street, PO Box 555, Little Ferry NJ 07643 USA
voice (201) 641-1770; fax (201) 641-1771; URL http://www.setileague.org/
email work: n6tx@setileague.org; home: drseti@usa.net
"We Know We're Not Alone!"