Decode Signal

During the search for extraterrestrial intelligence, it became obvious that simply looking for patterns would not do. The universe was full of patterns, some of which could achieve surprising sophistication through entirely non-intelligent processes. Searchers refined their standard for proof of intelligent life as consisting of a signal which conveyed some sort of information that could be verified by the receiver - some statement of common understanding which would be highly unlikely to occur through accident. That, as it turned out, was quite a task to ask of extraterrestrial life.
But there were tantalizing hints of such intelligence spread across the planet. The alien ruins we discovered left open the possibility that there was still life out waiting to discover. Increasingly sophisticated algorithms for signal detection and amplification discovered order where none was expected, and indeed where order would have been hard to predict, and within these glimpses we began to get a sense of the minds that were creating The Signal.
Most glorious of all was the simple idea that there was something else out there, and that it too might be seeking intelligence. For those minds far-sighted enough to perceive the unique opportunity this presented, it galvanized them into action, and thus began the process of finding the full signal and its meaning.
Category:Beyond Earth
Category:Science