Good ideas and conversation. No ads, no tracking. Login or Take a Tour!
It's a great question, but I bet that we beat any signal that we send out by developing faster signaling technologies.
I'd bet that we will pick up the Pioneer and Voyager craft and put them in a museum someday. If we have to use light then I would go with primes too. But, I don't think it matters what we say. The real message is that there is a message. Once they found it they'd start listening to all the junk that we leak into space, and building instruments to listen better.
Faster signaling technologies -- this is a fascinating idea. Can we use gravity to signal? Is not the effect of gravity instantaneous? My daughter and I were discussing this a couple of days ago. She thought gravity 'traveled' at the speed of light, so that earth was not orbiting the sun, but the place where earth was 8 minutes ago was orbiting the sun. Wappy-fun idea, but incorrect. Although it got me thinking about using gravity to communicate. Possible?