Communicating Across the Cosmos: Summary of a Workshop on Interstellar Message Design

For over a half century, astronomers involved in the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) have scanned the skies for signals from distant civilizations. Would humans be able to decode information-rich signals from another planet? Could we create a "universal language" that would be meaningful to an independently evolved civilization? To help answer these questions, on November 10-11 the SETI Institute will convene a multidisciplinary, international workshop at its headquarters in Mountain View, California. Speakers from six countries will draw on disciplines ranging from astronomy and mathematics, to anthropology and linguistics, as they debate the best ways to create meaningful messages. While the two-day workshop is closed to the public, all talks will later be posted on the SETI Institute's Youtube channel.  On the day following the workshop, several of the speakers will summarize the key ideas discussed as part of the SETI Institute's public weekly colloquium series, held on November 12, at 12:00 noon.

Panel: Klara Anna Capova, Durham University; David Duner, Lund University; John Traphagan, Univ. of Texas, Austin; Doug Vakoch, SETI