Integrating With Alien Civilizations

[cal]

I would think if the human race kept advancing for the next 10,000 years, this would not be a problem. But if we have a near extinction event and get knocked back to the dark ages style of living, we might not retain knowledge of such things and it could then be a very big problem. I can't think of any warning system that would keep people out of trouble.

arKane has the right idea, Blamski, the problem with all the languages that have died is that there weren't very many good recordings of the languages into any other language, or even a good repository of the language itself written down somewhere, which is why many of the Native American languages no longer exist. We won't have to worry too much about it now because of the web, which is essentially the collective consciousness of human language. As long as the web exists, so will the preservation of all the languages that exist on it.

 

However, whether or not those can be translated into alien communications is a whole 'nother thing. The voyager example was actually brought up in one of my classes a couple weeks ago, it's a fitting example. There is also a chance that they don't use written language at all, or they may not use auditory language, or they may not use either. If that is the case, the only remedy I see is a phone-type device that can receive written input and output a signal in whatever form of the EM spectrum they also tap into. We'd have to be able to realize they are communicating on that spectrum to begin with though, which is a whole issue in itself.