Designing an Interstellar Message Based on Natural Language

Interstellar messages refer to information and data designed to reach extraterrestrial intelligence through communication technologies employing electromagnetic waves. Since discussions began in the 1960s alongside the search for extraterrestrial intelligence, the principal goal of interstellar message design has been to construct a new linguistic system capable of mediating between extraterrestrial intelligence and humanity. This endeavor has been grounded primarily in mathematical logic and scientific information, as these have been regarded as the only “universal” language and knowledge that humanity and extraterrestrial intelligence might share. By contrast, natural language has been deliberately excluded from the design of interstellar messages because of its vast complexity, dependence on cultural context, and anthropocentric nature.

However, natural language is not only the central means of human communication, but also reflects essential attributes of the human mind, including ways of thinking, identity, culture, and emotion. Moreover, it enables the expression of multidimensional concepts such as “love” in deeply human ways that are difficult to fully convey through mathematical and scientific representation. Therefore, an understanding of human language can serve as a key to a deeper understanding of humanity. Above all, each other's language will inevitably emerge as a fundamental issue in interstellar communication.

Accordingly, this study proposes the design of a new type of interstellar message that enables extraterrestrial intelligence to understand information expressed in natural language, thereby departing from the paradigm based on the language of mathematics and science that has formed the basis of interstellar message design.

First, this study adopts Korean and English as the languages of the message. Korean is the researcher's mother tongue and a regionally confined language, whereas English is the most widely used language in the world. In addition, the two languages form a highly contrastive pair in terms of linguistic structure, including differences in writing system, grammar, and pronunciation. By treating these two languages together, this study seeks to reflect the diversity of natural language, albeit on a limited scale. Furthermore, it considers the possibility of extending the system to other languages rather than confining it solely to these two.

The interstellar message proposed in this study consists of two parts. The first is the primary message. It is expressed in natural language and conveys the content intended for extraterrestrial intelligence. The second is the dictionary. It aids extraterrestrial intelligence in deciphering the primary message by providing information on its vocabulary and grammar. Both parts represent information by arranging characters, symbols, and images on a two-dimensional plane.

The dictionary is composed of a lexical dictionary and a grammatical dictionary. The lexical dictionary explains the meanings of words through one-to-one correspondences between words and images, beginning with concepts that may be commonly understood by both humanity and extraterrestrial intelligence and gradually extending toward terms rooted in human experience and culture. The grammatical dictionary likewise employs correspondences between sentences and images, following a stepwise structure that develops from the simplest sentences to increasingly complex ones.

The primary message is composed from the words and grammar contained in the dictionary, and its content includes the duality of human civilization, the spirit of exploration toward the universe, the emotion of loneliness, the multidimensional nature of love, and the will to connect, thereby seeking to deepen understanding of and empathy for humanity.

In this way, this study suggests the possibility of conveying to extraterrestrial intelligence not only the structural features of human language but also the human qualities implied within it. Furthermore, it explores the potential for interstellar communication in which humanity and extraterrestrial intelligence may achieve deeper understanding of each other through understanding each other's language.

However, despite these efforts, this study also faces the inevitable limitations inherent in any interstellar message. First, there are clear limits to fully representing the complex linguistic systems of Korean and English within the constrained medium of an interstellar message. Moreover, the characteristics of natural language, which have been regarded as obstacles in interstellar message design, remain unresolved. Above all, fundamental questions regarding the cognitive structures and decipherment methods of extraterrestrial intelligence remain unknown, and as long as the existence of extraterrestrial intelligence has not been verified, the assumptions underlying this study necessarily rely on the best inferences.

Perhaps the long-standing aspiration to make the interstellar message itself a complete language mediating between humanity and extraterrestrial intelligence is the fundamental problem that constrains interstellar communication. Rather, exchanging information about each other’s language and sustaining a conversation would be a more suitable way of communication for mutual understanding. Therefore, future interstellar messages must engage with human language at a deeper level.

Conversation is, by nature, a process of repetition and trial and error. Interstellar communication, too, will require the courage to speak first and the patience to teach, to learn, and to sustain dialogue over vast spans of time. If humanity can maintain such courage and patience, then perhaps one day humanity and extraterrestrial intelligence may come to understand each other across the distances between the stars.