How will we communicate with a truly alien civilization?

You are my team. All of Qt3. There is a huge object entering our solar system. It’s doing various braking maneuvers, using planets to slow. Our astronomers predict it will eventually orbit Earth. Don’t worry how they know it. We have been brought together for one reason.

How do we communicate with a truly alien being?

https://thumbs.gfycat.com/FearlessOrneryBactrian-size_restricted.gif

The question is, would communication be a two way sharing of ideas, or not. Because the concept has been the milieu of many a novel, but the trouble is it only takes one trigger happy clown to scuttle other options.

Great point. What would you do?

I mean it gets tricky, we’re talking Angels or Apes scenario here. Meaning if it happened tomorrow that the Civilization is obviously so far advanced from our own to make it difficult for true communication.

They have us at a decided disadvantage. Technological superiority, clear knowledge of our existence, and potentially decades of study on our language and communication through radio wave noise we’ve been blasting into space. So communication is entirely contingent upon their intent. Because if they are intelligent enough to travel interstellar distances, they will have devised a communications method of their own.

So if they do not choose to open communications? That says a lot there.

I have no idea to whom and what you are referring. Plus every time we go the trust route we get:

Or this:

Ha, to be honest I was really not referring to anyone there. Just that we only need one person to decide to start lighting things up. Hell it could be Elon Musk for all I care, but once one person launches munitions, then the course is decided.

Their ship is a perfect sphere. It has no openings. That are visible yet. The government scientists can not guarantee anything. It’s our job, our only job, to figure out how to communicate.

LOL, well I am on record for Lighting them up. Call me Michael Ironside.

They aren’t close enough for our weapons to reach them, yet. Communication is our only job. Just to be clear, this isn’t a game. I sincerely want to hear ideas. So no blasting things. Think. Think and reply. Please?

Damn. I sound like Teddy Rex now. :(

OK, where physically is the ship? Like be precise.

Precision is for the astronomers. Near Jupiter. Close as I can get.

OK, we go 2001. Launch a manned probe. Maybe we can communicate up close. We can’t see what we can’t see.

Have you just read Rendesvous with Rama recently?

Ok but more seriously the staring place is math. A prime number series, fibbonaci sequence, binary operations, broadcast on a broad spectrum EM band. Weapons won’t become a factor until they get closer. Much closer. We have time to do this.

Observe propulsion. Is it altering trajectory at all? That could tell us much.

Realistically, like I said, the choice to communicate or not is ultimately not ours. Even benign alien species still ends with something other than human. See Butler, Octavia ;)

We are not government. We work for them. Our job is to find a way to talk.

I’d say there’s not much else to do but what we’re likely already doing, broadcast as far as we can in as many languages as we can. If they came here, they have a purpose, presumably either contact or conquest. Maybe both. For the most part, ball’s going to be in their court.

Heh. Good question. But no. I’m hoping for out of the box stuff. But you can go with that.

That is what I advocate then. They aren’t responding bc we cannot detect why/our instruments are too imprecise. We need a closer look.

EDIT: I am presuming in your example that they are not responding to Radio, Laser, etc.

Thank you for taking this seriously, @CraigM I’m looking forward to more.