"heard from" "aliens". Two sets of scare quotes, to make the point: suppose we had heard from them, how would we know? Why should we imagine (I know why we <i>do</i> imagine, but there is still no reason why we <i>should</i>) that their modalities of communication would have <i>anything</i> in common with ours? If they did, it would be a fantastically improbable coincidence. We have enough problems crossing language barriers between humans (and typically greatly overestimate the effectiveness of such communication); each new study of possible communication among animals, whether or not it appears parallel with what we call "language", reveals inconceivably basic differences, not just between their methods and ours, but, crucially, their <i>purposes</i> and ours. We have scientists who claim to be able to measure the information content of arbitrary signals, but upon inspection, their criteria invariably turn out to embody deep, unconscious assumptions that...whoever...<i>would build those signals the same way we would</i>. Again, there is simply no reason whatever to make such assumptions.