Astrolinguistics Alexander Ollongren Astrolinguistics Design of a Linguistic System for Interstellar Communication Based on Logic Alexander Ollongren Advanced Computer Science Leiden University Leiden The Netherlands ISBN 978-1-4614-5467-0 ISBN 978-1-4614-5468-7 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-1-4614-5468-7 Springer New York Heidelberg Dordrecht London Library of Congress Control Number: 2012945935 © Springer Science+Business Media New York 2013 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, speci fi cally the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on micro fi lms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. 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While the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication, neither the authors nor the editors nor the publisher can accept any legal responsibility for any errors or omissions that may be made. The publisher makes no warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein. Printed on acid-free paper Springer is part of Springer Science+Business Media (www.springer.com) To the memory of Prof. Dr. Hans Freudenthal and to Gunvor Ollongren Preface In my perception the author of the present book appeared all of a sudden “from elsewhere” on the scene of academics and others concerned with various projects in the fi eld of the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI). This was in 1998. Dr. Ollongren’s entrance in the fi eld was due to a change in his research interests. They had apparently shifted from dynamical astronomy and theoretical computer science to the topic of the art and science of communication with extraterrestrial intelli- gence (CETI)—closely related to my work at the SETI Institute. His approach was and is, however, completely different from mine where human psychology is always prominently present in the background. This emeritus professor, astronomer, and theoretician whom I got to know, had a keen interest and experience in mathematics and logic. He seemed, though hesitatingly, prepared to consider formally modeling psychological aspects of human behavior in connection with interstellar message construction for possible contacts with alien highly developed intelligent societies. I, on the other hand, recognized immediately that Dr. Ollongren’s approach for the design of a Lingua Cosmica was fundamentally new, rested on a solid and sound base in logic, and carried great potential for applications. His LINCOS has only very little in common with the interesting language for cosmic intercourse of the same name introduced in 1960 by his fellow countryman and colleague Professor Hans Freudenthal. The present book describes the new LINCOS, also at work. This lingua with a simple formal language at the base is actually a system because of the multilevel structure as explained in the book. Certain aspects of the system are in my view most remarkable. The fact that LINCOS assertions can (and need to) be veri fi ed within LINCOS itself means that the system is strongly self-contained—a property of natural languages, but unusual for formal systems. The implication of this prop- erty (in fact considered to be a requirement in the design) is that formal assertions are always correct. This aspect in its turn has important consequences for the prob- lem of decoding and interpretation. An alien receiver of a message coded in Ollongren’s LINCOS can in principle apply a universal semantic engine for unrav- eling structural properties of the system. Furthermore there is the prominent absence of logical reasoning according to tertium non datur (the rejection of the law of the vii viii Preface excluded middle)—not one of the fi rst concerns in my research in psychological aspects of human reasoning fi guring in the topic of construction of interstellar mes- sages. The overall most important aspect and viewpoint of the material in this book is, however, that the linguistic system designed and employed is constructive and deterministic. An extension of the typing system employed to weak typing (involv- ing consequently non-determinism) and symbolic computing is innovative. Ways and means (with roots in intuitionism) for attaining all of this are explained in some detail. The erected framework with a beauty of its own is most useful for applica- tions in and development of CETI. In my opinion efforts in the fi eld of construction of messages for ETI should also take into consideration possibilities of symbolically coding human behavior. Fortunately LINCOS has in the realm of declarative (i.e. introductive) sentences a practically unlimited capacity of describing static aspects of this kind. This is for example illustrated in Dr. Ollongren’s paper with a treatment of human morality in my as yet unpublished book. In addition there is also a potential for describing dynamic interactions between humans. Examples of these are provided in the pres- ent book. Humans exchanging information is one case studied and explained. Since human behavior often (indeed not always) exhibits logic structure, the new Lingua Cosmica provides a powerful apparatus for formal analysis of some classes of behavioral actions. Products of such analyses can in turn be sublimated in messages for ETI. I was very interested to learn that Springer has agreed to publish the present book as the relatively new discipline called astrolinguistics by the author is gaining importance all the time due to advances in observational astrophysics, astrochemis- try, and astrobiology, but of course also cosmology. Building stones for life as we know it exist in interstellar space. It is no exaggeration to state today that our galaxy apparently teems with planets; there is ample observational evidence of that. On at least one habitable planet the symbolic species living there is concerned with devel- oping methods and means enabling them to contact other completely unknown symbolic intelligent species. The views taken and the material presented in the pres- ent book can play a prominent role in the nontrivial efforts on Earth in this fi eld. I certainly hope that the book will attract a wide circle of readers and will help to advance future work on the construction of interstellar messages. I wish the book a bright future. Professor Douglas A. Vakoch PhD, SETI Institute and California Institute of Integral Studies, Mountain View, California, United States Contents Part I Calculus of Constructions 1 Types and Declarations ......................................................................... 3 Intention ................................................................................................... 3 Typed Entities .......................................................................................... 3 Functions .................................................................................................. 5 References ................................................................................................ 7 2 Functions and Induction........................................................................ 9 Intention ................................................................................................... 9 Constructing Entities ................................................................................ 9 Inductive Entities ..................................................................................... 11 Facts ......................................................................................................... 14 Connectives, Continued ........................................................................... 16 Typing Existence and Equality ................................................................ 17 Booleans ................................................................................................... 19 3 Hypotheses .............................................................................................. 23 Intention ................................................................................................... 23 Contradictions .......................................................................................... 23 Double negation ....................................................................................... 25 Hypotheses ............................................................................................... 28 Reference