New answers tagged aliens
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How to make my hyperfast-immersion language-learners still be fooled by code-words & cyphers
Have code phrases were they something relevant and true but with a very specific wording...
For example a soldier could say, "I am running out of ammo." and this could mean there are more ...
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How to make my hyperfast-immersion language-learners still be fooled by code-words & cyphers
I think your aliens would have a hard time decoding Hawaiian from a few recordings, especially pre-contact Hawaiian, which had many different dialects that used the same phonemes. Although spelling ...
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How to make my hyperfast-immersion language-learners still be fooled by code-words & cyphers
Use ideograms that change meaning all the time.
The thing with most normal languages is that the meaning of each word can vary by context, but not very much. For example, a 'house' is usually a place, ...
- 130k
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How to make my hyperfast-immersion language-learners still be fooled by code-words & cyphers
Your beings need to understand a passage according to how most native speakers would understand it if they listened. Consequently, since most people would take,
"It looks like rain but I ...
- 24.6k
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How to make my hyperfast-immersion language-learners still be fooled by code-words & cyphers
Your aliens understand more than just the words.
If we talk gibberish, anyone listening will know something is up. But we
savvy spies think we will fool the aliens by talking about a sandwich I am ...
- 302k
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How to make my hyperfast-immersion language-learners still be fooled by code-words & cyphers
Short Answer: Context.
Longer answer:
I'm first going to extensively reference this excellent TNG Episode - Darmok for this answer
So, I don't know how familiar you are with Star Trek - assuming you ...
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Accepted
How to make my hyperfast-immersion language-learners still be fooled by code-words & cyphers
A cipher is an algorithm to transform the letters of the clear text into the letters of a cipher text. A moderately simple cipher would shift the first letter of a word by one place, the second letter ...
- 104k
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How would a large invading alien vessel trick us into believing it's a much smaller asteroid?
Keep in line with the sun
Earth is the only inhabited spot in the Solar system. There is a telescope on moon/earths L2 now, but its deep infrared range does not allow it to look into the sun, or next ...
- 14.6k
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How would a large invading alien vessel trick us into believing it's a much smaller asteroid?
If they are only worried about observations from a single direction (Earth), 'cloaking' is simple. Have the earth-facing side be covered by a large mirror that reflects incident sunlight, both visible ...
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27
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Accepted
How would a large invading alien vessel trick us into believing it's a much smaller asteroid?
The ship is very long.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%CA%BBOumuamua
Here is a simulation of Oumuamua tumbling. It is thought to be an elongated tumbling structure because the brightness of the ...
- 302k
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How would a large invading alien vessel trick us into believing it's a much smaller asteroid?
become the asteroid.
Theoretically a cheap and easy way to achieve this is to simply coat your invasion vessel with a coating of space rock and specialized materials capable of fooling infrared ...
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How would a large invading alien vessel trick us into believing it's a much smaller asteroid?
Dark matter
Most of the alien ship, and indeed the aliens themselves, is composed of dark matter. It cannot be observed directly, and it's not nearly massive enough for us to detect its gravity.
The ...
- 12.4k
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Replacing proteins with starch in alien biochemistry
Short answer: Probably not but also kind of yes?
The long answer: It depends on what you want to do:
Let's start with the basics:
As has been pointed out, proteins are chains of amino acids whose ...
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Replacing proteins with starch in alien biochemistry
I found the offending article... Baryos:
... with starches doing many functions performed by proteins in terrestrial life.
Not one of their finer entries (and baryos itself seems super dubious, but ...
- 67.3k
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Replacing proteins with starch in alien biochemistry
A Protein is anything that can be created by unzipping a DNA molecule and letting things form on the open ends and then fall off. There are many types of DNA molecules and many types of proteins. ...
- 56.8k
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