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| | Questioning The Prime Directive :: Astrobiology Magazine :: (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-18) |
 | | In Carl Sagan's book, Contact, and the movie it inspired, the signal beacon was the mathematical sequence of prime numbers, those which are divisible only by itself and one. |
 | | For while in the past it might have seemed that the only way to generate primes was by using intelligence, we now know that the rather straightforward computations required can actually be carried out by a vast range of different systems--with no apparent need for intelligence. |
 | | The more direct the representation, the more easily an ordinary physical process can be expected to generate it, and the less there will be any indication of intelligence--just as, for example, something like a photograph can be produced essentially just by projecting light, while a diagram or painting requires more. |
| www.astrobio.net /news/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=860&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0 (1981 words) |
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