Lincos language


Lincos is a constructed language first described in 1960 by Dr. Hans Freudenthal in his book Lincos: Design of a Language for Cosmic Intercourse, Part 1. It is a language designed to be understandable by any possible intelligent extraterrestrial life form, for use in interstellar radio transmissions. Freudenthal considered that such a language should be easily understood by beings not acquainted with any Earthling syntax or language. Lincos was designed to be capable of encapsulating "the whole bulk of our knowledge."

Concepts and range

The Lincos "dictionary" is intended to be transmitted first before any additional messages. It teaches natural numbers by a series of repeated pulses, separated by pauses. It then teaches >, <, =, +, -, by examples such as ..... >... There would need to be more pause than he shows around > to show an alien that > is a new separate symbol. Otherwise the alien can think the whole pattern is a new symbol of unknown meaning. Having introduced =, he shows binary notation for numbers . = 1, .. = 10 and so on. He goes on to multiplication, division, variables and constants, then propositional logic, set theory and first-order logic. He tries to introduce questions by leaving mathematical expressions unsolved: ? x x + 101 = 11
The next section of the Lincos dictionary introduces a word for second, "Sec," by playing pulses of various lengths, followed by Sec, and the number of seconds, "until the receiver may be expected to remark that the numbers... are proportional to the durations," thus teaching both that Sec is a unit of time, and exactly how long it is. He then introduces means for measuring durations, referring to moments in time, and talking about past and future events.
The third section is perhaps the most complex, and attempts to convey the concepts and language necessary to describe behavior and conversation between individuals. It uses examples to introduce actors speaking to each other, asking questions, disapproving, quoting other people, knowing and wanting things, promising, and playing. The first steps are to introduce some new symbols, say they are NOT numbers, and transmit sequences showing two of these new symbols separated by the word "Inq," and followed by a question about an equation, then the symbols reversed, followed by the answer. He expects that after many repetitions, the recipient will decide these new symbols are entities asking and answering the questions, rather than some other context for the questions.
Finally, the fourth section describes the concepts and language relating to mass, space, and motion. This last section goes so far as to describe physical features of human beings and of the Solar System.
A second book was planned but never written that would have added four more sections to the dictionary: "Matter", "Earth", "Life" and "Behavior 2". Other researchers have since extended the language somewhat on their own. One example is CosmicOS. Another is a second-generation Lingua Cosmica developed by the Dutch-Swedish astronomer and mathematician Alexander Ollongren of Leiden University, using constructive logic.
Freudenthal's book on Lincos discusses it with many technical words from linguistic and logical theory, usually without defining them, which may have reduced its general interest, though the main chapters can be understood without these technical terms: appellatives, binding, formalization, function, lexicology, logistical, ostensive, quasi-general, semantics, syntax, variables, etc.

Use

For decades, no actual transmissions were made using Lincos; it remained largely a theoretical exercise, until Canadian astrophysicists Yvan Dutil and Stéphane Dumas, working at the Canadian Defense Research Establishment, created a noise-resistant coding system for messages aimed at communicating with extraterrestrial civilizations. In 1999, the astrophysicists encoded a message in Lincos and used the Yevpatoria RT-70 radio telescope in Ukraine to beam it towards close stars. This is known as Cosmic Call. The experiment was repeated in 2003. The message was a series of pages describing some basic mathematics, physics and astronomy. The Dutil–Dumas experiment was promoted by an organization called Encounter 2001.
Some researchers have explored the similar issues in communicating with intelligent animals such as cetaceans. Lincos messages are complex and need to reach the most patient, logically oriented members of the target species. A far simpler approach aimed at average members of a species can cover numbers, >, <, =, +, -, and time.

Examples

An example of Lincos from section 3 of Freudenthal's book, showing one individual asking another individual questions:
Lincos textMeaning
Ha Inq Hb ?x 2x=5Ha says to Hb: What is the x such that 2x=5?
Hb Inq Ha 5/2Hb says to Ha: 5/2.
Ha Inq Hb BenHa says to Hb: Good.
Ha Inq Hb ?x 4x=10Ha says to Hb: What is the x such that 4x=10?
Hb Inq Ha 10/4Hb says to Ha: 10/4.
Ha Inq Hb MalHa says to Hb: Bad.
Hb Inq Ha 1/4Hb says to Ha: 1/4.
Ha Inq Hb MalHa says to Hb: Bad.
Hb Inq Ha 5/2Hb says to Ha: 5/2.
Ha Inq Hb BenHa says to Hb: Good.

Note the difference between "good" and "bad" as compared to "true" and "false"; 10/4 is a true answer to the question, so Ver would be a valid response, but since it wasn't reduced to lowest terms, it wasn't what Ha wanted and so he responded Mal instead. The book separately teaches Ver and Fal for true and false.
Another example, showing meta-conversation:
Lincos textMeaning
Ha Inq Hb ?x 4x=10Ha says to Hb: What is the x such that 4x=10?
Hb Inq Hc ?y y Inq Hb ?x 4x=10Hb says to Hc: Who asked me for the x such that 4x=10?
Hc Inq Hb HaHc says to Hb: Ha.

Popular culture

In the motion picture Contact, SETI astronomers receive a radio transmission from space that has a Lincos-like dictionary embedded in the message.
In the 2016 sci-fi blockbuster film, Arrival, Stephen Wolfram and his son were consulted by film production to help analyze symbols known as logograms that ultimately served as the basis for the alien language utilized throughout the film. Wolfram's personal copy of Lincos was present on the film's set.
In the Stanisław Lem novel His Master's Voice, Lincos is mentioned together with Loglan.