As you read my translations, please be aware that I no longer have my original notes. I'm looking at the messages after 15 years, and doing the best I can.If you follow along one line at a time, especially in the first message, you should be able to easily see how the message is constructed. Following messages after the first get progressively more difficult.It would help to be familiar with counting in other bases besides base 10 (the normal counting system we are all used to). Instead of base 10 counting like this: 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, etc, the message generally uses base 6 counting, which looks like this: 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 20, 21, 22, 23, etc. In base 6, the right-most digit represents the “ones” column, as it does in base 10. But the next-to-right-most digit represents the “sixes” column, instead of the “tens” column. So the number 325 in base 10 is (3 x 100) + (2 x 10) + (5 x 1). But 325 would be written in base 6 as 1301, which is (1 x 216) + (3 x 36) + (0 x 6) + (1 x 1). As you move left in the digits, each one represent another power of 6. So, reading from right to left, the position columns are 6^0 = 1, 6^1 = 6, 6^2 = 36, 6^3 = 216, 6^4 = 1296, and so on. In base 10, they are 10^0 = 1, 10^1 = 10, 10^2 = 100, 10^3 = 1000, 10^4 = 10000, and so on. Fractions and “decimals” are also possible in base 6. Instead of the positions after the decimal point representing a tenth, a hundredth, a thousandth, and so on, they represent negative powers of 6: one-sixth, one-thirty-sixth, and so on.Also note that in general, while the first message is more or less self-contained, to understand each subsequent message relies on the information in the previous messages. In some cases it even relies on data in the subsequent messages! The reason for that is that a symbol may be introduced in one message that doesn't have enough examples of its usage to really understand. Once you see additional messages, that symbol may have additional examples of use and may be easier to understand. On the Contact Project message board, you actually see that in the discussion a lot – where a later message makes some symbol in an earlier message clear. I think that you'll especially see that in the third message enclosed here. I provide translations, especially for the last 13 lines or so that really could not be understood with just the data provided in the message itself. In fact, they were some of the most difficult symbols in the entire sequence of messages to understand.This document only contains translations for the first three messages, if only because this is so time consuming. By checking the archived message board from 1995 on the Contact Project website, you should be able to translate the remaining messages if you so desire. If I ever feel like it, I may update this document to include further translations... but don't count on it.The following is a translation of the first message.
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Rows 1 through 6 show a simple unary count. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unary_numeral_system
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Rows 7 through 12 demonstrate addition – notice that the numbers being summed occur on the outside of the statement and the total occurs in the center of the statement. The message also demonstrates the symmetry, where the order of the two outside values does not matter.
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Rows 13 through 18 demonstrate subtraction. Because the alien grammar reads from the outside to the inside (rather than left-to-right or right-to-left), I had to assign specific positions to the minuend and subtrahend. But this seemed to go against the powerful symmetry I wanted to be a part of the grammar. So instead I chose to use two different subtraction operators – one in which the larger number is the minuend, and one in which the smaller number is the
minuend. I don't think this is realistic at all because it wouldn't work with algebra, where you don't necessarily know which value is larger. But there it is.
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Rows 19 through 21 demonstrate multiplication.
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Rows 22 through 26 demonstrate division. I had a similar problem as with subtraction – should specific positions be assigned to the dividend and divisor? Again, I didn't want to do this. I realize this is pretty silly. Row 26 specifically introduces the concept of inverting a number to obtain a fraction.
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Row 27 demonstrates multiplication with fractions.
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Rows 28 through 30 demonstrate the equality operator.
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Rows 31 through 41 then reassign the unary counting we've used up until now to more compact numbers. We learn by observation of the patterns that we're dealing with a base-6 number system. Note that even the base-6 numbers are symmetrical. Instead of writing 123, for example, the message would write that number as 12321. Note that “senary” is the term for a base-6 number system. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Senary
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Row 42 shows addition using the new base-6 operators, just to make sure we're all on the same page.
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Rows 43 through 46 introduce the concept of booleans (true/false) via demonstration of mathematical statements (using vocabulary introduced earlier in the message) that are either true or false.
MESSAGE 1
ROW # MESSAGE TRANSLATION INTERPRETATION
1GBG{1}1 (unary count)2GBBG{1 1}2 (unary count)3GBBBG{1 1 1}3 (unary count)4GBBBBG{1 1 1 1}4 (unary count)5GBBBBBG{1 1 1 1 1}5 (unary count)6GBBBBBBG{1 1 1 1 1 1}6 (unary count)7GBHBBHBG{1 + 1 1 + 1}1 + 1 = 2 (unary addition)8GBBHBBBHBG{1 1 + 1 1 1 + 1}2 + 1 = 3 (unary addition)9GBHBBBHBBG{1 + 1 1 1 + 1 1}1 + 2 = 3 (unary addition, mirrored)10GBHBHG{ + 1 + 1}0 + 1 = 1 (unary addition, showing unary zero)11GHBHBG{1 + 1 + }1 + 0 = 1 (unary addition, showing unary zero, mirrored)12GBBHBBBBHBBG{1 1 + 1 1 1 1 + 1 1}2 + 2 = 4 (unary addition)13GBBIBIBG{1 1 – 1 – 1}2 – 1 = 1 (unary subtraction, larger minus smaller)14GBIBIBBG{1 – 1 – 1 1}2 – 1 = 1 (unary subtraction, larger minus smaller)15GBBJKBKJBG{1 1 – -1- – 1}1 – 2 = -1 (unary subtraction, smaller
minus larger)16GBJKBKJBBG{1 – -1- – 1 1}1 – 2 = -1 (unary subtraction, smaller minus larger)17GBBBBJKBBBKJBG{1 1 1 1 – -1 1 1- – 1}1 – 4 = -3 (subtraction, smaller minus larger)18GBBBBIBBBIBG{1 1 1 1 – 1 1 1 – 1}4 – 1 = 3 (subtraction, larger minus smaller)19GBLBLBG{1
×
1
×
1}1
×
1 = 1 (unary multiplication)20GBBLBBBBBBLBBBG{1 1
×
1 1 1 1 1 1
×
1 1 1}2
×
3 = 6 (unary multiplication)21GBLBBLBBG{1
×
1 1
×
1 1}1
×
2 = 2 (unary multiplication)22GBBBBBBMBBMBBBG{1 1 1 1 1 1
÷
1 1
÷
1 1 1}6
÷
3 = 2 (unary division, smaller divisor)23GBBMBBBMBBBBBBG{1 1
÷
1 1 1
÷
1 1 1 1 1 1}6
÷
3 = 2 (unary division, smaller divisor)24GBBBBMBBMBBG{1 1 1 1
÷
1 1
÷
1 1}4
÷
2 = 2 (unary division, smaller divisor)25GBBMBBMBBBBG{1 1
÷
1 1
÷
1 1 1 1}4
÷
2 = 2 (unary division, smaller divisor)26GBBBBBBNOBBONBBBG{1 1 1 1 1 1
÷
1 / 1 1
÷
1 1 1}3
÷
6 = ½ (unary division, larger divisor)27GOBBOLOBBBBOLOBBOG{1 / 1 1
×
1 / 1 1 1 1
×
1 / 1 1}½
×
½ = ¼ (unary multiplication, with fractions)28GBPBPBG{1 = 1 = 1}1 = 1 (equivalence)29GBBPBBPBBG{1 1 = 1 1 = 1 1}2 = 2 (equivalence)30GBBBPBBBPBBBG{1 1 1 = 1 1 1 = 1 1 1}3 = 3 (equivalence)31GPQAQPG{ = [0] = }0 (unary) = 0 (senary)32GBPQBQPBG{1 = [1] = 1}1 (unary) = 1 (senary)33GBBPQCQPBBG{1 1 = [2] = 1 1}2 (unary) = 2 (senary)34GBBBPQDQPBBBG{1 1 1 = [3] = 1 1 1}3 (unary) = 3 (senary)35GBBBBPQEQPBBBBG{1 1 1 1 = [4] = 1 1 1 1}4 (unary) = 4 (senary)36GBBBBBPQFQPBBBBBG{1 1 1 1 1 = [5] = 1 1 1 1 1}5 (unary) = 5 (senary)37GBBBBBBPQBABQPBBBBBBG{1 1 1 1 1 1 = [101] = 1 1 1 1 1 1}6 (unary) = 6 (senary, symmetrical notation)