When we think about the possibility of human contact with an alien civilization, we immediately ask many important questions. How difficult will it be to make this contact? Will we be the first to recognize the aliens' attempt to communicate with us? Will the earthly race be able to understand a culture that is completely beyond our perception of the world? Are we finally recognizing the art of the "green men"? Shall we enjoy it?
Take, for example, music, considered by many people on Earth to be the most important and all-encompassing art form, and perhaps even one of the forms of communication between different peoples and races. The British scientific journal "Scientific Reports" recently published the results of an interesting study concerning the potential music of aliens. Scientists suggest that the aliens must also have a concept of music, and a person will be able to understand it more easily than one might imagine, but he will certainly encounter some of its subtleties as a certain form of communication.
The authors of the article say that our civilization is unlikely to be the first to come into contact with aliens. We still do not have any tools for communication with distant space, and even the flights of earthlings millions of light years away from their home planet look like pure fantasy. Research shows that humans will not be able to survive for long outside the Earth. This means that if contact occurs, it will most likely be the aliens who initiate it.
This means that they will be much more advanced than you and me. Consequently, the music of the "green men" may well turn out to be more complex and perfect than what people are used to. Scientists cite pop music and classics as examples. Pop music is very simple and uncomplicated, it is well suited for entertainment or relaxation, but it quickly becomes boring and cannot satisfy the aesthetic needs of a more discerning listener.
Meanwhile, classical music is often characterized by complexity of forms and is more difficult to perceive, but at the same time it gives the listener a whole spectrum of new emotions. Academic musician Vincent Menzies, who is one of the authors of the study, believes that the music of representatives of an extraterrestrial civilization who wish to come into contact with us is likely to be much more sophisticated and sophisticated than the greatest earthly works, say, Mozart or Tchaikovsky.
Alien music will help us understand aliens
In other words, Menzies suggests that even the most intricate music of earthlings will seem extremely primitive to guests from another planet, like pop music to a connoisseur of classics. At the same time, we may not even guess what musical instruments aliens use, what are the vocal preferences of these creatures, what is their writing talent, etc. Their music can be so beautiful and incredible that it will open up feelings in us beyond the usual emotional range. And it is music that will facilitate easier and more harmonious communication between aliens and earthlings.
Menzies and his colleagues tried to get a similar "extraterrestrial" composition themselves, using a symphony orchestra, electronic technology, folk instruments, sounds of nature and space (more precisely, various space signals converted into acoustic waves). Nevertheless, the results of the researchers turned out to be not at all impressive, losing even to the work of many contemporary non-academic composers. There can be no question of any revelation here.
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Many works of art raise the issue of communication and cultural barriers between people with extraterrestrial intelligence. For example, in 2016, the highly acclaimed science fiction film Arrival, based on the story of the American Ted Chan, was released. It tells the story of a woman linguist trying to decipher the language of aliens, which does not obey our perception of time, which allows its speakers to look into the future. It seems that the music of the aliens will be a real surprise for us, although, on the other hand, it is music, according to today's researchers, that should help to more easily overcome the communication barrier between various comic races …
