C ... is for Chilbolton (ATOZ, Star Wars 100 Question Blogathon)

Chilbolton and crop circles, which ties into alien alphabets thusly:

Back in 2001, some crop circles appeared near Chilbolton Radio Telescope in Hampshire, UK.  The main crop circle was called the "Carpet Glyph," and looked like this:

 What's interesting about that particular pattern, according to some people (like this guy) is that it is a mirror image... almost... of a message we sent out in 1974.  Called the "Arecibo Message," because it went from the Arecibo telescope, our message was intended to communicate with alien life forms of higher intelligence through a code of sorts -- using prime numbers and patterns.  The prime numbers were because higher intelligence would likely realize the significance of primes, and the patterns then would help them decode our nature.

So the patterns were meant to tell how we count (base 10), what our most common elements are (hydrogen, etc), what our DNA is made of and what it looks like, and a few other basic facts about us.

This message was sent in binary code and when transcribed into a graph based on the numbers, it looked like this:

See any similarities?

There are some, but there are also differences, and that same guy tracked them:

In other words, if the crop circles were done by a faker, or an actual alien, they took our message, decoded it, and then sent it back with modifications meant to describe what they are like -- silicon based, extra-DNA'd people from another solar system.

Now, one problem with the idea that someone out there got the Arecibo transmission and came back to give us a crop circle reinterpretation of it is that it would have taken 25,000 years for our transmission to reach its intended target. (Another problem is that having realized we have technology sufficient to send radio transmissions, why would the aliens not simply radio back their own information? Certainly, radioing information would be faster than any form of transportation we can conceive, and more efficient than sneaking down here to burn down some corn.)

But skeptics, stand aside!  Because someone else has investigated this Chilbolton message, and has determined that the guy I got most of my information from is wrong.


The Cassiopaea Experiment looked into the Chilbolton Circles, too and concluded that my guy was wrong (they flat-out said it).  This isn't, they said, a message from a race of grays telling us what they're like.  It's a "hyperdimensional transfer" that is telling US about the future of our race:

Why do I think this? Because all of the other figures are almost identical, from the symbols for the nucleic acids to the nucleotides in the DNA. This tells us that it is about US. 

And what else do we see? We see a significant difference in the DNA double helix. This suggests to me that it is our DNA that is going to be changed, and this is the reason for the image of what I clearly see as an infant representing the rebirth of humanity - not a Gray Alien. 

... In the Crop Glyph, the Planet Pluto is gone. Moving in from the outer planets, we can see Neptune, Uranus, Saturn and Jupiter exactly as depicted in our "normal" Solar System arrangement as it is at present. But, after that, there is a significant difference. In the position of Mars, there seems to be four bodies. A single large body would be depicted differently, so I think it is four small ones shown rotating around an axis. Does this mean that Mars will be broken in pieces? Perhaps. Perhaps not. But next, we have two bodies in the "designated" position of the Earth. 

...

It goes on. 

This is a great time to point out to you that once I had the idea for a sci-fi book called "Shattered Earths" in which there were fragments of Earth all rotating synchronously, so maybe you all ought to start listening to me the way people never listened to Jules Verne when he invented the submarine and the giant squid, because I'm now 100% sure that's what the aliens (hyperdimensional beings) are going to go.

SO: Alien alphabet meant to tell us what they're like? Or chilling glimpse into our future as a tri-DNAd band of people living in a Pluto-less solar system? You decide...

Also: The BLOGATHON CONTINUES!


UPDATES: Matthew MacNish has made a return,  T'Laina checked in and ought to participate more, M is all up in this business, and Lara, you'll get your own post for the haiku that everyone should be writing as soon as I can because that blogfest ends on April 8 and it's just 17 syllables, so you can probably squeeze it in during that meeting where you never pay attention anyway.

YESTERDAY'S question fulfilled every one of Michael Offutt's dark fears about lawyers: It was a trick question.  PT Dilloway was the first to note that as a clone, Boba Fett didn't have a father, and he got the 27 points.

Today's question,worth 35 points:

Who suggested that Obi-Wan and Anakin protect Senator Amidala while she was on Coruscant?

 
Commenter 5 gets 10 extra points, if he/she isn't commenter 4 also.

How are you doing on getting Sandra Ulbrich Almazan to comment here? 500 points to the person who gets her to leave one.

Here's your official standings in the Blogathon updated thanks to Rusty.  If you're new to this whole thing, check out the official rules. Or just leave a comment and you'll probably win something.