I said something similar yesterday, but I think it's too important to avoid saying again. This probably going to annoy one or two, so sorry in advance.
If you're considering binary, ask yourself these questions first, noting how many options for each you can think of at each step:
- If binary, how has it been encoded in the audio/light/body?
- What data would be broadcast?
- In what format (I.e. bits-per-'word' of data, and underlying data format) would that data be broadcast?
Only after selecting one answer for all these questions, and making lots of assumptions, can you then begin to interpret the binary that you could extract from the audio or visual of the UA.
Yes, you can try pattern analysis on your string of 1s and 0s, but unless you have an inkling of the type of data you're looking for, then you might as well be looking for unicorns in your mashed potato (or crafting one with your fork, like Dreyfuss).
And yes, anyone can provide a sound logical basis for how 'this sound means 1' while 'this sound means 0' (or likewise for colours, or flashes), but 'logical' does not mean 'sensible'. We must be wary of (to invoke the spirit of Douglas Adams) proving black is white and promptly killing ourselves on the next Zebra Crossing.
If you're making too many assumptions in order for a theory even to be testable (let alone correct), then it's probably wrong: Occam's Razor.
(If you're an Einsteinian genius, then this doesn't apply to you)
Contrast the complexity of the binary question with the simplicity of Morse question, which starts with one question:
- Is it Morse?
- If so, then I should be able get dits and dahs from it.
[Listen and transcribe]
- I have dits and dahs, one or two I'm not sure about, but I got 'em.
- Oh look, it spells a station name (barring one mispelled character).
- [repeats for other videos]
- Bingo!
Once the data was identified, the answer presented itself in the form of the system name, so there was no need to know what information was being broadcast.
There's no way of understanding the binary without first understanding what format you expect your data to be in, and, before that, what kind of data you expect. To me, that seems like a fool's errand. Yes it's going to keep us busy, but for no outcome.
So we need Occam and his Razor to cut through this. We got Morse - so now let's understand why. That's the most important question to me - because I strongly suspect there's no other hidden code or message in this thing - just random-ish sound/light for our poor pattern-starved human brains to try and find meaning too. Or if there is, we're missing a big part of the puzzle to be able to get to that next step.
My question: Why does it make a sound, and why does that sound contain a location name?
Simplest answer: So it can be heard - and so that the listener can know either where they are, or it is.
So, next question: Who's listening?
