Documents / FOIA release
This unclassified article by H. Campaigne, published in the NSA Technical Journal, Vol. XIV, No. 1, gives a key to a series of 31 hypothetical radio messages from outer space that Campaigne had presented earlier. Step by step it decodes symbols for numbers, arithmetic, logic, set theory, octal notation, the rational and real numbers, limits, and finally the periodic table of the elements. The article concludes that any civilization able to send messages across space would share basic concepts of number, sets and physical constants.
Read from the scan by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word.
JO7 BL11 BL21 BL43 BL65 BL125 JO10 BL12 BL22 BL41 BL66 BL126 JO11 BL 25 47 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 140 141 142 JO12 BL16 BL50 BL110 JO13 BL27 BL51 BL111 JO14 BL30 BL52 BL112 JO15 BL31 BL51 BL113 JO16 BL32 BL54 BL114 JO17 BL33 BL55 BL115 JO20 BL34 BL56 BL116 JO21 BL35 BL57 BL117 JO22 BL36 BL50 BL120 Remember that these are not decimal numbers. There is only one cell with more than one entry, and the subscripts in it in decimal notation are 21,39,57,58,59,60,61,62,63,64,65,66,67,68,69,70,71,89,90, 91,92,93,94,95,96,97,98. The larger part of the entries is systematically distributed in the first eight rows. This suggests the periodic table of the chemical elements! On consulting a table we find, sure enough, that elements 57 through 71 are rare earths, and are lumped into one cell. Some, but not all, authorities also list 89 through 103 as rare earths. Elements 21 and 39 are Scandium and Yttrium. CHAV must mean the periodic table. JR, means column x, and JO, means row y. BLx means element Z. The meaning of KSPV is not known, except that it is a generalization of "periodic table." It may merely mean table, or scientific fact, or university subject. Looking back over the exercise we see we have penetrated the meaning of the basic symbols, and even more important, have learned some of the syntax rules of the notation, and have caught mistakes in the process. We have a few words for sophisticated concepts, and, given more data, with a little labor we could establish its translation. The concepts used here are the basic ones of number, sets, and physical constants which any cultures must share. How bizarre the syntax and values of a culture could be I cannot conjecture, but any civilizations capable of sending a message across space must have many things in common.
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FOIA release, from the nsa collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. The text was read from the page images by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word. 11 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.