Starivore Extraterrestrials – Interacting Binary Stars as Metabolic Systems [pdf]

The domain `.ac.be` should be treated similarly to `.co.uk` by HN (ac means academia). Here the domain that appears in parenthesis next to the link should be `vub.ac.be`.

The idea of analyzing existing recordings for information is compelling. I saw a show about Zipf's law, I can't remember the name of it but the basic idea is to plot data with the symbols on one axis and the frequency of each symbol on the other. Highly structure data that conveys information tends to have a -1 slope on a logarithmic scale. More info:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zipf's_law

http://www.peterrussell.com/Dolphin/DolphinLang.php

One of the problems with this approach is that data compression takes advantage of these frequencies so that at maximum compression the slope tends back towards 0 (perfect compression is almost indistinguishable from noise).

To me, this is the most likely reason why we haven't discovered extraterrestrials. Without the decompression/de-encryption key, we have no way of seeing the sea of data that's probably being transmitted all around us. That and the fact that aliens have probably learned how to communicate with neutrinos because they are able to build arrays of nano-detectors that can sense the perturbations that are too faint for us to see. Also the beams are probably directional, not broadcasted for all to see. So looking for direct evidence of a civilization, something like a heat signature or particular arrangement of matter, is probably going to be more fruitful than eavesdropping on communications.

Some more stuff at his website, incluging the grand prize of 500 Euros (which I hope someone will add to): https://highenergyastrobiology.wordpress.com/

We're going to feel awfully stupid if this hypothesis turns out to be correct and ETI was sitting out in plain view for decades.

Paramagnetic bonding sounds fascinating.

http://phys.org/news/2012-07-chemists-molecular-bond-white-d...

Interesting concept! But surely it should be "astrovore", no? :)

Radiation will eat you alive if you try that.

Title of the paper is actually "Starivore Extraterrestrials? Interacting Binary Stars as Macroscopic Metabolic Systems" but I had to truncate it due to HN's 80 character title limit.

You can scale this to an even bigger level: when the Milky Way and the Andromeda will collide they will in fact mate. (The __Milky__ Way being the female counterpart in the intercourse)