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Zenodo
2026
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| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.18112516 |
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| _version_ | 1866902233579257856 |
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| author | Jafari, Saeed |
| author_facet | Jafari, Saeed |
| contents | <p>What if our assumptions about how intelligence communicates are fundamentally constrained by the linguistic models familiar to us? This work reviews an alternative framework for approaching xenolinguistics, one that begins not with language as a formal system, but with communication as a universal biological and cognitive process. Communication is viewed here as shaped by co-evolution, emergence, and the socio-technological environment in which it is embedded. Building upon insights from complex systems theory, semiotics, and information theory, this study identifies patterns through which communication evolves from localised forms, such as cellular signalling or acoustic interaction, to global systems like protocol-based computation and symbolic standardisation. These patterns suggest that certain features – such as networked structure, symbolic abstraction, and hybrid natural-artificial encoding – may be resilient enough to arise beyond Earth-bound contexts. Rather than aiming for direct decoding strategies, this approach supports a taxonomic and scenario-based methodology relevant to SETI. It raises key questions: What types of communication might develop in environments without shared sensory modalities? Could a civilisation lacking visual perception or economic infrastructure still generate structured and recognisable signals? Might communication failures – such as semantic dissonance or informational breakdowns – indicate not dead ends, but transitional thresholds within evolving systems? By combining Zipfian distributions techniques with computational semiotics, and examining analogues of communicative dysfunction across biological domains, this review maps the probabilistic landscape of interstellar communication. The goal is not to define an alien language outright, but to understand the preconditions under which a message might become meaningful to another intelligence. Within the context of SETI, the challenge is reframed: the search is not merely for messages, but for shared frameworks of communicability.</p> |
| format | Recurso digital |
| id | zenodo_https___doi_org_10_5281_zenodo_18112516 |
| institution | Zenodo |
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| publishDate | 2026 |
| publisher | Zenodo |
| record_format | zenodo |
| spellingShingle | Communicative Universals and the Limits of Language in the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence Jafari, Saeed <p>What if our assumptions about how intelligence communicates are fundamentally constrained by the linguistic models familiar to us? This work reviews an alternative framework for approaching xenolinguistics, one that begins not with language as a formal system, but with communication as a universal biological and cognitive process. Communication is viewed here as shaped by co-evolution, emergence, and the socio-technological environment in which it is embedded. Building upon insights from complex systems theory, semiotics, and information theory, this study identifies patterns through which communication evolves from localised forms, such as cellular signalling or acoustic interaction, to global systems like protocol-based computation and symbolic standardisation. These patterns suggest that certain features – such as networked structure, symbolic abstraction, and hybrid natural-artificial encoding – may be resilient enough to arise beyond Earth-bound contexts. Rather than aiming for direct decoding strategies, this approach supports a taxonomic and scenario-based methodology relevant to SETI. It raises key questions: What types of communication might develop in environments without shared sensory modalities? Could a civilisation lacking visual perception or economic infrastructure still generate structured and recognisable signals? Might communication failures – such as semantic dissonance or informational breakdowns – indicate not dead ends, but transitional thresholds within evolving systems? By combining Zipfian distributions techniques with computational semiotics, and examining analogues of communicative dysfunction across biological domains, this review maps the probabilistic landscape of interstellar communication. The goal is not to define an alien language outright, but to understand the preconditions under which a message might become meaningful to another intelligence. Within the context of SETI, the challenge is reframed: the search is not merely for messages, but for shared frameworks of communicability.</p> |
| title | Communicative Universals and the Limits of Language in the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence |
| url | https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.18112516 |