Let’s recap:
1. Heavy drinking and science don’t go well together.
2. Information differs from random data in that information displays specified complexity.
3. It’s okay to talk about aliens now and then (while you’re waiting for the orderly to stop by with your meds).
Specified complexity is the formal mathematical characteristic of information, but there’s another very important informal characteristic: Information is considered to be an artifact of intelligence. Nowhere in our entropy-beleaguered world can we show where complexity and specification have spontaneously arisen unassisted from the chaos of a random non-intelligent source (although that claim has at times been made—not convincingly, I would argue). Just as the message “Gottfried Leibniz had silky pony hair” in your soup would have you looking over your shoulder for the rest of the day, so we automatically assume an intelligence whenever we encounter information. Police detectives make this assumption when they attempt to match criminal profiles to patterns of evidence. Insurance companies assume this when they investigate possible insurance fraud. If you start winning gobs of cash at a Las Vegas blackjack table, the casino owners aren’t going to assume simple random luck—no, they’re going to assume you have some kind of inside information and that you’re using it intelligently … to cheat.
This is why, for the better part of 50 years, scientists have been transmitting information into space in the hopes of initiating a conversation with an extraterrestrial intelligence; and they’ve also been listening for any attempts to initiate communication with us. We can’t physically travel across the Universe to search for intelligent life, so information is the next best thing.
A very large array (VLA) of radio telescopes. Note: You can’t do the old “black ring around the eye” prank with this kind of telescope.
Carl Sagan wrote a book about this, and in 1997 that book was made into a movie starring Jodi Foster and Matthew McConaughey. It’s a fictional account of a real (although somewhat fringe) branch of scientific research called the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI). In the story, a team of scientists is listening on an array of giant radio telescopes for radio emissions from space, and they detect something that could potentially qualify as information. It’s a series of pulses interspersed with pauses. If you substitute 1s for pulses and 0s for pauses, you have yourself a binary string, and this is what the team hears:
1101110111110111111101111111111101111111111111011111111111111111011111111111111111110111111111111111 1111111101111111111111111111111111111101111111111111111111111111111111011111111111111111111111111111 1111111101111111111111111111111111111111111111111101111111111111111111111111111111111111111111011111 1111111111111111111111111111111111111111110111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111110111 1111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111101111111111111111111111111111111111111111111 1111111111111111110111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111101111111111111 1111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111011111111111111111111111111111111111111111 1111111111111111111111111111111101111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111 1111111111110111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111110111 1111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111101111111111111 1111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111110111111111111111 11111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111
Go ahead and memorize that because there will be a quiz later. The string is 1,186 characters long, and because there are only two possible symbols (it’s binary), the odds of its occurring by random chance are (1/2)^1186, or:
0.0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000095153582181867572154916044783444
If we strictly observe Probability Theory, we’re not allowed to say the chance of an event is absolutely zero, but this is getting pretty darn close. It’s safe to say that this binary string is very complex. But is it specified? Maybe you see the pattern: 2 pulses, pause, 3 pulses, pause, 5 pulses, pause, 7 pulses, pause … or 2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13, 17, 19, 23, 29, 31, 37, 41, 43, 47, 53, 59, 61, 67, 71, 73, 79, 83, 89, 97, and 101. Those are the first 26 prime numbers in counting sequence.
The research team realizes this and starts yelling, “HOW DO IT KNOW?!?” rejoices because funds are running low, and it’s expensive to maintain and operate an array of radio telescopes. Now that they can scientifically demonstrate specified complexity in the radio transmission they just recorded, they can get more grant money … and resume their busy schedule of sitting around eating corn chips while staring at the ceiling.
Cha-CHING!