ravana:Usa is now dominant but in a few years it will be china .

Then the Aliens will use Chinese

They could try to communicate in the language of the most dominant species on earth: the ants, according to some scientists. To do so they will need to study the ants in order to figure out how to communicate with them. But why will they try to communicate with an unknown species? It will highly depend on what kind of species and how intelligent they are themselves.

If they are explorers in the sense humans understand that word, maybe there’s a chance they communicate with us. But if all they care about is to get food or energy from the planet, no superpower or god of ours will be enough to stop them. The positive side of it is there won’t be wars anymore, neither will human activities and overpopulation endanger the planet. Perhaps they manage to restore the natural balance of the planet, assuming they don’t get as greedy as we with other species, when they consume us. Why on earth would they consume us? Same reason we consume other species.

A totally different scenario could be a peaceful race of highly intelligent humanoid aliens. The probability of meeting such kind of aliens is as high or as low as any other kind. I don’t think we have enough data to know. Would they choose to say “Hello” in the language of the dominant country? Well, I’m not so sure, considering we are talking about peaceful, highly intelligent alien beings. I think they would be extremely cautious about making contact with us. They may choose to say “hello” to all countries of the world in their own languages. Or maybe they choose to say “saluton”, avoiding to use the language of any country or ethnic group.

dbob:Would they choose to say “Hello” in the language of the dominant country?

To say hello in a language that less than 100,000 people can speak is a sheer folly.

Isn't it obvious that the extra-terrestrials will speak Esperanto?

I think the Aliens will say meow because it is the one sound that the whole earth can agree on:

Catalan: “meu”
Chinese: “miao”
Danish: “miav”
Dutch: “miauw”
English: “meow”
Esperanto: "miaŭ"
Finnish: “miau”
French: “miaou”
German: “Miau”
Hebrew: “Miau”
Hungarian: “miau”
Norwegian: “mjau”
Portuguese: “miau”
Spanish: “miau”
Swedish: “mjau”

Adapted from: http://lovemeow.com/2009/11/how-to-say-meow-in-dif...

http://ak-hdl.buzzfed.com/static/2013-10/enhanced/...

Math and Music seem like strange ideas.

When the Americas were discovered by the Europeans, I don't think they came off the boat showing them how to do simple math.

deltasalmon:Math and Music seem like strange ideas.

When the Americas were discovered by the Europeans, I don't think they came off the boat showing them how to do simple math.

Well, most messages we send into space (just in case some civilization will ever find it) start with very fundamental mathematics, chemistry, or physics, and build up from there. This is because basic science is the language we are most likely to have in common with the kind of alien civilization that can intercept the message.

An example of this is the Arecibo message. (wikipedia) It first lists numbers 1 to 10 in binary, then lists the atom numbers of the atoms that make up DNA, and then lists the amount of each of those atoms appear in each of the building blocks for DNA, and shows a basic graphic of a double helix (followed by other stuff). The hope is that it will some day help an alien civilization puzzle out how DNA is formed, and with it, get an idea of the fundamentals behind what life on Earth is like. ((and hopefully not accidentally cause a plague of DNA-based lifeforms))

Although really, sending that message was more a demonstration of technology than a genuine attempt to reach out.