Xiaopeng Chen

"Messages"

Section MS3, Linn Phyllis Seeger

Keywords: encryption, moving image

In the book The Three-Body Problem, Ye Wenjie was betrayed and disappointed with the people on earth, so she sent two messages to the universe. But in fact, aliens may not be able to read simple radio messages. So how do humans send messages to aliens that aliens can understand? On November 16, 1974, humans used the Arecibo telescope to send a radio message to an alien planet for the first time. This project will use the encryption method of the Arecibo message to re-edit a radio message sent to extraterrestrials based on the story of Ye Wenjie in the book The Three-Body Problem.

The Arecibo message consists of seven parts. The dimension (physical height, 5'9") of an average man (blue/white), a graphic figure of a human being (red), and the human population of Earth which was about 4 billion at the time (white) The entire message consisted of 1,679 binary digits, approximately 210 bytes, transmitted at a frequency of 2,380 MHz and modulated by shifting the frequency by 10 Hz, with a power of 450 kW. The "ones" and "zeros" were transmitted by frequency shifting at the rate of 10 bits per second. The total broadcast was less than three minutes. The number 1,679 was chosen because it is a semiprime (the product of two prime numbers), to be arranged rectangularly as 73 rows by 23 columns. The alternative arrangement, 23 rows by 73 columns, produces an unintelligible set of characters. The numbers from 1 to 10 appear in binary format, to be read from the top down. The bottom row contains markers which indicate the column from which the binary code for each number is intended to begin.

Based on the Arecibo messages, this project will re-edit a message sent to the universe, based on the description of Ye Wenjie's experience and thoughts in the Three-Body Problem. This message still has 1679 bits, arranged in a 22✖73 format. This message will be divided into five sections. 1. Binary arrangement 2. Theory of human evolution 3. Ye Wenjie’s experience - will be recounted using chemical expressions 4. Location of the Earth 5. Location of Hong’an Base (the astronomical base where Ye Wenjie sends messages in the book). Next, these 1679 binary digits are converted into audible radio using the way of Dual-Tone Multi-Frequency. And use these 1679 binary numbers, convert them to base64, and generate random visual pictures. I also used the generated 1679 radio data to make a Dual-Tone Multi-Frequency audio, and combine it with the generated random pictures for the video.