"Distinguishing Between Biological and Machine Civilization" Topic

… Techno-signatures.

"If we ever make a SETI detection, will it be of biological beings or machine intelligence? As Alex Tolley explains in today's essay, there are reasons for favoring the latter possibility, leading our author to compose what he calls a ‘light-hearted speculation' about machines searching for other civilizations of their own kind. Life seems to be easy compared to this. We are developing the tools to delve into planetary atmospheres in search of biosignatures, hoping to cull out ambiguities. But is there an equivalent in the machine world of a biosignature, and how would it be found? Interesting implications arise, some of them seemingly close to home.

Terry Bisson's amusing short sci-fi story "They're made Out of Meat" [4], is a communication between two individuals who express their disbelief that a biological species (detected on Earth by a galactic survey) can possibly be intelligent. The denouement is to erase the record of discovery from the survey report. It remains one of the few stories where machine entities are dominant in the galaxy. For me, this story is memorable because it is one of so few stories that focuses on the viewpoint of aliens, and moreover, machine aliens. This essay similarly focuses on what a machine civilization would look for when searching for machine intelligence in space…"
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Amicalement
Armand

If.

Hey … aliens is aliens yes ?

(smile)

Amicalement
Armand

What about the third option, biological civilizations who eschew machines, but accomplish the same ends by genetic manipulation? I seem to remember a few pulp stories that posited that as well.

Good point!…

Amicalement
Armand

No Legion, machine aliens are quite different from the kind of aliens normally encountered by, oh say the Starship Enterprise and Captain Kirk. His aliens are frequently beautiful, shapley, and scantily clad female lifeforms of the type that would normally be encountered in, oh say the Pages of Maxim.