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BBC Radio 4 is a radio channel that started transmitting on the 30th September 1967. It replaced BBC Home Service.

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Word of Mouth

Factual: Arts, Culture & the Media

Series exploring the world of words and the ways in which we use them

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Word of Mouth: How do you talk to an alien?

How do you talk to an alien?

16/07/2013

BBC Radio 4 - Word of Mouth, How do you talk to an alien?

Chris Ledgard explores our efforts to communicate with extra-terrestrial intelligence.

Chris Ledgard explores our efforts to communicate with extra-terrestrial intelligence and the debate about the kind of messages we send, and whether we should say anything at all.

For more than fifty years, scientists with radio telescopes have been trying to make contact with extra-terrestrial intelligence. Nothing has been found, but recent discoveries of new solar systems and their planets give the astronomical explorers hope. In the first of a new series of Word of Mouth, Chris Ledgard examines some of the questions surrounding inter-stellar discourse - the response we might make if we detect a message, the usefulness of human language in this kind of communication, and whether it might be wiser to say nothing at all.

Producer: Chris Ledgard.

Intelligent speech, the most insightful journalism, the wittiest comedy, the most fascinating features and the most compelling drama and readings anywhere in UK radio.

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