CETI. Metaphor and universal language

Abstract

Are we alone in the Universe or are we but one of many advanced technical civilizations? Assuming that we are not alone and wished to make contact with our galactic neighbours how could we do so? When humans communicate, meaning comes from written and verbal language embedded in metaphor. However, the public nature of metaphoric language reduces the personal essence of individual experience during translation into words. The delusion of shared metaphor being obtained through written and verbal language distorts our views of reality, it impairs our ability to empathise with others, and it disharmonizes our attempts to attune to any invariants and affordances of universal language. This paper attempts to identify some of the elements of universal language and probes the limitations of the communication metaphor as a way of empathising between humans and other intelligent life. Our investigation suggests that if Communication with Extraterrestrial Intelligence (CETI) is to become realised then a new paradigm for human empathising based on human ethology and nonverbal, non‐metaphoric language, embracing the Eastern awareness of wholeness is required to replace the current Western paradigm with its dependence on words and transfer.