Logic Contents of Texts

Abstract

The present book is concerned with the problem of explaining to intelligent beings or their information-processing artefacts located elsewhere in the universe the logic contents of interstellar messages, formulated in a human language or otherwise. If an existing natural language is used it is of course one they do not know and cannot understand immediately; this would be a reason for our messages to contain information by which recipients may get to know the syntax (and part of the semantics) of the language employed. In addition it is not unreasonable to assume that the recipients of such messages have no operational linguistic system resembling in some way those employed by our species. Even though all natural languages as used on Earth may be able to express “everything”, also abstract notions, they cannot be used ohne weiteres for interstellar communication because of the reasons given. On the other hand abstract notions contained in some way in an interstellar message stand a good chance to be understood if they are in the realm of logic. The present chapter discusses an example of a text, written in one of the languages on Earth, and shows in what way the logic contents of it can be dealt with in a formal manner.