> Spike Jones wrote: Mersenne primes might
> >be the *best* yardstick to *prove* a certain level of technological
> >achievement, perhaps the most logical yardstick.
>
> mark snyder wrote: Except that it might have an unintended effect. Suppose we
> send out a list
> of Mersenne primes, and the receiving civilization realizes from the list
> that we do not know the Theorem of Myxlptlk, which, as every young
> Golurdian knows, gives an explicit formula for all Mersenne primes. So they
> immediately come over here and harvest our brains, which are tasty only
> within a certain range of intelligence.
I admit, this is the chance we take. However, I am betting that interstellar
travel is *inherently* difficult, perhaps is not practical, and that there
exists
no Myxlptlk theorem. But if there is such a theorem, I suuure would like to
find
it. {8^D I propose we send out our list when we hit 40, which I suspect
is in the next decade. spike
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