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If you like this article, you might try some books I liked that touch on the subject.
For non-fiction: Godel, Escher, Bach - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%B6del,_Escher,_Bach
For fiction: Anathem - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anathem
Helianthus · 4918 days ago · link ·
I'm not so certain that this would be that difficult. Left and Right, Clockwise vs. Counterclockwise are simple opposites; that is to say, they are emblematic of opposities in that it's arbitrary what you call one ('flurgle') as long as the other is not-flurgle.
Maybe it's because "Alien Civilization" to me automatically means both civilizations are probably advanced enough to understand spin-up and spin-down--the fact that we use a right-handed coordinate system by convention, but in a left-handed system spin-up is spin-down and spin-down is spin-up--so any contact with such a civilization would have us both shrugging our shoulders and going "Huh, yeah. Opposites."
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cloud_ctrl · 4918 days ago · link ·
But even though the concept of simple opposites is simple, the difficulty enters when you try to communicate how to distinguish the two. So both civilizations know that left is opposite from right, but which way is left and which way is right? In the problem suggested, we were given by the civilization x, y, and z coordinates, but no way to know which way the x and y and z dimensions are facing. Our convention is to stand at z and see the positive y axis ahead of us and the positive x to the right, but they may not use the same conventions. How could we be sure? In the problem, this is a life or death situation, so we have to be certain.