Aesthetics and SETI

Imagine first contact: We receive a transmission from an alien civilization light-years away. Among the mathematical proofs and scientific data, there’s something else—patterns that seem aesthetic, not functional. Organized sounds. Visual arrangements. Structures that appear intentional.

Is this art?

How would we know? What would alien art look like? Could we recognize beauty created by minds that evolved under completely different stars, with different senses, different cognitive architectures, perhaps different physical forms?

And the reverse: If aliens intercepted Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony or the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, would they recognize it as art?

These questions probe the deepest relationship between consciousness, perception, and aesthetics. Is beauty universal, or utterly relative? Is art a bridge across the cosmic divide, or evidence of unbridgeable difference?

The SETI aesthetic

The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) primarily looks for narrow-band radio signals—electromagnetic emissions unlikely to occur naturally. The search is for technosignatures: evidence of technology.

But what about artistic signatures? Could we detect alien art through our telescopes?

What would we look for?

Intentionality: Patterns too organized to be random, yet not explained by natural processes or pure function.

Complexity: Information content suggesting deliberate creation. Too much order is boring (natural crystals), too little is noise—art sits between.

Pattern with variation: Repetition suggests intent. Variation within repetition suggests creativity. A signal that’s perfectly periodic might be a pulsar; one with structured variation might be art—or language.

Redundancy and emphasis: Art often repeats themes with variation. Communication repeats to ensure reception. Hard to distinguish.

Aesthetic efficiency: Some arrangements are more elegant than functionally necessary. Using golden ratio proportions when any ratio would work, for instance.

The problem: we might be looking right at it

Perhaps we’ve already detected alien art but classified it as:

Random noise: Too subtle for our pattern-recognition
Natural phenomena: Looks like physics but is actually design
Functional technology: Actually art that also serves practical purpose

We’re looking for radio signals that say “here we are.” But what if their equivalent of art just looks like cosmic background radiation to us?

Types of alien art we might recognize

Mathematical art

Mathematics might be universal—but aesthetic preferences around mathematics might not be.

What could work:

Prime number sequences: Basic arithmetic should be recognizable
Geometric forms: Circles, triangles, golden spirals—if they care about these
Symmetry: Bilateral, radial, translational symmetry—visually striking, potentially universal
Fractals: Self-similar patterns at all scales—might be recognizable as “interesting”

What might fail:

Our number base: We use base-10 because we have ten fingers. Aliens might use base-8, base-12, base-16, or something wildly different
Visual representation: We draw 2D representations of 3D math. What if they think in higher dimensions naturally?
Proof aesthetics: Mathematicians speak of “elegant proofs.” Would aliens share this sensibility?

Musical structures

Music is organized sound—time-based patterns. Could aliens make music?

Requirements:

Sense for detecting atmospheric vibrations (hearing) or equivalent
Sequential time perception
Pattern recognition across time
Some concept of “organized vs. random”

Potential universals:

Simple ratios: Perfect fifth (3:2), octave (2:1)—mathematically clean intervals might please any hearing system
Rhythm: Repeating temporal patterns—pulses, beats
Variation and repetition: Theme and variation could be universal in time-based art
Crescendo and diminuendo: Building intensity and releasing it

Likely differences:

Tempo: What feels “fast” or “slow” depends on perceptual speed and metabolic rate
Pitch range: We hear 20 Hz to 20 kHz; aliens might hear ultrasonic or infrasonic
Timbral preferences: What sounds “pleasant” is culturally learned even among humans
Harmonic vs. inharmonic: Our preference for harmonic sounds may be culturally specific

Visual art

This assumes aliens have vision—or equivalent electromagnetic perception.

Possible universals:

Contrast: Distinguishing figure from ground might be universal to visual processing
Symmetry: Bilateral symmetry signals “living being” across Earth species
Gradients and transitions: Smooth vs. abrupt changes have different effects
Color relationships: Complementary colors, analogous colors—though which wavelengths they perceive varies

Likely differences:

Visual spectrum: They might “see” in infrared, ultraviolet, or other EM wavelengths
Resolution: Maybe they see in higher or lower resolution than us
Persistence: Our eyes integrate ~1/24th second (cinema frame rate); their equivalent might be faster or slower
Dimensions: We perceive 2D retinal images, interpret as 3D. They might perceive 4D directly (including time as spatial dimension)

Narrative structures

Do aliens tell stories?

Why they might:

Stories encode cultural information—survival-relevant
Narrative helps organize causation, prediction
Social species need to share information about events
Theory of mind requires narrative thinking

Universal narrative elements?

Causation: Event A leads to event B—basic logic
Agency: Some entities act intentionally—distinguishing agents from objects
Conflict and resolution: Problem-seeking-solution might be cognitively universal
Transformation: Beginning state → process → end state

But:

Hero’s Journey might be culturally specific
Suspense requires specific temporal cognition
Empathy requires similar emotional architecture
Metaphor requires conceptual mapping that may vary wildly

Alien aesthetic theories

Scenario 1: Convergent aesthetics

Theory: Evolution tends toward similar solutions to similar problems. Eyes evolved independently dozens of times. Maybe aesthetic preferences also converge.

Supporting evidence:

Basic mathematics is universal (2+2=4 everywhere)
Physics is universal (same laws)
Efficient forms might be aesthetically preferred (golden ratio optimizes packing)
Symmetry signals genetic fitness across species

Implications: We could recognize and appreciate alien art. Communication through aesthetics is possible.

Example: Alien music uses harmonic ratios because acoustic physics is universal. Their version of a “chord” resolves in ways we’d find pleasing.

Scenario 2: Radically different qualia

Theory: Subjective experience (qualia) might be fundamentally different. What it’s like to be an alien might be so foreign that aesthetic experience is incomparable.

Supporting evidence:

Even among humans, there’s debate about whether we experience colors the same way
Different cultures have wildly different musical traditions
Aesthetic preferences vary dramatically even within humans
We can’t know what it’s like to be a bat (Nagel); how could we know alien experience?

Implications: We might look directly at alien art and not recognize it as such. It would be like showing a painting to a blind person—the channel is missing.

Example: Alien art operates in sensory modalities we lack—electromagnetic field patterns, quantum entanglement states, something we can’t imagine.

Scenario 3: Post-biological aesthetics

Theory: Advanced civilizations might be post-biological—uploaded minds, AI, pure information. Their aesthetics could be radically abstract.

Supporting evidence:

Technology might allow escaping biological constraints
Information-based entities might find patterns beautiful that physical beings wouldn’t recognize
Timescales could differ dramatically (what takes millennia seems quick to them)

Implications: Their art might look like pure data, mathematical objects, or processes rather than physical artifacts.

Example: Alien “art” is optimization problems solved in interesting ways, or elegant algorithms. We’d need to understand the math to appreciate the aesthetics.

Scenario 4: Collective consciousness

Theory: Alien consciousness might be collective rather than individual. Aesthetic experience might be fundamentally social/distributed.

Supporting evidence:

Earth has examples: slime molds, ant colonies, possibly cetaceans
Collective intelligence might be more successful than individual
Communication would be different, thus art would be different

Implications: Their art might require multiple perspectives simultaneously. We couldn’t experience it properly as individuals.

Example: Alien art is pheromone symphonies requiring hundreds of participants, or distributed computations where the beauty is in the emergent whole.

Case studies: recognizing the unrecognized

Whale songs

For most of human history, we didn’t know whales sing. Once we recorded them:

Complex patterns, repeated with variation
Different “dialects” in different populations
Songs evolve over time
Males seem to be performing (competing? attracting?)

Is it music? Art? Communication? All three?

We still don’t fully understand it. But we recognize it as intentional, structured, possibly aesthetic. If we struggled with whale songs—and whales are mammals, sharing our basic cognitive architecture—how much harder with truly alien minds?

Bowerbirds

Male bowerbirds build elaborate structures (bowers) to attract mates:

Geometric arrangements
Color coordination (blue objects for satin bowerbirds)
Perspective effects (larger objects in back for forced perspective)
Regular maintenance and updating

Is this art?

It’s certainly aesthetic—deliberately arranged for visual effect. The females judge males partly on bower quality. There’s clear intentionality. But we hesitate to call it “art” because we assume art requires reflective consciousness.

Or maybe we’re wrong. Maybe bowerbird bowers are art, just created by alien (avian) intelligence.

Octopus communication

Octopuses are intelligent, but their intelligence evolved independently from vertebrates. Their cognition is alien:

Distributed nervous system (neurons throughout arms)
Color-changing skin for communication
Problem-solving abilities
Possible use of color display aesthetically

When octopuses change color rapidly—flashing patterns across their skin—is that:

Pure communication?
Aesthetic expression?
Emotional display?
Something we don’t have a category for?

We’re still learning. The point: On Earth, with species we can study directly, we struggle to recognize art-like behavior. How would we fare with really alien minds?

The Voyager Golden Record revisited

Let’s examine the Golden Record’s contents through an “alien aesthetics” lens:

Music selection

Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 2

Assumes appreciation for harmonic structure
Assumes similar tempo perception
Requires recognizing “instruments” as distinct voices
Cultural context (Baroque Europe) completely absent

Chuck Berry’s “Johnny B. Goode”

Rock and roll rhythm—specific to 20th century America
Blues scales—specific tuning system
Lyrical content about earthly childhood—untranslatable
Electric guitar timbre—requires knowing what “electric” means

Pygmy girls’ initiation song

Polyrhythmic, multiple interlocking parts
Specific to Central African musical tradition
Cultural ritual context completely opaque
Vocal timbre from human vocal cords—unfamiliar to non-humans

The optimistic view: There’s so much variety that something might resonate. Even if they don’t appreciate Bach, maybe they’ll connect with the Navajo Night Chant’s different structure.

The pessimistic view: All of it is filtered through human neurology. Without human ears and human brains, it’s just organized vibrations with no more meaning than wind.

Images

Mathematical diagrams These might work—if aliens:

Have vision
Understand 2D representation of concepts
Recognize symbolic notation
Care about the same math we do

Human anatomy Probably incomprehensible unless they’ve seen carbon-based life before. Why would they map this configuration of shapes to “living being”?

Architecture and art The Taj Mahal image assumes:

Recognition that this is artificial (not natural formation)
Appreciation for symmetry and proportion
Understanding of scale (without reference)
Some shared sense that this is beautiful rather than just functional

Landscapes These might be clearest—mountains, oceans, vegetation. Natural forms might be more recognizable than cultural artifacts.

The meta-message

Perhaps the clearest message isn’t in the specific content but in the attempt itself:

This pattern is artificial (not random)
It represents something (it’s symbolic)
It’s organized carefully (it’s important)
It’s varied (it shows creativity/diversity)

The Golden Record’s aesthetic might be in its totality—“look how much variety we have”—rather than in any individual piece.

Aesthetic experiences as consciousness signatures

Perhaps aesthetic experience itself is what’s universal, even if aesthetic preferences vary:

The experience of beauty

When you encounter beauty—whether a sunset, symphony, or equation—you have a subjective experience:

Attention captured
Pleasure or awe
Desire to keep experiencing
Feeling of “rightness” or harmony
Sometimes, transcendence

Could this experience be universal to consciousness?

Maybe any sufficiently complex conscious system can have aesthetic experiences, even if the triggers differ wildly. The phenomenology of beauty might be similar even if the objects that evoke it are different.

Pattern recognition and reward

Beauty often correlates with:

Optimal complexity: Not too simple, not too chaotic
Pattern recognition: “Aha!” moment when pattern is discovered
Novelty within structure: Familiar enough to process, different enough to engage

These might be universal to information-processing systems. Any intelligence that can:

Recognize patterns
Predict based on patterns
Experience reward when predictions succeed

…might experience something like aesthetic pleasure.

Evolution’s reward system: Animals need to recognize important patterns (food, mates, danger). Pattern recognition is rewarded with good feelings. Perhaps aesthetic experience is an evolutionary side effect—we like patterns in general, even when they’re not survival-relevant.

If so, alien evolution might create similar reward systems. Different triggers, same basic experience.

The hard problem of alien qualia

But this assumes consciousness works similarly. If alien consciousness is fundamentally different—if their qualia (subjective experiences) are incomparable to ours—then maybe their aesthetic experiences are too alien to bridge.

The pessimistic conclusion: Even if we both have “aesthetic experiences,” they might be incommensurable. Like trying to explain color to someone born blind, or sound to someone born deaf—there’s no shared experiential foundation.

The optimistic conclusion: Consciousness might have common features across implementations. Just as all computers run similar algorithms despite different hardware, all consciousnesses might have similar experiential structures despite different substrates.

We don’t know which is true.

Practical implications for SETI

Designing messages

When designing messages for SETI:

Don’t rely solely on aesthetics Use multiple approaches: mathematics, physics, diagrams, sounds, aesthetics. Redundancy increases odds something gets through.

Include context Show the relationship between elements. Don’t just send music—show how instruments create the sounds, show humans making music, show humans responding emotionally.

Show process, not just product Send images of a painting being created. Show musical instruments being played. Show the making of art, not just finished art. Process might be more universal than product.

Embrace diversity The Golden Record’s variety was wise—show multiple aesthetic traditions. Something might resonate even if most doesn’t.

Recognizing alien messages

When analyzing potential signals:

Look beyond obvious technosignatures Don’t just search for carrier waves. Look for structured variation, patterns within noise, organized complexity.

Consider non-obvious channels Art might be encoded in:

Polarization patterns of light
Timing of pulsar glitches
Distribution of objects in space (sculpture at cosmic scale)
Quantum entanglement patterns
Things we haven’t thought of

Recognize ambiguity We might find patterns that could be art or could be natural. That ambiguity is meaningful—nature or intelligence is often the question.

Question assumptions Our assumptions about what art looks like are culturally bound. Stay open to recognizing art that doesn’t fit our categories.

Could we collaborate on art?

Imagine first contact leads to communication. Could we create art together?

Mathematical collaboration

Aliens send: A sequence of prime numbers We respond: Fibonacci sequence They respond: Primes and Fibonacci interleaved in a pattern We respond: Extending the pattern with triangular numbers

The collaboration is the art—co-creating mathematical structures through exchange.

Musical/rhythmic exchange

Even with different sensory modalities: They send: Repeating pulses with variations We respond: Complementary counter-rhythm Iteration: Building complexity through call-and-response

Like jazz improvisation across light-years and species barriers.

Visual/conceptual collaboration

Aliens send: Image with obvious gaps We send: Image completing the pattern Iteration: Co-creating larger structures

Or: They send: Fractal seed We send: Our interpretation/continuation of the pattern They send: Their variation on our variation

Art as conversation.

The act of collaboration

Perhaps the art isn’t in any final product but in the collaborative process itself:

Mutual recognition: “You are an intelligence like me”
Mutual respect: “I value your different perspective”
Mutual creativity: “Together we create what neither could alone”

The aesthetic experience would be in the dialogue—conscious beings from different worlds creating together.

The deepest question

At the core of SETI aesthetics is this question:

Is aesthetic experience fundamental to consciousness, or contingent to specific types of consciousness?

Fundamental: Any sufficiently complex information-processing system that models the world and experiences reward will have aesthetic experiences. Beauty is what it feels like to recognize important patterns. Different minds, same basic experience, different triggers.

Contingent: Aesthetic experience requires specific neural architecture, specific sensory modalities, specific evolutionary history. Human aesthetics are unique to human consciousness. Alien aesthetics would be equally unique and mutually incomprehensible.

We don’t know the answer.

But the question itself reveals something profound: Trying to imagine alien art forces us to confront the boundaries of our own consciousness.

Every assumption we make about what art could be reveals an assumption about what minds must be. Every uncertainty about alien aesthetics is an uncertainty about the nature of consciousness itself.

The practice: expanding aesthetic imagination

Exercise 1: Design for non-human senses

Create art for hypothetical beings with different senses:

For echolocating aliens:

What would “visual art” be? Acoustic sculptures?
How would you organize sound spatially?
What’s the equivalent of color, line, form in sound?

For electromagnetic-sensing aliens:

How do you create art in EM fields?
What are the “colors”—different frequencies?
How do you create “contrast” and “harmony”?

For beings who perceive time non-linearly:

How do you create narrative art?
What’s the equivalent of “rhythm”?
How do you create “surprise” for beings who experience past and future simultaneously?

Exercise 2: The alien critic

Take a piece of art you love. Imagine explaining it to an alien who:

Has never seen a human
Has never heard human music
Doesn’t know Earth’s physics or chemistry
Has completely different sensory modalities

How would you convey:

What it is?
Why it’s beautiful?
What experience it creates?
Why it matters?

Exercise 3: Universal aesthetic principles

Try to create art using only principles you think might be universal:

Mathematical ratios (golden ratio, Fibonacci)
Pure symmetry or asymmetry
Simple geometric forms
Pattern and variation
Gradients (smooth transitions)

Can you create something beautiful using only “universal” elements? Or does removing cultural specificity remove beauty?

The invitation

The question “What would alien art look like?” is really asking:

What is art?
What is beauty?
What is consciousness?
What is universal about subjective experience?

These aren’t answerable through astronomy alone. They require:

Philosophy (what is aesthetic experience?)
Neuroscience (how do brains create beauty?)
Anthropology (how do cultures differ?)
Imagination (what could be different?)

SETI aesthetics is where science fiction becomes science philosophy becomes science fact.

We may never encounter alien art. But the attempt to imagine it expands our understanding of our own aesthetics, our own consciousness, our own place in the possible space of minds.

And perhaps that’s the real beauty: Using the question of alien art to see ourselves more clearly.

Further exploration

Books:

Contact by Carl Sagan - First contact through science and art
Arrival (story: “Story of Your Life” by Ted Chiang) - Aliens with non-linear time perception
The Three-Body Problem by Liu Cixin - Alien civilizations and game theory
Solaris by Stanislaw Lem - Truly alien intelligence

Articles:

“What Is It Like to Be a Bat?” by Thomas Nagel
“The Cognitive Basis of Human Aesthetics” - various neuroscience papers

Practice (planned upcoming):

[Create alien art] /practices/alien-aesthetics - Design exercises
[SETI message design] /practices/message-design - Communication challenges

Related:

Art as communication - Voyager Golden Record
Search for intelligence - SETI science and philosophy
The hard problem - Consciousness and qualia