How Could We Find Out An Alien's Name?

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SOURCES AND FURTHER READING
How To Speak To Aliens: oxplore.org/ad...
How Do Deaf Blind People Communicate?: www.aadb.org/fa...
Magpies Feel Grief And Hold Funerals: www.telegraph....
Are Tardigrades Aliens?: • Are Tardigrades Aliens...
What Are The Difference Between Sentience, Consciousness, and Awareness?: philosophy.sta...
How Do Field Linguists Begin To Study An Undocumented Language?: linguistics.st...
Monolingual Fieldwork Demonstrated By Daniel Everett: • "Monolingual Fieldwork...
25 Ways Animals Communicate: bestlifeonline...
Dreamy Flashback Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
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[@NameExplain]

So.... how would you find out an alien's name?

[@lukapaunovski4023]

Name Explain ask it

[@somerandomgreekguy]

I would use an alien language translator

[@ninjaneko3113]

I would just use a bunch of Latin and Greek words because it makes people look smart

[@TrainerGre3n]

I would ask Name Explain

[@goppedelospantalones]

I wouldn't and we would probably both die, because of diseases we haven't developed immunities for.

[@arulshankarum2512]

I'll use this as my guide book while raiding area 51

[@beescakefactory]

What if when you point to yourself and say "Patrick" the alien just thinks that Patrick is what humans are called

[@Tesana]

If you're with other people, point to them and say their name.

[@setlerking]

voifont they’re likely to think that too tho and try to see some general pattern. If you create a clear and deliberate pattern they will learn/understand what you mean (probably). Kinda like dogs learn things, they have no reference of human behavior to draw from yet understand our gestures and body language.

[@Chigger]

Me: "I'm Lane." Alien: *Pointing at me* "NO! THIS IS PATRICK!"

[@anduro7448]

@@Tesana thats their race

[@LunizIsGlacey]

What if, rather than think it means anything, it just thinks it's entertainment and tries to mimic the sound and say something like Pasik or something?

[@super_shag8685]

My Notifications: Drew Durnil : Uploads "How to storm Area 51" Name Explain : Uploads guide how to communicate to aliens I think i'm ready

[@Nike_IV]

Nice, another Drew Durnil fan

[@aleexaleex]

normal people when they see an alien: “RUN” Nameexplain: “Let’s find out it’s name”

[@KCKingdomCreateGreatTrekAgain]

have to be careful Patrick could be the name of a delicacy of theirs. 'Patrick! Oh I have had that in ages'

[@KSPAtlas]

What would be their favourite part

[@manchest_hair_united1161]

Two Aliens Two aliens landed in the Arizona desert near a gas station that was closed for the night. They approached one of the gas pumps and the younger alien addressed it saying, "Greetings, Earthling. We come in peace. Take us to your leader." The gas pump, of course, didn't respond. The younger alien became angry at the lack of response. The older alien said, 'I'd calm down if I were you.' The younger alien ignored the warning and repeated his greeting. Again, there was no response. Pissed at the pump's haughty attitude, he drew his ray gun and said gruffly, "Greetings, Earthling. We come in peace. Take us to your leader or I will fire!" The older alien again warned his comrade saying, 'You probably don't want to do that! I really think that will make him mad.' 'Rubbish,' replied the cocky, young alien. He aimed his weapon and opened fire. There was a huge explosion. A massive fireball roared towards him and blew the younger alien off his feet and threw him in a burnt, smoking mess about 200 yards away in a cactus patch. Half an hour passed. When he finally regained consciousness, he refocused his three eyes, straightened his bent antenna, and looked dazedly at the older, wiser alien who was standing over him shaking his big, green head. 'What a ferocious creature!' exclaimed the young, fried alien. 'He damn near killed me! How did you know he was so dangerous?' The older alien leaned over, placed a friendly feeler on his crispy friend and replied, 'If there's one thing I've learned during my intergalactic travels, you never mess with a guy who can loop his pen!s over his shoulder twice and then stick it in his ear.'

[@TheCimbrianBull]

LMFAO! 😂 🤣 😅

[@anduro7448]

@@TheCimbrianBull lel

[@garethbaus5471]

That is pretty awesome.

[@enzogamerukbr]

**area 51 intensifies**

[@checkmyplaylist6879]

We could just name them Dinnerbone or jeb_

[@Aprill264]

Australians are already dinnerbones and gays are already jeb_

[@ivica999]

R.I.P Jeb_

[@masynbeene5485]

People at Mojang

[@melonlord4889]

Or Grumm, maybe?

[@nbj55]

Or Joergen or joergen 2

[@TotoDG]

He’s hiding the best Name Explain video in Area 51.

[@Klatski]

pat, even pointing at things is a human construct. have you tried pointing at something for your dog? they'll probably look at you or your hand, at most.

[@Paul_The_Spaceman]

What if "rock" means "prepare for war" in alien.

[@PongoXBongo]

Picking up a rock may well be seen as an act of aggression. Like if I was walking toward you, stopped to pick up a nice beefy rock, then continued to walk toward you. What would you think of my intentions?

[@varadarajkamath404]

My money's on the 5 legged space dog. He's the alien we've been talking about for ages.

[@stephenwright8824]

Patrick, it's fairly obvious to me that we need a Babel Fish.😀

[@robweissman5952]

Yeah, the movie "Arrival" was pretty much all about this.

[@migukmoonpark4312]

The movie Arrival would be a perfect example of this scenario.

[@PongoXBongo]

If you allow the crutch of time traveling (in a sense), telepathic aliens, then yes.

[@elektronz123]

"Rhinos leave messages in their poop." -Patrick

[@Nulono]

So do I! Though the messages tend to be things like "I had corn for dinner!" and "I need more fiber in my diet!".

[@elektronz123]

@@Nulono lol

[@Mercure250]

I feel the idea tardigrades come from space isn't very believable. We would have to explain why they share a lot of features with other species that are very much from Earth.

[@mohammedsy1590]

I really shouldn't watch Vsauce before going to sleep

[@anotherspawn]

Huh

[@ninjaneko3113]

You get the award for the most random comment ever

[@InspectHistory]

In my country (Indonesia), we will not ask "what's your name?" Instead we will ask them "Agama-mu apa?" (What's your religion?) - Ah simple, just name it "Kaferrr"

[@frank_calvert]

That seems very dumb and flawed... Considering Indonesia is mostly Muslim why would you ask that question?

[@eh9618]

Really? I haven't been asked what's my religion before my name

[@oh_tassos]

In greece, instead of asking how old you are usually we ask first what grade you are

[@squidsbizarreadventure]

Sorry bro the joke didn't land this time. Try another audience.

[@TheCimbrianBull]

@@oh_tassos Please explain.

[@TheMentorOfMomos]

mathematics and physics are universal, so we could start by trying to explain basic concepts in each one, like the numbers and then continue into more complicated things.

[@shibolinemress8913]

Problem is, our symbols and scientific notation systems aren't universal. How would you explain E=MC² to aliens with a very different notation system? If you drew a mushroom cloud, they might think it's a cauliflower. 😆

[@CarlosGonzalez-mp9re]

Well, I think that for evolution to develop an intelligent being capable to communicate with us, and maybe with advanced technology like us, it has to be adapted to certain pressures that require lots of mental processing and a big brain. For non-aquatic beings, moving through branches in a position of hunter and also prey would be the ideal, because it would force also social behavior and, with some extra pressures, tool making. So, for that, the alien must have at least, complex eyes and limbs, so they would have, at least, some kind of visual language, body language or some kind of colour and image display or bioluminicence (I think body language would be the most probable being the easier to develop). Before anything else, the best thing would be to observe the alien interacting with peers to see if they have some kind of communication and which. If that's not possible, gestures, pointing at things etc, would be the first thing to try. Being prey, ears are essential, so they would be able to recognize sound. Trying to make them imitate you and making simple sounds like vowels and some consonants, to see their limitations, if they have a system to produce sound at all. After all that and having engaged some basic communication, to have his name I think the easiest thing would be to, point a picture of "humans", and see if they can learn that word, and a picture of his kind (in a picture) to see his word or gesture for their species. Repeat the process with a single individual "generic human" and "generic alien". And finally point to people individually in the room and call them all humans, and later use his specific names to show the alien the difference between of generic human and specific human names, and then point to the alien or some of their peers to see if he catches the idea and gives their individual names.

[@JJM8043]

That's assuming that the alien understands you are trying to communicate with it at all.

[@lada8952]

0:28 nope that´s Mr. Burns

[@niamhoconnor8986]

1. Is that a subtle face reveal at 6:00? 2. If yes, is it the first?

[@1manApocalypse_CP]

How is that subtle?

[@niamhoconnor8986]

@@1manApocalypse_CP 😎

[@0MVR_0]

'Name' can mean two things. Either the term an individual is referred or the broad label applied to a category or lineage. Your own name likely has two components, a personal identifier and clan label. The best way to find out an alien's name is to take these two things into regard, and inquire on whether they consider physical and temporal limitations the scope of there individuality.

[@Jojo.R.Chipelago]

Me: Hi, my name is J- Alien: Slurp Slurp *drinking my blood*

[@grahamturner2640]

Did you make this because of the Area 51 meme?

[@scp7802]

look at the upload date..

[@e1123581321345589144]

yeah, good lick with that: nameExplain: rock alien: describes mineral composition nameExplain: stars alien: explains where it came from nameExplain: Patrik alien: names it's species

[@Mercure250]

That's why you have to show many different types of rock and whatnot, so that it understands you are not referring to the hypernym and not to the specific type of rock. Same with stars, etc.

[@vincentmalab3289]

Stroggs, Necromorphs, Xenomorphs , Yutjas ( Predators ) joins the group.

[@suchspain]

*pulls out a minecraft image* Alien: Oh I see you people invented perfection already

[@daddyleon]

Isn't literally most of the light on earth extraterrestrial?? I mean the sun does the most work in that department, and the Sun is..well not native from Earth.

[@mathieuleader8601]

trying morse code as perhaps the alien using bioluminescence as its communication

[@Ignik208]

8:23 If those aliens are from planet Spotify we should simply play them some music and they may play some of theirs back :v

[@Killerean]

25-255Hz is daaaamn low frequency. Most people don't even hear the 25Hz :D What you're looking for is something between 50Hz (deep buzz) to 16kHz (annoying squeal). There you'll be a bit more lucky with the human range :D

[@feyk9638]

bold of you to assume aliens have names

[@hoangkimviet8545]

Patrick: How could we find out an alien's name? Donald Trump: Latinos or Hispanic :-0

[@sohopedeco]

You can guess Juan or José

[@matthewlee8667]

Is mayonnaise an alien?

[@arikwolf3777]

@@matthewlee8667 Mayonnaise is alien poop.

[@Takii2003]

@@matthewlee8667 no mayonaise is not an instrument

[@donwald3436]

A “What do you call this place?” B “Uh... it’s our village.” A “Hey guys! This place is called Canada!”

[@kaank5921]

We give the alien a FBI agent to taste and then make it or the agent tell its name

[@storyspren]

Tbh if an alien lands here before we get anywhere, they're gonna be smarter than any human and I'll expect them to have figured out at least one human language :p

[@nninjastrike2127]

Just pop Sangheili onto Duolingo, easy.

[@luciferangelica]

@4:24 i'm already having trouble distinguishing this alien person from an alien dog. earth dogs definitely investigate their surroundings, probably with perceptibly greater exuberance than earth people. so do i look to see if their actions have a closer analog to earth looking or earth sniffing?

[@luciferangelica]

oh, i guess so. so just look for the guy with the eyes and ears, you say

[@nucleardrifting3864]

I cant get over the fact that you used the kerbal space program space theme

[@hayden-ln1li]

Thank god someone else noticed that

[@theshamanite]

Speculation: Because the more you know, the more you know you don't know.

[@WateverWatever04]

So, Name Explain is definitely going to storm Area 51 then

[@tomcrowell6697]

Actually magpies aren't the only creature that can recognize itself in a mirror. Chimps and orangutans can as well. Look up the dot test to learn more. I personally can't wait to see more animals pass the dot test... Especially since I saw my cat recently looking at himself in the mirror and grooming himself.

[@BryanLeeWilliams]

My dog Kiki cost her own name. She started out as or neighbor's dog named Cricket. They changed it to Sierra. She wouldn't come to either. But she started coming to KiKiKiKitty. So we started calling her Kiki. She responded to that for 10 years.

[@tentserpavel]

Pretty slim chances? Okay, so finding an alien is more likely chances?

[@MatthewCaunsfield]

This turned into a really interesting discussion about life on Earth! :-)

[@edwardsimpson119]

How would the alien know that Patrick was your name and only meant you specifically, rather than being what all creatures on this planet were called? Likewise, if the alien pointed to themselves and said "Glerb" how do you know that Glerb meant that individual or all members of their species?

[@Anonymous-df8it]

Point at a crowd and say 'humans' then point at yourself and say your own name!

[@dnersargaren8677]

Couldn't help but think of Arrival in the reality of how one might go about communicating & translating with extraterrestrial beings in a more complex scenario. Highly recommend this movie - it's up there with Interstellar for sure.

[@ryanemens]

Hey @NameExplain that frequency range isn’t quite right for human communication. That’s just a range for fundamental frequencies, and actually just for men. Sibilant sounds can get near the top end of our hearing and even formant frequencies for vowel sounds get into the thousands of hertz. Also fundamental frequencies are actually the least important in terms of intelligibility.

[@Tesana]

Very interesting video. Your videos are usually quite interesting, but this takes the cake (actually, I wonder how we got that idiom). That being said, when you added eyes to the people, it freaked me out a tad.

[@christaylor4087]

Tardigrades only survived ten days outside in space while an impressive feat they can still die

[@Chigger]

A car nearly hits your RV and swerves off the road. You and your friend stop to help the driver, who turns out to be a little green man named Paul.

[@janicebarry8089]

I love magpies except for when the swoop but they are lovely

[@SSRT_JubyDuby8742]

"If you come across an alien, just look a tit", . . . Easy for me, as it's my default setting. 🤣

[@mikeharrison1868]

Worth watching "Arrival" and reading "The long way to a small angry planet" ;o)

[@wattsisnaim8111]

How to tell an alien's name? Maybe they have a sticker that says, "Hello! My name is Klatu"

[@simplesigh9813]

reminded me of a band called 'klaatu' and their song 'calling occupants of interplanetary craft' theyre a great band!!

[@wattsisnaim8111]

@@simplesigh9813 Might be spelling it wrong, but Klatu/Klaatu is from the movie "The Day The Earth Stood Still". (Both versions. The good one and the one with Keanu Reeves.)

[@franzfanz]

00:30 It's Mr Burns!

[@mixter2784]

Video suggestion: why are there so many names for currency?

[@YoLoScience]

We could just name them "Alien 1, Alien 2, Alien 3,....and so on.." . Simple, Effective and Scientific.

[@emiriye]

But quite soulless

[@lalah.k.808]

Ayy yo' they are already here man!!! They vibe at a 12D to 16D to where we as humans are vibin at 3D, 4D, 5D frequencies.

[@HollowDesert]

I feel like they'll be able to find out a way to speak with us even if their physiology doesn't allow for human speech. If they got interstellar travel down, they for sure will have communication down

[@Stoneworks]

you should do more stuff like this

[@Monody512]

I imagine it'd be fairly likely an alien would communicate through bioluminescence or something similar, since that would work through a vacuum. If they're advanced enough for interstellar travel, they'll probably have prepared their physiology for it.

[@elijahblast7548]

No matter what all species need to have a sense of touch so Braille may be the best way to communicate

[@JJM8043]

Braille is a human language, designed for humans to understand.

[@kostyac6411]

Did you just compared worms and lizards in intelligence? My pet monitor begs to differ.

[@dominikheiderer9161]

Great upload! 👍

[@Ratchet4647]

OMG this a GREAT video idea for you!!!

[@erictaylor5462]

With my luck "Eric Taylor" would mean, "I am food" in its language.

[@shindousan]

In Star Trek, Tamarians communicated through allegories.

[@MichaelWite19]

8:29 The alien could just say what it calls its species or, race or, gender or, family...

[@Ggdivhjkjl]

Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra.

[@robmckennie4203]

i'd bet that if humanity ever encounters a spacefaring species from another planet, we will have already been communicating for many years by radio.

[@lukapaunovski4023]

Easy! Just ask it!

[@talamahmoud10]

oh wow no one couldn't have ever thought of that

[@bob8027]

I love the ksp music

[@petrfedor1851]

There is another interesting question: Do aliens have names at all?

[@Roxor128]

If we made contact with aliens, chances are it's not our spoken languages we'd be translating first, but our computer languages. If you're sending a radio signal to establish communications with a species you know has electronics, you're going to encode it in a way that's pretty obvious how the data is encoded. For example, you might use carrier signal plus 1000Hz for a 0 and carrier plus 2000Hz for a 1 (frequency-shift keying). Looking at a frequency representation of the signal is going to make it pretty obvious that you're sending some form of data with two states. Hell, if the data rate is low enough, you could just put it through a speaker and hear it's using two frequencies. Okay, so now your recipient knows you're sending them binary data of some sort. What can you send that's easy to turn into something recognisable? How about a 1-bit image? Send a few bits to encode the image size, say a 16-bit value encoding "256", a second one encoding "128", and then 32768 bits of the image data. They look at the length of the message and see it comes out to 16+16+32768 bits in size, then start looking through it and spot the bit patterns at the start for 256 and 128, or their inversions if they assumed the high frequency was for 0, rather than 1. Finding two 16-bit numbers that multiply to give the size of the rest of the data could be enough of a clue for them to figure out they're getting an image from you. Once they've got that down, you can use images to convey more complex ideas, including the structure of more sophisticated protocols.

[@SomePeopleCallMe]

0:30 it's Mr Burns

[@JohnDlugosz]

I recall reading an explanation of a scientific paper concerning how parrots name themselves. IIRC, it is a characteristic way of taking characteristics from both parents. Point is, parrots have names. They have an instinctive understanding of what a name is, and my own pet responds to his name and calls my and my wife by name.

[@silverstar8868]

I highly doubt that aliens who can travel space will not have some naming conventions.

[@heater1237]

9:24 Why does the mantis shrimp look like it’s on LSD or something

[@Illumisepoolist]

Can you do a video about baby Naming Books?

[@erictaylor5462]

0:45 Yes, they can. They totally can.

[@herscher1297]

"Nearly indestructable trardigrades" you know the get eaten by snails, right?

[@Anonymous-df8it]

Key word: Nearly

[@thephilosiphizer9227]

Gesture to all of me and say human, then touch myself and point to myself and say Tanner. Then point to the alien.

[@tryingnottofail864]

Hello!

[@DigGil3]

Aliens in Independence Day were defeat by insecure internet connection.

[@bxdanny]

They say that a captive alien gave its name as "J-Rod", by drawing or perhaps pantomiming the shape of a J and of a straight line.

[@another90daystochangethis34]

That would be like using objects to represent your identity. Of course that would also be as if they never evolved communication beyond pointing at stuff and grunting like cavemen.

[@SaulGMV]

good stuff!

[@threaruscamuwundra7417]

Listen up Aliens, in order to save some time I'll call the males Daves and all the females Debbies. Slagother possibly as well

[@eustache_dauger]

Why not Dudes & Dudettes?

[@zappawoman5183]

@@voifont In Asimov's "The Gods Themselves" the aliens have 3 sexes to reproduce - the Rational, the Parental and the Emotional.

[@1manApocalypse_CP]

@@zappawoman5183 I would totally be a rational.

[@woltews]

you hold up rock - "rock " alien -mafic Monzodiorite Pegmatitic texture

[@kenhartono5956]

The biggest question of the sound we should be having is what does the fox say

[@awildtannerwasfound5045]

What most people think is that aliens would be so advanced if they’re out there, but nobody dares to think what if most aliens have the dilemma of us? What if they’re starting in the Stone Age.

[@JJM8043]

Then we will never contact each other.

[@PongoXBongo]

I would hope that any space-faring alien worth his salt, would do a bit of studying on us humans and the planet we inhabit before landing. Chances are good that they'd be able to whip up a translator if needed. A quote from the Vulcan, Tuvak, comes to mind, "Sensors." ;)

[@1224chrisng]

love that KSP music too

[@aimarov.5568]

All I know is aliens have "Kerman" surname.

[@Imperiused]

I'm surprised you didn't bring up using scientific principles to communicate with aliens. If we are certain to share anything, its math and science. Using this as our common reference point, we can build off of it and eventually get to the concept of a name. One way I could foresee is going into how we understand evolution works, then going through species classification down to the concept of a single individual.

[@fabiodandreamatteo4220]

i think i could comunicate with an alien just saying to it "what's your name?" 'cuz i think aliens are able to speak all languages existent on earth

[@rei_cirith]

I mean... How do we even know that if they had a name we would be able to hear it? What if their communication frequency is outside our range of hearing?

[@KyrstOak]

2:19 That we're aware of, anyway.