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arXiv · 2303.16045

An Optimal, Universal and Agnostic Decoding Method for Message Reconstruction, Bio and Technosignature Detection

Hector Zenil·Alyssa Adams·Felipe S. Abrahão·Luan Ozelim
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Abstract

We present an agnostic signal reconstruction method for zero-knowledge one-way communication channels in which a receiver aims to interpret a message sent by an unknown source about which no prior knowledge is available and to which no return message can be sent. Our reconstruction method is agnostic vis-\`a-vis the arbitrarily chosen encoding-decoding scheme and other observer-dependent characteristics, such as the arbitrarily chosen computational model, probability distributions, or underlying mathematical theory. We investigate how non-random messages encode information about their intended physical properties, such as dimension and length scales of the space in which a signal or message may have been originally encoded, embedded, or generated. We focus on image data as a first illustration of the capabilities of the new method. We argue that our results have applications to life and technosignature detection, and to coding theory in general.

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Hector Zenil, Alyssa Adams, Felipe S. Abrahão, Luan Ozelim. 2023-03-28. An Optimal, Universal and Agnostic Decoding Method for Message Reconstruction, Bio and Technosignature Detection. https://arxiv.org/abs/2303.16045

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