From: Michael K. Neylon (mneylon@engin.umich.edu)
Date: 25-Feb-95 (3:31:33 GMT)
Subj: Message 5

Well, not that hard once you look closely.  The first
block defines set notation for TC.  The symbol ':' would
be similar to a comma, although it is more for grouping
purposes in this case.  The pattern x^y^x represents 
'x is a subset of y', or 'x is a member of y' (take your pick)
 Therefore, the first block is read as

X is the set of { 1,2,3 }
It is true that 1 is an element of X
It is false that 5 is an element of X
It is true that {1,3} is a subset of X
It is false that {1,2,3,4} is a subset of X
It is true that X is a subset of {1,2,3,4}
It is true that {1,2} is a subset of X
It is true that {2,3} is a subset of X
It is true that {1,2,3} is a subset of X
It is false that 0 is an element of X.

Now, the rest of the message is the fun part :-)  Given
my assumption of the vocabulary that they gave us, then
they tell us that ..

TC's are w (something)
'1y1' are not w
'xzx' are not w

[from these, and my intrepretation of '1y1' as  planet
and 'xzx' as sun, then I am suspecting that 'w' represents
a living organism.

w's are m (something)
not w's are m 

[Between these two lines, one can deduce that m == 'universe'
or whatever encompasses everything]

Then we have...
'wyw' are '1y1'
'zyz' are '1y1'

[I was assuming that 'wyw' meant small planetoid, 'zyz' 
meant medium size planetoid, and '1y1' meant planet.  This
pretty much holds up here.]

'1' is  greater than '~'
'1' is not less than nor equal to '~'

[more constants?]

The speed of light is '11' speed 

[OOOOHHH! Just got something...see later]

0 is '~' number

Lets suppose that '1' and '~' are qualifiers!  '!' meaning
large, and '~' meaning small.  Then, of course, 'large'
is only greater than 'small', and the speed of light
is a large large speed, and 0 is a small number!
(If I could bounce on the net, I would!)

Then turn this around, and look at '1y1'... could that
'1' also be a modified, such that '1y1' means large
planet, and then 'z' and 'w' would also be modifiers...
then 'w' wouldn't necessarily mean 'life' but just the
word 'small'  (TC's are small).  Ohh...Ok, I think I
thats probably it.  I am pretty confident on '1' being
large, and '~' being small.  Any other theories?


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