I think my calculator really has lost the plot now - this doesn't even resemble a number, unless you are using an abacus of course. Perhaps that is the answer, it has regressed into an earlier stage in its evolution...My brother suggested that aliens might be trying to communicate with me through my calculator. Ridiculous though the idea sounds, the fact is that if aliens were to attempt communication with us, they would most probably do so using numbers.
The pure logic of numbers and the language of mathematics is something that should be familiar and universal for any intelligent life-form, if we judge intelligence by our own technological standard. And in a basic way all language is mathematical, in that it simulates reality in order to transfer information from one mind to another. We use words to recode objects into symbols, these are strung into grammatical formulas and are then decoded by other people.
For example the phrase "I need a cup of tea" could be expressed in mathematical terms thus:
me + tea = good
me - tea = bad
therefore:
tea = good
Of course it doesn't explain what good and bad means, you might need a separate formula to explain that. But it illustrates how this world can be divided into mathematics, even when described using speech, and earth scientists have been broadcasting mathematical messages to the stars in the hope that they will be recieved and made sense of.
So, have aliens travelled the vast distance through interstellar space to creep into my room at night and type weird gibberish on my calculator? I seriously doubt that somehow, but then I couldnt easily explain to an alien why I would pour hot water on a bag of leaves, add some juice squeezed from a cow and pour it into a hole in my face.
Intelligence moves in mysterious ways...
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