I used to have a copy of "Lincos: Design of a Language for Cosmic Intercourse", by Hans Freudenthal, 1960[1].
The book is literally a series of messages you can transmit by radio to an alien intelligence somewhere else in the universe so you can establish a language in common with them. It starts off by teaching numbers: ., .., ..., i.e., sending 1 pulse, 2 pulses, 3 pulses, and so on, teaches numbers to an extraterrestrial being. From this it creates arithmetic (".. pause ... longer-pause .....", means 2+3=5), and then creates abbreviations for symbols, and goes on the build up a lot of mathematics, and then the concept of time, and basic physics, and even very abstract ideas like "good" and "bad", though I've forgotten how it managed to encode that (but I recall it seemed plausible at the time I read the book).
The book is impossible to find now. I'd love to find a copy of it.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lincos_language
The book is literally a series of messages you can transmit by radio to an alien intelligence somewhere else in the universe so you can establish a language in common with them. It starts off by teaching numbers: ., .., ..., i.e., sending 1 pulse, 2 pulses, 3 pulses, and so on, teaches numbers to an extraterrestrial being. From this it creates arithmetic (".. pause ... longer-pause .....", means 2+3=5), and then creates abbreviations for symbols, and goes on the build up a lot of mathematics, and then the concept of time, and basic physics, and even very abstract ideas like "good" and "bad", though I've forgotten how it managed to encode that (but I recall it seemed plausible at the time I read the book).
The book is impossible to find now. I'd love to find a copy of it.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lincos_language