A thought experiment argues that honeybees' unexpected numerical skills—such as simple arithmetic, odd/even discrimination and a possible sense of zero—could inform ways to communicate with extraterrestrial intelligence. Published in Leonardo and discussed in The Conversation, the paper treats mathematics as a potentially objective, language-independent medium for cross-species exchange. The authors cite the Voyager Golden Records as a precedent and plan to investigate whether species develop distinct "mathematical dialects." The idea is intriguing but speculative and requires further empirical study.
Bee Math: How Honeybees Could Help Humans Communicate With Aliens
Bees may hold the secret to communication with aliens, scientists find
A provocative thought experiment suggests that the surprising numerical abilities of honeybees could offer clues for communicating with extraterrestrial intelligence. Researchers argue that if such an evolutionarily distant species can grasp basic mathematical concepts, mathematics might serve as a shared foundation for interspecies—and even interstellar—communication.
Why Bees?
Although the lineages of honeybees and humans split more than 600 million years ago, both species show common traits such as social behaviour, communication and basic numerical competence. Experiments have found that honeybees, despite their tiny brains, can solve simple addition and subtraction tasks, distinguish odd from even quantities, and in some cases respond in ways that suggest a rudimentary concept of zero.
The Thought Experiment
The idea—presented as a philosophical thought experiment in the journal Leonardo and discussed in The Conversation—begins from the premise that mathematics is not merely a human descriptive tool but an objective structure that can exist independently of human language or sensory modalities. If different biological systems converge on similar mathematical understandings, then certain mathematical relations or patterns might be recognisable to nonhuman intelligences as well.
Honey bees sit on a wooden spoon (Getty Images)
"If two species considered alien to each other—humans and honeybees—can perform mathematics, then perhaps mathematics could form the basis of a universal language," the authors suggest.
Historical Precedent And Limits
This approach builds on earlier efforts to reach extraterrestrial minds using mathematics, such as the mathematical inscriptions included on the Voyager 1 and 2 Golden Records launched in 1977. However, the researchers emphasise that this is a speculative, conceptual exercise rather than proof that extraterrestrial beings exist or would interpret math the way we do.
Next Steps
One intriguing avenue the team plans to explore is whether different species develop distinct mathematical conventions or strategies—analogous to dialects in human languages—and what implications those differences would have for designing universal messages. Future work will need to combine comparative cognition, philosophy of mathematics and practical communication design to assess how robust the idea really is.
Bottom line: The notion that mathematics could bridge radically different minds is compelling and worth testing, but it remains an open, speculative question requiring careful empirical and theoretical follow-up.
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