Space Lions

The 20th century philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein famously and opaquely said, "if a lion could speak, we could not understand him." What happens if we replace "lion" with "extra-terrestrial?"  No, not that one.  Read this post on Joshua Rothman's new blog.  For your local noon next Wednesday 2 July, please evaluate the claims made about language as a way of knowing.  Do you agree?  What are the implications? Is there another way of knowing via which we may better be able to communicate with such potentially disparate beings?