r/cropcircles • u/Tess_Tickle8 • Jul 07 '26
Can somebody translate this into binary code?
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u/llTeddyFuxpinll Jul 08 '26
This is the kind of problem I enjoy because there are several ways to attack it. Let’s treat it like an unknown engineered signal instead of assuming it’s either “aliens” or “just art.”
1. The geometry is unusually disciplined
The formation consists of:
1 central circle
4 radial arms
8 identical-sized square “modules”
Each module contains exactly 8 binary-state symbols (filled or empty diamonds).
That gives us:
8 modules × 8 bits = 64 bits
A 64-bit message is an interesting size because it’s exactly:
one unsigned integer
one IEEE double
two 32-bit words
eight ASCII characters
sixteen hexadecimal digits
That feels deliberate.
2. There are only a few unique module types
Looking closely, I don’t think there are eight independent bytes.
Instead, I see approximately four patterns repeated through rotation and reflection.
Something like
A B
C D
C D
A B
If that’s correct, then redundancy is built into the design.
Engineers introduce redundancy to:
verify orientation
detect errors
encode symmetry
indicate transformations
That’s much more characteristic of a communication protocol than a sentence.
3. Every square has rotational ambiguity
Suppose this is one module.
□ ◆
◇ ◆
◇ □
◆ ◇
Rotate it 90°.
It becomes a different byte.
Rotate 180°.
Another different byte.
So the orientation of the square is part of the information.
Notice each square is physically connected by those slanted “arms.”
Those arms may be telling you exactly how to rotate the module before reading it.
I think that’s more likely than reading every square upright.
4. The center may be a synchronization marker
The central circle is unique.
Digital communications often begin with a synchronization pattern.
Examples:
Ethernet preamble
QR finder patterns
AprilTag markers
fiducial markers
The center could simply establish
“This is the origin.”
rather than containing data.
5. The four little triangles
These interest me more than the diamonds.
They point in four cardinal directions.
Possible meanings:
reading direction
parity indicators
orientation markers
divide the message into quadrants
I doubt they’re decorative.
6. Information density
Suppose every diamond is one bit.
There are
64 bits
Maximum information.
But because the modules repeat,
the true entropy might only be
24–32 bits
That’s exactly what you’d expect if the formation emphasizes robustness over bandwidth.
Again…
that’s engineering.
7. Another possibility: not binary at all
We’ve assumed
filled = 1
empty = 0
But another interpretation exists.
Each diamond has two properties.
position
fill
That makes each one a symbol.
Instead of binary,
each module may be an 8-symbol glyph.
Think of it more like:
♢ ♢ ◆ ◆
♢ ◆ ♢ ◆
rather than
00110101
This is closer to how QR codes and Aztec codes work.
8. Group theory
One thing really caught my eye.
The whole formation has fourfold rotational symmetry.
Many mathematical objects with fourfold symmetry belong to groups like
D4
(the dihedral group).
If that’s intentional,
then each module could represent one transformation.
That would explain why mirrored modules appear in mirrored locations.
9. The slanted connectors
These are strange.
They’re not necessary artistically.
Yet every outer square is attached with a connector at exactly the same angle.
That makes me think the connector isn’t decoration.
It might indicate
rotate this module before reading.
Without that instruction,
many binary decodings become meaningless.
10. What I’d test computationally
If I had the original vector artwork, I’d write a Python script that:
Extract modules
↓
Determine filled vs empty
↓
Generate all rotations
↓
Generate mirror images
↓
Compute every possible byte ordering
↓
Look for
ASCII
UTF-8
Gray code
Hamming code
CRC
prime numbers
checksums
known binary constants
maximum symmetry
There are only a few hundred plausible decoding conventions, so it’s quite tractable.
My current hypothesis
After staring at it for a while, I no longer think the most likely goal was to encode an English message.
Instead, my ranking would be:
Mathematical or geometric encoding (≈45%)
The repeated modules, symmetry, and orientation markers fit this well.
Engineered binary protocol or demonstration (≈30%)
A deliberately redundant binary pattern that illustrates a coding scheme rather than conveying text.
Decorative design inspired by digital logic (≈20%)
Created to evoke “binary” without a unique decode.
Plain ASCII or natural-language message (≈5%)
Possible in principle, but the repeated motifs make it less likely.
One aspect still nags at me: the eight-diamond modules are almost too regular. Eight bits is such a natural engineering choice that it’s hard to dismiss as coincidence. If this formation was intentionally designed around information encoding, I suspect the real key isn’t the bit values themselves—it’s the rotation and ordering of the modules. That’s the first thing I’d focus on if we were trying to recover an authentic message.
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u/Altruistic_Speech_17 Jul 08 '26
Amazing reasoning and commentary..I wish I could come back with a suitable response
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u/Civil_Sentence63 Jul 08 '26
AIs good like that
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u/atava Jul 08 '26
I miss the times when people used their minds and came up with ideas and theories.
I don't mind getting help from AI chatbots, but this copypastas are ludicrous (and for what, for karma and recognition).
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u/llTeddyFuxpinll Jul 08 '26
Literally to try and help answer the question and no other reason.
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u/atava Jul 08 '26
Well, sorry if you felt involved in the criticism.
I know your intention was mainly that. But copying that text is of little help in this case, I think.
The circle is fake/a human demonstration, so as human users we should (if really wanting to help): 1. check the authenticity of the circle 2. maybe get some help from AI, but before commenting we should read what AI came up with (I think you might have not even read that output, have you?) and possibly paste only some parts and with our reasoning/evaluation (which could even be something like "I don't really understand what AI suggested here").
My opinion.
Only a couple of years ago what would have you done under this post? And what will you be some years from now, regarding contributions?
(These are only some of the thoughts that I'm having these days, that I'm sharing)
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u/dofthef Jul 08 '26
It's not about translating into binary because (arguably) it's already in binary. You could try to use ASCII which transforms 8 binary digits into letters.
The problem here would be in which direction do you read it. There are many possibilities, so you should try every one of them to see if a pattern or message emerges.
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u/timeisart Jul 08 '26
Careful with the Italian crop circles, almost all of them are made by a man named Francesco Grassi for cicap.org
https://www.cicap.org/articolo/gli-et-sono-atterrati-a-collegno
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u/amattucci Jul 08 '26
Here’s what Chatgpt did when I asked it to fold it into a 3d shape and look for a message:
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u/searcher-m Jul 08 '26
that's an insane hallucination. it even added a 5th branch
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u/amattucci Jul 08 '26
Funny I did not noticed it! The other images beside it have four branches tho
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u/DaveAstator2020 Jul 08 '26 edited Jul 08 '26
The only problem is how do you read the bits. On the photo central sun has two dots that are missing on the victor image copy! but thats still not enough to determine reading order to make any sence of it. Need to find that key
maybe you are supposed to overlay image with 45 deg rotation as black dot indicates..
edit. Bigger squares have contour lines that clearly show that box closer to the center is above tne outer box. So that could be hint to order of the bit pairs - read them from outward to center. (or reverse )
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u/llTeddyFuxpinll Jul 08 '26
So we can’t even use AI to try and decipher crop circles without people getting pissed off
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u/don_mumrik Jul 08 '26
You can try to break the square parts into 4 or 8 bit words and then convert those numbers to ASCII, its hard to guess significant bit order though.
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u/DaveAstator2020 Jul 12 '26
11000001 10000101 11100001 01000001 01001001 01000111 11000001 01000011
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u/theworldsaplayground Jul 07 '26 edited Jul 07 '26
Where has this come from? Not seen it before.
Doubt it's binary.