X That's just the special symbol in C that says don't pass X, that is don't pass a copy of X. Rather figure out where x is in memory, where he is in that frame and provide swap the numeric address in RAM of that value so that swap can go do anything it wants at that address.
Their pay and assets will not appear to fall in numeric terms as inflation pushes up the value of all the things they need to buy, whilst pegging their income and assets value to a never rising floor.
Other researchers suggest that the best way to get an alien's attention is to send it a significant numeric pattern, perhaps prime numbers or the value of Pi.