Sending Signals to other Solar Systems is:

[silvadel 1,393]

Do you support active Seti where we send messages out to other solar systems (like those where we have found rocky planets in the goldilocks zone)?

[Princess Periwinkle 3,775]

Sending messages into outer space is almost certainty a bad idea. If you haven't heard of "The Great Filter", or actually if extraterrestrial life interests you at all I would highly recommend reading this article. The point is, we're trying to avoid a "Columbus and the native Americans" type scenario. And yes, here, we'd be the native Americans.

 

Here's a quote from the article:

 

 

Even Carl Sagan (a general believer that any civilization advanced enough for interstellar travel would be altruistic, not hostile) called the practice of METI “deeply unwise and immature,” and recommended that “the newest children in a strange and uncertain cosmos should listen quietly for a long time, patiently learning about the universe and comparing notes, before shouting into an unknown jungle that we do not understand.”

[silvadel 1,393]

Sending messages into outer space is almost certainty a bad idea. If you haven't heard of "The Great Filter", or actually if extraterrestrial life interests you at all I would highly recommend reading this article. The point is, we're trying to avoid a "Columbus and the native Americans" type scenario. And yes, here, we'd be the native Americans.

 

Here's a quote from the article:

 

Reading that article was what inspired me to make this poll actually.

[Yamato 1,348]

 

 

The point is, we're trying to avoid a "Columbus and the native Americans" type scenario. And yes, here, we'd be the native Americans.

That could happen.
Or maybe some particularly grumpy aliens come and demolish Earth to make way for a new hyperspace bypass, something humanity was unable to lodge a formal protest about because we were too afraid of alien invasion to contact our local Galactic Municipal Council's planning department in Alpha Centauri, where the plans had been filed 50 years in advance.

It could pan out either way, really...

[silvadel 1,393]

 

That could happen.

Or maybe some particularly grumpy aliens come and demolish Earth to make way for a new hyperspace bypass, something humanity was unable to lodge a formal protest about because we were too afraid of alien invasion to contact our local Galactic Municipal Council's planning department in Alpha Centauri, where the plans had been filed 50 years in advance.

 

It could pan out either way, really...

 

Do you really think the vogons would have given our representative a trip back and forth to Alpha Centuri to to meet with the Galactic Municipal Council?  Do you think it would have made a difference if they did?  Do you think they would have even given us that information prior to earth destruction in 5 minutes? 

[APegLegPirate 168]

 

 

“Two possibilities exist: either we are alone in the Universe or we are not. Both are equally terrifying.” - Arthur C. Clarke

This quote practically sums up this question pretty well. It would be a good thing because we might find life, but who's to say that life isn't hostile?

If we find nothing and really are the only life in the universe. Then that's just extremely depressing.

[CheeryFox 23,822]

It's cool with me. If we come in contact with an ETI, it would be pure luck. Maybe Jerry Ehman did just that... 

[Bendy 1,821]

We must be careful... some brutal hive mined aliens like the Reaper from Mass Effect could be out there. Who would either enslave us or destroy us... since they probably done it to many other young sapient species. 

 

Yes, there could be friendly aliens that aren't monsters ... but some could be like the Reapers from Mass Effect. An alien race that harvests weaker ones like us, that have yet to obtain an intergalactic civilization.  

Edited June 9, 2015 by Bendy

[aoEAF2FBvC0MIo2Q 3,673]

We probably already have aliens watching this planet. We humans must look like a pretty sad joke to them. A so-called "intelligent" species that does not take proper stewardship of their home planet, their habitat, treating it as one giant landfill with their fellow human beings treated as rivals and enemies in an economic system that needs scarcity to work and scarcity is deliberately maintained...

 

It's becoming clearer to me that we either drop the nonsense that is violence and greed and transcend or we disgracefully go extinct by our own doing and when that happen, any aliens looking on will take a sigh of relief knowing that this belligerent and heartless abomination of a culture died with its species, never making it past the home planet to terrorize other worlds and other creatures.

[Bendy 1,821]

We probably already have aliens watching this planet. We humans must look like a pretty sad joke to them. A so-called "intelligent" species that does not take proper stewardship of their home planet, their habitat, treating it as one giant landfill with their fellow human beings treated as rivals and enemies in an economic system that needs scarcity to work and scarcity is deliberately maintained...

 

It's becoming clearer to me that we either drop the nonsense that is violence and greed and transcend or we disgracefully go extinct by our own doing and when that happen, any aliens looking on will take a sigh of relief knowing that this belligerent and heartless abomination of a culture died with its species, never making it past the home planet to terrorize other worlds and other creatures.

 

So all the aliens are perfect mary sues and gary sues and are such special snowflakes that they live in paradise? As in all the aliens are peaceful, never did a bad thing ever and never had war and eat celery? If we aren't alone in the universe, I'd say it's likely these aliens be just as bad or good than humanity? Rather, than hoomans are most evil thing ever and all the aliens are good!

 

Some of the aliens could be even worse than us. 

 

What I find more likely is that the universe is filled with idiots and monsters.  Some are just more idiots and monsters than others.

 

And who's to say there aren't aliens that go around killing everyone due to them having a superiority complex. Where they deem everyone that isn't their own as inferior and need to be exterminated.  

 

Also who to say there aliens that have already went extinct by their very own actions? Like nuclear war or destroying their planet. Or created an artificial intelligence that destroyed them? Or something else.

Edited June 9, 2015 by Bendy

[aoEAF2FBvC0MIo2Q 3,673]

@@Bendy, where do I even begin... Well, you're not the only one in this thread so I better keep that in mind. So let's see...

 

Whether or not we are a space-faring species, Earth will remain our home planet. What that means is that humans living on Earth has to remain feasible for eons to come. Agreed?

 

For Earth to remain a feasible if not desirable place for humans to live in the long-term, there are certain things we have to do properly.

 

Resources.

It is not feasible to consume more resources than can be renewed. Why? Because eventually, whatever resource is being consumed faster than renewal will eventually become depleted. Once that happens, it becomes very difficult if not impossible to make good use the given resource. If this happens with all of our resources, living on Earth starts to become unfeasible. This is why it's important for resources to have closed-loop lifecycles like the Earth's carbon and nitrogen cycles for example. This is how life on Earth has been sustained for billions of years. Unless we wisen up and learn what has worked for life on Earth for such an incredibly long stretch of time, it's doubtful that what we're doing can continue.

 

Getting all that done will have its implications. For starters, our economic model is one that thrives on infinite growth. For humans to make use of resources in balance with the rate of renewal, it is important that a different economic model take its place. Take note that I'm talking about an economic system as opposed to a political system. There's a very huge difference. Economics is about the mechanisms by which the production, allocation and distribution of resources and the management of the means of production. Politics often deals with what we use these mechanisms. What I'm saying is, we need different economic mechanisms so that our economic system can function well without infinite growth. A steady-state economic model, so-to-speak.

 

Here's what this could lead to. It could lead to most countries becoming self-sufficient where trade slowly to a small trickle because each country has the facilities to recycle their resources and thus has little need to import anything. If all countries started working like that, demand for foreign resources plummet and risking life, limb and public trust in sending your people to fight for control of resources nobody has much need for... Who would want any part in that? 

 

So the point is, long-term sustainability leads to reduced resource needs and reduced resource needs reduces the amount of power anyone can get from controlling said resources, making it not worth the risks of war. But we're going to need different economic mechanisms to make this happen so it's really either transcendence or tragedy. By looking at what's happening here on Earth, there's reason to believe that the same dilemmas would apply elsewhere to other intelligent species out there. There's a lot less supposition going on here, don't you think?

[SparklingSquirrels 21,354]

I don't like it. I think it's dangerous, and I think we'll be overrun by aliens sooner or later

[LeonShi500 155]

I voted the last option, but only because that it's the most practical of the three. If aliens are capable of intergalactic travel, they'll know about our planet. The aliens from Halo, Star Wars and other Sci-Fi are based off of human's mentality and non-physical characteristics. We're assuming that aliens can be hostile based on our own human experiences, but we know nothing about these aliens outside of theory and superstition. We could only guess what emotions and thoughts run through the mind of an alien's brain, which would probably have a fairly different biological structure, meaning that, besides basic raw intelligence, its emotions and the way it registers emotions would also likely be different. Unless it's some unintelligent animal carried by its intelligent caretackers across the stars, I doubt the aliens will be harmful outside of self-defense, which could even be a reason why the aliens don't want to come here. Human beings are such a diverse species, filled with extremes of incredibly caring and hateful people, the majority of which being the latter. How do you deal with that while wanting what's best for them and preventing violence? And if the aliens that come to our planet are war-hungry mongers and are also one of the most if not the most intelligent race in our galaxy, then they're just green or blue humans with a standard IQ of 300 that learned how to build fancy ships, which is a pretty depressing though. Outside of some random UFO sighting here and there, which are all likely to be fake, the aliens probably just don't know how to properly deal with our diverse stupidity, so they've stopped trying for now.

 

Tl;DR - If aliens are advanced to travel among the stars, they'll likely be able to already detect our planet and solar system. Don't bother wasting any resources.

Edited June 10, 2015 by LeonShi500

[JanisJopleyBird 22]

I do think the Voyager Golden Record is a beautiful idea. Space is so unspeakably, ridiculously vast that the chances of any intelligent civilization finding it are slim to none. So we don't have to worry about being conquered (probably). It's much more likely such an advanced civilization would have a matter replicator like on Star Trek and would really have no need to conquer us for natural resources.

[I used to be a stranger 7,994]

I seriously doubt there are intelligent lifeforms in such close proximity to our location in the Galaxy and epoch in the Universe's lifetime that it makes a large difference whether we send signals or not.

[Bendy 1,821]

I voted the last option, but only because that it's the most practical of the three. If aliens are capable of intergalactic travel, they'll know about our planet. The aliens from Halo, Star Wars and other Sci-Fi are based off of human's mentality and non-physical characteristics. We're assuming that aliens can be hostile based on our own human experiences, but we know nothing about these aliens outside of theory and superstition. We could only guess what emotions and thoughts run through the mind of an alien's brain, which would probably have a fairly different biological structure, meaning that, besides basic raw intelligence, its emotions and the way it registers emotions would also likely be different. Unless it's some unintelligent animal carried by its intelligent caretackers across the stars, I doubt the aliens will be harmful outside of self-defense, which could even be a reason why the aliens don't want to come here. Human beings are such a diverse species, filled with extremes of incredibly caring and hateful people, the majority of which being the latter. How do you deal with that while wanting what's best for them and preventing violence? And if the aliens that come to our planet are war-hungry mongers and are also one of the most if not the most intelligent race in our galaxy, then they're just green or blue humans with a standard IQ of 300 that learned how to build fancy ships, which is a pretty depressing though. Outside of some random UFO sighting here and there, which are all likely to be fake, the aliens probably just don't know how to properly deal with our diverse stupidity, so they've stopped trying for now.

 

Tl;DR - If aliens are advanced to travel among the stars, they'll likely be able to already detect our planet and solar system. Don't bother wasting any resources.

 

 

The aliens could had a time they themselves were once cavemen and had horrible wars in their early history. So they may be intelligent, but they don't look down on stupid species because that would make them elitists.   

 

Plus.... the aliens could be too busy fighting war with one another than visit Earth.

Edited June 10, 2015 by Bendy

[LeonShi500 155]

Besides, if we've recorded nearly 1700 different planets in our galaxy and have only landed man on the moon, I think it's far to say that aliens that can travel all across the galaxy should know about many more planets than we do, Earth included. If these hypothetical intelligent aliens exist, it would be pointless to sent out a signal unless that signal had a specific request in mind.

Edited June 10, 2015 by LeonShi500

[Shadowed Watcher 183]

Dangerous as hell, but not for us, for them. Humans are fucking cold-blooded.

[Lunia 332]

It's 50/50 for me. It can be dangerous to send signals out to other solar systems since we can be harmed, but then we could find other life and be allies. It just depends on who we find, but it could very well lead to our demise or can lead to getting stronger allies and becoming for futuristic.