General / Off-Topic Do you think we should attempt contact with aliens?

alfa015

A
I would like to know your opinion about this.
Do you think we should try to contact aliens?
I think it's safe as long as we choose stars as old as the Sun or younger.
I also think that, if a nearby civilization hasn't contacted with us yet, it's probably because they don't have the means to do so.
Actually, according to Claudio Maccone, there are probably no advanced civilizations within 500 light years.
There is an organization called METI, that tries to message extraterrestrial intelligence. More info here.
 

Morbad

Morbad
alfa015 said:
Do you think we should try to contact aliens?
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Personally, I think we'd be better off not announcing our presence too loudly. Better to listen, IMO.

alfa015 said:
I think it's safe as long as we choose stars as old as the Sun or younger.
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This seems to be a dubious assertion, if the idea is to only contact intelligences of roughly our own development. Humanity has only existed for the blink of an eye on a world that has seen life virtually reset multiple times before. There is no guarantee, and little to even suggest, that a younger world couldn't have vastly older and/or more advanced civilizations.

Assuming we last, how much further could we progress in a million years? A hundred million? There could be a hundred million year old civilization on a planet with a vaguely similar evolution to Earth that was less than three billion years old. Even comparatively small differences in capabilities could be insurmountable; just look at what Europeans were able to do to the civilizations of the Americas 400 years ago.

And, of course, an advanced civilization that we'd have reason to fear interstellar attack from could well exist in systems they didn't originate in.

Ultimately, the attempt to infer the level of advancement of hypothetical alien intelligences are contingent on a huge number of assumptions, with only one sample to test against.

Edit: I just realized most of these points are addressed in the video you've linked.
 
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Caramel Clown

Caramel Clown
Hell naw.
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howardtay

H
It's quite reasonable to assume that any intelligent species in the Universe that is more advanced than us, is benign, they most likely have gone through similar processes as us i.e lots of wars, racial intolerance, murder and other harmfull emotions that cause pain and anguish to a civilisation with very few benefits, they may have cured all there diseases, famine, greed and intollerence, they will (most likely) have experimented with Nuclear devices also, but managed to use common sense and only use the technology for peacefull purposes they may even have discovered Nuclear Fusion.

The reasoning would suggest that once a civilisation reaches a certain point in it's existence, they would take a peaceful path as the only alternative is total destruction, such as we may face now or in the near future. As far as them contacting us, I would think that our current civilisation, as they would percieve it would at least worry them and possibly terrify them, and make it undesirable to contact us, until we reach a particular stage in our civilisation, when it is totally safe for them to contact us.

War like aliens would presumably wipe themselves out before they obtained faster than light travel as this may require something like Nuclear Fusion to send a ship many light years into space, they may also not be interested in finding anyone else I for one am interested in the possibility of making contact and hopefully they could help us to make the transition from war to peace loving humans and maybe help us to solve famine and deadly diseases maybe even a cure for Cancer and various other diseases, but I don't think contact with intelligent Aliens is likely for many years yet, if at all.

It is possible that we could get there on our own, without the aid of super intelligent Aliens beings, But! it's not looking good for the Human Race at the moment, sadly!
 

Gully Foyle

Gully Foyle
alfa015 said:
I would like to know your opinion about this.
Do you think we should try to contact aliens?
I think it's safe as long as we choose stars as old as the Sun or younger.
I also think that, if a nearby civilization hasn't contacted with us yet, it's probably because they don't have the means to do so.
Actually, according to Claudio Maccone, there are probably no advanced civilizations within 500 light years.
There is an organization called METI, that tries to message extraterrestrial intelligence. More info here.
Click to expand...
Its too late. We sent all and sundry plaques showing our exact location twice with Voyager and Pioneer. Clear maps to our system and planet.

Fortunately the waves of televison broadcasts of "I Love Lucy" placed us under a galactic quarantine.

Ever hear of SETI? We shut down just this month. Maccone was part of it.
 

Arry

Arry
I think no, we should not. As stated above. 'We should just listen'. Unfortunately, we are already sending out a large number of signals. Some intentionally and many, just by broadcasting, in the many different ways, since the dawn of radio.

What will we find? Malevolent or benevolent, is just down to the flip of a coin. With all of the best will in the world, all of the altruism, it only takes one being, to change the course of a society. So the only way we can guarantee that they are not a threat, is if they do not have the means, to get here.

That said: Many believe that contact, has already been made. If this 'is' the case, we are of no real threat to them, as their tech, is far more advanced then ours.
 

Morbad

Morbad
howardtay said:
It's quite reasonable to assume that any intelligent species in the Universe that is more advanced than us, is benign
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No it's not.

Any assumption about the disposition of advanced alien intelligence is unfounded. You are trying to project your own personal value assessments on such beings, when there isn't even a consensus regarding such issues within your own species.
 

Deleted member 38366

D
Hmm... based on what I've seen, I'd have to say we might already be "monitored" for all I can tell (lacking any better description or assessment)
100% anecdotal though... but I'll sure remember.
Let's just say back in those isolated occasions, I and my WSO didn't get any Comms over VHF or UHF frequencies for what it's worth.
And the acceleration, deceleration, agility and speed was a true eye-opener. Never seen anything like it, not even remotely.
Sitting in a Mach 2+ capable Air Defense Fighter suddenly felt like the proverbial snail eyeing a rabbit moving effortlessly. Literally.

Otherwise, I often joke "the surest sign of intelligent life in the Universe is that noone has tried to contact us" ;)
Along with "if they know we're here, there's probably some 25LY quarantine zone around the Solar System - with Beacons signaling the unpredictable, diverse and unreliable nature of a resident Type-1 Civilization. Unauthorized contact strictly prohibited, avoid perimeter by all means required" :D

So to answer the OP : trying or doing so seems kinda redundant.
Plus, I tend to believe our Communications tech might not be quite upto "Galaxy standard" (whatever that might be) by a far shot - and sending anything out at Light speed at our common sub-light Frequencies seems not too useful.
Noone knows where to point at after all and the signal travel times severely limit the chance of reaching something out there.

I think the prospect of actively signaling anyone/anything out there our presence might best be reserved until after we detect the presence of Interstellar Communications.
Point being - we don't know who or what that "anyone/anything" might be.
IMHO we're a very small fish in the pond so to speak.
Making alot of noise and drawing attention to unknown recipients might not be the very best idea for a small fish in a huge, dark pond.
 

askavir

askavir
howardtay said:
It's quite reasonable to assume that any intelligent species in the Universe that is more advanced than us, is benign, they most likely have gone through similar processes as us i.e lots of wars, racial intolerance, murder and other harmfull emotions that cause pain and anguish to a civilisation with very few benefits, they may have cured all there diseases, famine, greed and intollerence, they will (most likely) have experimented with Nuclear devices also, but managed to use common sense and only use the technology for peacefull purposes they may even have discovered Nuclear Fusion.
Click to expand...

We sure ain't benign to the lesser intelligent species on own own planet, so I can't take for granted that a more advanced and intelligent alien race would be benign towards us, rather than merely see us as cows or pigs, or with luck cute little monkeys.
 

metatheurgist

metatheurgist
askavir said:
We sure ain't benign to the lesser intelligent species on own own planet, so I can't take for granted that a more advanced and intelligent alien race would be benign towards us, rather than merely see us as cows or pigs, or with luck cute little monkeys.
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Sometimes I imagine this coda to the Predator movies:

Female Predator enters a shop festooned with plants, herbs, flowers, strange creatures, dried and pickled in jars everywhere. She sidles up to the proprietor and whispers - "Do you have it? The thing that makes my husband perform better in the...you know." Wordlessly the shopkeep produces a human skull and spine and starts grinding it into powder....
 

Cosmo Bozo

Cosmo Bozo
There's loads of relatively intelligent animals on our planet that we haven't managed to communicate with in any meaningful way.
Even if they turned up and were friendly there might be too much of a barrier to communication for us to actually get anywhere.
 

Northpin

Northpin
If we look back what happened on our very Earth when a more advanced civilization met another one... well meeting aliens has little to no chances to end good for us

We and Aliens? Ant and the Boot
 
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