Comments on: Think Before Talk

By: yohami

yohami — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 22:17:41 +0000

if it was otherwise, and humans picked up alien transmission from, say, venus, and we found a weaker specie and a less advaced subculture there, plus a planet with resources, we would colonize and destroy them, like it happened so many times with our own kind in our own planet.

and for an alien civilization that could pick our signals and perform light / worm travels, the costs of a colonization couldnt be *that* huge

the indians in america didnt send smoke signals to europe before the colonization, yet it happened, no need to speed that up

keeping it quiet sounds good for now.

By: Overcoming Bias : Berserker Breakout

Overcoming Bias : Berserker Breakout — Sat, 04 Dec 2010 19:47:33 +0000

[...] have an open enough mind here that I think Earth should keep quiet until we’ve studied this issue more. But I really have trouble seeing how this could be a [...]

By: Chris T

Chris T — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 18:28:06 +0000

We absolutely have a right to prevent actions that we believe may may cause us harm.

By: DBThomas

DBThomas — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 06:45:15 +0000

Your transmissions destroyed our crops.

There are 5 of us left.

Only 1 of us needs to survive the trip…

By: Jack

Jack — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 20:09:28 +0000

How about if someone starts broadcasting a declaration of war? Complete with imagery.

“After all, by the time any aliens actually arrive here, we will likely have had centuries (or more) to prepare for them and will have likely been in communication with them during that time, right?”

There is no reason to think centuries is even close to the necessary time needed to prepared. They could be several millenia ahead of us. How much conversing we could do with them depends on how fast their ships go and how far away they are. Hell, if they were really out to get us why would the respond to let us know they were coming? Better to just show up and wipe us out.

By: Jack

Jack — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 20:01:11 +0000

One thing Fermi’s paradox suggests is that if there are aliens they are being very, very quiet. Their reasons may well apply to us and thus it would be advisable to take the hint.

By: Jack

Jack — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 19:54:47 +0000

“If extraterrestrials should happen upon our weak little world we will have very little say in how they treat us.”

Uh yeah, which is why we should hold off on shining a flashlight around and screaming “Anyone out there?”. Obviously we can’t just shut off the lights (and wouldn’t want to) but that doesn’t mean we should try to be found.

By: Jack

Jack — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 19:48:25 +0000

My understanding is that our regular broadcasting signal diffuses and is indistinguishable from background radiation once it gets 3 lightyears out. That is why the METI people want to start pointing giant lasers at distant stars.

By: lxm

lxm — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 13:23:29 +0000

This seems to me an instructive example of how badly a supposed “deep theory” inside-view of the future can fail, relative to closest-related-track-record outside-view.

I suggest that the motives you attribute to the ‘academics’ are incorrect or, at least, incomplete.

I suggest that the academics’ motives are more basic: to do what humans have always done: to explore beyond our current limits, consequences be damned.

I applaud their efforts. Let the future get here faster!

By: brazil84

brazil84 — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 06:39:25 +0000

“Other aliens might want to do the same thing and see us as competition.”

I agree. In addition, they might worry that we will eventually see them as competition and figure that the prudent thing to do is to wipe us out.