Define a “hello” alien civilization as one that might, in the next million years, identify humans as intelligent & civilized, travel to Earth, & say “hello” by making their presence & advanced abilities known to us. I just asked 15 Twitter poll
It seems unlikely that a galaxy-scale civilization would adopt a "no visible impacts" ethic given the civilizational-lifetime benefits of active stellar and galactic husbandry. Defensive camouflage is the only potential rationale I can imagine for doing so; but AFAICT that would be ineffective against SRAs or electromagnetic malware which could be sent by a distant aggressor at such low cost that it would not have to be targeted, thus negating any camouflage benefits.
You often acknowledge limits to growth, yet you also seem to assume almost no limits to engineering. I admire (and sometimes share) your optimism, but it isn't obvious to me that any intelligent beings anywhere in the universe will necessarily ever possess such abilities.
Makes sense except for the not talking part: It's not obvious to me that them talking to us would necessarily reveal something we´d hate. You have something specific in mind? We don't really know how much convergent evolution we'd have in terms of morals, they might be pretty similar or totally different. Them being "green" in this sense seems like something undesirable to me but it seems totally conceivable that humans in general might sympathize with that, and we might become those green aliens unless we meet someone else first. Not likely but certainly conceivable that we'd choose that path.
I just don't see how it can take longer than ten million years from the time you know how to travel between stars until the time you know how to disassemble planets, stars etc.
You say "As we don’t see them elsewhere in the sky, they have somehow prevented themselves from greatly changing nearby galaxies. This suggests they are green, and have a world government to enforce green rules." I find your attribution of near omnipotence to such aliens to be bizarre. Perhaps the reason we don't observe aliens "changing nearby galaxies" is because that is simply too difficult for them to do. Interstellar travel, and even intergalactic travel, while mind-bogglingly difficult, may yet be much less difficult than visibly changing nearby galaxies. And frankly, compared to the mind bogglingly massive destruction caused by naturally-occurring galactic disasters, such as supernovae and intense gamma ray bursts, I doubt that highly-advanced aliens would give a flying comet (so to speak) about the trivialities of human "green" vs. "not green" attitudes. After all, a whale swimming around Greenland doesn't care if a cyanobacterium off the coast of Australia sneezes and (shudder!) fails to cover its nose. And, in keeping with that analogy, we should consider ourselves lucky if they are willing to talk to or listen to us at all.
It seems unlikely that a galaxy-scale civilization would adopt a "no visible impacts" ethic given the civilizational-lifetime benefits of active stellar and galactic husbandry. Defensive camouflage is the only potential rationale I can imagine for doing so; but AFAICT that would be ineffective against SRAs or electromagnetic malware which could be sent by a distant aggressor at such low cost that it would not have to be targeted, thus negating any camouflage benefits.
You often acknowledge limits to growth, yet you also seem to assume almost no limits to engineering. I admire (and sometimes share) your optimism, but it isn't obvious to me that any intelligent beings anywhere in the universe will necessarily ever possess such abilities.
Makes sense except for the not talking part: It's not obvious to me that them talking to us would necessarily reveal something we´d hate. You have something specific in mind? We don't really know how much convergent evolution we'd have in terms of morals, they might be pretty similar or totally different. Them being "green" in this sense seems like something undesirable to me but it seems totally conceivable that humans in general might sympathize with that, and we might become those green aliens unless we meet someone else first. Not likely but certainly conceivable that we'd choose that path.
I just don't see how it can take longer than ten million years from the time you know how to travel between stars until the time you know how to disassemble planets, stars etc.
You say "As we don’t see them elsewhere in the sky, they have somehow prevented themselves from greatly changing nearby galaxies. This suggests they are green, and have a world government to enforce green rules." I find your attribution of near omnipotence to such aliens to be bizarre. Perhaps the reason we don't observe aliens "changing nearby galaxies" is because that is simply too difficult for them to do. Interstellar travel, and even intergalactic travel, while mind-bogglingly difficult, may yet be much less difficult than visibly changing nearby galaxies. And frankly, compared to the mind bogglingly massive destruction caused by naturally-occurring galactic disasters, such as supernovae and intense gamma ray bursts, I doubt that highly-advanced aliens would give a flying comet (so to speak) about the trivialities of human "green" vs. "not green" attitudes. After all, a whale swimming around Greenland doesn't care if a cyanobacterium off the coast of Australia sneezes and (shudder!) fails to cover its nose. And, in keeping with that analogy, we should consider ourselves lucky if they are willing to talk to or listen to us at all.
They might dislike having to force us to do things, and so prefer we do them voluntarily.
Why are they worried that we won't like them? We are not in a position to negotiate. Whatever they want out of us, I suspect they will get it.