Should we shut the f*** up?

[Bombadil]

Given the universe is some 14B years old and mankind has only been around for some 60, 000 years it's not beyond the realms of possibility that there is alien life. Nor is it beyond the realms of possibility that there's alien life far more advanced than us.

What the hell are we doing trying to announce our existence? That's like a rabbit putting up a flag to announce its presence with no knowledge of other life around it, no idea if there's lions or eagles because it believes its only communicating to other rabbits, given no understanding of anything else.

Should all efforts at space communication be shut down immediately.

[The Liberated Territories]

I don't think it would matter, as the sheer distances between the star systems may far exceed whatever technology level an advanced civilization might reach.

[Bombadil]

I don't think it would matter, as the sheer distances between the star systems may far exceed whatever technology level an advanced civilization might reach.

We can't and don't know that. We only know what we know and it's silly to apply that knowledge to assess what advanced technology can or can't do. We're only at the acceleration point of our technology ourselves over the last 300 years.

[Fartsniffage]

I don't think it would matter, as the sheer distances between the star systems may far exceed whatever technology level an advanced civilization might reach.

I'm sure the native Americans thought the same.....

[US-SSR]

So we've been blabbing away for, what, a century or so? No star systems capable of intelligent life within that radius. By the time the first episodes of Fibber McGee and Molly hit anyone/thing capable of interpreting them it's more than likely we'll have been extinct for millenia.

[Woodfiredpizzas]

Hell no!

I’m just down to rasstle me some aliens.

[Bombadil]

So we've been blabbing away for, what, a century or so? No star systems capable of intelligent life within that radius. By the time the first episodes of Fibber McGee and Molly hit anyone/thing capable of interpreting them it's more than likely we'll have been extinct for millenia.

I mean our current saving grace is we don't have the technology to amplify our attempts, but why even bother?

In a paper posted on the preprint server Arxiv, Hippe and Learned demonstrate that both logic and available technology make it impossible to know if any message received from ET is contaminated. Opening – or decoding – a communication from an extraterrestrial intelligence (ETI), therefore, is a task suffused with potentially world-ending risk.

The chance that some form of alien would want to destroy humanity on very first contact is, they concede, probably rather low, but can’t be altogether discounted. Therefore, any communication should be treated with extreme caution.

“After all,” they write, “it is cheaper for ETI to send a malicious message to eradicate humans compared to sending battleships.”

Link

You don't have to click on that link, you just don't know..

[US-SSR]

So we've been blabbing away for, what, a century or so? No star systems capable of intelligent life within that radius. By the time the first episodes of Fibber McGee and Molly hit anyone/thing capable of interpreting them it's more than likely we'll have been extinct for millenia.

I mean our current saving grace is we don't have the technology to amplify our attempts, but why even bother?

In a paper posted on the preprint server Arxiv, Hippe and Learned demonstrate that both logic and available technology make it impossible to know if any message received from ET is contaminated. Opening – or decoding – a communication from an extraterrestrial intelligence (ETI), therefore, is a task suffused with potentially world-ending risk.

The chance that some form of alien would want to destroy humanity on very first contact is, they concede, probably rather low, but can’t be altogether discounted. Therefore, any communication should be treated with extreme caution.

“After all,” they write, “it is cheaper for ETI to send a malicious message to eradicate humans compared to sending battleships.”

Link

You don't have to click on that link, you just don't know..

nice premise for a sci fi movie/short story. I prefer the one where we're the only sentient beings made out of meat.

[Risottia]

We should stfu indeed, place colonies and weapons all around the Solar System, and start working on generational starships.

[New haven america]

Why would aliens want to attack/destroy/enslave Earth?

[Risottia]

Why would aliens want to attack/destroy/enslave Earth?

Natural resources.
They would call it, of course, Operation Sol-3 Liberation.

[Kubra]

Why would aliens want to attack/destroy/enslave Earth?

the last remaining milky way oil reserves

[Bombadil]

Why would aliens want to attack/destroy/enslave Earth?

We're at the start of a technology explosion, we could well be a threat in future, better to wipe us out now. It's not that they'll definitely think that but there's no reason to think they wouldn't.

You're the rabbit holding up a flag thinking 'I can think of any reason why anyone would want to eat me'.

[New haven america]

Why would aliens want to attack/destroy/enslave Earth?

We're at the start of a technology explosion, we could well be a threat in future, better to wipe us out now. It's not that they'll definitely think that but there's no reason to think they wouldn't.

You're the rabbit holding up a flag thinking 'I can think of any reason why anyone would want to eat me'.

That's because the only intelligent species (Debatably) you have experience with is humans, which are naturally violent and lacking in compassion/empathy. But what if aliens aren't like humans? What if they're actually peaceful or have moved past violence? Now I do admit that there could be something like the Klingons or Romulans out there, but there could also be Vulcans or Andorians as well.

Fear of the unknown has done nothing to help humanity, only made out lives worse, why would it work this time? You're the badger willing to attack anything that comes by, even if they're offering help or peace. (Also, your biggest fear shouldn't be conquest, it should be germs and bacteria)

[Kubra]

Oh also srs answer a civilization advanced enough to travel the stars must also be socially advanced
ergo, anyone that can reach us must be trotskyists exporting the revolution.
Naturally, the only way to signal them is nuclear war, which shows our advanced stage of class struggle.

[Bombadil]

We're at the start of a technology explosion, we could well be a threat in future, better to wipe us out now. It's not that they'll definitely think that but there's no reason to think they wouldn't.

You're the rabbit holding up a flag thinking 'I can think of any reason why anyone would want to eat me'.

That's because the only intelligent species (Debatably) you have experience with is humans, which are naturally violent and lacking in compassion/empathy. But what if aliens aren't like humans? What if they're actually peaceful or have moved past violence? Now I do admit that there could be something like the Klingons or Romulans out there, but there could also be Vulcans or Andorians as well.

Fear of the unknown has done nothing to help humanity, only made out lives worse, why would it work this time? You're the badger willing to attack anything that comes by, even if they're offering help or peace. (Also, your biggest fear shouldn't be conquest, it should be germs and bacteria)

I'm not attacking anything, I'm just shutting the fuck up until I'm a little more sure of my surroundings.

[New haven america]

That's because the only intelligent species (Debatably) you have experience with is humans, which are naturally violent and lacking in compassion/empathy. But what if aliens aren't like humans? What if they're actually peaceful or have moved past violence? Now I do admit that there could be something like the Klingons or Romulans out there, but there could also be Vulcans or Andorians as well.

Fear of the unknown has done nothing to help humanity, only made out lives worse, why would it work this time? You're the badger willing to attack anything that comes by, even if they're offering help or peace. (Also, your biggest fear shouldn't be conquest, it should be germs and bacteria)

I'm not attacking anything, I'm just shutting the fuck up until I'm a little more sure of my surroundings.

Considering a decent chunk of the answers are either violent (Setting up solar system weapon arrays) or paranoia (Completely stopping all communication), yeah, you kinda are. Paranoia and suspicion almost always leads to violent reactions, and nothing really constructive has come out of it.

[Bombadil]

I'm not attacking anything, I'm just shutting the fuck up until I'm a little more sure of my surroundings.

Considering a decent chunk of the answers are either violent (Setting up solar system weapon arrays) or paranoia (Completely stopping all communication), yeah, you kinda are. Paranoia and suspicion almost always leads to violent reactions, and nothing really constructive has come out of it.

They aliens will keep you as their pet.

Look, the point is that there are two alternatives.

1. ALL alien life is peaceful
2. Some alien life is violent

It is far far more likely that alternative 2 is correct. On that likelihood then we should not be announcing our presence to them quite so naively.

[New haven america]

Considering a decent chunk of the answers are either violent (Setting up solar system weapon arrays) or paranoia (Completely stopping all communication), yeah, you kinda are. Paranoia and suspicion almost always leads to violent reactions, and nothing really constructive has come out of it.

They aliens will keep you as their pet.

Look, the point is that there are two alternatives.

1. ALL alien life is peaceful
2. Some alien life is violent

It is far far more likely that alternative 2 is correct. On that likelihood then we should not be announcing our presence to them quite so naively.

The aliens will destroy Earth because some paranoid git launched a nuke at them.

The only reason you think alternative 2 is the mot likely is because you're thinking from an anthropocentric POV. I agree that we shouldn't be naïve, but complete distrust hasn't help anything. (Also, I repeat, aliens trying to take over/destroy humanity should be the least of your concerns)

[Bombadil]

They aliens will keep you as their pet.

Look, the point is that there are two alternatives.

1. ALL alien life is peaceful
2. Some alien life is violent

It is far far more likely that alternative 2 is correct. On that likelihood then we should not be announcing our presence to them quite so naively.

The aliens will destroy Earth because some paranoid git launched a nuke at them.

The only reason you think alternative 2 is the mot likely is because you're thinking from an anthropocentric POV. I agree that we shouldn't be naïve, but complete distrust hasn't help anything. (Also, I repeat, aliens trying to take over/destroy humanity should be the least of your conc iserns)

Your logic is appalling.

[New haven america]

The aliens will destroy Earth because some paranoid git launched a nuke at them.

The only reason you think alternative 2 is the mot likely is because you're thinking from an anthropocentric POV. I agree that we shouldn't be naïve, but complete distrust hasn't help anything. (Also, I repeat, aliens trying to take over/destroy humanity should be the least of your conc iserns)

Your logic is appalling.

Same can be said for you~

[Risottia]

We're at the start of a technology explosion, we could well be a threat in future, better to wipe us out now. It's not that they'll definitely think that but there's no reason to think they wouldn't.

You're the rabbit holding up a flag thinking 'I can think of any reason why anyone would want to eat me'.

That's because the only intelligent species (Debatably) you have experience with is humans, which are naturally violent and lacking in compassion/empathy. But what if aliens aren't like humans?

Then we could choose not to blast them out of the sky.
The point is having a choice instead of just taking chances.

Also, a lot of the most intelligent species on Earth are fairly effective fighters and ferocious predators. Odontoceti, felidae, canidae, ants, chimpanzees, octopodes (*)...

(*) the real plural of octopus, octopi doesn't make sense as it's not Latin.

[Risottia]

They aliens will keep you as their pet.

Look, the point is that there are two alternatives.

1. ALL alien life is peaceful
2. Some alien life is violent

It is far far more likely that alternative 2 is correct. On that likelihood then we should not be announcing our presence to them quite so naively.

The aliens will destroy Earth because some paranoid git launched a nuke at them.

The only reason you think alternative 2 is the mot likely is because you're thinking from an anthropocentric POV. I agree that we shouldn't be naïve, but complete distrust hasn't help anything. (Also, I repeat, aliens trying to take over/destroy humanity should be the least of your concerns)

That's why you don't launch just one nuke at them. If it comes to actual blows, you must strike so hard that you obliterate the problem.

[North German Realm]

Much as I enjoy reading "Earth is Space Australia" posts on Tumblr, truth of the matter is that well, we can't know if Aliens exist (I mean sure, they most probably do) and much worse we can't know if they've been here, they are here, or if they have any interest in ever coming here. Unlike what we like to imagine, Space-faring Multi-stellar Federations are probably not as evil or expansionist as we like to think in our Sci-Fi. With the number of empty planets that there are, it would be stupid to be expansionist or colonialist.

[New haven america]

The aliens will destroy Earth because some paranoid git launched a nuke at them.

The only reason you think alternative 2 is the mot likely is because you're thinking from an anthropocentric POV. I agree that we shouldn't be naïve, but complete distrust hasn't help anything. (Also, I repeat, aliens trying to take over/destroy humanity should be the least of your concerns)

That's why you don't launch just one nuke at them. If it comes to actual blows, you must strike so hard that you obliterate the problem.

>Implying patience and diplomacy is China, Russia, or the US' strong suit

Another thing I'd like to point out is the ridiculousness of the idea that humanity, a species that can barely make it to its own planet's satellite, would somehow have the ability to take down an alien vessel that's able to travel to other solar systems without much trouble. We are Bambi and they're most likely Godzilla.