First contact: Who should represent humanity?

Assume that this website [ATS] is being monitored by one or more alien races. Now describe why YOU would be the first person
we would like to have open contact with. Education, especially in the sciences, would be good as would be a broad education and an ability to communicate with beings who might be smarter than you, so the ability to be humble is important. We are not interested in people in authority as your planets authority is very questionable. We want to meet a human of decent intelligence and disposition who can show us reasons why we should continue communicating with your species. Tell us in 1000 words or less why you believe that you should be considered as spokesman for your species.

I agree if it were to ever happen, somebody like Hawking or Cox should be the person to do it. But no doubt government agencies would hijack any said meeting, if they have not already.

originally posted by: AlienView
Assume that this website [ATS] is being monitored by one or more alien races. Now describe why YOU would be the first person
we would like to have open contact with. Education, especially in the sciences, would be good as would be a broad education and an ability to communicate with beings who might be smarter than you, so the ability to be humble is important. We are not interested in people in authority as your planets authority is very questionable. We want to meet a human of decent intelligence and disposition who can show us reasons why we should continue communicating with your species. Tell us in 1000 words or less why you believe that you should be considered as spokesman for your species.

Spokesman?

What about 50 percent of the population that is not male?

If in fact their request is genuine but they are still learning the nuances of human culture as evidenced by the word spokesman instead of spokesperson I would love to communicate with such a species.

First of all, I have been fascinated by the sky and what (and who) might be out there for as long as I can remember. When I was 6 years old my father bought me a small telescope and from that moment on I knew my future lay in the world of astronomy/astrophysics/space science.

Think Jodie Foster's character in the Carl Sagan book and movie "Contact". That basically is me.

Currently I am in my second year studying astronomy and astrophysics at the University of Washington. I am well versed in the structure of our Milky Way Galaxy and know our local neighborhood (out to 250 light years) like the back of my hand (an area inside that blue sphere). As a young person I have an open mind in general.




I have done two summer programs at NASA Ames Astrobiology Academy and have met and learned from people who worked on the planet searching space telescope known as Kepler and at the SETI Institute.



I also am minoring in political science because I also have a strong interest in space policy advocacy. I feel that what I am learning in this area could also benefit our two species as contact moves forward because poli-sci has taught me a lot about human nature and our reactions to new challenges and/or perceived threats.

It also has taught me that perception can often be as important as the facts in crisis situations.

As an avid sci-fi reader I am familiar with a myriad of different "first contact" scenarios and the diverse series of possible outcomes as a result therefore I feel I could help avoid the pitfalls and perils of such contact by being honest, forthright and clear so as to avoid any potential misunderstandings.

Like most of humanity, I am curious and yearn to know more about your species and others which we share the galaxy with. I also know that humanity's place within this galaxy is likely far closer to a baby learning how to walk rather than masters of the universe.

I'm ok with that. We all have to start somewhere don't we? I'd love to know how your species took its first steps.

I am not into war and feel we've reached a point where it is mostly unnecessary and a waste of the dwindling resources of this planet while simultaneously making it harder for our nascent species to access the abundant resources of our solar system.

While I am not religious I respect all religions and belief systems so long as they do not harm or advocate harming others. Spiritual development in my opinion is a personal matter.

Lastly my mother was an artist, my father an engineer. I am well versed in music and played in my high school orchestra. As a hobbyist musical artist I feel this, coupled with my professional training in the sciences make me well rounded. Many believe that music could be some sort of universal language or point of connection between intelligent species (with ears or some sort of equivalent).

From me there will be no hubris.

Only humility, curiosity and a genuine desire to learn and compare notes and learn from what your species knows about the galaxy and the universe and multiverse beyond.

In first contact with a more advanced species, all of humanity will be students, so perhaps a student should be at least considered for its ambassador? I embody both the arts and humanities as well as the science and technological sides of humanity. I also know this world well having travelled with my parents as a "Navy brat". I know both the great promise of human progress and the great tragedy of unfulfilled potential in parts of the world that progress has thus far left behind.

Perhaps this makes me an ideal candidate?

a reply to: Thecakeisalie

I also agree we should talk about the pics, that the human ones are of a misunderstanding and show the manipulation of society and the manipulation itself of truth in the human mind. Then go into how the beginning of believe in religion could related to UFOs and the UFO deception.

In the first one, there is an actor portraying a scene to be real. This has come in the age of Total Dishonesty today. The ugly truth, that half of the world wants to set you up and leave you. They feel happy at the idea that they are better than you, so they manipulate reality and the truth, in order to feel so. They are of essence of satan, without a doubt.

The second one is of another misunderstanding woman. Women in this new age have taking the lead, but there is a problem with taking the lead if you are not the least bit mentally prepared to do so. They are still stuck in the constant concept of delusion and this makes there perception encourage a deception, naturally. They are trying to take the lead based on socialist power alone without the foundation of knowledge to back it up. So they constantly refer to the wrong thing and something that is not of reality. They constantly lie to themselves unconsciously, and that is why they get caught being a hypocrite, but they brush it off lightly and not let it stop them from being egotistical with only hate (caused from desiring control) on their mind, surely also they are the essence of satan. What attractive woman have you seen in the new age that does not put money before man? Let's get to the truth, and to the gif. The guy is completely innocent, just listening to the girl, and she mistakes him for looking at her chest, when in this case he wasn't even doing that, so she sticks her chest out at him. But it is based on the lie that he was looking at her chest. So the whole incredible action of showing absolutely no respect is based on a misconception. How Often Does That Happen With Women??? It happens every day, all the time, and if men did that every day all the time they would sure tell us about it - if men were the actual ones delusional and attractive women actually made decisions based on the virtue of their heart and soul, which at this time seems not existent. There is no way you can twist around the truth again and again, saying that corruption is the same as truth, and there is no intelligent way you can remain in denial when there are masses of people saying what is real.

Then we go to the animals. They are not corrupt. You can feel the positive vibes from them, you can see the positive communication. They are walking in the essence of Yes. Which is the opposite of satan. Do you feel the power in the word YES? say it, "Yes!" It brings a positive feeling. Some of us know, even the word God, even if it is capitolized signifying the Holy Creator, it is still a Word stemming from pagan roots. Specifically, if there never was a pagan who believed in a idol, there never would be the word God. So all those translations in the bible, they would not be there if paganism didn't happen. People in ancient times said 'Oh' before they said the name of the Creator, because they sung it out in a song 'Oh My Holy One'. Still today, we have kept that tradition and say 'Oh My God'. This is the reason why we say 'Oh Yea' or 'Oh Ya', because Yah was the name of God, not 'God'. So in modern times it has changed to 'Yes.' That is why the word Yes is so powerful, and so positive, because it refers to the Creator. When you say the word 'God' it referred to union in nature, so it has more of a private meaning, certainly not the positive meaning of the actual name of the positive Creator. The word Yes means the same as the ancient Hebrew 'Amen.' The most important relation is 'A', coming from Yah from the ancient Hebrew times were a sect of people were trying to keep the tradition of believing in a Universal Invisible Yes. This was during the times that even their own people believed in the Elohim, or many gods of ancient Babylon, who themselves are questionable, and could be related to UFOs. El which is The in Latin was the single word. The sect later disassociated with the people of Judah and were referred to as the Holy Ones by ancient historians, they had a Teacher Of Righteousness who the Romans merged into their paganism. So they made a story around a person that the Holy Ones held high and called Teacher. So the Christian movement was genuine but it was also persecuted, because the Christians were really Holy Jews. Look at how religion controls people, so how could the powers not want to use that to their advantage? Sorry for going off topic.

So we are not ready for contact. And that is probably why the aliens went around taking cattle in the dark, or going into bedrooms when people are asleep, they didn't want anything to do with such egotism.

How do we know if people here haven't already been contacted? First contact could be via telepathy when you are in a semi conscious state. I remember being partially awake a few mornings but had a recurring "dream" with an inquisitive alien wanting to communicate. I saw images of the aliens home world, body, and type of work the alien did. The alien was reptilian or resembled a lizard that walked on two or three legs or two legs and a large tail. It's home world was about 37,000 light years away. The alien was like one of our scientists and inquisitive and apparently reaching out via telepathy. I asked several questions and wanted initially to communicate more. I asked about how to build a sub space communicator and realized I would have to learn about six levels of technology skills above our most advanced electrical engineering classes. I was losing sleep dreaming of all the work required and thinking about how much I would have to study just to learn electrical engineering. It was too much work and too much. I asked the alien to contact someone else who knew more.

Have fun contacting aliens. Just send me the hot looking female human looking aliens.

My nominations are:

Vladimir Putin (Culture / Military)
Ban ki-Moon (Spokesman)
John Cleese (mediator)
Kim Jong-Un (Public relations)
Bill Shatner (just because eh)

Actually, out of all of them, I would have a hard time choosing between Ban Ki-Moon and Cleese.....for very different reasons.

a reply to: JadeStar

NOTE: At any time the user AlienView writes as though he is or represents an alien or alien species, until proven otherwise,
this must be considered as 'hypothetical'.

Thank you for your response JadeStar. Now A few points to consider:

Spokesman?

What about 50 percent of the population that is not male?

Humans have become so obsessed with things like racism, sexism and religious fanaticism so as to cloud their judgement. True these paradigms should not exist but still do - Do you really believe an advanced species of alien would want to communicate with a species that has a stilted evolutionary pattern where racism, sexism, and religious fanaticism are still stromg influences on their existent reality?

Second, you say "As an avid sci-fi reader I am familiar with a myriad of different "first contact" scenarios and the diverse series of possible outcomes as a result...." What if the first alien species that attempts to contact you is as "The Borg" in the very popular Star Trek franchise [the Borg are a collective intelligence, probably AI type intelligence, that are intelligence junkies seeking perfection and 'assimilating' all species they come in contact with]. How could you be sure that first contact would not be your last as the aliens, rather than conquering you as in second rate sci-fi, assimilate you instead? As others have stated Columbus meet the Indians and the rest became history - Are you really sure you want to make contact with a species you know nothing about and whose motivation and agenda reamain to be seen

"Perhaps we've never been visited by aliens because they have looked upon Earth and decided there's no sign of intelligent life."
-Neil deGrasse Tyson

originally posted by: AlienView
a reply to: JadeStar

NOTE: At any time the user AlienView writes as though he is or represents an alien or alien species, until proven otherwise,
this must be considered as 'hypothetical'.

Thank you for your response JadeStar. Now A few points to consider:

Spokesman?

What about 50 percent of the population that is not male?

Humans have become so obsessed with things like racism, sexism and religious fanaticism so as to cloud their judgement. True these paradigms should not exist but still do - Do you really believe an advanced species of alien would want to communicate with a species that has a stilted evolutionary pattern where racism, sexism, and religious fanaticism are still stromg influences on their existent reality?

I do not know the answer since I have never met an advanced alien species. One can easily imagine galactic do gooders who help civilizations like ours make the transition from Type 0 to Type 1.

Or ones which wouldn't be interested in communicating with us until we're at least interstellar travelling Type 2....

The truth is both possibilities and everything in between possible. No one really knows.

That said, an advanced alien species would probably have used the word spokesperson so as to address all of humanity not half of it.

Second, you say "As an avid sci-fi reader I am familiar with a myriad of different "first contact" scenarios and the diverse series of possible outcomes as a result...." What if the first alien species that attempts to contact you is as "The Borg" in the very popular Star Trek franchise [the Borg are a collective intelligence, probably AI type intelligence, that are intelligence junkies seeking perfection and 'assimilating' all species they come in contact with]. How could you be sure that first contact would not be your last as the aliens, rather than conquering you as in second rate sci-fi, assimilate you instead?

This is a question we've thought of quite a bit.

The answer is based on math and logic.

The Earth is 4.5 billion years old. The Milky Way Galaxy our solar system is in is roughly 3 times that.

Therefore such a species would have had any number of years to assimilate us so my question would be why now? What would be so special about this period in time? They would have had at least millions if not billions of years to have surveyed our planet from a distance in fine detail.

They didn't bother to do their assimilation in our past, or if they did we were left alone to develop independent of it.

So my conclusion would be that the only thing we have of value to them which they would want to assimilate would be our experiences as a unique technological culture.

Now that I know what they want, I'd feel a bargain could be struck.

They want our individual experiences to add to their collective to enrich their society however I'd let them know that that which they want and value is wholly dependent on humanity's individuality and free will.

I'd communicate that while they could take us all into their collective, the things which they desire, unique, individual human experiences are finite unless we are allowed to produce more of them and we could only do that as an independent species with free will and self determination.

While they could assimilate all 7 billion of us, they would be guaranteeing that there would be no new uniquely human experiences once they processed those initial 7 billion.

I'd ask, "wouldn't it be better to have a much smaller but almost infinite stream of new human experiences stretched out over a long period time as our species develops instead of 7 billion all at once right now?"

In other words, "Why kill the golden goose when you can simply breed more of them?"

So instead of assimilation I'd propose a simple cultural exchange.

There is a whole growing subset of humans who would welcome a Borg like existence.

They are called transhumanists, Humanity+ or simply H+ and have a website: humanityplus.org... and a magazine hplusmagazine.com...

I'd suggest a volunteer program of assimilation for those transhuman people who seek a post-human existence as part of a collective machine intelligence.

In return I'd ask that we be given access to their full scientific and cultural knowledge of the galaxy and an advanced computational machine (like a quantum computer which could solve a myriad of problems on Earth).

It's a win-win.

As others have stated Columbus meet the Indians and the rest became history

The Columbus analogy is overly simplistic and would have very little if anything to do with a real first contact scenario. It's probably one of the least likely based on what we know about the galaxy and universe.

The first rule when thinking about aliens is that they are ALIEN. Do not anthropomorphize them or ascribe human motivations to them.

Columbus and the Indians both were human with human needs, desires and existing in a world with finite resources.

The resources available to your theoretical Borg would be infinite.

They wouldn't need us for food, slaves, soldiers or anything else you can imagine from our history.

If you can travel light years to get here you already probably can create the food you desire synthetically / artificially. We already can do this: The First Lab-Grown Hamburger Is Served



If you can travel light years to get here you probably have more advanced robots than any of the ones we've created to do our bidding. Human beings make poor robots/slaves/soldiers by comparison to the kinds of machines even an advanced Type 1 civilization would probably have.



We're barely able to travel our solar system so we pose no real threat to anyone who has advanced interstellar capabilities and the resources in space are vast so they are not likely to see us as competitors for them.

- Are you really sure you want to make contact with a species you know nothing about and whose motivation and agenda reamain to be seen

Sure.

It is what I am being trained for.

Of course, one would want to tread carefully but the benefits to humankind from just knowing that 1) We're not alone. 2) Someone else out there made it past this very dangerous point in our planets history and 3) Any potential information we might learn from would be a tremendous opportunity.

First contact will happen someday. I am pretty sure of that. When it will happen I do not know but other smarter people than I are pretty sure within the next 30 years due to many advanced telescopes being constructed right now we will know for sure if there is anyone else out there in our galaxy. Once we know we're not alone I am sure there will be debates on whether we should contact them or not.

"Perhaps we've never been visited by aliens because they have looked upon Earth and decided there's no sign of intelligent life."
-Neil deGrasse Tyson

Excellent quote.

Britney Spears!

a reply to: Thecakeisalie

maybe the children would be best
you know not yet corrupted

I think JadeStar has made her case well, and should represent humanity (that is unless the aliens are like those beings in "Mars Attacks", in that case George W. Bush should stand front and center and hold out his hand in friendship).

a reply to: JadeStar

...Perhaps this makes me an ideal candidate?

No, almost certainly not...

As many philosophers have often pointed out throughout history, "If you feel the need to keep reminding people how great of a choice you are, you're probably not the best choice...". In other words, if you are worthy of some distinction, this fact will already be common knowledge without you being forced to remind people of the fact.

Even the former "Iron Lady", Margaret Thatcher used a version of this in her speeches:

"Power and worthiness is like being a lady. If you have to tell people you are, you're not."

originally posted by: Outrageo
a reply to: JadeStar

...Perhaps this makes me an ideal candidate?

No, almost certainly not...

As many philosophers have often pointed out throughout history, "If you feel the need to keep reminding people how great of a choice you are, you're probably not the best choice...". In other words, if you are worthy of some distinction, this fact will already be common knowledge without you being forced to remind people of the fact.

Even the former "Iron Lady", Margaret Thatcher used a version of this in her speeches:

"Power and worthiness is like being a lady. If you have to tell people you are, you're not."

It's not common knowledge if it was in answer to a question AlienView posted. I was not answering it to have some distinction but simply to offer what might qualify me for such an amazing opportunity as ATS's representative to the aliens...

I'm sorry for bothering. I forgot how this forum often is. Thanks for reminding me.

a reply to: JadeStar

Jade, don't be tricked into a non-representative status. Look at your critics name, and avatar - it's obviously of one of the alien races who want other races and humans to remain separated and to engage in constant turmoil and distrust. For this race to discourage your reasoned explanation of why you can represent humanity sufficiently means that they fear you can do just that! When the time comes for The Committee to choose who shall step forward in friendship when the good aliens decide to reveal themselves, know that you may very well be called upon to perform this task (unless it is one of the destructive races, like the fellows in "Mars Attacks", or the unlovable insect race from "Starship Troopers", in which case George W. Bush and his friends Rumsfeld, Rice, and Cheney will be tricked/shoved forward).

I'd rather have a child like this represent me than any politician:



At least there's a message of hope in there somewhere.

originally posted by: Aleister
a reply to: JadeStar

Jade, don't be tricked into a non-representative status. Look at your critics name, and avatar - it's obviously of one of the alien races who want other races and humans to remain separated and to engage in constant turmoil and distrust. For this race to discourage your reasoned explanation of why you can represent humanity sufficiently means that they fear you can do just that! When the time comes for The Committee to choose who shall step forward in friendship when the good aliens decide to reveal themselves, know that you may very well be called upon to perform this task (unless it is one of the destructive races, like the fellows in "Mars Attacks", or the unlovable insect race from "Starship Troopers", in which case George W. Bush and his friends Rumsfeld, Rice, and Cheney will be tricked/shoved forward).

Thank you. I'll stick around I guess.

If aliens wanted someone to talk to , they would pick someone who isn't selfish and evil, someone who wants to do good things, help others, even accomplish world peace, end hunger, cure diseases....i'm sure the are plenty of such people out there that truly want the world to be the best place it can be.....i know cause i;m one of them.
So if they want to talk, they would already know who to contact, if from all the stories they have telepathic abilities, then they would easily find truly honest good people. If they are not getting involved in the matters of this planet, then it's obvious they don't care. Face it people, they don't care, otherwise they would just come down from the skies, nominate a good person as the go to guy, and start giving out directives with their wisdom...do this, do that, dont do this, dont do that....until the planet is cleansed of evil and hatred and suffering. If they make it this far across the empty space, then they have the tech to end all hunger and suffering and wars and all the #....obviously they don't care !!!
Get over it. they don't care ! They are probably just as if not more selfish than us. They don't care ! ! !

a reply to: Choice777

Maybe they care and just don't know how to show it (or think that beetles are the dominant species and have been trying to communicate with them for thousands of years). Don't give up hope, maybe one of them will get off the beetle-kick, look around, start communicating with flies, and when that doesn't ring the bell they'll work their way up the rope to humans (wasting years with Red Pandas and anteaters).

a reply to: Aleister

Cause obviously those species are dealing with quantum mechanics, poincare groups, lorentz transformations, minkowski space and manifolds...of course....or maybe none of these are necessary to devise methods to travel the gigantofuc5ingnormous distances between stars.

Humanity represents its self as a whole.

The votes weren't in our favor.