Do you think we should attempt contact with aliens?

a reply to: HRH27

Smearing excrement on ones face and screaming that you want to stand next to their fire might not be such a great draw for them.

If we found other humanoid people on another planet, who are more primitive than us.
Do you think we would stand back?

Or would we do what we do best.
Rape them of resource & stick a logo on it.

We are not ready.

originally posted by: beyondknowledge
The Voyager record is meaningless as we will not be around by the time anyone finds it, 0.000057 times the speed of light is not very fast at all.

Actually, considering the size and multidimensional complexity of the universe, the speed of light itself is pretty pokey. One has to wonder why this so-called universal speed limit is set so low considering how potentially fast it could be. 300,000 km/sec? Why not 1 million km/sec? Or a trillion? But maybe there are things that go faster but we just haven't figured them out yet. If aliens have, maybe the problem isn't that we're too small or too far away, but it's because we're too close and uninteresting to even bother with. Like that perfectly good restaurant down the block that you've just never been to.

a reply to: Alfa015015

We are not ready, there are some absolutely selfish people over at Seti - not all members of Seti agree with them - that have already beamed out a transmission into space, of course we have already been doing so for over a century now but attenuation has probably prevented anything recognizable from reaching any nearby stars in that time - EXCEPT of course the nuclear bomb tests and use over Japan which may every well have been a great big loud HELLO POTENTIALLY HOSTILE NEW SPECIES HERE to the rest of our galactic neighborhood.

To be frank if that is the case then it would explain the space police locking down some of our nuclear silo's in the past, not only to prevent us harming ourselves but to warn us NEVER to attempt to use them against anyone else - of course if they invade us that is another matter but if you have mastered space the last place you would want to live is on a bio-hazardous planet full of primitive violent savages I would guess - though watching them from a distance may be of interest both to whatever passes for xeno biologists in there rank's and for whatever passes for xeno-anthropologists among them as well as for there military - we may be in extreme danger in fact if we did announce ourselves as the latest arrival's to watch us (there may have been others here since the last human civilization was wiped out by a previous predator civilization - perhaps for the same thing's we are doing now - see ruin's on mars if you don't believe that - here - marsruins.com... and how about a carpet bombed city on the shores of a now long dead sea www.marsruins.com... ) - maybe do not have our interests at heart, they could in fact be very dangerous to us and especially so if they see us as potentially dangerous to them now or in the future and so they may act to prevent us becoming more of a danger to themselves and others if that is the case.

Or as I have said on another thread, perhaps if these are ruins then they are the legacy of a previous race and nothing to do with us, perhaps even a race that Got off our world to ensure there own survival long ago - or it is a great cycle and we are just on another spin of the wheel right now.

a reply to: Alfa015015

How you going to do that when the aliens aren't talking back.

Well, since they already are here on our planet, we should try to talk to them.
But we should cancel SETI though. Its like standing next to someone and calling them on your phone instead of talking them directly. Very silly.

originally posted by: Willtell
a reply to: Alfa015015

How you going to do that when the aliens aren't talking back.

Maybe UFOs and other kinds of paranormal things are actually their way of communicating back to us, but we're too dumb to recognize it as that.

IMO we should be concentrating our efforts towards improving our space travel capabilities. Let's say we end up identifying a 'signal' out in the cosmos that we believe originated from another intelligent species.

Number one, it's not exactly a straight forward proposition discerning between a signal from an extra-terrestrial race and certain naturally occurring phenomena that exhibit cyclical modulations, e.g. pulsars, magnetic and gravitational perturbations of radio frequencies.

Number two, say we feel pretty confident that a signal is not naturally occurring. Decoding/translating the signal would be an enormous undertaking, perhaps the single most difficult scientific endeavor in human history. It's not going to as simple as Dr. Aroway made it look in Contact. Yeah, there are lots of principles in mathematics/physics that _seem_ universally constant (prime numbers, atomic weight & electron patterns of elements, Fibonacci sequence) and can potentially bridge the gap between "us" and "them"...but will it really be that easy. Say the Vegans don't count using base 10/base 2/base 16, but base 9 (the Vegans are endowed with 3 limbs each containing 3 digits). Say the region of the universe has different elements than we have here or the fundamental laws of physics or gravity are subtly different. There may be no commonalities between "our" reckoning and "their" reckoning of science; drafting a linguistic primer might take decades, centuries, or may not be possible.

Number three. So we figure out how to decode their signal. Now what? How can we confirm the intent, accuracy and relevance of what's being said? Do we know that it's not a ruse. WHY are they reaching out across the vastness of space. What makes US significant enough in their opinion to warrant contact.

Number four. Crafting the response. Who gets to determine what is transmitted back? In what language is it encoded, our math and science, one (or more) of linguistics. What is the content: purely science, cultural, philosophical, religious. The nations of Earth can't figure out and agree on the nature and origin of a viral outbreak. Can you imagine the bickering and contentiousness of deciding what gets broadcast back to other side.

Number five. Time. Depending on the source of the signal, the original broadcasters may be long dead and forgotten. Should we even bother sending a response. How long will it be until the receive it.

I feel the only and best way to influence contact on terms we find favorable is if we take initiative and empower ourselves to travel out into the universe. ~~We~~ could be the race of watchers/observers that we theorize are tracking our evolution, and determine with hard data if we want to make contact with an alien species, assess them as potential partner, potential threat or just too different/primitive to bother interacting with. If we can observe the originators of the signal from relatively close by, it'd be much less difficult for them to deceive us with respect to the information they are broadcasting. And the only way to confirm if the originators of the signal are still alive is if we can observe them from relatively close by, matching up the signal we receive at Earth to signals they generate in their own backyard.

Summing it up: I don't think we should be, or probably wouldn't be able to in any case, maintain a dialog with another extraterrestrial race until we gain the capability to out into the cosmos and meet them "face to face" or at least some semblance of that phrase. We need to take first steps getting our own house in order, honing our science and space faring skills, and demonstrate we are actually a worthwhile species to interact with. Once we can travel out the stars successfully, only THEN should we weight the pros/cons of attempting contact.

originally posted by: Alfa015015
I would like to know your opinion about this. 

Do you think we should try to contact aliens?

Which ones?Malevolent or benevolent?

thanks for all your answers!

they were really interesting

there are some guys (www.spacespeak.com...) already broadcasting deliberately and continuosly

they use a small telescope, so the signals would probably be weak at destination

but! if there is any advanced civilization out there, I guess they would be able to receive those weak signals without problem

so I would say that, it's difficult for us to hide from an advanced civilization

originally posted by: Blue Shift

originally posted by: Willtell
a reply to: Alfa015015

How you going to do that when the aliens aren't talking back.

Maybe UFOs and other kinds of paranormal things are actually their way of communicating back to us, but we're too dumb to recognize it as that.

Maybe. The people who say they've been abducted say they communicate telepathically. I could go for that.

It's still a general mystery. Some may know or have communicated with them but no mass communication as of yet.

originally posted by: subfab
a reply to: Alfa015015

sure, why not?
if there is intelligent life out there, i'd like to know.

agree!

a reply to: Alfa015015


No , Bad Idea . They Might Not be NICE ............

originally posted by: Archivalist
Yes. Why not?

We have nothing to lose.

i agree!

originally posted by: Alfa015015
1. 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.

2. Actually, according to Claudio Maccone, there are probably no advanced civilizations within 500 light years.

1. Have you been under a rock for the last 73 years?

2. Claudio Maccone is an idiot.

originally posted by: Willtell
Maybe. The people who say they've been abducted say they communicate telepathically. I could go for that.
It's still a general mystery. Some may know or have communicated with them but no mass communication as of yet.

Remote viewers have also told stories that they "crossed paths" with what would be considered aliens and were generally treated with surprised annoyance. Psychonauts have also claimed to have encountered otherworldly entities but were instead welcomed warmly.

I've never heard it said, but does psychic energy have a rapid drop-off in power and effectiveness like EM fields? Is there are noise problem? If it does, I imagine that the aliens are still going to have to get much closer to us before we can hear them in our heads. And if that's the case, I guess we can just physically interact with them (unless they're not entirely physical).

a reply to: SleeperHasAwakened

If you look at the whole picture, it’s as if the universe is designed so we cannot travel in space and get to our destination alive, nor communicate with other star systems that have planets. Even if we could travel at the speed of light, it’s still too far. It would be like walking from the east coast to the west coast with no food or water.

a reply to: 38181
At 1G acceleration you could travel to the stars in a lifetime but you would start to age much more slowly after about 6 months in comparison to those you left behind. Might be a little difficult to find enough interstellar space dust to power your craft though.

originally posted by: Fisherr
If we found other humanoid people on another planet, who are more primitive than us.
Do you think we would stand back?

Or would we do what we do best.
Rape them of resource & stick a logo on it.

We are not ready.

How about we send a message to them. The message will be: "If they do not give up your rights we will conquer your planet."
In the hopes they actually come here and land. World War Aliens.

or

We make a false emergency beacon that we need to be saved. When they come down to our trap we kill them, steal their technology for advantage and start a new Galactic Empire.

Just look at earth.
soon it will be a one world dictatorship.
would you want to contact That?

remember what humans did to the blacks and indians.
so choice slavery or killed off.
oh they may eat us to.