Incredibly, an international group of scientists has updated a message of friendship to alien beings and is proposing to beam it to a ring of stars near the center of our galaxy. Sending the message- so the proponents assert - could benefit humanity by putting us in touch with nice, peaceful aliens whose scientific and technological knowledge surpasses our own. This according to Stuart Taylor, an astrophysicist at the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, SETI, Institute. According to Stuart:
“ET might be able to help us revive a world we almost destroyed,”
To that end a nifty, binary coded message has also been prepared to give any intercepting aliens an idea what we humans look like, e.g.
Their goal, described in a paper published in late March in the peer-reviewed journal Galaxies, is to introduce humanity to “extraterrestrial intelligences” that might be living on one or more of the many potentially habitable planets believed to lie within the star ring. What's not to like? It all sounds terrific, a 'win-win' for all concerned. Well, not quite.
On Earth, though, other scientists aren’t feeling as welcoming. To be more specific, 99% of astronomers think that this is a bad idea. That's according to one SETI chief scientist from UC- Berkeley. I also agree with that, and have posted on the risks before - on January 21 to be exact. Noting therein:
"At the very most, being generous, we'd be regarded as brutish, backward apes that haven't even attained a level of intellect to know they ought not "shit where they eat."
In which case we'd be lucky just to avoid being taken as subjects for alien biological experiments. Or, for perfect targets of alien conquest. After all, they'd have already been sent a binary image of what the alpha predators on planet Earth look like. I also advised we take seriously the warnings of physicist Freeman Dyson -from a November, 1972 address to the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton, e.g.
"We are more likely to discover first the species in which technology has got out of control, a technological cancer spreading through the galaxy. We should be suitably alarmed if we discover it and take our precautions. It is just as well to be warned ahead of time."
This is why Dan Werthimer, the Berkeley scientist, was a signatory of a 2015 statement condemning the idea of sending such messages. The group said that it was impossible to know whether intelligent extraterrestrials—if they do exist—would be benign or hostile. Suppose we make this contact, finally, and then x years later a horde of these aliens descend on us, all having the aspect of demonic -looking carnivores - who fancy human meat, e.g
Don't laugh, I am quite serious and even Stephen Hawking - before he died - advised against rushing into contact we might regret. In a still circulating 2010 interview he warned that advanced aliens might be looking to "conquer and colonize" any planets they can reach. Like Freeman Dyson, Hawking was skeptical that the attribute of technological advancement had to go hand in hand with a benign disposition.
Just over 55 years ago Astronomer Royal Sir Martin Ryle showed how advanced alien telemetry and signal recovery of our radio waves would have revealed just how warlike and dedicated to destruction we as a species are. Sir Martin concluded it would be foolhardy to be anything other than passive listener given we know nothing of advanced alien intentions. I would agree. Fortunately, according to Jonathan Jiang - an astrophysicist with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory - there are no immediate plans to actually send the message. He and his paper co-authors, if we are to believe him, are "primarily interested in kick starting a hypothetical discussion" about such messages and what they might include."
Errrr....here's an idea Jonathan: Leave out the global land masses of Earth and oh yeah, the depictions of humans too! This is in response to another JPL scientist, Kristen Fahy who said (WSJ, April 16-17):
"We want people to give their input whether this is the right message we should be sending."
My answer? There is no "right message" when you've no idea what's out there, their capabilities or intentions after contact.
See Also:
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Excerpt:
By sharing the Earth’s location, along with unsolicited nude images, the scientists appear to be disregarding the warnings issued by the theoretical physicist and director of research at the Centre for Theoretical Cosmology at the University of Cambridge, Stephen Hawking.
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