Do you think we should attempt contact with aliens?

I would like to know your opinion about this. 

Do you think we should try to contact aliens?

I think it's safe as long as we choose stars as old as the Sun or younger.

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.

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

More info here: 

a reply to: Alfa015015

We should probably try to detect and communicate with those who are already here amongst us.

Truthfully anything would be better at this point.

originally posted by: Alfa015015
Do you think we should try to contact aliens?

We kinda tried by putting a Gold Disk on Voyager to any aliens that encountered it.

Not a bad start, but any aliens that recieve our radio signals (like in the movie "Contact") would just get down and boogie to the endless music we make so they'd be having too much fun for us to get a visit.

A postcard saying "Thanks" perhaps.

originally posted by: underwerks
Truthfully anything would be better at this point.

Chin up, at least you are alive.

a reply to: Alfa015015

I doubt there are any advanced civilizations nearby but if there are and we "forbid" it how will "we" enforce the prohibition against it?

It's almost exactly like the disallowing stem cell treatments or a prohibition against genetic engineering in humans. We can't stop other countries from doing it and if they do, they may be at some kind of advantage.

Nevertheless, a directional signal would require a lot of power to be anything more than a token gesture or publicity stunt. By our own standard for intelligent signals, it would have to repeat regularly as well.

If we must hang a shingle, let's hang it on our sun. It would be cheaper in the long run.

a reply to: Alfa015015

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

a reply to: Alfa015015

If it's a civilization just as young as we are, then absolutely.
They probably are just as curious as us.
If it's a civilization thousands of years beyond us, I doubt they would want to talk to us.
We're primitive beasts to them and we have nothing in knowledge of value to them.
Sort of like how we don't go trying to talk to the birds in the forest.

Well, at this point it doesn’t matter. They are close enough to pick up our signals and will investigate or will investigate when our signals reach them. 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.

Thought we had been trying to contact aliens for about 50 years, probably more
futurism.com...
Never mind the spiritualists

a reply to: Alfa015015
Ever see the old film, To Serve Man (The Twilight Zone) ?
Trust me, we should be careful and consider everything. There is so much that we don`t understand and what the intentions of those might be.
www.youtube.com...

Any intelligent beings will figure how to decode our TV signals just as "ALF" reaches them.

Then we are in trouble.

a reply to: Alfa015015

alien life might not be all that friendly. one of the what some people call greats minds didn't think it was a good idea.

Well, according to physicist Stephen Hawking, we should probably stop trying to contact them at all, because reaching out to advanced civilizations could put humanity and Earth in a pretty risky situation. And the bad news is, we've already been broadcasting our location to the Universe for years.

Despite Hawking's extraordinary effort to find intelligent life in the Universe, he is one of the most outspoken critics of actually trying to communicate with them, an act that he says would potentially endanger humanity, because a distant alien civilisation might view us as inferior, weak, and perfect to conquer.
"If so, they will be vastly more powerful and may not see us as any more valuable than we see bacteria," he says in the film.
Hawking often uses the example of Columbus' expedition to the Americas to describe what could happen if an advanced civilisation gets word of our existence, saying that that initial meeting "didn't turn out so well".

Stephen Hawking Warns Us to Stop Reaching Out to Aliens Before It's Too Late
and he was 50/50 on AI

a reply to: nerbot

So maybe the nude images on the Pioneer 10 and 11 plaques were to confuse the little green men so that they would stop at Saturn instead?

a reply to: gb540

But what about "Mork and Mindy"? That is more likely to be misunderstood. Then there is "My Favorite Martian", but he was just a local from the next planet out. "War of the Worlds" might actually scare them away if they understand the ending.

They already know about us, and we know about them. You are just out of the loop.

"Were not even supposed to have a universal translator an I will tell you why. Human thought is so primitive, its looked upon as an infectous disease in some of the better galaxies. Kind of makes you proud, doesnt it?"
-MIBp, Kay

Unless they're in our solar system or near it, it would be a rather pointless exercise in futility, don't you think? The speed of light puts a large damper on the whole exercise.

Of course, monitoring an alien broadcast would be cool, however be careful! They could be showing their documentaries like ours - you know, Star Trek, Star Wars.

Hi!
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.
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500 years later
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What's up?

a reply to: billxam

documentaries like ours - you know, Star Trek, Star Wars

didn't you mean Historical Documents, like those poor people on Gillian's Island.

a reply to: hounddoghowlie

Yes, it makes you wonder what happened to those people in that historic record.