Famous SciFi Author Tells CETI and METI to STFU & Stop Shouting at Cosmos!

This was all over the high-end UK press around early Summer last year. It was prompted by the build up to the Russian 'broadcast.' The perspective the press took was that a venture of such potentially profound repercussions was not for one man or group to decide. Attracting the attention of something wholly unknown has unforeseen consequences.

Experiments like splitting the atom or the LHC have caused many an OMG! We're all gonna die!!! moment by the public. Risks were there, but deemed mathematically infinitesimal and progress continued...or not LHC! The risks involved in shouting into the darkness of space are not quantifiable.

Just on that interpretation, I think they are exercising excessive hubris or enthusiasm to make the call on behalf of the 6.5 billion people on this planet. It isn't their decision to make.

We may find ourselves in the movie role of dumb blonde eyecandy calling, "Hello? Hello? Is there any one there?" in a dark house whilst a crazy ass alien in a red and green striped top gets closer....

Originally posted by Wertdagf
recources are infinite.... energy is infinite.... space is infinite. No one wants you damn gold... THE ONLY THING YOU NEED TO DO IS GROW UP!

Most who crave domination don't give a goddamn about energy or space or gold. They are all means to an end, not the end in themselves.

The assumption that great technology means cooperation isn't the only possible line of advancement. Domination is equally, and perhaps even quicker, at gaining the same goal without the necessity to have to work with others.

Sudden brutal complete cultural tyranny would be just as good at preventing complete species breakdown.

Ignoring that and acting as if it doesn't matter is smart. Actually, it might be stupid to the point of extinction.

If you were to conjecture that the way of life on Earth is in any way similar to possible life in the Universe, then it certainly might be a good idea to keep quiet until we get a better understanding of what's going on out there.

On Earth, it's eat and be eaten. Fast, aggressive predators hunt down, kill and eat smaller, clueless creatures too dumb to properly camouflage themselves.

On the other hand, I can't imagine that we have anything an aggressive space species might want, since if they have enough power and intelligence to navigate space and time, they can likely just create or transmutate anything they need.

So I don't know. If we get invaded, well, maybe if there are any survivors, they'll learn not to do that again.

Why do people who oppress do it?

They do it because....they can, and it makes them feel a way they enjoy.

The pay off isn't in resources, it is in the mind.

reply to post by Aeons


It is not a possiblity. Evil is always being consumed from within. Something that gains power without responsiblity will distroy itself. A race that did such a thing and gained the power to leave a solar system would self-destruct in 100 years or less.

That which understands reality and in turn nurtures a growth of understanding in the life around it is all that will survive to see the infinity reality offers.

If all here on Earth was in balance and harmony, without Man, you still have the food chain, eat or be eaten, survival of the fittest. You see that from pure observation. No morality, though in some speccies like ours, their is a little altruism, that helps assure surivival, of a group, like chimps, that have 98 percent of our DNA. built Just as some theorize on multiple universes like a foam , you can have dead universes, ie no life, just like schrodingers cat one dead, one alive.

Civilations have ups and downs, empires, like Roman, or Ghengis Khans, incorporated some ruthlessness in there, on the same level Europeans did Indians, the way Aztecs did surrounding communities. More advanced, but by our standards, which we claim enlightened now, evolved from, and carry on our wars still, for allegedly abstract reasons, freedom, democracy, socialism, etc.

What if you had an alien civilazation, that felt it found its God, and it required convert the cosmos. And they heard our call.
We can only make crude guesses sure, but we know there is life out there,
and it does follow some process of selection, smartest and fittest. continued propagation of itself..from the lowly germs to us. Nothing about being the nicest and most spiritual, just cooperative, which that does not guarantee niceness. Ants cooperate, even the Borg Cooperate, they go to the resource they need in the most efficient matter
You go with what you know, our own history, the animal kingdoms history, and take it from there. Take the sacred knowledge and wisdom of the ancients, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, or who can forget, don't start no mess won't be no mess and hard heads make for a soft behind.


There would be Bad and there would be good, relative terms for many, and exactly because they are seen as relative, especially to a more Technically advanced though not necessarily morally "compatible", that I would not play my boombox in their neighborhood. Lets not leave out advanced civlazations in decline, we keep assuming once we get up that high we can never come down. We are as good as Gods. I think not. Not for us nor them.

Good listeners, I have heard, generally have better relationships, than good talkers.
What could the reason possibly be.

just my opinion
Sys





[edit on 7-4-2009 by Sys_Config]

reply to post by DaMod


I suppose there are two schools of thought here:

1)Better not to advertise our presence and get gobbled up

2)Humanity has run out of puff anyway, a few brief days of knowing we are not alone, seeing aliens, watching their weapons and craft at work would all be worth the ensuing destruction. There are only so many reruns of Independance Day one can watch, bring on the real thing.

Originally posted by stewartw2

1)Better not to advertise our presence and get gobbled up

I say we should knock it off before we end up on the menu!

Twilight Zone: To Serve Man

reply to post by SLAYER69


Yes hollywood has always been the best source of information. How can no one else see how those running our society ALWAYS portray aliens as uncaring and evil? Kinda of like the uncle who molests you saying not to talk to the teachers at your school. The perverts are trying to keep us quite...

Originally posted by Wertdagf
reply to post by SLAYER69

 

Yes hollywood has always been the best source of information. How can no one else see how those running our society ALWAYS portray aliens as uncaring and evil? Kinda of like the uncle who molests you saying not to talk to the teachers at your school. The perverts are trying to keep us quite...

I'm sorry Wert, respectfully, but its not all hollywood, its reality, read the history books, ignore the lablel man, and substitute intelligent species. We want to say universally advanced minds are kind and benevolent, that is only one type.
Some want to think they look like us, as we are the epitome of evolution, yet we know thats not the case if we understand evolution. If we allow for differences in body types we must allow differences in behaviours a well, including predator, or even..something totally unexpected.
and not the only type of intelligence makes it. that flies in the face of everything we factually know and have experienced for milennia.

Heck if a friend offrered you a shiny new car to take a spin, if he can have your sister, in kind. Well, I am sure there might be takers, as I have heard of humans doing outrageous things., but its not normal. Its normal, for other cultures to give the girl away in trade for horses, cows, whatnot. Is what the culture dictates.
What is intelligence? take an IQ test example.
A white man is asked to look at a house with missing items. The white man says , why the chimney is missing.
Then a Mexican is asked the same question, and he answers,
why..its missing the holy cross
Is the white man smarter?
Is the Mexican Dumber.
Who's enlightened or advanced?
Who passed, who failed?

Excellent comments by all by the way. On that link at the bottom were updates, and it seems some of the seasoned SETI founders resigned, because the new group would not heed some of the very things we are discussing here.








[edit on 7-4-2009 by Sys_Config]

Originally posted by Wertdagf
reply to post by Aeons

 

It is not a possiblity. Evil is always being consumed from within. Something that gains power without responsiblity will distroy itself. A race that did such a thing and gained the power to leave a solar system would self-destruct in 100 years or less.

That which understands reality and in turn nurtures a growth of understanding in the life around it is all that will survive to see the infinity reality offers.

What a fascinating bunch of gobbledy-gook ..... authoratative gobbledy-gook even!

Originally posted by Aeons


What a fascinating bunch of gobbledy-gook ..... authoratative gobbledy-gook even!

Well said!

BRAVO
I couldn't of said it better myself.

Sketttledewapbop!

I fear the destruction of our planet in order to build a superhighway to be a much greater threat than being eaten. Although they could do both.

I once read an article that said that only predatory species develop intelligence. To bolster the point the author pointed out that the most successfull lifeforms on the planet are all predatory. The feed stock come and go but it is the predators who endure and thrive.

So, if this is true for Earth and if it is true of even a few other alien worlds then we could be in deep trouble if we start advertising our presence.

I think that it is incredibly naive to assume that a higher intelligence somehow indicates a higher benevolence. We have no idea of what an alien intelligence might value or how they might think.

If they are anything like us then their first thought may be to evaluate our civilization and our weaponry. If we have superior weapons then we may be relatively safe for a while. Who knows? An alien race may never have needed nuclear weapons, or recombinant DNA, or other WMDs. So, we would have a little breathing room while the aliens caught up with our weapons technology. Once they caught up, watch out!

It is very likely that any race that could get here would be more advanced technologically in almost every area.

If the aliens possessed superior weapons then we may quickly find our selves faced with an ultimatum like, "Give us all of your water or else." or "Give us all of your food stuffs or else." or "Give us all of your tasty young offspring."

What I think is most likely is that the aliens would do some research into our biology and then find a weakness to exploit. They might engineer a super virus and quietly introduce it into our population before we even knew they were there. Once their virus wiped out 90% or more of the populace our civilization would collapse on itself and the aliens would have free reign over what was left.

On the other hand what if the aliens were really advanced? Millions of years more advanced? They might whip out their can of Raid and wipe us out with no more thought about it than we would have wiping out a nest of hornets.

What if the aliens are really alien? Something that we can't even imagine? Then all bets are off. There is no reason to assume that such a race would be benevolent. In fact all of our assumptions would be wrong.

It would just be embarassing is all.

No worries I don't think about "bad" HEB's (highly evolved beings).

But blasting them with out nonsense? Just embarassing.

Haven't we been broadcasting ourselves to the universe since the biginning of life and more specifically the dawn of man? The presence of life producing elements would attract either the closest or most intelligent species to check us out and see what is happening here since the begining of earth's history. Radio waves and energy emmited would attract another set of species and so on. These new ultra long distance beacons are redundant and will only peak the interest of planets that may be equal to ours similar. Or so me thinks.

Originally posted by DaMod
I think that since the laws of nature are eat or be eaten, it is a horrible idea to just put up a big billboard with an "all you can eat special" in big fat red letters and a picture of a juicy T-Bone on the side. I'm sure most intelligent species are not hostile but what about those that are? What happens if this causes us to get invaded? They aren't thinking!!!

don't worry there is a plan in place in case this ever happens it involves nerd and marine fighter pilot taking an all ready captured alien craft, docking with the mother ship and uploading a virus. we are good.

aliens fear jeff goldblum and will smith!

Yeah It may be the dumbest thing mankind ever does, but then again it might turn out differently, of course i'm of the opinion that we have already been contacted and if dinner was their plan we would be done already!

[edit on 4/8/2009 by Verd_Vhett]

Originally posted by DaMod
I think that since the laws of nature are eat or be eaten, it is a horrible idea to just put up a big billboard with an "all you can eat special" in big fat red letters and a picture of a juicy T-Bone on the side.

Well you know we don't even have to argue about it anymore remember this from the movie Contact?
We have been spewing radio signals out into the cosmos for over a hundred years. I think they already know where the feed bag is.

Originally posted by ts117
I fear the destruction of our planet in order to build a superhighway to be a much greater threat than being eaten. Although they could do both.

Why waste resources?

I think it's safer to assume ET's are malevolent until proven otherwise. Shouting is a bad idea. Only a fool would walk through an unfamiliar ghetto in the middle of the night shouting in the hopes of meeting someone. The lack of sophistication in our message alone would be enough to tell a melvolent ET race that we are vulnerable.

We need to be more cautionate. I'm sure what ever is 'out there' is far stranger than anything we can conjure up in our science fiction.

IRM

[edit on 8/4/09 by InfaRedMan]