posted on Jan, 22 2011 @ 07:21 AM
I have a roundabout thinking on the subject of location of and communication with Extra Terrestrial life. While I accept that there is an urgency and
vigour in the field , and amongst armchair enthusiasts particularly, I cannot claim to share that urgency. Make no mistake , I am as eager for the
event to occur as the next person, however I also believe that in order to achieve this, we must be prepared to sink significant time, energy, and
resource into the project.
Many believe that there are soft answers, easy answers to the question of how best to achieve contact. I however believe that things which are easy
are generaly not worth doing. Rather than mere probes sent out to the gravity well of the sun, in order to blast out signals toward potentialy life
carrying planets and star systems, I believe that first on the agenda should be aquiring by our own ingenuity, the ability to travel freely in manned
craft, the length and breadth of our solar system. One of the problems with this of course is communication, and in this idea put forward in the OP ,
I think there may be something to it, a chance for our species to make dominion over the solar system.
If engine specification can match the genius of this new comms technique, then our dominion over the planets will be assured, for nothing makes man
more motivated than pastures new to investigate and prospect upon, especialy in times of such dire portent as we find ourselves today. Ensuring our
postition in our solar system, and inhabiting the available uninhabited planets within it ( The moon, Europa may turn out to have some life on it
already, and to pollute a pure ecosystem with our petrochemical and alchemic filth would be a folly and a great sin in my veiw) would give us more
potential as a species, and be a better welcome for a visitor species, than merely saying, "We are over here. Come find us, sorry about the Kuiper
belt, no we have no idea how to navigate it either, good luck". If we took up residence for instance, on Pluto (yes I know it would be a logistical
and engineering nightmare but bare with me ) we could perhaps have a closer and more detailed study of the movement of the objects which swirl around
and about our solar system, come to understand thier ebb and flow, and predict paths of relative saftey around the objects out there, or perhaps in a
moment of genius and hubris find a way to control thier path with finely tuned pulses of magnetism.
This would provide a much more civilised method of entry to our space, and prevent unhelpful accidents from ruining our first meeting with people
from beyond our system, and promote a feeling of welcome. Nothing says welcome like moving an entire feild of asteroids and space junk out of a
visitors path, that they may enter without undue stress after a voyage of such magnitude!
In essence , I believe we should be furthering ourselves before attempting commune with alien species because at this time, we are little more than
specks, our intellect and reach no greater than that of a child, whos birth cries still echo in his every move and word. When we have mastered our
solar system, then perhaps we will prove an intellect with which beings that travel from star to star, can converse with on if not equal then at least
familiar terms.
To commune with a species who are capable of traveling the gargantuan distances between systems while naive ourselves in the ways of space, I feel
would be to do a terrible insult to any potential visitor. We would clamour at them for insight into how they manage thier flight, thier fuel, how
they can cross the distances in time to arrive anything other than a husk, or worse, our handshake blasted out of our solar system might come across a
race who wish to move from an endangered world , to one as powerful as thier own, sink resource into an escape vehicle, only to find at journeys end
that we are little more than apes, still burning fuel to get about rather than using pure energy systems. The colossal dissapointment that might vest
itself on a visitor to find what amounts to a primative race, still obsessed with war, and not remotely united in purpose would be disasterous in my
opinion.
I stand by my thinking on this. We must unite, and bring the planets themselves, those we named as Gods in history, under our dominion before we
request audience with beings from other worlds, so that the invitation is worth the trip to fulfill !