Yes true enough... but its not quite the same as shouting out 'hey we are here'... One is passive the other active.

I suspect (with few facts available as yet) that life signatures will turn out to be common... (ish). It still, to me, seems to be a simple matter of risk mitigation... if you can avoid a risk (especially a potentially disastrous one) at no, or relatively low, cost, then do so.

Yes.... to me its a shame that they don't step back and ask..., 'But have I the right to speak for all of earth?' Or try imagining the consequences if it all goes pear shaped.

I've never really worked out if I am a pessimist or an optimist.... perhaps a realist. Things _could_ be worse. Lets not go out of our way to make it so.

Agreed... again an unlikely event... but worth trying for.

So my summary: The risk is low. There is at least a fifty-fifty that we would benefit from contact. Consequences could take a few hundred years to materialise. Is is very simple to avoid the risk.... just don't shout. No one person can decide to place a bet with the future of all humanity.

I think all of that is self-evident and leads to only one conclusion... don't shout out till you know who is there. And a corollary: Look as hard as you can... the benefits could be enormous.

In a sense, grousing at astronomers on this issue is going after the wrong people. People involved with SETI seriously have evolved a set of protocols for dealing with candidate signals. As summarized by the International Academy of Astronautics, two of them read,

"No response to a signal or other evidence of extraterrestrial intelligence should be sent until appropriate international consultations have taken place. The procedures for such consultations will be the subject of a separate agreement, declaration or arrangement."

and

"The SETI Committee of the International Academy of Astronautics, in coordination with Commission 51 of the International Astronomical Union, will conduct a continuing review of procedures for the detection of extraterrestrial intelligence and the subsequent handling of the data. Should credible evidence of extraterrestrial intelligence be discovered, an international committee of scientists and other experts should be established to serve as a focal point for continuing analysis of all observational evidence collected in the aftermath of the discovery, and also to provide advice on the release of information to the public. This committee should be constituted from representatives of each of the international institutions listed above and such other members as the committee may deem necessary. To facilitate the convocation of such a committee at some unknown time in the future, the SETI Committee of the International Academy of Astronautics should initiate and maintain a current list of willing representatives from each of the international institutions listed above, as well as other individuals with relevant skills, and should make that list continuously available through the Secretariat of the International Academy of Astronautics. The International Academy of Astronautics will act as the Depository for this declaration and will annually provide a current list of parties to all the parties to this declaration."


The IAA site also links to a position paper on how to handle such international consultations. As far as I can tell, the deliberate signals either predate these protocols (the Arecibo M13 transmission) or are done by groups outside the mainstream of SETI research. Within that mainstream, as quoted above, there is agreement that only a broadly representative group of humans can speak for humanity on this issue.

While not conclusive, this may prove useful:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communi...l_Intelligence

Fair enough point... and I will have to do a bit more research.... (I had heard of these protocols previously).

But the general tide of outgoing messages seems, to my layman's view, to be swelling... perhaps its just an artefact of more reportage... but it seems I hear about it more and more frequently these days.

I would like to see a general recognition of the fact that no-one has the right at this point in time to risk all of us here in the boat...

Its hard to say that without sounding like a panic merchant... but I am, I believe, rationally and calmly saying that there is a chance its not a good idea... and we don't _have_ to do it... so lets not.

Yes... a fair few sent already eh? I notice that those ones are primarily Russian (with a bit of MIT assistance thrown in). I don't think that is an exhaustive list... I could be wrong...

Perhaps I should not bother.... I seriously doubt that there is any chance that the course of Russian science and behaviour can be affected by American or Australian (or any other countries) astronomers. Maybe in a few years... but not at this point.

In any case lets all agree that _we_ should not take matters into our own hands and ever send one out until much more is known.

I'm building a radio transmitter right now!!!!!!




well, actually I'm going to sleep right now. Someone remind me to start building one in the morning.

__________________
"I will do my best to understand and explain the universe from big to small without invoking miracles, unrepeatable events, or divine intervention. In place of those things I will use observations, mathematics, and science."


-Cross
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Some of my Astrophotography


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Hey, crosscountry... 14hrs later and you're here, not building your transmitter?

Hell, I would, even if, according to some, I don't have that right.

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"Where the telescope ends, the microscope begins. Which of the two has the greater view?" - Hugo

"Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing had happened." - Churchill

darn, I had forgotten. I'll get right on in. Don't want the space aliens to wonder where I am.

__________________
"I will do my best to understand and explain the universe from big to small without invoking miracles, unrepeatable events, or divine intervention. In place of those things I will use observations, mathematics, and science."


-Cross
My travel blog

Some of my Astrophotography


Those that lack education have a hard time understanding its value. - Cross

__________________
Fiction has to be plausible. Reality is under no such constraint.

Haven't we been sending messages out since we first began television broadcasts? It seems a little foolish to blame astronomers at this late date. Haven't we already told everyone we're here with all the television we have broadcast from "I Love Lucy" to "Seinfeld".

Actually, "Seinfeld" may be seen by ET's as conclusive proof that there is no intelligent life here. So it may really be all for the best.

Right.

Finding Them, Finding Us.

If we took this cosmic paranoia to its extreme we'd forever turn off all radio and television signals...

__________________
"Where the telescope ends, the microscope begins. Which of the two has the greater view?" - Hugo

"Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing had happened." - Churchill

Oh, no worries, they know where you are.

__________________
"Where the telescope ends, the microscope begins. Which of the two has the greater view?" - Hugo

"Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing had happened." - Churchill

Aww, come one. If it was small it might be cute in a dorky kinda way, maybe on the back of the neck, and inch and a half long. But make it big and take up the entire back and it'd be a bit much.

Kai, try it with henna and see how it looks.

__________________
"What you think you thought you saw you did not see." Agent J, MiB - Manhatten Bureau

Maybe on my arm, in the summer, about an inch and a half. Henna's all I really would do, as I said, I don't really have the nerve to get a real tattoo.

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"If you think the LHC will create black holes, you might as well believe Hobbits are at the bottom of your garden."- Dr. Mike Inglis
Rovers forever! - ToSeek
"Carl Sagan sent a message to ET,
Neil Armstrong walked in the Sea of Tranquility
Steve Squyers built Spirit and Opportunity
Dan Haylen upchucked in zero gravity." -Brent Simon, The Space Camp Song

Maybe you could hold out for something like this?

__________________
"Where the telescope ends, the microscope begins. Which of the two has the greater view?" - Hugo

"Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing had happened." - Churchill

Arm's good... just don't put it on your bottom. You're a very humorours person but the "SETI" pun would just not be worth it.

__________________
"What you think you thought you saw you did not see." Agent J, MiB - Manhatten Bureau

Yep. The barn door blew open more than 50 years ago. Longer if you count radio transmissions. Kinda late to tell people to not send messages into space.

And even if an alien civilization receives our signal, so what? They'll have to study it and try to determine if it is natural of artificial. Figure out the signal's origin. Then they'll have to calculate the energy and effort required to send a return signal versus building an interstellar craft to visit a civilization that may or may not exist by the time the ship gets there.

Worrying that sending "hello" signals into space might unleash an advanced civilization upon us is pure paranoia.

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"There is a theory which states that if ever anybody discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable. There is another theory which states that this has already happened."
Douglas Adams

Anyone who's agresssive enough to send a starship just to attack a distant anomalous radio source dozens to hundreds of light-years away will be too busy fighting each other (nations or hives, makes no difference) to come here. Their efforts would all be focussed closer to home. I'd waste zero effort worrying about this.

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"If this were play'd upon a stage now, I could condemn it as an improbable fiction."
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Illuminati's Razor-The most complicatedly evil answer is usually the most correct answer. - Fazor
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