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Does Active SETI Put Earth in Danger?

Ponca City, We Love You writes "There is an interesting story in Seed Magazine on active SETI — sending out signals to try to contact other civilizations in nearby star systems. Alexander Zaitsev, Chief Scientist at the Russian Academy of Sciences' Institute of Radio Engineering and Electronics, has access to one of the most powerful radio transmitters on Earth and has already sent several messages to nearby, sun-like stars. But some scientists think that Zaitsev is not only acting out of turn by independently speaking for everyone on the entire planet but believe there are possible dangers we may unleash by announcing ourselves to the unknown darkness. This ground has been explored before in countless works of science fiction most notably "The Killing Star," a 1995 novel that paints a frightening picture of interstellar civilizations exterminating their neighbors with relativistic bombardments, not from malice, but simply because it is the most logical action."

13 of 647 comments (clear)

  1. The Enemy is Us by Doc+Ruby · · Score: 5, Funny

    Yes it does.

    We should conquer and colonize another planet first, then send active SETI signals from there instead.

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    1. Re:The Enemy is Us by Anne_Nonymous · · Score: 5, Funny

      Don't think of it as active SETI,think of it as a survey marker for the new hyper-space bypass.

    2. Re:The Enemy is Us by Flibz · · Score: 5, Funny

      They, for one, should welcome their human overlords...

  2. Re:obvious by planckscale · · Score: 5, Funny
    Yeah I mean if I was going to send a message to outer space it would be of a sexual nature like: "We are looking for the ultimate orgasm." or "Send us your women with the big jugs." Forget this "we come in peace" crap.

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    Namaste
  3. Add it to the list by Hoi+Polloi · · Score: 5, Funny

    Oh my god! I'll have to add it to my list, let's see...

    1. Fatal accident while driving
    2. Caught in fire at night while sleeping
    3. Heart attack
    4. Aliens attacking earth after sending out signals
    5. Cancer

    I had to bump "Terrorists attack Starbucks #528" off the list to make room

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    It is by the juice of the coffee bean that thoughts acquire speed, the teeth acquire stains. The stains become a warning
  4. Brace yourselves: where's the kaboom? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Actually, it is very dangerous. The signals have been causing a certain alien's garage door to open and close relentlessly ever since they started, making him very angry and he's up to Illudium Q-35 now.

    1. Re:Brace yourselves: where's the kaboom? by kahrytan · · Score: 5, Funny


        But all we want to tell him is we can save him 15% on his spaceship insurance.

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  5. Re:You can't protect yourself against the nonexist by Stanislav_J · · Score: 5, Funny

    There is not one iota of evidence that there exists one other intelligent form of life in the universe.

    "Other?"

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    "Every great cause begins as a movement, becomes a business, and eventually degenerates into a racket." -- Eric Hoffer
  6. Re:It's too late by had3l · · Score: 5, Funny

    Yeah, and we all know that we shouldn't send mixed signals to our enemies. That's why I propose we nuke the moon to prove we mean business.

  7. Re:Forget the Extra-Terrestrial Hypothesis by Sciros · · Score: 5, Funny

    Oh well in that case our magic will work against them so we're fine. Magic doesn't work against extraterrestrials, that's the issue here. When dealing with aliens you can't just wave a wand or plant some beans or pull some sword out of a rock, no sir. You need to either use a gigantor gun with like twelve barrels and a 200-lb magazine that doesn't ever run out of ammo, or cybernetic implants in your body that give you superhuman strength and agility. And while we're not quite far enough on cybernetic implants and gigantor guns that non-Shaq people can even lift, magic's been around for years.

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  8. Re:It's too late by cmacb · · Score: 5, Funny

    Not too late...

    If these alien civilizations support the MS Outlook protocol we can simply send out a retract message and clean it all up before they notice.

  9. wasn't this covered in the movie "contact"? by circletimessquare · · Score: 5, Funny

    or rather, in carl sagan's "contact"?

    the first visual broadcast transmissions we've sent to the stars was bloody farking hitler himself, addressing the 1936 berlin games

    THAT's our announcement to the galaxy

    could we have possibly done worse as a species?

    we stood up, we cleared our throat, and the first utterance out of our technological mouths and we go and godwin the whole of human civilization

    fark us

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    intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
  10. Re:Thus pacifist aliens by Pad-Lok · · Score: 5, Funny

    What I'm basically saying, is that "peace" is a prerequisite for achieving "space age"

    No, that would be "rocketry" followed by building the "Apollo Programme".
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