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If ET Calls, Who Speaks For Humanity?

Posted by timothy on from the your-call-is-very-important-to-us dept.

EagleHasLanded writes "Who speaks for humankind if ET calls on us? Paul Davies, chairman of the SETI Post-Detection Taskgroup, is a likely ambassador. But Allen Tough founded the Invitation to ETI Web site, which encourages ET to make contact via email (and also strongly discourages humans from impersonating ET). But an individual in the UK got over some of the hurdles designed to weed out hoaxers, before finally throwing in the towel."

10 of 371 comments (clear)

  1. Just in case... by Manax · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Just in case you, or someone you know turns out to be the first, everyone should read this

    It's not exactly rigorous, but it gets the main points across.

    --
    "Why should I be content to simply live in this world, when I, as a human being, can CREATE it?" - Oertel
    1. Re:Just in case... by Planesdragon · · Score: 5, Interesting

      It's not exactly rigorous, but it gets the main points across.

      It's a load of bunk. (Biggest bit: A knife fight today is the same as a knife fight 10,000 years ago. Technology advances, but only to physical limits. Oh, and not only does nobody remember the Indians that Columbus met, but most Native peoples don't date themselves as "Post-Columbian" and "Pre-Columbian.")

      Anyway, if an alien shows up and decides to "make contact", they'll be in one of two situations.

      1: They didn't plan it, and this is an emergency or an accident. Offer help if you can, but only if they accept it. Mostly, just stay the @#$ out of their way and try not to get killed. And for the love of god, don't kill them until they've killed one of us. (Yes, that probably means that "first contact bob" would be "first trophy bob." if they're here to hunt. Sucks to be bob.)

      2; They did plan it, and made contact deliberately. It doesn't take more than a day to notice that the species creating buildings and machines and launching crap into space is sentient, and they'll learn a hell of a lot more about us by watching us for another day or two rather than picking one of us at random and watching us flail around. Greet them in your common habit and vernacular FIRST, and only resort to random flailings and scribbling on the floor if they don't respond.

    2. Re:Just in case... by Tassach · · Score: 5, Insightful

      any aliens with the technology to travel across interstellar space would have to have some pretty phenomenal computer technology

      The only thing safe to assume about aliens is that they will be ALIEN. As in, completely unlike us in every way. It's a mistake to terrestrialize ETs, let alone anthropomorphize them. Their concept of 'communication', let alone their culture and motivations, will likely be be so wildly different than ours as to be beyond our ability to even conceive of it. Hell, we have a hard enough time understanding and communicating with other HUMAN cultures. Aliens, especially aliens sophisticated enough to cross interstellar distances? Forget about it.

      --
      Why is it that the proponents of "one nation under God" are so eager to get rid of "liberty and justice for all"?
    3. Re:Just in case... by Culture20 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      We regularly leave our planet by use of technology and have harnessed the power of the atom?
      That's not to say it's enough, but those are at least two things that would probably differentiate us quite a bit.

      But if we're not 6-dimensional beings and don't *smell* the *pretty* colors, we might seem like a talking dog or a counting horse. They might be amazed by the dog (but will never consider it an equal), but they'll only be temporarily amused by the horse until they wanted to ride somewhere, make some glue, or eat horse-chops.

      Strange magical physics don't even have to be in play; the aliens only have to believe that quality X is more important than intelligence (or that quality X denotes intelligence), and if we don't have it, then we're defacto non-intelligent.

  2. Just say yes by LoverOfJoy · · Score: 5, Funny

    Just remember, when someone asks you if you're a god, you say, "YES!"

  3. This is a nonsense by Roark+Meets+Dent · · Score: 5, Funny

    Aliens are already here and do not recognize SETI or any human government or group organization. They deal with and judge each human being on their individual merits and faults. For more information, see http://www.alliesofhumanity.org/

  4. Re:ET Will Pick.. by melikamp · · Score: 5, Funny

    Oh no no no. OBVIOUSLY, if aliens show up tomorrow, after having flown countless light years and having built a highly advanced macro-society the size of a galaxy, it is OBVIOUSLY humans who will be calling the shots. They may have bombs million times more powerful than a supernova and they may be able to derive their energy from teleporting, but surely we will be able to outsmart them, with all that we learned from Arnold movies and sitcoms.

  5. Re:Davies, ORLY? by SanityInAnarchy · · Score: 5, Insightful

    So, you assume that atheists are correct and that aliens, assuming they even exist would be atheists?

    Personally, I suspect that's true, but I don't know. However, I see three possibilities:

    • They have no religion.
    • They have a religion very similar to ours.
    • They have a religion unlike anything we've ever seen.

    Now, of those, do you really think #2 is likely? (If you do, you probably should investigate how religion arose on this planet.)

    No, the likelier possibilities are option #1, in which case, any religious individual would make us seem backwards and primitive; or #3, in which case, any religion we choose to represent would likely be weird and possibly offensive to them.

    Who would you suggest? An obnoxious pompous prick like Dawkins?

    Funny... when I believed, I thought the same way you did. About Randi, also.

    Eventually, I realized that what I saw as "arrogance" was merely the courage to stand up to popular dogmas. They were attacking things I held dear, and that made me defensive, so of course I saw them as arrogant and disruptive.

    real science, rather than trying to prove the non-existence of god.

    Dawkins is an evolutionary biologist, and you might notice he's also written several books about that. If you investigate what he actually does with his time, you'll probably find he spends far more time doing exactly that -- real science.

    You seem to be confused into thinking that all atheists are necessarily "militant atheists", and that this would be the first thing on their minds when they encounter an alien being. That's not the concern at all. The concern is that the last thing we want is to be trying to tell an alien the "good news".

    --
    Don't thank God, thank a doctor!
  6. Re:Its too late. by dbet · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Our TV broadcasts have already spoken for us, and it wasn't a good message.

    I hear Single Female Lawyer has some fans.

  7. Re:I do. by PopeRatzo · · Score: 5, Funny

    Clearly, Sarah Palin should do the talking for us. This way, the ET's won't bother us, thinking there's no intelligent life on Earth.

    --
    You are welcome on my lawn.