United Nations Names Ambassador To Aliens

Shag writes "Although searches for extraterrestrial intelligence have thus far come up empty-handed, the United Nations appears to be preparing for eventual 'first contact.' Many media outlets are carrying the story that Mazlan Othman, a Malaysian astrophysicist who heads the UN's Office for Outer Space Affairs in Vienna — already charged with things like keeping track of satellites to prevent Kessler Syndrome and coordinating the international response to any earth-impacting asteroids — will be the first person to meet with aliens if they do show up." Update: 09/27 16:42 GMT by S : Looks like this one's too good to be true — in an email to The Guardian, Othman said, "It sounds really cool but I have to deny it."

Comments

"charged with keeping track of satellites"

[John Hasler]

Except that it is the US Air Force that actually does the job.

cars

[slshwtw]

How do they know the alien will want to make first contact with a human instead of some other life form? Presumably its first instinct will be to reach out to a moving car as the obvious dominant life form.

Re:The wrong man

[TheRaven64]

Quoth Wikipedia (linked from TFS):

Mazlan Binti Othman is a Malaysian astrophysicist who has served in several roles within her country

Quoth SpeedyDX:

I personally think a man like him is the perfect one for the job.

Tip for aliens visiting Earth: Humans have two genders, and it can be embarrassing if you confuse them.

Ok question:

[kenp2002]

Why would aliens intrinsiclly meet with humans?

We are one of the smallest lifeforms by population. If the majority lifeform "rules" the planet it would strike me as odd that aliens would consider us the owners of the planet mearly by virtual of intelligence. If anything there is the possibility they would see us as an unfair blight of a minority species taking a vastly significant share of real estate from the bulk of lifeforms. They might go so far as to cull the herd to ensure the bulk of the lifeforms have a porportional access to Earth. Since we are less then 1% of the lifeforms on Earth, why assume we would get much of a say.

As much as I disliked the Day the Earth Stood Still remake they make a great point. Bate's character says "It's our planet, we own it" in which Neo... err I mean Klatus bluntly states, "uhhh no."

If I were an intelligent alien, I would abduct humans and try and find a way to make them less destructive to an environment they are a marginal, by % of life, participant in. Or at the very least greatly restrict their ability to breed.

It would stike me as more intelligent to survey the bulk of lifeforms and find out what the majority needs to continue to survive. While not intelligent I would expect an ambassador for "those that cannot speak for themselves" to have been appointed who subsequently surveys the ecosystem as a whole.

It is hard to claim Earth has human-kind's personal planet when A: We don't manage it very well and B: are a tiny fraction of the population.

Intelligence doesn't confer ownership, it mandates responsibility in which by and large we have done a poor job so far.

Re:No he won't

[OzPeter]

or with a penguin in the arctic.

If its a penguin in the Arctic then I'd be really surprised