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Existing Laser Technology Could Be Fashioned Into Earth's 'Porch Light' To Attract Alien Astronomers, Study Finds (mit.edu)
If extraterrestrial intelligence exists somewhere in our galaxy, a new MIT study proposes that laser technology on Earth could, in principle, be fashioned into something of a planetary porch light -- a beacon strong enough to attract attention from as far as 20,000 light years away. From a report: The research, which author James Clark calls a "feasibility study," appears today in The Astrophysical Journal. The findings suggest that if a high-powered 1- to 2-megawatt laser were focused through a massive 30- to 45-meter telescope and aimed out into space, the combination would produce a beam of infrared radiation strong enough to stand out from the sun's energy. Such a signal could be detectable by alien astronomers performing a cursory survey of our section of the Milky Way -- especially if those astronomers live in nearby systems, such as around Proxima Centauri, the nearest star to Earth, or TRAPPIST-1, a star about 40 light-years away that hosts seven exoplanets, three of which are potentially habitable. If the signal is spotted from either of these nearby systems, the study finds, the same megawatt laser could be used to send a brief message in the form of pulses similar to Morse code.
Any tribe that had such an idea in the 15th and 16th century would have been run over and destroyed before they even know what was happening.
Why would you assume the aliens will be any less brutal than the 16th century European explorers?
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
If we're not alone in the universe- I would like to know about our neighbours before they know about us.
Sending an unsolicited welcome beacon into the night could be catastrophic. If they're able to read it and respond they're probably more advanced than us. If they're more advanced than us they might not want to share the galaxy with another species who one day might evolve to challenge them or threaten them. There is no guarantee that any aliens out there would share our sentimentality to life. Or even want to meet alien species.
If their civilization has advanced far enough to be guided by Artificial Intelligence, certainly AI would decide the logical thing to do is remove a future threat before it becomes a threat. This isn't Star Trek, you can't guarantee that Mr. and Mrs. Greenface want to drink Romulan Ale with you and be best buds with you. Any species that survives to the space age needs some logic. Logic will tell you intelligent alien species could be a potential threat.
"That's the way to do it" - Punch
That's okay! It's only 1 or 2 megawatts continuously for those 10 years!
That's only $21 million in electricity costs alone, and 100,000 metric tons of CO2 added to the atmosphere. Surely, that's a small price to pay to be good celestial neighbors...
So.....just the equivalent of a handful of bitcoin miners? That's not too bad.
The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for it to be pitted against a slightly greater evil
"If they take the ship, they'll rape us to death, eat our flesh, and sew our skins into their clothing. And, if we're very, very lucky, they'll do it in that order."
-Zoe, Firefly (2002)
...when everything is a crime, everyone is a criminal.