
If aliens call, what should we do? Scientists want your opinion - realshadow
https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2019/7/6/20680228/aliens-survey-seti-meti-scientists-extraterrestrial-message
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motohagiography
If they were so advanced, presumably they would go to the trouble of learning
to communicate with us before they arrived or announced themselves. If this
were the case, we should probably just listen as we're at a fairly significant
disadvantage and we have more to gain from them than them from us. In that
case, I'd probably send the Aga Khan, Dalai Lama, a Pope and other religious
leaders because they deal with this specific existential problem in a fairly
in-depth way, and and billions of people will credibly listen to them.

However, if the aliens just YOLO'd it and showed up, this sounds completely
insane, but I'd send the head rider of the Spanish Riding School of Vienna or
the Cadre Noir of France, as an advisor/translator because they have spent
their entire lives cultivating the ability to listen, empathize, and develop
sophisticated communications and relationships with beings that are non-human
and completely alien to us, while also necessarily embodying human leadership
characteristics people develop, and are therefore probably the only humans
trustworthy to represent us to an alien species.

Nuts, but we're way past nuts if this happened.

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13415
In my personal opinion we should always answer, because (scientific) curiosity
trumps all reasons not to. However, we should carefully analyze the message
before replying and be careful about what we say.

As a hobby sci-fi author with a long-term interest in the topic, I'd like to
point out one thing in the debate that is often forgotten. When it comes to
aliens and their motivations, all bets are off. Even if the aliens were
capable of FTL traveling, this does _not_ indicate that they are far more
advanced than us, that they are probably benevolent, that they would consider
us inferior, or anything like that. They could be like us. They could be
totally different. They could be more intelligent than us, but they could also
be more stupid than us. Technological advances are unpredictable and on the
cosmic scale occur in a ridiculously short time span. So they might just be a
hundred years advanced in comparison to us, for example, and judging from our
own development this does not indicate any major advance in society or
biological evolution.

Unfortunately, that also means that seemingly highly advanced aliens might
seek out to destroy all other life in the galaxy for religious reasons, for
instance. Or they might want to do the opposite. We don't know. Therefore,
unless there were specific reasons to distrust them, we should reply, just as
we tend to reply phone calls from unknown numbers.

~~~
dTal
> _Even if the aliens were capable of FTL traveling, this does not indicate
> that they are far more advanced than us_

For an amusing take on this notion, see "The Road Not Taken" by Harry
Turtledove.

[https://www.eyeofmidas.com/scifi/Turtledove_RoadNotTaken.pdf](https://www.eyeofmidas.com/scifi/Turtledove_RoadNotTaken.pdf)

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ianai
We answer like adults. Ie hello, what’s your nature? Ignoring them is probably
not a sustainable option.

~~~
devoply
> probably not a sustainable option

In fact it's probably the most sustainable option. The conquistadors during
the age of discovery claimed to come in peace more than once. Until humanity
has the power to destroy stars and FTL technologies I would stay very very
quiet. We are very much hunter gatherers to any space faring civilization...
Until you are on equal technological footing in the ability to resist invasion
or conquest there is no point in attracting potential conquerors.

Being able to destroy stars is very similar to having nukes in that stars are
very difficult to protect and their destruction devastating to all planets
which circle around them.

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mLuby
Lightspeed-limited message (eg radio, laser): take a collective breath, agree
on a response from the UN GA, then coordinate a broadcast from all possible
transmitters globally. We want to show pro-social behavor and also strength in
unity (even though they've seen our last hundred years via radio). Also
immediately prioritize colonizing nearby systems to reduce our likelihood of
extinction.

Relativistic spacecraft entering our solar system: similar to above but we
won't have as much time for a response so it's better if it's planned ahead of
time. Also they're certain to listen to popular reactions—maybe that's
something to just acknowledge in the official message, rather than trying to
make Earth go dark. Discretely inform any extra-solar colonies.

FTL message: devote all resources to reverse- engineering the technology, and
send as many colony ships away as fast as possible (ideally with that FTL
tech). Respond as per below.

FTL spaceship: accept our dramatically inferior position and accept their
every demand—including religious conversion and slavery—so they don't
annihilate us. Getting that FTL tech is a close second priority. If they begin
destroying us, broadcast a wide-spectrum warning to other colonies or species.

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kediz
Don't answer. You never know who is behind the "phone".

I wanna recommend a book to the Scientists called "Three Body Problem" by Liu
CiXin. It's a story about inter-galactic struggle between Mankind and Aliens
started off because a scientist answer the call.

~~~
lowdose
This sounds like an awesome script for a sci-fi franchise.

~~~
JBReefer
Apparently Amazon thought so, they just paid a billion dollars for it

~~~
eyeball
That was a rumor.

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amelius
I don't know but be prepared that it's just a planet-scanning bot.

~~~
tenpies
I was thinking the alien equivalent of spam:

> Contact holonet 8372XJR for cheap viagra

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labster
We should stay quiet; there's no need to inflict humanity's problems and memes
on the poor aliens.

~~~
todd8
About now, stars over 60 light-years away are receiving our I Love Lucy
episodes. I wonder what they make of [1]. Will they have a sense of humor, or
will they thinks it's some kind of documentary?

[1]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8NPzLBSBzPI](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8NPzLBSBzPI)

~~~
wl
Our broadcast signals are well below the noise floor at those distances. Carl
Sagan didn't think this through.

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johnhenry
Send them a bunch of sci-fi movies and see which ones they like most. Based on
that, we should have a pretty good idea of what to expect next.

~~~
krapp
They probably won't like any of them - the humans always seem to win.

Uploading a computer virus onto an alien mothership with a Macbook? That's
just _insulting._

~~~
dTal
Well, there's The Day The Earth Stood Still - but sending that might be coming
on rather strong ("ooh, we've been a _bad_ species and need a strong alien to
_discipline_ us").

I'd send Star Trek. It's kind of stupid, but it represents our most positive
aspirational vision of the future - one where we participate with humility in
a galactic diaspora. Such depictions are rare.

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xbmcuser
Say hi then ask them if they have tech that could stop us from destroying our
planet.

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clouddrover
Ask if they're free for a hot date on Saturday.

That's what Kirk would do.

~~~
syntheticnature
Or maybe not... (linking the reddit link with summary because it's a quicker
initial read):
[https://www.reddit.com/r/DaystromInstitute/comments/691o8m/k...](https://www.reddit.com/r/DaystromInstitute/comments/691o8m/kirk_is_not_actually_a_womanizer/)

~~~
clouddrover
Hrm, let's review:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NXovahPpscs](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NXovahPpscs)

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-oU2SBNlVjk](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-oU2SBNlVjk)

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MjhjcHvhjX0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MjhjcHvhjX0)

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jokoon
"do you have a solution for global warming?"

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WiseWeasel
Thank you for calling Earth Tours! [name] speaking, how may I help?

~~~
OnlineCourage
We welcome you to Earth, the resource rich, protein dense blue paradise chaulk
full of water and pleanty of uranium deposits!

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lisper
I think it depends a good deal on what the aliens have to say. If the first
word out of their mouths is "ni-hau" I wouldn't be inclined to listen much
beyond that.

(Just for the record, that was supposed to be a humorous reference to Chinese
robocalls, not a pejorative reference to Chinese speakers in general.)

