
Greetings, E.T. (Please Don’t Murder Us.) - dpflan
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/28/magazine/greetings-et-please-dont-murder-us.html
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okket
Does it matter if we send something out? The distances seem too vast. Our
signals decay so fast that you need moon sized antennas to receive them beyond
a few light years. Also, so far, no one seems to be out there. And even if:

Why would anyone spend an enormous amount of energy and time to reach us, a
miniature rock that has nothing to offer to a space faring race?

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nils-m-holm
You are not reading enough science fiction. ;)

I would suggest Peter Watts' "Blindsight" or Liu Cixin's "Three Body Problem"
trilogy.

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andyjohnson0
I enjoyed Blindsight, but it may not be very reassuring to someone concerned
about the possibility of aliens arriving with the intention of using us as a
food source.

And I really, really tried hard with The Three Body Problem. I get that the
English version is a translation, but in the end the flowery language and slow
plot just wore me down. Did anyone else have the same experience?

(Off topic, but I find that the problem with fiction based on SETI / first
contact is that the subject often ends up being used as a metaphor for the
human condition and the difficulty of really communicating with other people.
Which is fine, but doesn't make for satisfying SF in my experience.)

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psadri
You should really give "Three Body Problem" another chance. There are a lot of
diversions and off shoots but the main story really comes together 1/3 of the
way through the first book and really picks up in "Dark Forest".

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andyjohnson0
Having read summaries of the books, I thought the complexity of the overall
storyline was excessive for what is a fairly straightforward take on the Fermi
paradox and game theory [1]. Maybe I'm being unfair, but having slogged
through Seveneves a few months ago I'm kind of grumpy and lacking patience
with long, complicated SF epics right now.

(Possible mild spoiler ahead)

[1] Basically: "the forest is full of hunters of unknown strength, so either
stay quiet or kill all the hunters." I thought that Greg Bear's _Forge of God_
and _Anvil of Stars_ did a much better job on this aspect of Fermi.

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deorder
If intelligent life got as far to have the technology to be able to visit us
they at least did not kill themselves off which already reduces the chance of
them being aggressive against others.

Tipping off a rogue sentient AI that killed off their own creators is what I
am more afraid of.

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mac01021
> If intelligent life got as far to have the technology to be able to visit us
> they at least did not kill themselves off which already reduces the chance
> of them being aggressive against others.

I have heard this line of reasoning often, but it's not clear to me that the
logic is correct. I don't think an entity's treatment of itself necessarily
implies much about the way it will treat others.

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le-mark
Considering that all you really need is fission bombs and the will to do it
(ie project Orion in the 60's) we could be an interstellar civilization now
(specifically, I'm talking about nuclear pulse propulsion generation ships).
So if a civilization at about our tech level could dedicate a few decades of
global GDP to building the infrastructure, one might ask, what goal would
motivate such an endeavor?

There are many lofty, high minded goals one could consider; exploration,
discovery, species/ecosphere survival in the face of an imminent global
threat. Finding, enslaving, or eliminating other sentient life forms? I can't
see how this could be the goal of any civilization. Maybe the same impulse
that could lead to organizing such an incredible, global effort to build the
interstellar infrastructure in the first place could also dictate this less
savory motives, ie religious zealotry ie Church of Galactic Subjugation.

The above is speaking to a possible interstellar civilization and not much
more than our tech level.

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Razengan
All the comments I read here — like most of the discussions that involve
speculating the intent of alien civilizations — make the assumption that an
entire civilization can only ever have one agenda...

I mean just consider HUMANS finding an alien civilization first; Do you think
the outcome will be the same whether the US gets to them first, or the
Russians, or the Chinese, or the Japanese or Indians?

Will every nation on Earth have the same reaction and the same plans for
dealing with the alien civilization? No, right?

..I think a civilization capable of interstellar travel will have EVEN MORE
factions and subgroups with conflicting interests.

Interstellar travel implies a high likelihood that they have already colonized
multiple planets, and it’s _very_ unlikely that the governments of multiple
planets would agree with each other on all matters, even if they could
communicate fast enough, let alone on how to deal with alien civilizations..

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Houshalter
Alien life will almost certainly be hostile. The universe only has fininte
resources. Every intelligent entity is competition in the long run. Even if
resources abound now, the heat death of the universe will come eventually.
Every scrap of matter and energy will be invaluable.

