
Post-Detection SETI Protocols and METI: The Time Has Come to Regulate Them Both - mpweiher
https://arxiv.org/abs/1701.08422
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pjc50
Author bio: [http://www.seti.org/seti-institute/board-of-trustee/john-
ger...](http://www.seti.org/seti-institute/board-of-trustee/john-gertz)

 _John Gertz is the president and CEO of Zorro Productions, Inc., which he
founded in 1977 ... He earned his M.A in psycholophysiology from Haifa
University, and his B.A. in comparative mythology and religion at UCLA and
Prescott College._

From the abstract: "Vastly increased SETI capabilities, Chinese involvement in
the field, and an intensified effort by METI-ists to initiate radio
transmissions to the stars are among reasons cited for urgency in addressing
the question of appropriate regulations. Recommendations include regulations
at the agency level and laws at the national level as well as international
treaties and oversight."

I'm absolutely not a libertarian, but the only way I can parse this is as
someone calling for the building of an international monopoly on talking to
aliens (to his institute only) - with some surprising speech restrictions -
because he's afraid they'll contact the Chinese first. This is IMHO even more
left-field than the people worried about world-ending AI.

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throwaway7645
You can probably read his credentials as "likely not qualified". There is
actually a whole panel of scientists from SETI like Paul Davies that will
report to the president in case of first contact. Davies' book is really good
btw.

~~~
YeGoblynQueenne
Yes, that looks like an awful paper.

However, pardon me but why should "the president" (of the US, I presume?) be
the person to report first contact to? Is the US president somehow
representing the entire species, now?

~~~
pjc50
Well, the author is a movie producer and the US president always represents
the world in the movies, so ...

(I believe this is called "cultural hegemony")

~~~
YeGoblynQueenne
Correction: the US president always represents the world in _Hollywood_
movies.

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Animats
From the article: _" The intentional transmission to interstellar targets of
EM signals of a strength greater than Earth’s omni-directional leakage, should
be considered as the reckless endangerment of all mankind, and be absolutely
proscribed with criminal consequences."_

Premature panic, perhaps.

If somebody somewhere has FTL travel, they'd probably be here already. If
nobody has FTL travel, about all we can do is try to talk by radio, with a lot
of lag.

~~~
3825
(Please pardon my ignorance and lack of proper terminologies. I'm not a
scientist.)

Does faster than light mean instantaneous? Is there no "speed limit" (that we
know of) above the speed of light?

~~~
kobeya
The speed of light is ultimate. Nothing travels faster than light. Furthermore
it is not arbitrary but emerges from the geometry of space time. Talking about
a limit above it doesn't really make physical sense.

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danenania
If the speed of light can be exceeded by manipulating space itself, ala a warp
drive, couldn't there perhaps be (currently unknown) laws governing spatial
expansion and contraction that would effectively set another higher speed
limit?

~~~
throwaway7645
Our current understanding of physics puts a hard limit on matter traveling at
or above the speed of light as your mass increases as you approach the speed
of light requiring an ever greater (infinite amount of energy) to get you
there. With that being said, we still don't have a perfect understanding of
physics, so there is wiggle room. However, our models are really good both on
the drawing board and in observation, so it looks unlikely at this stage (I'm
not a physicist, but read the dumbed down books they publish for the masses).

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ComputerGuru
Whatever protocol doesn't matter. If/when aliens get here, that will literally
change everything.

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directionless
Any else read _Three Body Problem_ ?

