[HN Gopher] What Do We Do If SETI Is Successful?
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What Do We Do If SETI Is Successful?
Author : leephillips
Score : 21 points
Date : 2025-10-20 17:13 UTC (5 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.universetoday.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.universetoday.com)
| alganet wrote:
| We can make it so it's never aliens, or always aliens. Public
| _and_ science opinion has become a free for all lately.
|
| People are so caught up in the 3I/ATLAS stuff, for example.
| Should we beam a message to it? What should we think of it? It's
| a circus.
|
| Let's go back to Boyajian's Star instead. Can we really be sure
| the dimming is not caused by a mothership coming from that
| direction? It explains everything, right? Maybe that's how they
| communicate, by sending a paper plane and opening a large
| occlusion origami that says "we come from this general direction"
| (I'm cosplaying Avi Loeb here, satirically).
|
| There's something about _interpretation_ in all of this. Space is
| full of radio signals. We determine lots of them to be natural
| (with good reason).
|
| I'm afraid proposing "we should answer" (in case of
| electromagnetic signals) could lead to a scenario in which people
| are encouraged to believe something without the means to
| verifying it. Some idiot group could do it just to increase the
| popular optimism about space in order to induce a favorable
| perception on the development of space technologies with the
| ultimate goal of just bumping some industry with money. It's the
| kind of world we live in right now, unfortunatelly.
|
| If we want to be serious about humanity's place in the universe,
| first we need to be serious about our home right here. I don't
| think we're mature enough to have responsible control over
| technologies that could be used to send a powerful signal into
| space.
| estimator7292 wrote:
| I've always thought that the public reaction to aliens in
| Contact was precisely, painfully accurate. Panic, cults,
| religions, the typical human response to something huge,
| unknown, and unknowable.
| vee-kay wrote:
| You should see the movie Don't Look Up. It is even more
| painfully accurate portrayal of our times, and it eeriely
| explains why the world's richest men are building and testing
| rockets and spaceships. (Answer: No, it ain't merely for
| space tourism or mere profits. They know their misdeeds will
| ruin the Earth one day, so they are preparing a Plan B.)
| alganet wrote:
| Dude, the movie _Don 't Look Up_ is a metaphor for climate
| change denialism. It has nothing to do with asteroids.
| Bender wrote:
| _What Do We Do If SETI Is Successful?_
|
| Not sure. Can _some_ of HN at least agree that if it 's the
| Empire we all join and act as if we love serving the Emperor and
| then put subtle code in the planet killing weapons that overload
| and self destruct if pointed at human listed planets?
| tetris11 wrote:
| If survival is key in that regard, then we'd probably be
| encouraged to spread/cohabit with other species' planets so
| that the target is more fuzzy.
|
| Earth might still be at risk, but never underestimate the human
| ability to sell large tracts of land to foreign investors in
| exchange for a few concessions.
| Bender wrote:
| _we 'd probably be encouraged to spread/cohabit with other
| species_
|
| I will do my part to find out which humanoid-like species are
| genetically compatible with as wide of coverage humanly
| possible.
| general1465 wrote:
| Unless we will find some Space Nazis like Qu from All
| Tomorrows.
| boznz wrote:
| Humanity Needs Aliens to Survive => https://rodyne.com/?p=3051
| general1465 wrote:
| As a pragmatic opportunist
|
| - Setup a massive array of antennas in space for reception only
|
| - Try to decode their radio traffic and understand how they are
| exchanging information
|
| - Steal their their knowledge and use it to advance human race
| forward.
|
| - Reduce all our electromagnetic emissions to minimum to deny
| them the same advantage. Forbid anyone from sending signal
| towards them so we have time to technologically catch up to them
| without them noticing.
|
| Any kind of contact will ends up in abysmal disaster as we have
| seen in the past, when advanced civilization shown up on shores
| of less advanced one.
| edflsafoiewq wrote:
| You're unlikely to get any radio signal that isn't specifically
| meant for you.
| general1465 wrote:
| If SETI would be able to catch their signal on Earth, then
| antenna array in the space aimed at them, far from Earth to
| prevent our noise could work.
| ivell wrote:
| > Forbid anyone from sending signal towards them so we have
| time to technologically catch up to them without them noticing.
|
| This is going to be difficult. Immediately there would be cults
| that would be inviting them to earth to salvage us.
| general1465 wrote:
| Yeah but they would need to transfer for a long enough time
| to be noticed and decoded by the other side, so it would easy
| to spot and eliminate them quickly. Unless they are a smart
| cult and managed to make some self unpacking and executing
| coding which they could send over radio.
| bossyTeacher wrote:
| Sounds like you read Remembrance of the Earth's Past
| general1465 wrote:
| I did not, but it looks interesting, thanks for the tip.
| HeyLaughingBoy wrote:
| I didn't know Proust wrote sf.
| wkat4242 wrote:
| This presumes they have the same nasty survival-of-the-fittest
| kill-or-be-killed attitude as humanity. Our evolution kinda
| created that but it doesn't have to apply everywhere. I think
| it's entirely possible that alien civilisations could exist
| that are a lot more symbiotic.
|
| We have a saying in Holland "the innkeeper trusts his guests
| like himself" which seems to apply here.
| Koshkin wrote:
| Right; or, since they are not competing with us for
| resources, they could kill us just for sport.
| fph wrote:
| With the current world leadership, I'm (non-sarcastically) afraid
| someone will try to 'export democracy' to Mars.
| vee-kay wrote:
| Don't Look Up
| knowitnone3 wrote:
| Send memes. Most commenters here assume receiving a message means
| aliens can reach us - they can't. Think about how distant the
| closest galaxy is and think about how long it would take to reach
| them even at light speed. The size of the ship needed, the amount
| of fuel needed not only for acceleration but stopping as well.
| Even if they 100x or 1000x our space abilities, it would still be
| impossible.
| ianburrell wrote:
| It also assumes that it is nearby aliens. Our radio
| transmissions have only gone 100 light years, and probably not
| detectable beyond a few. But the aliens could be saying hello
| to everyone from thousand light years away.
|
| It also could not be a message. I think we have ruled out
| nearby Dyson Swarm (as in thousands of light years), but we
| could find one in rest of our galaxy or even Andromeda. Dyson
| Swarms should be noticeably weird infrared stars.
|
| It is also quite possible that we never decode their message.
| Even with one designed to be decoded, their thinking could be
| too different.
| general1465 wrote:
| Or they could just pop up here because they have mastered
| quantum physics and can just use quantum tunnelling to teleport
| whole ship across space in an instant.
| leeroyjenkins11 wrote:
| Get better camouflage so we don't get get found in the Dark
| Forrest. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_forest_hypothesis
|
| >The name of the hypothesis derives from Liu Cixin's 2008 novel
| The Dark Forest, as in a "dark forest" filled with "armed
| hunter(s) stalking through the trees like ghosts". According to
| the dark forest hypothesis, since the intentions of any newly
| contacted civilization can never be known with certainty, then if
| one is encountered, it is best to make a preemptive strike, in
| order to avoid the potential extinction of one's own species. The
| novel provides a detailed investigation of Liu's concerns about
| alien contact.
| sdwr wrote:
| That's an allegory for life under authoritarian rule, not a
| literal alien contact plan
| vee-kay wrote:
| The moot question isn't what will happen after Earth receives and
| confirms an alien signal.
|
| The question is moot, because any alien species advanced enough
| to send directed signals across solar systems, can and will
| reach, overwhelm and subsume Earth with ease, once we Earthlings
| manage to contact such aliens.
|
| And if such events happened in the past, that might explain a few
| interesting notions we humans tend to have.
|
| "Any sufficiently advanced extraterrestrial intelligence is
| indistinguishable from God." ~Shermer's last law
|
| But what if that was their intention from the very beginning?
| What if Earth itself is just yet another alien farm?
|
| What if Earth's beautiful and bountiful life (flora and fauna)
| was the result of terraforming, by aliens, but indirectly using
| spores tacked onto cosmic flying objects (comets, meteors,
| asteroids) that they knew will cross such solar systems and crash
| into inhabitable planets on some not so random chance?
|
| Abiogenesis is the emergence of life from nonliving organics. It
| is the leading theory regarding how life spawned on Earth, but it
| is being questioned due to recent evidence.
|
| Conditions for Life: For life to exist, certain conditions must
| be met. These include:
|
| * Presence of Water: Essential for biochemical reactions. *
| Organic Compounds: Building blocks like carbon, hydrogen, and
| nitrogen are crucial. * Energy Source: Sunlight or geothermal
| energy can drive life processes.
|
| Evidence and Research: While no definitive evidence of
| extraterrestrial life has been found, scientists continue to
| explore environments on other planets, such as Mars and Europa,
| which may harbor conditions suitable for life. The study of
| extremophiles on Earth--organisms that thrive in harsh conditions
| --provides insights into how life might exist elsewhere in the
| universe
|
| One prominent theory regarding the extraterrestrial origin of
| life is Panspermia.
|
| The Panspermia Hypothesis suggests that life, or the building
| blocks of life, may have been transported to Earth via comets,
| asteroids, or space dust.
|
| There are several forms of panspermia:
|
| * Naturalistic Panspermia: Life evolves on another planet and is
| ejected into space, eventually landing on Earth.
|
| * Directed Panspermia: Intelligent beings from another planet
| intentionally send life to Earth.
|
| * Intelligent Design Panspermia: Life is designed and seeded by
| extraterrestrial intelligences.
|
| I believe Earth life is the result of Natural Panspermia. But if
| SETI or other observatories detect and confirm alien signal, then
| Directed Panspermia might be our origin.
|
| https://www.popularmechanics.com/space/a66036689/a-scientist...
| wkat4242 wrote:
| I couldn't imagine worshipping aliens even if they were
| powerful enough to be indistinguishable from gods.
|
| I also think that if such powerful aliens (or actual gods for
| that matter) were to exist, they wouldn't give a rat's ass
| about whether we worship them. Because we'd have nothing to
| offer them. It's like us stepping on ants without thinking
| about it. Their world is so limited it's meaningless to us. If
| any gods existed we'd be the same to them.
|
| In any case my intuition will always be to fight hostile
| authorities, even if its futile. I would never be able to be in
| the military for example.
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