I like this comment on the Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence:
I must admit that I find the original 1977 SETI Gold Disk message sent inside the Voyager Spacecraft for aliens to find, encouraging them to 'come on over to our place', laughable and irresponsible. The same goes for Active SETI (also known as METI = Messaging to Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence).
It's like the Aztecs and the Incas getting together and placing messages in bottles that are then thrown into the Atlantic Ocean, which read:
"Hi,
If anybody picks this up, how about sailing over here to experience our highly evolved civilizations. You'd love our gold-lined temples. We have very few diseases. And we're very friendly.
Lots of love,
Montezuma & Atahualpa
PS. We have this really powerful weapon we call: the bow and arrow"
Physicist Stephen Hawking, in his book A Brief History of Time, suggests that we should not be so eager to alert extraterrestrials of our presence. Just in case... And recommends that we "lay low".
At least until we get a chance to scope things out, anyway.
While an extrasolar "listening post" might be a good idea, one should think carefully before trying to draw the neighbor's attentions.
1 comment:
Ha ha, you're probably right.
post-Singularity machine-based intelligence may represent the most common mode of existence for late-stage civilizations.
Somehow I highly doubt this.
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