TRN, great points. From the article:

Radio waves from Earth, from TV and radio broadcasts and from powerful intercontinental military radars are leaking out into space....Drake points out that our present terrestrial radio telescopes, if placed on nearby worlds, would be unable to detect these transmissions at distances beyond a few light years.

While it is too late to do anything about the century's worth of leaked signals that have left our planet, it would at least be very difficult to detect this weak backdrop of chatter by accident.

Our world is in no shape to deal with the socio-political ramifications of alien contact right now, so blasting concentrated "Look at me!" si...

TRN, great points. From the article:

Radio waves from Earth, from TV and radio broadcasts and from powerful intercontinental military radars are leaking out into space....Drake points out that our present terrestrial radio telescopes, if placed on nearby worlds, would be unable to detect these transmissions at distances beyond a few light years.

While it is too late to do anything about the century's worth of leaked signals that have left our planet, it would at least be very difficult to detect this weak backdrop of chatter by accident.

Our world is in no shape to deal with the socio-political ramifications of alien contact right now, so blasting concentrated "Look at me!" signals at solar systems likely to harbor life is not smart, IMO. If extraterrestrial evolution produces the same type of territorial, militaristic type of dominant species as it did on Earth, First Contact could be a disaster.

Luckily, the immense vastness of space and scarcity of life will probably save us from this particular blunder....

I watched a discussion on BBC World, on this very subject tonight. When asked, if sending out material into outer space with info on where we are, brings us risk or not, a senior astronomer from SETI gave an interesting example:

Think about the Native Americans of the early 15th century and imagine them saying "We must be very careful. Make no noise, send no ships to the ocean. Otherwise, white men from the other side could find us and invade our land." If there are alien civilizations far more advanced than us, and if they do consider invading our planet, they'd do it, regardless of us sending clues to them or keep quiet.

It was a very interesting discussion and I agree with the SETI guy...

I watched a discussion on BBC World, on this very subject tonight. When asked, if sending out material into outer space with info on where we are, brings us risk or not, a senior astronomer from SETI gave an interesting example:

Think about the Native Americans of the early 15th century and imagine them saying "We must be very careful. Make no noise, send no ships to the ocean. Otherwise, white men from the other side could find us and invade our land." If there are alien civilizations far more advanced than us, and if they do consider invading our planet, they'd do it, regardless of us sending clues to them or keep quiet.

It was a very interesting discussion and I agree with the SETI guy. Could anything stop Columbus and his followers or the Spanish conquistadors? Western world wanted to discover new lands and exploit all the resources there; so they did. If there is such an advanced but equally "bad intentioned" alien civilizations out there, they'd invade and dominate our planet, sooner or later. Maybe they'll have some arguments to justify their behaviour. For example they may say "We are bringing a far better administrative system to manage and share the resources of your planet, because you are very primitive, selfish creatures running a disgusting primitive administration. We'll teach you how to be more civilized. Oh, we'll take some of your resources too, btw. Sorry guys but this how the things work in the universe, you know."

Just like some "civilized" powers bringing "democracy" and "human rights" to some countries on our present world.

Good analogy with the contact between the Old World and the New World, Invictus.

One difference between the two situations is that, being on the same globe, the New World conquerors were bound to stumble upon the Americas sooner or later through simple random exploration.

Whereas space is so vast and habitable planets so few and far between, I can't envision any civilization thinking it worth the effort to do a brute force search through the entire galaxy, hoping to stumble on life. Listening for electromagnetic activity from afar is the only feasible method to systematically hunt for proof of intelligence. (Short of being lucky enough to catch a drifting space probe and trace its trajecto...

Good analogy with the contact between the Old World and the New World, Invictus.

One difference between the two situations is that, being on the same globe, the New World conquerors were bound to stumble upon the Americas sooner or later through simple random exploration.

Whereas space is so vast and habitable planets so few and far between, I can't envision any civilization thinking it worth the effort to do a brute force search through the entire galaxy, hoping to stumble on life. Listening for electromagnetic activity from afar is the only feasible method to systematically hunt for proof of intelligence. (Short of being lucky enough to catch a drifting space probe and trace its trajectory back to the solar system of origin).

Even if aliens did manage to solve the intractable problem of interstellar travel, it's hard to imagine that even all of Earth's resources would be worth the energy expenditure for them to get here and conquer us, unless they were seeking a remote base or colony in our neighborhood.

It would be the ultimate irony for Earth to be subjected to an intergalactic version of Manifest Destiny. How could we possibly argue that logic?

(Aliens: So, Humans. You invite us over to see your great "society" and "culture". Here we are two generations and 50 light years later. And we find you've been wasting your time on hydrocarbon fuels, game shows, and Paris Hilton? Trust us it's just better this way. ***ZAP!***)

Funny, actually, that we always presume that any alien life will be more advanced than us. Even Sagan talks about us as "the youngest children of the universe." Why is that necessarily the case? Doesn't it stand to reason that if alien life was more advanced, it is them who will find us? If we have to go out and find them, then wouldn't that suggest that we are in fact technologically superior?

Any way, we aren't looking for aliens. We already found bacteria on Mars, but that wasn't what the people wanted.

We're looking for answers. We want someone who can explain difficult questions for us, someone who has solved the problems that confound us. We want something familiar yet superior. A c...

Funny, actually, that we always presume that any alien life will be more advanced than us. Even Sagan talks about us as "the youngest children of the universe." Why is that necessarily the case? Doesn't it stand to reason that if alien life was more advanced, it is them who will find us? If we have to go out and find them, then wouldn't that suggest that we are in fact technologically superior?

Any way, we aren't looking for aliens. We already found bacteria on Mars, but that wasn't what the people wanted.

We're looking for answers. We want someone who can explain difficult questions for us, someone who has solved the problems that confound us. We want something familiar yet superior. A cosmic big brother. In short, the search for aliens is the search for God, displaced in modern technology.

The idea that such a superior being, whether alien or divine, could possibly exist is a source of both hope and horror in equal, limitless proportions.

However, I can guarantee you this: aliens will not end our society, nor will they save it. There is no reason why extraterrestrials should be any less mundane than we are. Inevitably, if we search in this physical realm for transcendental perfection, we will be disappointed.

How would we feel if we finally discovered an Alien, and his name turned out to be Fred, and his job was as a fry-cook at an Alien truck stop?