If There Are Aliens Out There, Do We Really Want To Meet Them?

11 Oct, 2006 by John Hawkins

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Does this strike anyone else as a particularly bad idea?

“Mexico’s Teotihuacan, once the center of a sprawling pre-Hispanic empire, is set to become the launch pad for an attempt to communicate with extraterrestrial life.

Starting on Tuesday, enthusiasts from around the world will have a chance to submit text, images, video and sounds that reflect human nature to be included in the message.

…In the 1970s, astronomer Carl Sagan compiled a record with sounds and images, including a mariachi band and greetings in an ancient Sumerian language, to portray the diversity of life and culture on Earth.

His record was sent out with the Voyager spacecraft in the hope that extraterrestrial life forms would eventually find it.”

Consider this: if there are actually aliens out there and a message from Earth reaches them, we don’t have the slightest idea what would happen. If they get the message, they might show up with a big basket of intergalactic flowers or, on the other hand, they might round up our entire population and send us across the galaxy to be made into human space jerky.

But, while we don’t have the slightest idea how the aliens would react, we can be sure that if they can actually receive our message and travel here to meet us, they will likely be so technologically superior that we would be completely at their mercy.

Since that’s the case, does it make sense to try to call attention to ourselves? It’s like a lamb sitting in the middle of the jungle baaing at the top of his lungs in hopes that it will attract another animal. Yes, eventually another critter may come along, but when it does, there might not be anything left but a little wool and half a lamb chop when it’s done.