Do we really want to know if we're not alone in the universe?
Now some SETI researchers are pushing a more aggressive agenda: Instead of just listening, we would transmit messages, targeting newly discovered planets orbiting distant stars. Through “active SETI,” we’d boldly announce our presence and try to get the conversation started.
Naturally, this is controversial, because of . . . well, the Klingons. The bad aliens.
Now some SETI researchers are pushing a more aggressive agenda: Instead of just listening, we would transmit messages, targeting newly discovered planets orbiting distant stars. Through “active SETI,” we’d boldly announce our presence and try to get the conversation started.
Naturally, this is controversial, because of . . . well, the Klingons. The bad aliens.
The answer to the question is, well, hell yes. Or at least that should be the answer. And not just because (or even primarily because) they surely know about us. "Knowledge is power" isn't just a good way to approach life, it could be absolutely necessary to our survival. We should especially want to know of them if they indeed are the bad aliens. We might not be able to match them technologically but we should certainly be ready to try to stop them. Or would it be better to just pretend, the way most of the world did in the 1930s that Hitler wasn't all that bad and the Nazis could be trusted? Of course, that seems to be the standard operating procedure of the Obama administration, so maybe we should put off meeting ET for at least a couple of years.
