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[y2dvd]

The total extent of our radio transmission contact with the galaxy we are in, let alone the universe.

I for one am glad of that fact, the whole idea of advertising our presence to alien lifeforms of unknown ability and motivation always seemed like stupidity to me, actually making contact would probably lead to the whole of mankind winning the Darwin award.

It's kinda sad that the extent of our space travel isn't even past the moon yet.

 

[Regret Upon Approval]

How did you figure that one out?

What if, say, the planet is an entire "nation" that's had no civil conflict for thousands of years and has had not even the opportunity to come up with a reason to destroy itself? What if there is a species that is biologically incapable of fighting within itself, but will kill aliens without a second thought? In what way have we - an aggressive race - been wiped out yet? Are we not already space faring and capable of sending messages across space? Why the hell couldn't an aggressive race survive long enough to reach other civilisations? Doing so only requires some common sense at the simplest level, really.

There's no way of predicting this sort of stuff. There is a genuine risk to doing this.

The first civilisation to go intersteller (and keep up the pace with the development) would definitely be the most lucky one in the universe.

An aggressive race that can't find a reason to fight amongst itself sounds like an oxymoron.
Humans can be aggressive but sometimes the whole hate humans cause they are violent parasites is overplayed. Not close to a warrior race and still hardly space faring with a few almost WW3 misses under our belt.

 

[Freedom = $1.05]

I think one of the only chances we humans have of ever putting aside petting nationalistic differences and actually working together for a common good would be to find someone else to be afraid of/hate. I guess that's the Watchmen approach but I do think we perhaps need to discover intelligent alien life before we fuck ourselves over.

you assume that everyone would follow the same logical path of possible alien threat->unite->defend against possible conflict

what about possible alien threat->fear that the day of judgment has come->chaos in the world from fear that human civilization is ending

or

possible alien threat->worship aliens as possible godlike entities->peacefully live under alien leadership

and that doesn't even come close to running the gamut of possible outcomes as all my examples assume that the aliens come in some form of peace.

there are so many possible variations what could happen that just thinking up one version is doing yourself a disservice. think about how an irish catholic, an english protestant, a sunni muslim, a hindi indian, a buddist chinese person, an american atheist would react to just about any major world event. there are many peoples of all sorts of backgrounds and beliefs and assuming that once the lines that appear on the maps have been cleared that we'll come together under one idea and one plan of action would be setting yourself up for disappointment.

 

[I H8 Memes]

The best way to do this would be with some kind of visual beacon. Which should next make you wonder why we have never seen such a thing in all our time watching the Universe. The Universe is a pretty big place, and yet not one single visual sign of life.

 

[terrisus]

The best way to do this would be with some kind of visual beacon. Which should next make you wonder why we have never seen such a thing in all our time watching the Universe. The Universe is a pretty big place, and yet not one single visual sign of life.

Because we can't see all of the universe.
And even the universe that we can see, it takes a while for stuff to reach us.

 

[Suite Pee]

"Help us save our planet from the rest of the dummies"

 

[Frodo]

Being obliterated by a superior alien civilisation is a better way to die than, I don't know... old age.



But still, I'm on the DON'T DO IT camp.

 

[Neo C.]

Listen to Carl Sagan, stupid!
There isn't a Darwin Award big enough for those wanting this to happen.

hey look at the positive

if aliens invaded they'd get rid of the racism. Humanity vs outsideplaneters

You wish. We would still do horrible to each other of us despite having aliens against us.

 

[-Ryn]

Do it

Any space faring civilization has really no reason to kill us unless they are dolphins or cynical. Or cynical dolphins.

 

[Osiris]

Do it

Any space faring civilization has really no reason to kill us unless they are dolphins or cynical. Or cynical dolphins.

You know what they say about assumption, it really is the mother of all fuck-ups.

 

[-Ryn]

You know what they say about assumption, it really is the mother of all fuck-ups.

lol Aren't both sides assumptions?

 

[SniperHunter]

The best way to do this would be with some kind of visual beacon. Which should next make you wonder why we have never seen such a thing in all our time watching the Universe. The Universe is a pretty big place, and yet not one single visual sign of life.

Universe is way too like terrisus pointed out. Maybe a Type III civilization has the ability to move stars and arrange them in a big arrow or something lol

 

[DJ88]

I do not see what aliens could potentially do to us that we are not already doing to ourselves.

Seriously.

Large scale abuse and murder of the poor, the "enemy" ? Check.
Complete disregard of your environment? Check.
Mass extinction of other species, driven by profits? Check.
Governing countries with no regard towards future sustainability? Check.
Harboring dangerous, potentially earth-threatening weapons of mass destruction? Check.

What would they do?

Seriously dude?
You truly can't think of anything worse?
Our life on Earth is as horrible as it possibly gets.
Pleeeease.