[Kosh]

According to Stephen Hawking

Aliens almost certainly exist but humans should avoid making contact, Professor Stephen Hawking has warned.

In a series for the Discovery Channel the renowned astrophysicist said it was "perfectly rational" to assume intelligent life exists elsewhere.

But he warned that aliens might simply raid Earth for resources, then move on.

"If aliens visit us, the outcome would be much as when Columbus landed in America, which didn't turn out well for the Native Americans," he said.

Prof Hawking thinks that, rather than actively trying to communicate with extra-terrestrials, humans should do everything possible to avoid contact.

While I think he does have a point, contact will come sooner or later so we had best be ready......just in case the Zods come and turn out not to be like the Vulcans but rather like the Shivans. That means putting more focus on our space program and scientific and technological development, hopefully leading to the point to where we can start building GTD Orion class destroyers or whatever.

[FUBAR-BDHR]

Man that is some really old news.  Those quotes have been on the Science, Discovery, National Geographic, etc channels for years.

He does have a point though but it's way too late.  Signals have been going into space for what a century?   

[IronBeer]

Most of us have probably heard about the "radio signal bubble" or something like that...

I've read conflicting information regarding its influence, though. On one hand, some say that the bubble will simply keep expanding, spreading our transmissions and culture (shudder (?)) to the universe at large. Another stance is that while this bubble does exist, its range is only about 2 ly tops, so nobody else is really going to hear it.

Gut feeling, I'd be inclined to follow the latter stance- day-to-day transmissions probably lack the signal power to be intelligible very far out, but I won't say anything for certain without crunching any numbers...

One thing to really take away is that if its the aliens contacting us, visiting us on Earth, then we've already blown it. A civilization that can pinpoint our planet, possibly identify it as desirable or a haven for life, and send a vessel to our world would be so far ahead in technology and (probably) social advancement that we could only hope for peaceful visitors... Or a swift, painless conquest. 

[ssmit132]

I dislike his view that any aliens that visit us will without question want to conquer us. I do think it would be a good idea to be prepared for hostile alien visitors, but not to assume that every alien who comes along is only interested in conquest.

[zookeeper]

I dislike his view that any aliens that visit us will without question want to conquer us.

That's not his view.

[Bobboau]

as far as creatures go, humans are just about the most peaceful. when it comes to respecting of other life forms or considering the negative impact benefits to our selves will have on the other more vulnerable animals on the world, we are by far the most benevolent.


I want you to understand what I am saying here, this is not irony, this is fact, as far as animals we know about go, we are without question the nicest to the other animals weaker than us, because if any other animal on the planet were to be given the sort of power we have, just about everything else on the planet would be destroyed within a week. with that track record for life, I would be a bit worried about creatures vastly more powerful than us that don't even have a connection with our planet and don't have to live with the consequences of draining the ocean or something similar.

[Iss Mneur]

Most of us have probably heard about the "radio signal bubble" or something like that...

I've read conflicting information regarding its influence, though. On one hand, some say that the bubble will simply keep expanding, spreading our transmissions and culture (shudder (?)) to the universe at large. Another stance is that while this bubble does exist, its range is only about 2 ly tops, so nobody else is really going to hear it.

Gut feeling, I'd be inclined to follow the latter stance- day-to-day transmissions probably lack the signal power to be intelligible very far out, but I won't say anything for certain without crunching any numbers...

Well, we have heard reflections of our own signals off a couple of nebula that are further than 2 ly away.

But you have a point about the modern transmissions.  There was some concern a couple of months back about the Drake Equation, in that it assumed that once a civilization learns to broadcast they will continue to broadcast as loud as they can forever. Instead we are slowly lowering the power of our broadcasts so that we cause less interference with other transmissions.  For example, 50 years ago, super radio stations were all the rage.  Broadcast across the entire North American Continent with one omni-directional transmitter.  This one transmitter leaked all sorts of radio into space, but now, our radio stations use lower power, directional transmissions (to point them at the ground) so the leakage is almost non-existent.

[Nuke]

why be invaded when we could be doing the invading

[ssmit132]

That's not his view.

Okay, looks like I misinterpreted it.

[FUBAR-BDHR]

There are so many scenarios that could happen.  It's probably a 50/50 chance.  

Bad/Good
-------------
Aliens bring incurable disease that wipes out entire human race/Aliens bring cure to all disease
Aliens use us as food/Aliens give us way to eliminate hunger
Aliens are warlike and attack/Aliens are peaceful but have powerful defense that protect us from the bad guys.  
Aliens blow up our planet to make interstellar superhighway/Aliens give us on-ramp to interstellar superhighway.

The question comes down to are you willing to risk the survival of the Human race on the flip of a coin?

Oh and I believe the context he answered the question in was if we receive a signal from another planet should we reply.  They were talking high powered laser communication. 

[Klaustrophobia]

while i share the belief that there is other life in the vast universe, i DON'T share the belief that contact is inevitable.  the same rediculous numbers of galaxies and stars unfathomable distances away from each other also stack the odds severely AGAINST two civilizations running into each other.  contrary to every science fiction movie ever made, there IS a limit on what is physically possible through technology.  it is not guaranteed that some super wormhole drive or something is possible to allow one civilization to reach another.  and if it is, the odds of happening across one of the inhabited systems in such manner of travel are still insane.

[watsisname]

Re:  Is there life elsewhere in the universe?
-->  Almost definitely.

Re:  Radio bubble:

The expanding sphere of our radio transmissions certainly does exist, and furthermore its range (given enough time to expand) is *infinite*.  It just requires a larger / more powerful receiver to read the signals at a greater distance.

Re: Contact, good or bad?
I'd argue that any civilization advanced enough to be capable of travelling between star systems is more likely to not be hostile, because I can't fathom how a hostile race would manage to survive long enough to reach that kind of capability.  I believe we should do our best (within reason) to find signs of alien life, and if alien life manages to contact us, I think we should answer.  Afterall, if we find out that there is life out there, I can't see how our burying our heads in the sand and ignoring it is at all beneficial.  They'll probably determine our presence anyway, if they hadn't already done so.

On a related note, last week one of my astronomy professors discussed his views on whether or not it is likely for us (or aliens) to be capable of readily colonizing other star systems.  He argued that this is not very likely based on our current observations.  The supporting argument goes like this:

First, assume that there is one civilization in our galaxy with the ability to travel to and colonize nearby star systems, and let us assume that they are limited by the speed of light but are capable of traveling at a significant fraction of it – and finally, let us assume that it takes them 500 years to travel to and colonize a new star system.
If this is the case, then by virtue of exponential growth, we would expect that the entire habitable region of the galaxy would be colonized within a tiny fraction of the age of the galaxy.  (IIRC my professor gave a value of 30,000 years for this, but I’d like to actually see the math).  Anyways, because we do not see evidence of the entire galaxy being colonized, it’s probably a safe assumption that the capability to do so either does not exist, or that we really are the only advanced life in our galaxy.  I’m under the belief that the former case is the correct one.

[BengalTiger]

Re: Contact, good or bad?
I'd argue that any civilization advanced enough to be capable of travelling between star systems is more likely to not be hostile, because I can't fathom how a hostile race would manage to survive long enough to reach that kind of capability.

Well, for some reason the warrior Europeans conquered both Americas and mostly deleted whoever was in their path.

They managed to survive long enough to do that, even though they were advanced enough to be able to travel across oceans and have firearms, which puts them as far ahead of native Americans as anyone travelling across the galaxy and colonizes planets is ahead of us Terrans today.

[watsisname]

That's a good argument.  But consider the situation we are in right now.  I think that level of aggression you refer to with the warrior Europeans still exists, except now it's more between humanity and the rest of life on earth, rather than conflict between different human cultures.  (It's not exactly intentional, but the fact is that our lifestyle is still devestating the planet -- we are an aggressive species, in a manner of speaking.)  Do you think that we can become successfully spacefaring on a large scale if we do not drastically change the way we live and treat our fellow lifeforms?

[Flipside]

Thing is, the Native Americans is a good example for another reason. The reason that Native American tribes developed such a deep respect for their environment was because they nearly wiped themselves out by not doing so, in particular, it seems likely that the extinction of the Mammoth in North America was bought about by over-hunting.

Much as I hate to say it, I still think it will take a disaster of global proportions before what is left of humanity gets the message.

[BloodEagle]

A few things:

#1. Most of our most important technological advancements occurred as a result of war (see: freaking needed it at the time).  I have no reason to believe that the opposite would be true, and therefore believe that progress would be slower for 'peaceful' aliens and faster for 'warlike' ones.

#2. The 'peaceful alien' thing only works if they're anything like us (verbal communication, hierarchical social structure, etc.).  I.e., If they're formics, well, we're pretty much screwed.

#3. If they were peaceful, why in the Hell would they want to get to know us?

[/mad rambling of a semi-conscious terran]

[Nuke]

look at it this way, we can nuke our own planet, or we can nuke someone else's planet. i dont care so long as were nuking something. start turning keys and pushing buttons!

[Nemesis6]

If the aliens have any intelligence, they'd avoid giving us any technology. The whole "we can use this to make war/extort our enemies" thing you know.

[General Battuta]

as far as creatures go, humans are just about the most peaceful. when it comes to respecting of other life forms or considering the negative impact benefits to our selves will have on the other more vulnerable animals on the world, we are by far the most benevolent.


I want you to understand what I am saying here, this is not irony, this is fact, as far as animals we know about go, we are without question the nicest to the other animals weaker than us, because if any other animal on the planet were to be given the sort of power we have, just about everything else on the planet would be destroyed within a week. with that track record for life, I would be a bit worried about creatures vastly more powerful than us that don't even have a connection with our planet and don't have to live with the consequences of draining the ocean or something similar.

This is an excellent point.

[DarkBasilisk]

I'm kinda in agreement here. It'd be nice to find someone friendly. But...

It's not the chances of someone friendly are necessarily low, it's just the chances of anything positive happening are low. Aliens aren't likely to
A) Have super cures and cool stuff for everything we've always wanted
B) Give it to us for no reason

The most likely chance is anyone that wants to see us in this stage is just some scientist that wants to go check out the primitives. After that the next likely chance is that they want resources or habitable land to settle (there's no guarantee other life breathes the same air as us, BUT, we do know that Earth-type worlds don't grow on trees, at least from what we've seen of the galaxy).

So really, we don't have much to gain from rushing for contact. As people were saying earlier if we show up to first contact with an Orion, some Levis, and a fleet of Faustus, etc, we'll not only be safer off, but it much increases the chance that the race we make contact with will see us as something closer to equals rather than something they can exploit.

If we get a direct signal we may as well reply since they clearly know either our exact location or have some reason to believe someone's in the general area. Not replying indicates we might not have the tech to understand, making us seem even weaker.