First Contact: What might it look like?

[J.K. Gregg]

[John Galt]

awesome friday nights at the gregg household

i don't think it would be a probe. that's a lot of expenditure for something that moves slower. more likely it would be picking up alien broadcasts, and probably not really directed at us. im not saying seti is anything other the a giant waste of time but that's how it would come

because of this we would have a long debate over what it says, what it means, should we send something back or just be silent

[J.K. Gregg]

Do you think it would have much an effect on religion?

[exploited]

No. The religious people would use it to their benefit actually.

[J.K. Gregg]

That wiki article says over and over again that humanity might go through an existential crisis knowing we're not alone and that there might be thousands of other civilizations out there. It even says we might self-destruct.

I'm not sure I'm buying that. At all.

[exploited]

[NAB]

[WizardfromOz]

I am not sure it would rock humanity to the core. I think the most common reaction would be elation, happiness excitement. There will be some who view it with dread but I really think they would be in the minority. What it might do is give humans a sense of unity, common cause to go back out there and seek these creatures and hope they'll consider us a friend.

In terms of the contact itself I suspect most of the initial contact message whatever it is will uses maths and known parameters of the universe to communicate. NASA did that with plaque on board Voyager. Two humans are superimposed on an image of the probe itself to help anyone find the plaque understand our physical dimensions.

[exploited]

For example, one of the first steps to actually meeting these aliens would be to exchange blood or bodily fluid. We would need to do this to test for negative effects of interaction. We could, after all, be encountering germs or bacteria or whatever that is also alien... and potentially able to wreak havoc.

The problem is that exchanging this information poses serious potential for harm. If you thought the aliens were hostile, you would do anything to interrupt such an exchange.

[John Galt]

one should assume they are hostile though. as in be prepared for that to happen: it's only the survival of the entire human species at stake. which is why i would say, if it was from picking up alien transmissions, "don't answer until we're ready".

of course if they just come to the planet the planet we're likely either a curiosity (earths are everywhere) or doomed (earths are rare)