Contacting ET: Our Hopes and Fears

  • Thread starter Thread starter Ivan Seeking
  • Start date Start date
AI Thread Summary
Michael Michaud's book, "Contact with Alien Civilizations – Our Hopes and Fears about Encountering Extraterrestrials," raises critical questions about humanity's approach to potential extraterrestrial contact. He emphasizes the dilemma of whether to remain passive observers or to actively seek communication with alien civilizations. The discussion also highlights the need for the U.S. Congress to reconsider policies regarding extraterrestrial encounters, particularly in light of advancements in detecting exoplanets. The historical context is provided by the Brookings Institute's 1960 report, which examined the implications of discovering extraterrestrial life, suggesting that superior intelligence may lead to minimal contact with humanity. This ongoing dialogue reflects the evolving understanding of our place in the universe and the potential consequences of reaching out to other civilizations.
Ivan Seeking
Staff Emeritus
Science Advisor
Gold Member
Messages
8,194
Reaction score
2,483
... Michael Michaud is the author of a newly published exceptional book, "Contact with Alien Civilizations – Our Hopes and Fears about Encountering Extraterrestrials" (Copernicus Books). He suggests that the “prime question” is straightforward: Should we simply be watchers and listeners from our outpost in the universe, or should we actively seek contact by sending out messages, proclaiming our presence?

...Is it time for the U.S. Congress to re-look at the ET encounter business - given the increasing rates of extra solar planetary detection? [continued]
http://space.com/news/070202_alien_contact.html
 
Physics news on Phys.org
On December 14, 1960, The Brookings Research Institute in Washington released a report prepared during 1960 for NASA entitled "Proposed Studies on the Implications of Peaceful Space Activities for Human Affairs", including a section entitled "Implications of a Discovery of Extraterrestrial Life". (Commonly referred to as "the Brookings Institute report".) The report discusses effects of meeting extraterrestrial life: "It is possible that if the intelligence of these creatures were sufficiently superior to ours, they would choose to have little if any contact with us. . . " (New York Times, Dec. 15, 1960) The original site for the 219-page report and the 50-page summary is listed below. For security reasons, if the site would go down, the NICAP site also hosts the full documents, also listed below. The article in the NICAP UFO Investigator that announced the release of the report in its Dec/Jan issue is produced below. Recently added is the New York Times article transcript, [continued]
http://nicap.org/brookingsdir.htm
 

Thread 'Predictions for the Nobel Prize in Physics 2025'

Similar to the 2024 thread, here I start the 2025 thread. As always it is getting increasingly difficult to predict, so I will make a list based on other article predictions. You can also leave your prediction here. Here are the predictions of 2024 that did not make it: Peter Shor, David Deutsch and all the rest of the quantum computing community (various sources) Pablo Jarrillo Herrero, Allan McDonald and Rafi Bistritzer for magic angle in twisted graphene (various sources) Christoph...
View full post »
Thread 'My experience as a hostage'

Thread 'My experience as a hostage'

I believe it was the summer of 2001 that I made a trip to Peru for my work. I was a private contractor doing automation engineering and programming for various companies, including Frito Lay. Frito had purchased a snack food plant near Lima, Peru, and sent me down to oversee the upgrades to the systems and the startup. Peru was still suffering the ills of a recent civil war and I knew it was dicey, but the money was too good to pass up. It was a long trip to Lima; about 14 hours of airtime...
View full post »

Hot Threads

Recent Insights

Back
Top