5 ms·

A man who used music to try to lure aliens to earth (2020)

34 points by pmcpinto 3y ago

techwiz137 3y ago
Am I the only one that thinks it's not a good idea? I mean the signal hasnt traveled very far, but yeah these announcements "hey, we're here" aren't very nice.
- dmd 3y ago
  When you say "it", do you mean this one individual with his one radio transmitter, or do you mean the collective practice of humanity in its billions using radio transmissions?
- lijok 3y ago
  Agreed. Horrible idea to broadcast our position like this. But hella exciting
  - notso411 3y ago
    Bit late for that mate.
    - dylan604 3y ago
      Not really sure why this was killed, but it's absolutely true. From the moment we started making radio signals, we've been broadcasting our location. Every single time we communicate with our deep space probes, we're sending out very specific signals that we're here. To that end, that's the entire point of the opening scene in the movie Contact. It's just that the time frame we've been broadcasting is just a drop in the ocean of cosmological time, and the signals really haven't gone very far in comparison.
      - samus 3y ago
        Our signals are so weak that they will probably fade and get drowned out by the electromagnetic noise of interstellar space. We can communicate with our probes only because we use directional signals and we pretty much know what to look for on the receiving end. If aliens manage to pick those up, then their probes would already be like < 1ly away, and they would have noticed us long ago by different means. The intentional signals are a different story though.
      - exe34 3y ago
        They can probably just watch co2 spectral lines and count how many of us there are.
        qbrass 3y ago
        Just as many as on Mars, but hardly any compared to Venus.
- stareatgoats 3y ago
  I used to think I was the only one, but now it seems we are two at least. In fact the main reason we haven't discovered advanced civilizations on other planets is likely that they learned not to disclose it - the hard way...
  - digbybk 3y ago
    You’re certainly not the only two. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_forest_hypothesis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_forest_hypothesis
  - lelandfe 3y ago
    This is the plot of the very good sci-fi book The Three-Body Problem and its two sequels. It popularized the dark forest theory a sibling commenter linked to. That is: if you’re in a forest that’s dead silent, and you’re wondering where all the animals are, it might not be a good idea to start shouting.
- ijhuygft776 3y ago
  I think music is the perfect solution.
  - dylan604 3y ago
    Until we find out that rap/hip-hop is interpreted as an aggressive war challenge, or you can find out that yodeling country music is an effective weapon.
- thegrim33 3y ago
  I personally believe METI practitioners are extremely arrogant ideologues. They've decided that they speak for the entire world, the entire human race, and that they can risk all life on this planet. They think they know better than everyone else, they think they're smart enough, when in reality they truly know nothing about what else is lurking out there in the universe, just like the rest of us. The only rational, safe, approach is silent observation of the universe for now, at least the best we can, until we have more data, but they give the rest of us the finger and just start blasting signals into the void. It's borderline evil. There's numerous groups, not individuals, who actively plan on blasting out really powerful signals in the near future and they don't care what the rest of us think.
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
  - unsupp0rted 3y ago
    Reminds me of the people with “Welcome to Earth” placards standing on rooftops in Independence Day (1996).
  - mpreda 3y ago
    It seems to me you're projecting our own human nature over all possible intelligent life. But with a bit of imagination the potential space of intelligent life is much larger than just "displaying human-like agressive traits".
    - samus 3y ago
      The loss of not making contact with friendly aliens is probably not very high. Attracting aliens whose presence would have negative impact for us would be catastrophic. The aliens would not even have to be that aggressive - there's plenty of different ways that civilizations can harm each other, even if it might not be intentional.
    - nathanmurfey 3y ago
      Sound reasoning when applied to the alien civilizations themselves. However, the dark forest problem (which is what the original commenter I think is talking about) extends beyond the idea that aliens may or may not have agressive traits, if you believe that there are thousands of alien races out there, you only need one to be technologically advanced and decide that humans are too "agressive" to be left alone. Upate: Other people in the thread have mentioned 3 Body Problem, I would recommend taking a look, it completely changed how I think about this.
- jcul 3y ago
  Have you read the three body problem?
notso411 3y ago
[dead]
dylan604 3y ago
A group of us DJ friends used to say "we speak alien" which was a comment about the type of music we played. There's a group by the name of Eat Static which is known for their prolific use of aliens trope and 50s style sci-fi samples that has an album titled "Abduction". One of the tracks is called "Gulf Breeze" which at one point was famous for the most reports of alien abductions. I always wanted to spend a night playing music on the beach waiting for the aliens to make an appearance as it seemed to be the most likely of places for it to happen. Just a random story on a bored sunday
- tinix 3y ago
  gulf breeze florida? i grew up around there, lots of air force bases in the region, and seeing "UFOs" was very common. can't say i ever heard about abductions though... we definitely saw craft accelerate very quickly without sonic booms (which were common from jets)
- wizardforhire 3y ago
  Some now even go so far as to claim theyre aliens… or more specifically reptilians
  - hammyhavoc 3y ago
    Who? There are DNA tests waiting for them to validate this very specific brand of bullshit.
    - c0pium 3y ago
      Your argument is that a brain which is functioning so poorly that it thinks it’s a reptile will be convinced by some piece of paper from a lab? That’s an interesting thought.
    - jacquesm 3y ago
      There are nice, somewhat tight garments waiting for them. DNA tests are a waste. This if funny farm level delusion, assuming they're not doing it just for kicks. Such beliefs to me are an indicator of a malfunction and just like having your towel with you is an indication of being prepared for everything and that you probably are in the possession of a lot of other useful stuff so is this idea one that comes with a high probability that you have more garbage rolling around in your head.
ww520 3y ago
Aliens won’t bother unless a warp drive leaves a hyper jump signature.
david_shi 3y ago
"In sending out music, the idea was to communicate that sense of humanness, that feeling and drive, that ecstasy." Somehow, this makes perfect sense.
Triphibian 3y ago
The turntablist Mix Master Mike (Beastie Boys, Invisibl Skratch Pikls) used to say that his scratches were an attempt to speak to aliens.
motohagiography 3y ago
cant talk about using music to contact aliens without mentioning https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laurie_Spiegel https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laurie_Spiegel
elzbardico 3y ago
I propose we use Cardi B, Beyoncé, Justin Bieber and Taylor Swift to keep hostile aliens away from earth.
- labrador 3y ago
  On Christmas day after dinner we were sitting around chit chatting and the subject of Taylor Swift came up. I mentioned I thought it was odd I didn't know any of her songs. I could name songs by Lana del Ray, Adele, Amy Winehouse and Billie Eilish, but drew a blank on Taylor Swift. A gay friend of the family seemed offended, but he looked on his phone and realized he couldn't name any either. No one in my large family could name a TS song. About a week later I started seeing reports that Taylor Swift was a psyop, which I thought was hilarious given that earlier conversation, but don't believe for a minute.
  - epiccoleman 3y ago
    This comment vaguely reminded me of this delightfully strange article on Taylor Swift that Sam Kriss published a while back: https://samkriss.substack.com/p/taylor-swift-does-not-exist https://samkriss.substack.com/p/taylor-swift-does-not-exist
    - labrador 3y ago
      That's a fine piece of manic writing. I enjoyed it so thanks for sharing. The other weird thing for me is that I'm a huge fan of female artists starting at a young age with Joni Mitchell (I kept this to myself so the fellows didn't think I was gay) up to Aurura, Kate Bush, PJ Harvey and the other previously mentioned artists but total blank on Taylor Swift. These are the more conspiratorial type stories I was referring to Pentagon Rejects Fox News Conspiracy About Taylor Swift Being Recruited as an Asset https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/taylor-swift-pentagon-asset-conspiracy-fox-news-1234945651/ https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/taylor-swift-p...
      - ahazred8ta 3y ago
DoodahMan 3y ago
truthfully if i was not of this world and heard Fela Kuti being broadcasted into the cosmos i'd be coaxed into coming to Earth. those are some damn good vibrations!
iancmceachern 3y ago
They only listen to whale songs
evanmoran 3y ago
On a related note, here’s a paper by (Hugo award winner) David Brin that I came across recently that talks about why we do not hear communications from other life forms in our galaxy. Not being found is a pretty good strategy for survival: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/David-Brin/publication/234496344_The_%27Great_Silence%27_The_Controversy_Concerning_Extraterrestrial_Intelligent_Life/links/5468f0e30cf20dedafd0d529/The-Great-Silence-The-Controversy-Concerning-Extraterrestrial-Intelligent-Life.pdf?origin=publication_detail&_tp=eyJjb250ZXh0Ijp7ImZpcnN0UGFnZSI6InB1YmxpY2F0aW9uIiwicGFnZSI6InB1YmxpY2F0aW9uRG93bmxvYWQiLCJwcmV2aW91c1BhZ2UiOiJwdWJsaWNhdGlvbiJ9fQ https://www.researchgate.net/profile/David-Brin/publication/...
PM_me_your_math 3y ago
[dead]

34 points by pmcpinto 3y ago

Am I the only one that thinks it's not a good idea? I mean the signal hasnt traveled very far, but yeah these announcements "hey, we're here" aren't very nice.

dmd 3y ago
When you say "it", do you mean this one individual with his one radio transmitter, or do you mean the collective practice of humanity in its billions using radio transmissions?
lijok 3y ago
Agreed. Horrible idea to broadcast our position like this. But hella exciting
- notso411 3y ago
  Bit late for that mate.
  - dylan604 3y ago
    Not really sure why this was killed, but it's absolutely true. From the moment we started making radio signals, we've been broadcasting our location. Every single time we communicate with our deep space probes, we're sending out very specific signals that we're here. To that end, that's the entire point of the opening scene in the movie Contact. It's just that the time frame we've been broadcasting is just a drop in the ocean of cosmological time, and the signals really haven't gone very far in comparison.
    - samus 3y ago
      Our signals are so weak that they will probably fade and get drowned out by the electromagnetic noise of interstellar space. We can communicate with our probes only because we use directional signals and we pretty much know what to look for on the receiving end. If aliens manage to pick those up, then their probes would already be like < 1ly away, and they would have noticed us long ago by different means. The intentional signals are a different story though.
    - exe34 3y ago
      They can probably just watch co2 spectral lines and count how many of us there are.
      - qbrass 3y ago
        Just as many as on Mars, but hardly any compared to Venus.
stareatgoats 3y ago
I used to think I was the only one, but now it seems we are two at least. In fact the main reason we haven't discovered advanced civilizations on other planets is likely that they learned not to disclose it - the hard way...
- digbybk 3y ago
  You’re certainly not the only two. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_forest_hypothesis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_forest_hypothesis
- lelandfe 3y ago
  This is the plot of the very good sci-fi book The Three-Body Problem and its two sequels. It popularized the dark forest theory a sibling commenter linked to. That is: if you’re in a forest that’s dead silent, and you’re wondering where all the animals are, it might not be a good idea to start shouting.
ijhuygft776 3y ago
I think music is the perfect solution.
- dylan604 3y ago
  Until we find out that rap/hip-hop is interpreted as an aggressive war challenge, or you can find out that yodeling country music is an effective weapon.
thegrim33 3y ago
I personally believe METI practitioners are extremely arrogant ideologues. They've decided that they speak for the entire world, the entire human race, and that they can risk all life on this planet. They think they know better than everyone else, they think they're smart enough, when in reality they truly know nothing about what else is lurking out there in the universe, just like the rest of us. The only rational, safe, approach is silent observation of the universe for now, at least the best we can, until we have more data, but they give the rest of us the finger and just start blasting signals into the void. It's borderline evil. There's numerous groups, not individuals, who actively plan on blasting out really powerful signals in the near future and they don't care what the rest of us think.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
- unsupp0rted 3y ago
  Reminds me of the people with “Welcome to Earth” placards standing on rooftops in Independence Day (1996).
- mpreda 3y ago
  It seems to me you're projecting our own human nature over all possible intelligent life. But with a bit of imagination the potential space of intelligent life is much larger than just "displaying human-like agressive traits".
  - samus 3y ago
    The loss of not making contact with friendly aliens is probably not very high. Attracting aliens whose presence would have negative impact for us would be catastrophic. The aliens would not even have to be that aggressive - there's plenty of different ways that civilizations can harm each other, even if it might not be intentional.
  - nathanmurfey 3y ago
    Sound reasoning when applied to the alien civilizations themselves. However, the dark forest problem (which is what the original commenter I think is talking about) extends beyond the idea that aliens may or may not have agressive traits, if you believe that there are thousands of alien races out there, you only need one to be technologically advanced and decide that humans are too "agressive" to be left alone. Upate: Other people in the thread have mentioned 3 Body Problem, I would recommend taking a look, it completely changed how I think about this.
jcul 3y ago
Have you read the three body problem?

notso411 3y ago

[dead]

dylan604 3y ago

A group of us DJ friends used to say "we speak alien" which was a comment about the type of music we played. There's a group by the name of Eat Static which is known for their prolific use of aliens trope and 50s style sci-fi samples that has an album titled "Abduction". One of the tracks is called "Gulf Breeze" which at one point was famous for the most reports of alien abductions. I always wanted to spend a night playing music on the beach waiting for the aliens to make an appearance as it seemed to be the most likely of places for it to happen. Just a random story on a bored sunday

tinix 3y ago
gulf breeze florida? i grew up around there, lots of air force bases in the region, and seeing "UFOs" was very common. can't say i ever heard about abductions though... we definitely saw craft accelerate very quickly without sonic booms (which were common from jets)
wizardforhire 3y ago
Some now even go so far as to claim theyre aliens… or more specifically reptilians
- hammyhavoc 3y ago
  Who? There are DNA tests waiting for them to validate this very specific brand of bullshit.
  - c0pium 3y ago
    Your argument is that a brain which is functioning so poorly that it thinks it’s a reptile will be convinced by some piece of paper from a lab? That’s an interesting thought.
  - jacquesm 3y ago
    There are nice, somewhat tight garments waiting for them. DNA tests are a waste. This if funny farm level delusion, assuming they're not doing it just for kicks. Such beliefs to me are an indicator of a malfunction and just like having your towel with you is an indication of being prepared for everything and that you probably are in the possession of a lot of other useful stuff so is this idea one that comes with a high probability that you have more garbage rolling around in your head.

ww520 3y ago

Aliens won’t bother unless a warp drive leaves a hyper jump signature.

david_shi 3y ago

"In sending out music, the idea was to communicate that sense of humanness, that feeling and drive, that ecstasy." Somehow, this makes perfect sense.

Triphibian 3y ago

The turntablist Mix Master Mike (Beastie Boys, Invisibl Skratch Pikls) used to say that his scratches were an attempt to speak to aliens.

motohagiography 3y ago

cant talk about using music to contact aliens without mentioning https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laurie_Spiegel https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laurie_Spiegel

elzbardico 3y ago

I propose we use Cardi B, Beyoncé, Justin Bieber and Taylor Swift to keep hostile aliens away from earth.

labrador 3y ago
On Christmas day after dinner we were sitting around chit chatting and the subject of Taylor Swift came up. I mentioned I thought it was odd I didn't know any of her songs. I could name songs by Lana del Ray, Adele, Amy Winehouse and Billie Eilish, but drew a blank on Taylor Swift. A gay friend of the family seemed offended, but he looked on his phone and realized he couldn't name any either. No one in my large family could name a TS song. About a week later I started seeing reports that Taylor Swift was a psyop, which I thought was hilarious given that earlier conversation, but don't believe for a minute.
- epiccoleman 3y ago
  This comment vaguely reminded me of this delightfully strange article on Taylor Swift that Sam Kriss published a while back: https://samkriss.substack.com/p/taylor-swift-does-not-exist https://samkriss.substack.com/p/taylor-swift-does-not-exist
  - labrador 3y ago
    That's a fine piece of manic writing. I enjoyed it so thanks for sharing. The other weird thing for me is that I'm a huge fan of female artists starting at a young age with Joni Mitchell (I kept this to myself so the fellows didn't think I was gay) up to Aurura, Kate Bush, PJ Harvey and the other previously mentioned artists but total blank on Taylor Swift. These are the more conspiratorial type stories I was referring to Pentagon Rejects Fox News Conspiracy About Taylor Swift Being Recruited as an Asset https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/taylor-swift-pentagon-asset-conspiracy-fox-news-1234945651/ https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/taylor-swift-p...
    - ahazred8ta 3y ago

DoodahMan 3y ago

truthfully if i was not of this world and heard Fela Kuti being broadcasted into the cosmos i'd be coaxed into coming to Earth. those are some damn good vibrations!

iancmceachern 3y ago

They only listen to whale songs

evanmoran 3y ago

On a related note, here’s a paper by (Hugo award winner) David Brin that I came across recently that talks about why we do not hear communications from other life forms in our galaxy. Not being found is a pretty good strategy for survival: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/David-Brin/publication/234496344_The_%27Great_Silence%27_The_Controversy_Concerning_Extraterrestrial_Intelligent_Life/links/5468f0e30cf20dedafd0d529/The-Great-Silence-The-Controversy-Concerning-Extraterrestrial-Intelligent-Life.pdf?origin=publication_detail&_tp=eyJjb250ZXh0Ijp7ImZpcnN0UGFnZSI6InB1YmxpY2F0aW9uIiwicGFnZSI6InB1YmxpY2F0aW9uRG93bmxvYWQiLCJwcmV2aW91c1BhZ2UiOiJwdWJsaWNhdGlvbiJ9fQ https://www.researchgate.net/profile/David-Brin/publication/...

PM_me_your_math 3y ago

[dead]