I can't help thinking the paper referred to is basically an effort to create a sinecure for philosophy professors. Would we be cautious if some random but obvio

I can't help thinking the paper referred to is basically an effort to create a sinecure for philosophy professors. Would we be cautious if some random but obviously artificial space probe appeared? Of course. It's reasonable to expect the same of any other space-capable civilization. Conversely, I also think the undertaking broad scale bio-colonization with dumb planetary infection probes is going to be way more expensive and difficult than most people imagine. We would have a better prospect by sending out mycelia with human DNA comehow encoded as passengers on some cosmic equivalent of a taking our retirement funds to Las Vegas.