4 ms·

Has E.T. Made A Call? (Possible Contact from Intelligent Civilization)

11 points by dpapathanasiou 19y ago

dcurtis 19y ago
Yeah, our very first message to an advanced civilization should be (from the article): "Any materials you'd like to give us to help... We're running out of oil," she said.
- kirubakaran 19y ago
  Too bad we won't hear the dial tone when they 'hang up on us'.
ggrot 19y ago
If this is credible, why is the article on ktvu.com and not cnn?
- alaskamiller 19y ago
  our fox affiliate is equally a credible news source as a hackneyed cable news show
- dpapathanasiou 19y ago
  I was suspicious of this story, too, for the same reason, and that's why I added the "possible" qualifier to the title. Still, it's fascinating to think of the possibilities if it's real.
Hexstream 19y ago
I think it's ridiculous to think the aliens might be hostile to us... Imagine a civilization 1000 times more advanced than us. Why would they want to kill the equivalent of cavemen?! And there are so many planets out there, I don't see why they'd want to enslave/destroy ours specifically. It's not like they could possibly feel threatened by us. It reminds me of some people who wanted to prepare for some kind of war against the aliens. In the very unlikely one is declared, we obviously don't have a fighting chance of any kind. It's civilization-who-can-barely-go-into-space VS civilization-with-faster-than-lightspeed-ships. But as I said, if they're smart enough to travel the stars then they're certainly responsible enough not to destroy a comparatively irrelevant civilization.
- rms 19y ago
  >Why would they want to kill the equivalent of cavemen?! Comparatively irrelevant FOR NOW. But that's discounting the exponential progress of energy consumption. They aren't afraid of our nuclear weapons, but why let us live to develop gamma ray bursts? If they study our psychology at all, they would learn that our leaders wouldn't hesitate to gamma ray burst any potential threats.
  - henning 19y ago
    We're all going to die!!!!!!!!!!!
    - curi 19y ago
      No, we're all going to die!11!1!!1111111111111
- Xichekolas 19y ago
  If they are that much more advanced than us, would they even regard us as intelligent? Would we be roaches to them? Eh, I generally agree with you. Just playing the devil's advocate.
- eusman 19y ago
  the nuclear bomb was not used by those who built it
  - eru 19y ago
    Workers in a machine-gun factory do not usually use machine guns.
- jfoutz 19y ago
  That's a pretty human-centric view of the universe. The thing about aliens is, they're alien. Maybe they regulate self replication, therefore the humans need to be licensed. Maybe they can't handle the concept of not being alone, like Kricket. No way to know up front. I'd like to say we have things, therefore humans are slightly more likely to build stuff than destroy stuff. I'd hope civilization works that way everywhere, but there is no proof of that. Really, there isn't all that much evidence. We'd share physics and math, and that's about it. However, this particular article is nonsense.
edw519 19y ago
"Did you say it would take them 3 million years just to get here to destroy us?" "No, maam, I said 3 BILLION years." "Oh, good. I feel much better now."
jkush 19y ago
I hate being hopeful when I hear this type of news. It's always a big let down.
kurtosis 19y ago
Does anyone have a link to more detailed information about the "signal" that was detected? I'm very ignorant of SETI and radio astronomy - what does it mean to "decode" such a signal? What is the evidence that this signal is produced by a civilization, and does not come from a natural source?
- rms 19y ago
  From a Google news search, this is the only only source. There's nothing here: http://www.seti.org/news/ http://www.seti.org/news/ so this story is worthless.
eVizitei 19y ago
After searching for correlating articles, I believe that this article jumped the gun. It's cool to speculate on what would happen if we made contact with an alien civilization, but it appears this is premature for the particular signal they're talking about. See here: http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2004/09/64818 http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2004/09/64818
curi 19y ago
The more advanced aliens are, the more we can make reliable predictions about them. For example, they will have values and ways of thinking closer to what we call "scientific" than "religious/mystical/superstitious/etc." If they did not, they would not become advanced. Wars are very expensive and destructive. It's hard to become advanced when you keep destroying wealth. On Earth, as we've become more peaceful, we've also become more wealthy, and more able to travel space. The same logic for why this would be so on Earth, applies elsewhere.
- eVizitei 19y ago
  I don't know. You can't say that "They would not become advanced" just because they had a religious or superstitious outlook. What is to prevent an alien race that attributes their existence to a higher power from achieving technological progress? Would you also say then that our scientists of today who are advancing our level of technology are by definition irreligious? Likewise, a warlike race of aliens is not hard to imagine. Wars are "expensive" in that they cost lots of money, but when america wages war the money that is spent in such great amounts is spent on American troops and government contractors, who in turn take the money they earned and spend it on other goods, so it does not "destroy" the money. In fact, war is generally an economy booster. As far as the destruction of resources, assume this hypothetical alien race is warlike toward OTHER species, not internally. The things they are destroying, then, are not on their homeworld, but on the worlds of those they conquer, and every world they conquer is another batch of resources for them to sap before moving on. I just think you can't really predict the way another race would develop based on a random sample of 1 (humans).
  - curi 19y ago
    There are laws of physics, which govern how knowledge is created, and how it is not. Superstitious methods of thinking cannot create a higly advanced civilization. Knowledge is created by a process of replication (with errors), and selection. In human-level terms, truth seeking requires being open to new ideas, including criticism, and replacing faulty ideas. Attitudes like, "some things should remain mysteries and aren't for us to know," "I can believe whatever I want as long as it makes me happy," or whatever it is behind superstitions, prevent knowledge creation. If those attitudes are too prevalent, and applied to too many subjects, you can't develop space flight, and other advanced knowledge.
khill 19y ago
They're just informing us that our planet is scheduled for demolition and that the plans are available for review at the local office in Alpha Centauri.
- angstrom 19y ago
  P.S. Don't forget your towel
pg 19y ago
Has anyone got a link to more solid information about this? How clear is it that this is a signal?
- dreish 19y ago
  http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/forum_thread.php?id=44764&nowrap=true#700669 http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/forum_thread.php?id=44764&#38... has more than you'd ever want to read about it, but I'll attempt to summarize: Inconclusive, but possibly something like a supernova or a neutron star collision, probably extragalactic, and almost certainly _not_ engineered by intelligent life.
- jkush 19y ago
  false alarm. http://www.badastronomy.com/bablog/2008/01/16/no-alien-signal/ http://www.badastronomy.com/bablog/2008/01/16/no-alien-signa...

Yeah, our very first message to an advanced civilization should be (from the article): "Any materials you'd like to give us to help... We're running out of oil," she said.

kirubakaran 19y ago
Too bad we won't hear the dial tone when they 'hang up on us'.

ggrot 19y ago

If this is credible, why is the article on ktvu.com and not cnn?

alaskamiller 19y ago
our fox affiliate is equally a credible news source as a hackneyed cable news show
dpapathanasiou 19y ago
I was suspicious of this story, too, for the same reason, and that's why I added the "possible" qualifier to the title. Still, it's fascinating to think of the possibilities if it's real.

Hexstream 19y ago

I think it's ridiculous to think the aliens might be hostile to us... Imagine a civilization 1000 times more advanced than us. Why would they want to kill the equivalent of cavemen?! And there are so many planets out there, I don't see why they'd want to enslave/destroy ours specifically. It's not like they could possibly feel threatened by us. It reminds me of some people who wanted to prepare for some kind of war against the aliens. In the very unlikely one is declared, we obviously don't have a fighting chance of any kind. It's civilization-who-can-barely-go-into-space VS civilization-with-faster-than-lightspeed-ships. But as I said, if they're smart enough to travel the stars then they're certainly responsible enough not to destroy a comparatively irrelevant civilization.

rms 19y ago
>Why would they want to kill the equivalent of cavemen?! Comparatively irrelevant FOR NOW. But that's discounting the exponential progress of energy consumption. They aren't afraid of our nuclear weapons, but why let us live to develop gamma ray bursts? If they study our psychology at all, they would learn that our leaders wouldn't hesitate to gamma ray burst any potential threats.
- henning 19y ago
  We're all going to die!!!!!!!!!!!
  - curi 19y ago
    No, we're all going to die!11!1!!1111111111111
Xichekolas 19y ago
If they are that much more advanced than us, would they even regard us as intelligent? Would we be roaches to them? Eh, I generally agree with you. Just playing the devil's advocate.
eusman 19y ago
the nuclear bomb was not used by those who built it
- eru 19y ago
  Workers in a machine-gun factory do not usually use machine guns.
jfoutz 19y ago
That's a pretty human-centric view of the universe. The thing about aliens is, they're alien. Maybe they regulate self replication, therefore the humans need to be licensed. Maybe they can't handle the concept of not being alone, like Kricket. No way to know up front. I'd like to say we have things, therefore humans are slightly more likely to build stuff than destroy stuff. I'd hope civilization works that way everywhere, but there is no proof of that. Really, there isn't all that much evidence. We'd share physics and math, and that's about it. However, this particular article is nonsense.

edw519 19y ago

"Did you say it would take them 3 million years just to get here to destroy us?" "No, maam, I said 3 BILLION years." "Oh, good. I feel much better now."

jkush 19y ago

I hate being hopeful when I hear this type of news. It's always a big let down.

kurtosis 19y ago

Does anyone have a link to more detailed information about the "signal" that was detected? I'm very ignorant of SETI and radio astronomy - what does it mean to "decode" such a signal? What is the evidence that this signal is produced by a civilization, and does not come from a natural source?

rms 19y ago
From a Google news search, this is the only only source. There's nothing here: http://www.seti.org/news/ http://www.seti.org/news/ so this story is worthless.

eVizitei 19y ago

After searching for correlating articles, I believe that this article jumped the gun. It's cool to speculate on what would happen if we made contact with an alien civilization, but it appears this is premature for the particular signal they're talking about. See here: http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2004/09/64818 http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2004/09/64818

curi 19y ago

The more advanced aliens are, the more we can make reliable predictions about them. For example, they will have values and ways of thinking closer to what we call "scientific" than "religious/mystical/superstitious/etc." If they did not, they would not become advanced. Wars are very expensive and destructive. It's hard to become advanced when you keep destroying wealth. On Earth, as we've become more peaceful, we've also become more wealthy, and more able to travel space. The same logic for why this would be so on Earth, applies elsewhere.

eVizitei 19y ago
I don't know. You can't say that "They would not become advanced" just because they had a religious or superstitious outlook. What is to prevent an alien race that attributes their existence to a higher power from achieving technological progress? Would you also say then that our scientists of today who are advancing our level of technology are by definition irreligious? Likewise, a warlike race of aliens is not hard to imagine. Wars are "expensive" in that they cost lots of money, but when america wages war the money that is spent in such great amounts is spent on American troops and government contractors, who in turn take the money they earned and spend it on other goods, so it does not "destroy" the money. In fact, war is generally an economy booster. As far as the destruction of resources, assume this hypothetical alien race is warlike toward OTHER species, not internally. The things they are destroying, then, are not on their homeworld, but on the worlds of those they conquer, and every world they conquer is another batch of resources for them to sap before moving on. I just think you can't really predict the way another race would develop based on a random sample of 1 (humans).
- curi 19y ago
  There are laws of physics, which govern how knowledge is created, and how it is not. Superstitious methods of thinking cannot create a higly advanced civilization. Knowledge is created by a process of replication (with errors), and selection. In human-level terms, truth seeking requires being open to new ideas, including criticism, and replacing faulty ideas. Attitudes like, "some things should remain mysteries and aren't for us to know," "I can believe whatever I want as long as it makes me happy," or whatever it is behind superstitions, prevent knowledge creation. If those attitudes are too prevalent, and applied to too many subjects, you can't develop space flight, and other advanced knowledge.

khill 19y ago

They're just informing us that our planet is scheduled for demolition and that the plans are available for review at the local office in Alpha Centauri.

angstrom 19y ago
P.S. Don't forget your towel

pg 19y ago

Has anyone got a link to more solid information about this? How clear is it that this is a signal?

dreish 19y ago
http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/forum_thread.php?id=44764&nowrap=true#700669 http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/forum_thread.php?id=44764&#38... has more than you'd ever want to read about it, but I'll attempt to summarize: Inconclusive, but possibly something like a supernova or a neutron star collision, probably extragalactic, and almost certainly _not_ engineered by intelligent life.
jkush 19y ago
false alarm. http://www.badastronomy.com/bablog/2008/01/16/no-alien-signal/ http://www.badastronomy.com/bablog/2008/01/16/no-alien-signa...