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What do we do if SETI is successful?

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174 points leephillips | 2 comments | 20 Oct 25 17:13 UTC | HN request time: 0.411s | source
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theletterf ◴[21 Oct 25 20:50 UTC] No.45661520[source]▶
For a somber, deeply intellectual view of what could happen, I can't recommend enough Stanislaw Lem's His Master's Voice: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/His_Master%27s_Voice_%28novel%...

"Given that our civilization is unable to assimilate well even those concepts that originate in human heads when they appear outside its main current, although the creators of those concepts are, after all, children of the same age—how could we have assumed that we would be capable of understanding a civilization totally unlike ours, if it addressed us across the cosmic gulf?"

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themafia ◴[21 Oct 25 22:34 UTC] No.45662589[source]▶
Me and my dog cannot talk.

I understand my dog and he understands me.

If they experience death then we have massive common ground already.

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Kiboneu ◴[21 Oct 25 22:46 UTC] No.45662695[source]▶
Humans and dogs have evolved together to be cooperative…

would you feel common ground with a predatory fish? Or a plant? An insect colony?

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redundantly ◴[22 Oct 25 00:07 UTC] No.45663397[source]▶
> would you feel common ground with a predatory fish?

The fish needs to eat, I need to eat. The fish has the drive to procreate, so do I, or at least I have a sex drive.

> Or a plant?

We both need sunlight to live, we both require a breathable atmosphere. We both need water.

> An insect colony?

Much of the above applies here as well, in addition to that I can see similarities between a large insect colony and our large cities, how things move, how roads and buildings are adjusted for efficiencies, how bad actors can harm the system.

Yes, I can see common ground between myself and all three of those things you listed.

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1. aeve890 ◴[22 Oct 25 00:17 UTC] No.45663483[source]▶
Not the parent comment but what's your point? You can't use that common ground for anything, let alone communication, can you?. The fish wants to fuck? You want to too, what now? How do you stablish a common ground to understanding based on such things?
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2. ribosometronome ◴[22 Oct 25 03:40 UTC] No.45664692[source]▶
Pertinent here is that said fish has done something notable enough to have been discovered from, literally, across the galaxy. Those fish built some sort of civilization such that they're sending our lasers, radio waves, or building Dyson spheres.