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What do we do if SETI is successful?

(www.universetoday.com)
174 points leephillips | 2 comments | | HN request time: 0.449s | source
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bluGill ◴[] No.45661976[source]
The decision to not respond should not be considered an option for the UN. They can get a week max to decide what to respond, but a response needs to be sent quick. Otherwise you can assume someone will take the choice away and respond anyway. That someone could be a nation not liking the UN discussions, or it could be a rogue scientists with access to the powerful radios. (I doubt most of us could respond if we wanted to - even if someone is willing to break all laws they are either protected by too much security or they are too expensive to afford - but I guarantee someone who works at such a facility is willing to risk responding if governments delay too long)

Even if the UN makes a respond expect someone else to send a different one at some point.

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1. badosu ◴[] No.45664418[source]
The interlocutor on the other end experiencing time (or reasoning) at a different scale is an interesting case too, imagine a week feeling like centuries to them.
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2. rocqua ◴[] No.45665467[source]
Given speed of light concerns. A week long delay is undetectably irrelevant.