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What do we do if SETI is successful?

(www.universetoday.com)
174 points leephillips | 2 comments | | HN request time: 0.414s | source
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nowittyusername ◴[] No.45664887[source]
Run for the hills!! Any advanced alien civilization that willingly contacts us should automatically be deemed an existential threat. Because they would be smart enough to know the societal damage they caused by this revelation and they did it anyways...
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1. awb ◴[] No.45665110[source]
> Because they would be smart enough to know the societal damage they caused by this revelation and they did it anyways...

That seems like a human-centric perspective.

Maybe they’re a cooperative, altruistic society with an innate desire to help, and maybe had been helped by others before. To not teach us about the imminent dangers of the universe might seem unconscionable to them.

Or maybe they’re a highly ordered society with an innate common goal and see nothing wrong with asking other entities to join their mission.

Sure, some humans may view their contact as intrusive or harmful, but that doesn’t mean they automatically would as well.

If I had to bet, I’d bet you’re right, but the universe is a big place and who knows what societies might be out there that would feel totally foreign to us.

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2. pndy ◴[] No.45665726[source]
> Maybe they’re a cooperative, altruistic society with an innate desire to help, and maybe had been helped by others before.

Then I'd be worried about us - we aren't the best ones in the Orion Arm. Surely there would be a clownshow of who should be representing Earth in such contact. And I doubt any nation or country would freely and willingly give all the knowledge shared by extraterrestrials and lose all the potential advantage. Unless aliens would manage to share it across the globe in some way at once or demand it has to be open to anyone or there wouldn't be "deal" at all.

The older I get, I'm more on "an elaborated simulation, prob ran by our ancestors elsewhere", "we are the first ones to emerge constantly on the edge of annihilation" or "a freak accident of cosmic d20 roll" side of things. Star Trek and rest of the stuff is pretty fun but I expect that reality is really bland and sad.