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[Idiom]

Could have sworn there was already a thread but I can't find it.

SETI would like to know how we should react to intelligent alien life.

One guy on the message submission site actually has a brain.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

In order to transmit a message, you need a common language. This will require an exchange of intelligent beings. Given the required investment, it's useless to communicate with anyone who is not supremely interested. This site rests on an unsound premise. 

[Cthulhu]

If I see an alien, I'm punching it right in the whatever it has.  I'll just hope it considers that a greeting.

[woose1]

If I see an alien, I will attempt to build a rocket while yelling at it: "We're not ready yet!"

[Vactor]

One guy on the message submission site actually has a brain.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

In order to transmit a message, you need a common language. This will require an exchange of intelligent beings. Given the required investment, it's useless to communicate with anyone who is not supremely interested. This site rests on an unsound premise. 

I don't think your friend is as sage as you think he is.  He simply made an arbitrary assertion and concluded his own cynicism.

[Duke 2.0]

 If I ever get contacted by alien life, I will send it a gold plate with images of nude humans, our DNA structure, our population size and our weaknesses.

 No way that can blow up in our faces.

[Virex]

If I ever get contacted by alien life, I will send it a gold plate with images of nude humans, our DNA structure, our population size and our weaknesses.

 No way that can blow up in our faces.

Geneticly modified viruses to steralise earth so they can take it over without a fight?

[Duke 2.0]

If I ever get contacted by alien life, I will send it a gold plate with images of nude humans, our DNA structure, our population size and our weaknesses.

 No way that can blow up in our faces.

Geneticly modified viruses to steralise earth so they can take it over without a fight?

Human alien hybrids that look just like us but are serial killers and can reproduce?

[Idiom]

One guy on the message submission site actually has a brain.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

In order to transmit a message, you need a common language. This will require an exchange of intelligent beings. Given the required investment, it's useless to communicate with anyone who is not supremely interested. This site rests on an unsound premise. 

I don't think your friend is as sage as you think he is.  He simply made an arbitrary assertion and concluded his own cynicism.

Did you read the other submissions? He's a sage among retarded monkeys. At least one half of the submissions aren't even serious, and the rest are elongated "hello"s. There's probably someone else in there that realized "Hey! We can't beam any kind of message without a mutually understood language or medium. This is kind of pointless without that" but that was the first one I saw.

I wouldn't even actively try to make contact if I was in charge. I'd just send some unmanned probes to observe as long as possible without contact. And that's if we find them first rather than vice versa. I really doubt aliens would make contact without a very long period of observation first.

[Rilder]

I bet if aliens landed a group would declare that they aren't sentient and try to enslave them. Either that or a group of religious extremists (probably christian) would try and massacre them because they don't believe in their god.

Or they would have sort of fucked up ritual at the negotiation table (like eating a baby) which would degenerate into one side being horribly offended and it breaking into war.

Of course if aliens did land, the world might degenerate into world war because they landed in Russia and America deciding that Russia is hiding alien technology, thus they must be destroyed before they find a way to utilize this technology.

[Vactor]

Did you read the other submissions? He's a sage among retarded monkeys. At least one half of the submissions aren't even serious, and the rest are elongated "hello"s. There's probably someone else in there that realized "Hey! We can't beam any kind of message without a mutually understood language or medium. This is kind of pointless without that" but that was the first one I saw.

I wouldn't even actively try to make contact if I was in charge. I'd just send some unmanned probes to observe as long as possible without contact. And that's if we find them first rather than vice versa. I really doubt aliens would make contact without a very long period of observation first.

I have to admit I didn't check out the site, but i'm sure what you say is true. 

My first message would be a series of pulses 1,2,4,8,16,32,64...etc followed by 1,1,2,3,5,8,13...etc, it is a show of intelligence that shows some complexity of thought that can be understood without language.  It also provides opportunity for a response, as they could continue the sequence where we left off.  It can also give some insight into what extent we share commonalities in thinking.  If they understand the sequences they may continue them, if they don't understand they may simply mimic them.

I think we have little to fear from contacting any life that might be discovered.  If an alien race isn't interested in the resources in our system at the moment, revealing that there is life here would not suddenly drive them to waste resources attacking us.  On the other hand if there is a race that is interested in our system, but don't know there is life here, revealing that there is could only serve as a deterrent, and reason to look elsewhere.

[Darkone]

Infinity Beach has a pretty good idea of first contact. They start with simply strobing their lights, and then move on and attempt to see whether the aliens carry radar, etc etc. Basically, they take logical steps to build up to eventually sending pictures and other things, which is later useful as the aliens are able to use the pictures to create metaphorical statements that are fairly complex

[Creamcorn]

Did you read the other submissions? He's a sage among retarded monkeys. At least one half of the submissions aren't even serious, and the rest are elongated "hello"s. There's probably someone else in there that realized "Hey! We can't beam any kind of message without a mutually understood language or medium. This is kind of pointless without that" but that was the first one I saw.

I wouldn't even actively try to make contact if I was in charge. I'd just send some unmanned probes to observe as long as possible without contact. And that's if we find them first rather than vice versa. I really doubt aliens would make contact without a very long period of observation first.

I have to admit I didn't check out the site, but i'm sure what you say is true. 

My first message would be a series of pulses 1,2,4,8,16,32,64...etc followed by 1,1,2,3,5,8,13...etc, it is a show of intelligence that shows some complexity of thought that can be understood without language.  It also provides opportunity for a response, as they could continue the sequence where we left off.  It can also give some insight into what extent we share commonalities in thinking.  If they understand the sequences they may continue them, if they don't understand they may simply mimic them.

I think we have little to fear from contacting any life that might be discovered.  If an alien race isn't interested in the resources in our system at the moment, revealing that there is life here would not suddenly drive them to waste resources attacking us.  On the other hand if there is a race that is interested in our system, but don't know there is life here, revealing that there is could only serve as a deterrent, and reason to look elsewhere.

That's a stupid idea.

I would choose a series of beeps and pings that would each have a rhythm, with a pause of half a second in between every noise. Such as: bold beeps, pings italics.

1  1-2  1  1-2-3-4  1  1-2  1-2-3-4-5-6  1-2-3-4

That way the aliens know that it's not just space noise.

[Vactor]

That's a stupid idea.

stupid idea or have i failed to discover intelligent life?

[Darkone]

You do realize that the idea of going 1-2-3-4 and then 1-2-4-8-16 is to establish concurrent understanding of mathematical principles? Showing special patterns proves that its not noise, and is in fact basic mathematics. 1-2-3-4, 1-2-4-8, 1-2-5-7 or 2-5-7-11, as I forgot whether 1 is a prime.. etc etc.

[ein]

One is not prime.
And yes, mathematical sequences are a universal language among sentients. Most likely.