[Ancesthntr]

“But if a civilization is trying to be noticed....”

---

Why would you want to be noticed? Given the age of the Galaxy, and given how tenacious life can be, it is probable that there are at least several thousand technological civilizations throughout the Galaxy. If you are one of them, what are the odds that you are the most advanced one? Pretty slim, given that we lack data about pretty much everyone else who may be out there. Given that any life-form that emerges into a technological civilization also must be a competitive species that had to struggle to become the top dog on its planet, and that such characteristics are not easily disposed of, it seems logical that we want to do everything possible to avoid being noticed by such a species if it is technologically superior to us, even if only by a few hundred years of technological development here. Remember what European civilization did to native people in the New World: they devastated them because they could, because their technology was far better, and they were intensely competitive amongst themselves and therefore had the drive to dominate.

I think that any scientist or other individual with influence who proposes that we want to be noticed is hopelessly naive, and it’s frankly a danger to the very survival of our species in the future. We need to be a star faring civilization, one with trillions of people spread out over dozens or hundreds of star systems, before we can risk contact with other Galactic civilizations. To do so sooner is the height of foolishness.

Of course, if they contact us first, all of this is a moot point. But we should not be the ones who are initiating contact at a point when we can barely get off of our planet in small numbers, and where significant numbers of people on the planet are still incredibly primitive.

[PIF]

Using the sun for gravitational lensing ... it is theoretically possible to broadcast ... which of course will be heard by someone as an announcement of our existence.

“Cosmic civilization laws:
Survival is the primary need of civilization.
Civilization continuously grows and expands, but the total matter in the universe remains constant.

One more thing:
To derive a basic picture of cosmic sociology from these two axioms, you need two other important concepts:
chains of suspicion
the technological explosion.”
Liu Cixin: Death’s End

no one out there can trust you and so will launch a strike from an extra-solar distance while remaining hidden from other competitors. A strike will be casual and likely cause the sun to go nova or supernova just to be safe ... or something even worse like a dimensional strike (reducing our 3D solar system to a 2D object) ... there will be no hoards of alien ships involved because that would expose them.

Hiding is the only successful survival strategy.

[fieldmarshaldj]

*ping*

[Larry Lucido]

You had me at . . . wait, never mind. You said "beacon."

[epluribus_2]

isn’t it wrong and maybe a bit racist to assume our culture should survive when encountering another foreign species that has has different cultural ideas that are just as valid as ours and maybe more enlightened? Intolerant Speciesist and Earth-First bigots! /lib-think_off

[M Kehoe]

I’m sorry, I read bacon.

My bad.

5.56mm