-----Original Message-----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: Saturday, December 09, 2000 1:18 AM
Subject: Re: Message in a Bottle
>
>As this is my first posting to this group, I'll attempt not to sound
>fanatically ignorant.
>
>Your concept of using quasars or other such means as a method of signaling
a
>civilizations existence, whether an alien one or our own at some future
time,
>is interesting. But is does raise one question.
>
>Why?
>
>Why would an advanced space faring civilization want to signal to any and
all
>'rookies' that "Here we are! Come visit!"? Perhaps with the advances such
a
>culture has made, they have determined that dealing with other cultures
"when
>the time comes" is preferable to the universes largest billboard technique.
>It seems to me rather presumptuous to think that advanced civilizations
can't
>wait to meet us, or any other developing world. Many novels have argued,
and
>I tend to agree, that if we survive ourselves and make the jump into
>interstellar then intergalactic space, the first meetings would be for
trade
>and assurances, not giving a helping hand to any one who asked. Space
>exploration may begin with governments sending out a 'Magellan' or a
>'Cortez', but whichever the case may be, the 'Hudson's Bay Company' will be
>sure to follow to capitalize on what they find. I for one doubt that alien
>civilizations care to have a bunch of outcast adventurers and fur trappers
>homing in on their beacons.
>
>I hope I haven't insulted anyone's intelligence too badly for a short
message.
>
>Dave Price
>==
>
Not at all. But there's a more sinister possibility, suggested by shrewd
SF writers like Isaac Asimov and Greg Bear: what if the reason we're not
picking up radio signals (either deliberate or accidental) from other
civilizations is that the only nearby civilizations that are still alive are
the ones that had sense enough to keep their mouths shut? There's no reason
why a civilization capable of launching unmanned interstellar vehicles might
not decide to play it safe by dispatching weapon-equipped probes to home in
on and bump off radio-emitting civilizations before they could achieve
interstellar travel themselves and become potential dangerous rivals. God
knows it's the kind of thing a lot of human societies in the past have been
willing to do.
My own feeling is that a still grimmer possibility is the most likely: I
think it highly likely that virtually every intelligent race in the Universe
destroys itself with nuclear or (more likely) biological weapons
(deliberately or accidentally) within at most a few centuries of discovering
electricity. Certainly our own race is easily capable of doing such a thing
without outside assistance -- and when you think about it, there will soon
be so incredibly many ways it could be done. (Alternatively, maybe watching
the election mess has just put me in a dyspeptic mood.) Happy holidays...
Bruce Moomaw
==
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