Not a Drill: SETI Is Investigating a Possible Extraterrestrial Signal From Deep Space

If there is an advanced civilization there then we can forget about warp speed. If that was possible they would already be here, in person.

 

It turns out the signal contains the plans to build a Lucy Liu sexbot -- the devious fiends -- they know our weaknesses.

 

Anything is possible...

 

Time for an educational film:

 

Not bad.

 

The Russian Science Directorate has determined that extraterrestrials are impossible.

 

In Russian, is it called the Вау! сигнал (Vau! signal)?

 

If they had such technology, I would think the more probable scenario would be for them to decline coming here and putting it on display for us.

 

Why not? To them we'd be like savages with stone knives and bear skins...

 

I would really, really like for us to make contact with an alien civilization (or multiple such), and also, for FTL travel to be impossible.

We could fully colonize and exploit our star system, and they could do that with theirs, and maybe eventually we would each reach out at painfully slow sublight speeds to colonize a neighboring star system, and so on. But neither of us would be trying to invade one another - too much effort and deliberation necessary for ANY extra-system moves - so we would have the benefits of sharing information and culture and such without any need for hostility. We would have companion species in the universe.

 

Have you met human beings? The first thing we would try to do is kill them for not worshiping the same Gods as we do.

 

Some of us would... IF we could get to them. Which we wouldn't be able to do. The worst they might be able to do would be to convince the aliens that we're so dagnasty that they stop talking to us. For a while. Until they have some disease or other calamity they want to share data with us on and see if we can help them, and remember that we can't actually get to them.

 

Even without FTL we can get to them.

 

You are describing one of the possibilities I had in mind when I made the point.

 

What point is that?

 

I believe his point is that it would be foolish and foolhardy to show such technology to a civilization that 1) cannot likely grasp the fundamental theories or mechanics behind the technology and 2) would likely react to it the same way a 5 year old would if you brandished your 12 gauge shotgun you keep loaded and on your dining room table.

 

But if they came here that wouldn't tell us how they did it, especially if their science was so much more advanced than ours. What do you think a man from 1940 could have done with a modern smart phone? Likely nothing, because the technology necessary to make one requires very sophisticated and precise, not to mention expensive machines. And yet it was only 76 years ago.

 

Perhaps, but what could a man from 1940 do with a modern gun?

 

Nothing, if that gun was protected by a sophisticated system. You may imagine that if they have guns, it will be of a kind that we can't even imagine.

 

They only want to serve Man...

...with fava beans and a nice chianti.