Is SETI ethical?

[Eolas Pellor]

I read this article today, and found it rather interesting, especially this:

Zaitsev has already sent several powerful messages to nearby, sun-like stars—a practice called "Active SETI." But some scientists feel that he's not only acting out of turn, but also independently speaking for everyone on the entire planet. Moreover, they believe there are possible dangers we may unleash by announcing ourselves to the unknown darkness, and if anyone plans to transmit messages from Earth, they want the rest of the world to be involved. For years the debate over Active SETI versus passive "listening" has mostly been confined to SETI insiders. But late last year the controversy boiled over into public view after the journal Nature published an editorial scolding the SETI community for failing to conduct an open discussion on the remote, but real, risks of unregulated signals to the stars. And in September, two major figures resigned from an elite SETI study group in protest.

Is it ethical, is it responsible, to broadcast what could, just as possibly as not, turn into an invitation to mauraders and thieves?

"Be seeing you..."

[Rev. Kelly]

I believe that there is life out there somewhere, the universe is just to big and varied to think that we are the only "special" ones. But, I think it would be better to know what is out there than wonder.

Maybe it is our innate curiousity that drives us to know.

[Eolas Pellor]

Originally Posted by Rev. Kelly

II think it would be better to know what is out there than wonder.

Maybe it is our innate curiousity that drives us to know.

I do not dispute that people want to know, and that it is an innate quality in humans, but I have to wonder if you lock your doors at night? And if you do, then why? There are, arguably, more good people in any given city than there are people who would do you harm, after all.

It seems a bit inconsistent.

"Be seeing you..."

[Rev. Kelly]

Originally Posted by Eolas Pellor

I do not dispute that people want to know, and that it is an innate quality in humans, but I have to wonder if you lock your doors at night? And if you do, then why? There are, arguably, more good people in any given city than there are people who would do you harm, after all.

It seems a bit inconsistent.

"Be seeing you..."

Actually, I don't usually lock my doors. At night or any other time. Mostly it is because I just forget, but I also know that there is a way around almost ever lock out there. And if someone wants in badly enough, there is always a window to break.

Someone once said that a lock is only there to keep an honest person out. After thinking about that, I think that person is right.

I say research away, but be as prepared as possible to accept what answers, and possibly defend what we have.

[Eolas Pellor]

Originally Posted by Rev. Kelly

Someone once said that a lock is only there to keep an honest person out. After thinking about that, I think that person is right.

I say research away, but be as prepared as possible to accept what answers, and possibly defend what we have.

The only problem, as I see it, is that whoever or whatever shows up is unlikely to do so for hundreds or perhaps thousands of years... and it is unlikely in the extreme that anyone then will remember SETI. (That, byt the way, is why I would argue that the active attempt to attract extraterrestrial attention is unethical. It's fine to risk your own life, but criminal to risk other people's lives.)

It is also very likely, unless we find a non-pertochemical basis for much of our technology and chemistry, that we will no longer have the ability to defend ourselves at that time.

"Be seeing you..."

[Rev. Kelly]

Originally Posted by Eolas Pellor

The only problem, as I see it, is that whoever or whatever shows up is unlikely to do so for hundreds or perhaps thousands of years... and it is unlikely in the extreme that anyone then will remember SETI. (That, byt the way, is why I would argue that the active attempt to attract extraterrestrial attention is unethical. It's fine to risk your own life, but criminal to risk other people's lives.)

It is also very likely, unless we find a non-pertochemical basis for much of our technology and chemistry, that we will no longer have the ability to defend ourselves at that time.

"Be seeing you..."

Maybe, but we can't predict the future either

[wwwdlhow27]

We have been announcing ourselves to the rest of the universe since the first radio trasmissions. Do you think broadcast signals stop at the edge of our atmosphere? The first wireless message is now about 150 light years out there (in every direction) and still going. Everything since, including "I Love Lucy" and "The Three Stooges", may have confused other civilizations with their own ear to the skys enough to not reply or acknowledge us for fear of what we appear to be.

[Cat5atheist]

If aliens in space are slightly more advanced than we are, but share our human past tendencies at exploration, they likely will come as friends, see what riches we might have that they want, then murder us all and help themselves to our resources. Or another historical pattern would be that they enslave us, to load our resources onto their space ships.

Let's hope they are slightly less advanced so we can put up a fight. If we expect them to be able to decode our radio messages in a foreign language to them, we must already be assuming they have superior technology, so why are we doing this? If the western hemisphere natives had sent bottles with messages and maps in them to Europe, they might have been plundered centuries earlier.

Let's face it we are innately curious animals, and we cannot help ourselves, but maybe we should just keep a low profile. ;-)

[Eolas Pellor]

Originally Posted by wwwdlhow27

We have been announcing ourselves to the rest of the universe since the first radio trasmissions. ...The first wireless message is now about 150 light years out there (in every direction) and still going.

I doubt they are paying much more attention that we are, in the main. Also, since the most powerful radio and TV signals ever came from statsion of, maybe, 100,000 watts, I doubt they could hear the signals anyway. Any more than we can hear theirs (if they use such a technology, which I doubt). IN comparison, we are just beginning to use radio-astronomy to detect planets of Jupiter size or larger, but Jupiter is a very brilliant radio source of about two trillion watts. If we are just now, after 100 years of radio technology, able to identify signals that strong comming from realtively nearby stars, then what chance do our puny "I Love Lucy" re-runs have to be detected??

(BTW, Marconi's first radio experiments were in 1895 and were barely detectable over 2 kms. Although there were eariler experiments, they were so intermittent, brief and lacking in success that it is doubtful that, even with the most sophisticated equipment, any alien civilization would detect them.)

But, whether or not we may have been noticed has nothing to do with the ethics of trying to be noticed. You may be robbed, other people may be robbed, but if you posts a note on your son-in-law's front door that says "Plasma TV in here" it's a very different thing, surely?


"Be seeing you..."

[Eolas Pellor]

Originally Posted by Cat5atheist

Let's face it we are innately curious animals, and we cannot help ourselves, but maybe we should just keep a low profile. ;-)

I agree that would be a better course. We cannot help the fact that evidence of our presence is already out there...but we need not wear diamond jewellery in what, for all we know, is a bad neighbourhood.


"Be seeing you..."