Scientists are no closer to consensus today, and the question is more urgent than ever. New SETI technologies are greatly expanding the scope of the search; if aliens are out there and are sending radio or light signals, we could hear from them within a decade. We need to decide whether we would respond to an extraterrestrial message. Moreover, the very success of the search may hinge on our willingness to communicate. A number of SETI scientists think the reason we may not have heard from aliens yet is that they’re waiting for us to reach out to them first.
Those who think we should stay mum point out that not even Will Smith could defend Earth from an extraterrestrial foe. Our only real protection, they argue, is to stay hidden. “We have to realize that we know almost nothing about ET,” says John Gertz, a former chair of the SETI Institute board of trustees and a Hollywood producer. “We don’t know how advanced they are, we don’t know what their intentions are—whether they’ll be hostile or friendly or, in my opinion as a businessman, simply want to barter or trade with us. But if their intentions are hostile, their abilities to do us harm can be absolute.” [...]
Scientists who favor Active SETI, or METI—Messaging to Extraterrestrial Intelligence—think it’s too late to hide. We’ve been broadcasting our presence into space since the 1930s. “Any civilization slightly more advanced than we are could pick up I Love Lucy going off into space,” says astronomer Douglas Vakoch, who founded METI International, an organization dedicated to researching active approaches to SETI. If another species wants to annihilate or enslave us, they already have all the information they need. A deliberate communication does not add to our risk, but might win us friends. Vakoch and others read a hopeful lesson into the Great Silence. According to an idea known as the zoo hypothesis, civilizations may be watching us for a sign we want to engage them in conversation.
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