Viewing a single comment thread. View all comments

DreamChaserSt t1_j1vafmv wrote

I'm going to copy paste another reply I had to a similar comment below, but in any case, if the Voyager probes are found by a civilization in any reasonalby short amount of time, they were on their way here anyway. The probes are barely 100 AU from Earth, it's a rounding error compared to a single light year, and by the time the Voyagers reach any significant distance of light years, it would be hundreds of thousands of years from now.

But if you're also worried about signals, it's pretty unlikely that the systems we've sent messages to have civilizations in the first place. The rationale that certain systems may have life doesn't mean it would have a civilization, so our efforts in METI are really unlikely to stumble across someone.

Our location is also already known by any reasonably advanced civilization. In the last couple decades, we've already found thousands of planets across thousands of light years. Our technology is getting good enough that we can start to look for biosigniatures, and there are even concepts like the solar gravitational lens, that could allow us to not only image, but map entire planets as if we had probes in the system (possibly even allowing us to spot city lights and other technosigniatures). And that's with technology we have now, or can develop in the next couple decades. A civilization capable of just ubiquitous interplanetary travel could easily map their section of the galaxy, and have, on record, every planet with life, and every planet with a possible or known civilization. That will include us. And that's not getting into civilizations capable of interstellar travel.

Acting like we're doomed because of a few messages is misguided fear at best, and concern trolling at worst. If there are other civilizations out there, close enough to reach us, they already know we're here. We don't need to send out messages for them to know that. So we have nothing to lose and everything to gain by attempting contact, because if someone is willing to respond, I'd wager they're helpful in the first place.

Interstellar travel is hard anyway. It can take decades or centuries to reach distant stars, even with the best technology, so the idea that a civilization might attack others isn't really a cause for concern. If there was anyone malicious out there, I refer back to my second point, in that they already know we're here, so as morbid as it is, there's nothing we can do about it. But seeing as life has been around for bilions of years, and our civilization has been allowed to exist up to now doesn't look to me as though there are murderous civilizations out there rabidly wiping out any life.

2

Kaotic987 t1_j1w0guf wrote

I wasn’t saying we were doomed (We’re more likely to be doomed by ourselves that anything from outer space anyway lol)

I think it’s pretty incredible that we’ve come this far in terms of technology in such a short span of time.

Imagine how far a civilization much older than ours could be in terms of technology….

Anyway, it’s all theories and conjecture. I was just feeling a bit wary when I wrote the comment.

Appreciate the response though :D

1

DreamChaserSt t1_j1w1z5i wrote

I know you weren't, that was just from what I pasted. My main opinion was that sending out signals isn't something we need to be really worried about.

I agree though, we have come far, when Frank Drake made the first SETI like experiment in 1960, we hadn't been to the Moon, and had barely begun space travel. Now we know of thousands of planets, have the tools to look for signs of life, and are approaching a future we're we're expanding across the solar system.

1