Does Active SETI Put Earth in Danger?

[Istik]

http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl? ... /13/207235

There is an interesting story in Seed Magazine on active SETI — sending out signals to try to contact other civilizations in nearby star systems. Alexander Zaitsev, Chief Scientist at the Russian Academy of Sciences' Institute of Radio Engineering and Electronics, has access to one of the most powerful radio transmitters on Earth and has already sent several messages to nearby, sun-like stars. But some scientists think that Zaitsev is not only acting out of turn by independently speaking for everyone on the entire planet but believe there are possible dangers we may unleash by announcing ourselves to the unknown darkness. This ground has been explored before in countless works of science fiction most notably "The Killing Star," a 1995 novel that paints a frightening picture of interstellar civilizations exterminating their neighbors with relativistic bombardments, not from malice, but simply because it is the most logical action."

In painstaking detail, the authors describe the annihilation of virtually all life on Earth by weapons expressly designed to "cleanse" human beings from the universe. The aliens responsible for this unprovoked attack do not think of themselves as monsters. They are not interested in stealing our land or our resources. Having deciphered the television broadcasts we have so rashly been transmitting to the stars for the last 50 years, they feel it only prudent to destroy us before we have a chance to destroy them. With an objectivity that gives new meaning to the phrase sub specie aeternitatis, the authors present the aliens' view as a perfectly reasonable act of pre-emptive defense.

[Molten Prominence]

The first link was a good read. Like it states I dont think we could really stop people from sending signals out to the stars in search of ET, but as of now, some regulation on what is communicated should be collectively deterimined.

Its interesting to think that we've only had the capability of radio for 100 years yet we had so much advancement in the last 25 years.

The bottom line is there is enough humans who have an undeniable urge to search for ET. It would be like trying to stop porn on the internet. It will never happen.