10 SETI Messages That We May Not Want to Receive | Summary and Q&A

TL;DR

Despite the excitement surrounding the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI), there are potential messages from alien civilizations that we may not want to receive, including requests to be quiet, distress calls, warnings, and even threats.

Key Insights

• 🥺 No unambiguous alien signal has been detected despite decades of searching, leading to potential reasons such as our limitations, flaws in our reasoning, the rarity of intelligent life, and different communication techniques.
• 🕵️ If an unambiguous signal is ever detected, it may not be an exciting radio beacon but could be a simple radar or intentional message.
• 👽 Deciphering the content of an alien transmission would be challenging due to language differences.

Transcript

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Questions & Answers

Q: Why have we not detected any unambiguous alien signals despite searching for decades?

There could be several reasons for this, including the possibility that we are not good at looking for them or that our reasoning about alien signals is flawed. It's also possible that intelligent life is rare or that aliens may use different communication techniques.

Q: How would we decipher the content of an alien transmission?

Decoding an alien transmission would be extremely difficult, even if they used a familiar language. Their language may have no commonality with any Earth language, making it incomprehensible. However, it is likely that initial communication would be based on mathematical and scientific signals.

Q: What if the decoded message from an alien civilization tells us to "submit"?

While unlikely, if we received a message instructing us to submit, we would likely respond negatively or ignore it. However, if there were hidden Bracewell probes in our solar system, they may reveal themselves and potentially pose a threat.

Q: Is it possible that the first signal we receive from an alien civilization is an electromagnetic pulse (EMP)?

Although unlikely, there is a scenario in which a probe wakes up at the first sign of advancing technology and shoots off EMP weapons, effectively regressing our civilization. However, due to the abundance of free resources in the galaxy, this is an improbable scenario.

Summary & Key Takeaways

• The idea of receiving alien signals through electromagnetic waves is not new, but no unambiguous alien signal has been detected despite decades of searching.

• Reasons for the lack of detection could be due to our limitations in searching for signals, flaws in our reasoning, the rarity of intelligent life in the universe, or the possibility that aliens use different communication techniques.

• If an unambiguous signal is ever detected, it may not necessarily be an exciting radio beacon but could be a simple radar signal or an intentional message with unknown content.