Maybe we should have movie time with added popcorn to bring in everyone who hasn't seen STARMAN

It is surprising anyone would contradict our world's greatest minds. Steven Hawking, Elan Musk etc. say trying to contact aliens is a vary bad idea, But not Seth Shostak(who?). He considers himself above such great minds. He would sell the human race out for his job.
BTW In 5 years our technology will be 32 times what it is now. And in 20 years our technology will be over 1 million times more advanced than it is now. Perhaps as a species we should just keep our mouths shut for just 20 years, by then we will know enough to say "Hi". The following link shows our projected rate of growth
Then again you have people like katesisco above, who scuff at the worlds greatest minds because he is obviously smarter.

http://theemergin...ment.htm

Stephen Hawking has already said that this was a dumb ass idea. We may be attracting the unwanted attention of a race with technology far superior to our own. We have a lot of resources and we may end up as slaves digging them up for this techno superior race. Or they could just want the entire planet for themselves and exterminate the entire human race. Are we willing to take that chance.

How can highly intelligent people be so naive and stupid? There is no reason to believe aliens, organic or robotic, would be friendly.
Who invites unknown strangers into their home knowing absolutely nothing about them?

Really, whoever came up with this idea needs to watch a Will Smith movie first.

HELLO! what a waste of time as I spent last night trying to get off one of the space ships, They are here! and like someone that comes for dinner and won't leave they are a real pain!

Dr. Who isn't protecting us.

Put the shoe on the other foot: Humans plan to exploit the planets we can get to. Altruism for local (extra terrestrial) life is only skin deep when there is need for population expansion and safety from cosmic disasters like local novas, etc. Current exploitation of Mars is concerned with possible life because it may be dangerous to colonists, not because of a "Prime Directive".

Humans may be as smart as any other space faring species, but not smart enough to communicate yet. Whatever else we do, we should remain quiet until we are able to travel to the planets we have been discovering, with sufficient armament to protect ourselves. We may not be the 800 pound gorilla we think we are.

Also, we are currently learning how to manipulate quantum effects (including entanglement). Secure instant communication could come from this, but we are ignorant so far. Light speed communications may be as smoke signals to our neighbors.

There is zero proof that life, let alone intelligent life, exists outside of earth. Sending faith-borne wishes into space is no different than praying to an omnipotent creator of the universe. Ironic to the nth.

"...Part of the mission will be to figure out how to craft the perfect message to say "Hello."

"Hello"?

Beware of who you invite from outer space. They might just shop your head off, throw gays from the roof of buildings or worse....tell you that you can keep your insurance company and doctor.

We have been send transmissions into space since the advent of radio.
I cannot help but consider this a simple attempt at government funding and nothing else.

All these scientists should be required to watch The Twilight Zone episode To Serve Man several times...

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Is this a Donald Trump plan?

Is that a Hillary "Loser" Clinton question?

We've been broadcasting our existence for almost 100 years: The first commercial radio broadcast was licensed in 1920. Me thinks it's too late to put a sock in it!

https://youtu.be/bmRPo0IMBls
Star trekking across the universe!

Merry Christmas to the residents of Tau Ceti!

maybe they are just 2 inches high and they just think they can conquer us

Send all the greetings you want. Being invaded by aliens is dead last on the list of threats to the human race.

Who knows how it would end,
but we should welcome an event where the fear and presence of superior beings might make humans appreciate taking care of this world and everything on it---I mean come on; there are people that actually complain about environmental regulations.

Who knows how it would end,
but we should welcome an event where the fear and presence of superior beings might make humans appreciate taking care of this world and everything on it---I mean come on; there are people that actually complain about environmental regulations.

I'm quite sure humans would then gladly destroy this world, everything on it and even other ones to make sure they can survive and even surpass those superior beings then.....
It's all about survival. Our species may have evolved enough to dominate our world, but we know not about what we....well....don't know. Imagination can then do its work....
Will it be "We exist. Why not others?" or "We exist. We're the first and only!"? The latter would be nicer for our sake. The former would be dreadful. If the aliens are not peaceful enough to leave us alone, they'll be, if not afraid/ashamed of our society, aggressive enough to conquer or crush us.
Better watch and spy than say "hello" for now.

Who knows how it would end,
but we should welcome an event where the fear and presence of superior beings might make humans appreciate taking care of this world and everything on it---I mean come on; there are people that actually complain about environmental regulations.

Well it would have to be an incredibly lucky-for-us kind of superior being, one that is superior and magical enough to cross lightyears of space to get here, but somehow still stupid enough for us to defeat with a determined combined effort. I think a quantum exchange of Hillary Clinton for Donald Trump just at the moment of the oath of office is much more likely.

They might as well send over a cookbook and an inventory of elements and compounds they can harvest.

These scientists are whacked if they think any good can come from advertising how vulnerable and naive we are.

They might as well send over a cookbook and an inventory of elements and compounds they can harvest

Ahaahaaaaa well there's NOTHING here that a machine world couldn't find locally or make for itself.

I didn't think there were many people left who thought this tired idea wasn't ignorant. But we've got 2 morons in a row (1 who doesnt read posts) who prove me wrong.

Hey maybe they like the idea of sitting on a Miami Beach sipping mai-tais while they are sucking the molten iron out of our core. Maybe they like goose livers as much as I do but geese don't grow well on their home planet of limpdickonia.

My head hurts.

Seems like a waste of time. Any species advanced enough to detect our signals by the time it reaches them probably already know we are here and just don't care. But the much more likely case is we are alone in this local sector and are just wasting our time and effort

Foolishness. The distances in space are too vast for us to ever be able to contact anyone. Most possible locations would take the life of our civilization, beginning to end, to make ONE WAY communication transit. It's like an ant yelling (if they could yell) at that guy at the other end of the football field and expecting him to hear and reply. Face it. We are alone, if only because of distance.

O dukes...

Assuming the nut-fringe is right and we aren't alone in the solar system, it's reasonable to assume that we're a wild-life reserve/lifeboat otherwise we'd be up to our ears in exobiologicals.

Assuming that we are alone in the solar system, it's reasonable to assume that anyone out there to hear us and whom could actually come here in any meaningful span of time would not need to subjugate this planet in order to survive.

Assuming that those same folks whom might hear us and come here are also meat-based, it is reasonable to assume that those same folks would likely suffer similar social ills as ourselves.

I vote we pipe the eff down and pray that if there's a market out there for interstellar sport-hunting/folk-remedy components it doesn't think up a way we can be monetized.

Hey, . . . look!

It's us, . . . lunch!

LOL.
Aliens would only eat gskamp if they need a strong laxative.

@Dark_Solar: "and whom could actually come here", "those same folks whom might hear us" should have 'who', not 'whom', since it's the subject not the object.

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