“We have no reason to suppose that technological advancement and charity or morality are in any way linked,” says the SETI director
Many scientists are trying to establish contact with alien civilizations, but others are asking important questions. Are we sure we want the aliens located near us? In an interview with Inverse, SETI researcher Andrew Siemion said, “We have no reason to suppose that technological advancement and charity or morality are linked in any way.” “There are undoubtedly malicious civilizations somewhere in the universe, so it’s something we should think about as we continue to study it,” she says. Siemion is the Berkeley SETI Research Center head and Breakthrough Listen project manager. He is trying to invoke the tension that lies at the heart any extraterrestrial search. Although her discovery will revolutionize the world, it is not certain that humanity will survive. A proclivity to get a “poor name.” Michio Kaku is a well-known SETI expert and physicist. However, neither Siemion nor he seem to believe that the dangers are sufficient to abandon the search to find aliens. “Now, personally, I believe the aliens would be friendly, but we can’t be sure,” Kaku said earlier this month to The Guardian.
“I believe we will communicate, but we must proceed with caution.”
“It’s too late.” Discussions about whether humanity should disclose itself to the universe and communicate with any alien civilizations may ignore the fact that we have not been secretive so far. We’ve been sending radio transmissions into space for over a century, so any alien within a hundred light-years who can intercept a precise “hey universe” message is well aware of our presence. Douglas Vakoch, astrobiologist and president of the METI Institute (Messaging to Extraterrestrial Intelligence), remarked, “The thing that people overlook is that it is too late to hide.” “If they’re on their way, it’s in our best interests to engage them and demonstrate that we’re better conversation partners than lunch.”
Many ufologists have previously viewed scientists’ protective posture as purely philosophical and/or psychological, ignoring any genuine study that addresses extraterrestrial arrival to our planet. They claim that portraying the aliens as a threat is a subtle technique to soften the damage to the human species’ collective ego. Since it has been at the “center of the universe” for so long, it now faces the potential of not being the sole intelligent being. Apart from being far behind more advanced technological civilizations. The argument is simple: If something is bad, it cannot get better than something that is good (although it may be the case technologically or cognitively). Opponents of scientists who fear contact argue that every modern civilization must have some form of morality and ethics. Because if they hadn’t, they would have succumbed to the weight of their own technology long ago.
