MessageToEagle.com - While humanity has not yet observed any extraterrestrial intelligence (ETI), contact with ETI
remains possible. Contact could occur through a broad range of scenarios that have varying consequences for humanity.
In their paper, "Would Contact with Extraterrestrials Benefit or Harm Humanity? A Scenario Analysis" Shawn
Domagal-Goldman of NASA's Planetary Science Division and his colleagues of Pennsylvania State University present
a broad range of scenarios for humanity's contact with aliens.
These scenarios can help humanity "prepare for actual contact" but not all of them may be favorable.
Does the contact harm or benefit humanity?
Scientists assume that any given encounter will follow only one general trajectory.
"The encounter might benefit, be neutral to, or harm humanity for a certain reason, but the encounter would only
have one of these outcomes and follow one general trajectory to reach this outcome…"
So far, no extraterrestrial civilization has been clearly observed by humans but it does not mean we are not observed by them!
For example, by using spectrometry, extraterrestrials could detect changes in Earth's atmosphere and deduce that
we are no longer in control of the situation, speculated the researchers, in their 33-page paper.
Some scenarios suggest that human contact with aliens would be beneficial, such as how aliens would help us acquire
better knowledge and help us solve problems such as hunger, poverty and enable us to eliminate diseases.
Another scenario points toward an alliance between Humans and Aliens to help us protect against other extra-territorial
but hostile beings.
The neutral scenarios, on the other hand, involve situations in which aliens do not try to communicate with us and prefer
to observe us without making any contact.
As they state, the first contact can be of "There are several scenarios in which ETI could be invisible to us
in the sense that we do not detect the presence of any ETI. All of these scenarios assume that ETI do in fact exist,
but we do not detect their presence, perhaps because we are physically unable to do so.
As far as humanity is concerned, invisible extraterrestrials could be no different than non-existent extraterrestrials
if they both have no impact on us. This scenario would be completely neutral to us…" we read in the paper.
The harmful scenario mean that aliens want to destroy humans as being a serious threat to the entire galaxy, because of
global warming we cause. Their intervention would be necessary in order to end global warming and save the rest of the
galaxy from being contaminated.
"A preemptive strike would be particularly likely in the early phases of our expansion because a civilization may become
increasingly difficult to destroy as it continues to expand," the study says.
"Humanity may just now be entering the period in which its rapid civilizational expansion could be detected by an ETI
(extraterrestrial intelligence) because our expansion is changing the composition of the Earth's atmosphere, via greenhouse gas emissions."
"If contact between humans and ETI is possible, then it is important to consider the capability of ETI to cause us benefit or harm.
This information is important across nearly the full breadth of contact scenarios," the authors explain.
"Although we cannot know the level of technological sophistication achieved by ETI, we do have a compelling reason to believe
that ETI would be significantly stronger than us and therefore highly capable of causing our total destruction.
Another scenario is the so-called an "unintentional harm scenario" in which ETI actually do cause us harm. Specifically,
it is possible for ETI to cause us harm despite them not wishing to do so, by for example, bringing us "some sort of
physical hazard, such as a disease or an invasive species. In another set of
considerations, ETI could inadvertently bring an information hazard, such as technologicaldamage or a presence that
demoralizes or destabilizes human society…"
No one knows for sure but certainly, a broad analysis can help us prepare for actual contact with ETI even if the
details of contact do not fully resemble any specific scenario.
It is entirely possible that ETI will resemble nothing we have previously experienced or imagined, in which case
the contact may not resemble any scenario we could develop.
MessageToEagle.com based on material provided by Arxiv.org
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remains possible. Contact could occur through a broad range of scenarios that have varying consequences for humanity.
Most people believe that humans will sooner or later establish open contact with aliens.
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