After decades of fruitless scanning the skies for alien messages, scientists say it’s time to try a basic rule of etiquette: Say “hello” first.
A new San Francisco-based organization called METI, or Messaging Extra Terrestrial Intelligence, plans to send signals to distant planets, rather than waiting for them to call Earth.
By the end of 2018, the project aims to send some conversation-starters via radio or laser signals to a rocky planet circling Proxima Centauri, the nearest star other than the sun, and then to more distant destinations, hundreds or thousands of light years away.
It would be the first effort to send powerful, repeated and intentional messages into space, targeting the same stars over months or years.
If there is intelligent life that can understand the message, it will likely have survived post-scarcity, and thus be heavily K-selected and heavily in-grouped. Only a species that decides to actively purge it’s r-strategists as a conscious application of a designed Darwinian selection pressure will avoid the degradation that is inherent to post-scarcity. If such a species sees any advantage for its people in conquering us, it will if it can.
And if it is more advanced than us, it will likely have already figured out r/K Selection Theory, and view our approach as an indicator of our species’ r-selected status. That means a species that has consciously designed to kill every r will get a message from an r-idiot on another planet looking to make friends.
Imagine a planet full of Vox Day’s Vile Faceless Minions, ruled by Vox, and vastly superior technologically, receiving an entreaty from a planet of technologically inferior SJWs, with none of modern civilization’s rules and laws to constrain their response.
That may be exactly what will happen to us.
[…] Scientists Want To Send Messages To ET’s […]
And the other reason it’s a bad idea, is that it is a waste of time, effort, and money. Even if there is life on other planets, it’s unlikely they will ever get here – the distances are too vast. It is silly to speculate on their r-ness or K-ness, as what is applicable to Earthlings may have no relevance to Aliens. And really, How does one say, “Hello,” in an unknown language, to an unknown species, anyway? The only way to be sure if they be friend or foe? If their accents are American or English, they are good guys; if German, they are bad guys. At least I’ve learned something from going to the movies!
Haha. I laughed and nodded while reading this. At least most of the planets they’re targeting, at least from what I read, are hundreds or more light years away except that nearest one. So hopefully it will be hundreds or more years before the aliens receive the message and at least we won’t be here to be conquered by them. Unless we’re all here as reincarnated entities if one believes that.
Speaking as a VFM, and having seen Vox in action, he would most likely ignore the planet, knowing they would eventually consume themselves or K select and leave him alone to do his thing (which is what he wants here). Unless he knew we had something his planet needed to survive, then we’d be screwed.
No doubt SJW women will hang out the “Refugees Welcome” sign, not realizing that the principle of “kill the men, ravish the women” only applies when the invaders are vaguely human.
I think they already hit us when they left Gloria Steinem on Earth. This actually begs a question, AC to what extent do you think “Conservative” women are r-selected? I’ve noticed more and more that many if not most women who call themselves conservative are actually somewhat masculinized and almost always try to compete with men. I suspect the reversal of gender roles is the primary driver for our problems, almost like feminism is an infectious disease.
It is an interesting observation. But then true K women are probably somewhat nurturing, and family-oriented, and you probably don’t hear form them as much. But I agree there are a lot fo r-women who are attracted to the idea of free competition.
I consider myself a conservative woman. I cannot say if I am “representative” or not. I was raised by liberals and always felt like a fish out of water without realizing what the problem was. I have some r traits that I’m overcoming. For example, I am happier not consuming free resources, but traditionally women might not be the providers; we might be at home, doing the nurturing, while the man provides — women might not be out in the professional work force, competing with men. This system has become corrupted, and so we are living in some confusing times. Women who do not have a male provider have these choices: become a provider (masculinzed?) to be self sufficient (and the highly intelligent and capable females will figure out ways to compete with the males for the jobs — does this make us masculinized? or just pragmatic?), or seek a male provider for a partnership (is that being an r if we “use our wiles” to find a rich mate?) or try to suck off the system of free resources (welfare). What should women do, who are not partnered or in a K family where there are acceptable, feminine nurturing roles (as a legitimate form of contribution to the family/tribe, as opposed to being lazy, resource-sucking r’s)? What do K males really want in their women? I do often feel, “damned if I do, damned if I don’t.” What I’d really like is a strong, intelligent K male partner who understands male-female roles, fulfills his role and allows me to fulfill mine. My experience has been, the more the male understands this, the more attractive he is to me, and the more I am able to express my feminine qualities in a balanced and healthy way. Unfortunately, I have also experienced that my nurturing, feminine nature attracts r males who pretend to be Ks but just want the nurturing I can provide, but without doing their K thing. I think over the decades we have not done a good job of training up men or women to understand their roles properly. We have been undermined and really need to give thought to how to restore these male-female roles. It’s a fact that not every male or female will end up partnered. There have to be acceptable ways to navigate through society (including economically), for those people.
I am not sure in times of r, it isn’t useful, or at least necessary, to adapt r-traits, to function. Otherwise, being K will be a tough road, because it isn’t the environment you face.
Just reflecting on my observations though, my sample sizes are likely skewed as most “Conservative” women I know of are in a professional environment and so housewives aren’t included.
It’s as I’ve said…
Aliens will not be super communists as we see in all the movies.
Outside of eradication for resources (which is dumb, considering the massive resources not presided over by nuclear capable hominids with a penchant to murderate anything which threatens their existence), the only reason a culture would want to communicate with us is to trade, and by trade I mean cultural trade. If they can travel across the gulf of space, they don’t need our oil.
And there is no way a commie-culture could reasonably facilitate the drive, desire, or ability to cause said travel. The technology would stagnate since people have no need to meet unrealized desires. The elites would not care about going ‘out there’ as they have all the luxuries they could ever want. Just look at the DPRK.
Internal r (Liberals) prefers external r (Migrants) to internal K (Ukippers/trumpinators)
So, some ‘r’abbits in California are hoping to call in extra-terrestrial ‘r’abbits…. before Ks completely wipe them out on this planet.
Is it not possible the Aliens have also got themselves to a state of r selection?
I think they would devolve. r has no ability to persist, without collapsing things.
This reminds me of the movie The Martian. I sat through it, just barely, with my husband. No interpersonal conflict, no villains, all the whole world watching and cheering on the hero who was trapped on Mars through no fault of his own or anyone else’s. Free resources volunteered by everyone, including China, just because it’s the right thing to do. A whole spaceship crew eager to risk their lives to rescue the one man. The only challenge is the distance between Mars and Earth and the Martian environment. It was like a rabbity loves story between Matt Damon, himself, and the audience. It would have been a nice diversion if aliens did abduct and probe him.
ha