Take me to your leader.

[michaellxv]

UN to appoint Earth contact for aliens (http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/breaking-news/un-to-appoint-earth-contact-for-aliens/story-e6frea73-1225929498742)

If you see E.T. you know where to send him now. :ship2:

[M54]

Wow!
I had to check the calendar to make sure it wasn't April 1st. :P

I suppose it's better to be prepared though, isn't it?:lol:

[ballaratdragons]

I suppose it was bound to happen eventually.
Someone had to be appointed.

Be a very boring job though, sitting in your office waiting for them to come.

[Alchemy]

Won't need one before we develop warp drive, I thought everyone new that.

Live long and prosper.

[CraigS]

The UN appears to be the committee which gave rise to the two hump camel.

Surely there's higher priority issues to allocate resources to than this nonsense.

Cheers

[multiweb]

:eyepop: Is that a deskjob looking at the SETI histograms all day?... bo - ring :lol:
I bet the phone will be off the hook anyway with all those UFO sightings.

[AstralTraveller]

Actually this is way way overdue. After all, due to popular demand, tours of the Jenolan caves are now run in Klingon. :)

[Barrykgerdes]

That's a lot of rubish

Doesn't he know we are already here and have been for a long time.

To avoid this message getting into the wrong hands and revealling my identity it will self distruct in 1000 years.

ET(Barry)

[renormalised]

Oh boy....same old, same old.

I can tell you what will happen right now with this. They detect a signal, the US Government hears about it (if it's a foreign country who finds it first), the US military-intelligence-industrial complex steps right in and nothing more is heard about it, except rumours. They'd put so much pressure on the others to keep quite, and in any case most of them co-operate with the US on these matters, anyway. Jill Tarter and Co maybe all open and honest about it, but nothing keeps your mouth shut tighter than a fish's rear end more so than being threatened by a national security notice and the possibility of being jailed for a very, very long time if you breach it. They're not going to jeopardise their lives and careers over a signal from space. If they're told to shut up, they will do their patriotic duty and clamp their mouths shut, despite of what they may think to the contrary.

The UN wont even get a look in...they're a waste of time to begin with and in this instance, the US and others would ignore them.

[astro_nutt]

Hooo boy!
Ok, so one day it happens and the signal has been confirmed to be genuine until it's beyond any doubt whatsoever. Then what?, do you announce it to the world in the hope that no-one freaks out? Do you keep it quiet so that all of us can go about our happy normal lives? Do you study the signal long enough to know if it has a meaning before sending a reply? Do you pray that the senders of the signal are not hostile? etc, etc, etc. We might as well have a plan of some sort and someone to take care of it. Because if the signal does happen, more than one country will hear it!
Cheers!

[michaellxv]

Would they? How many countries have the equipment and are listening to pickup what would be a very faint signal from some random point in space.



Yes, you are probably right. Even if it did get out there would be all sorts of excuses like the experts are deciphering the message. And then we have to formulate an appropriate response which BTW will take X years to get there.

Best scenario would be an ametuer picks it up. Keeps it quiet, confirms it, then blurts it out on the Internet.

[AstralTraveller]

I heard on the news this morning that the UN has denied this story. Also heard that some ex-military officers are claiming we were visited by aliens in 1967.

Coincidence. :shrug:

[Ric]

So the UN are already denying the story.

Maybe the military have already got to them. ;)

[renormalised]

They'd do that anyway, if they didn't want too much publicity about it, however you can never know what happens behind the scenes.

1967...and about a dozen or more times before that, right back to 1947. And most likely any number of times since 67. But we'll most likely never know the truth of the matter, so the rumours and such will just keep on flying about forever and a day. That's why it's so easy to dismiss it.

[renormalised]

That could happen, but how easy would it be to dismiss that out of hand, which they would do. If it turned out to be a genuine signal, the person who found it would have their equipment and the recordings confiscated. They'd be interrogated and then released, but the chances of the story being authenticated by the press or anyone else would be close to zero unless someone blabbered. In any case, many people wouldn't believe the person or the story.

[Tommy Camp]

Yeah I heard about this as well, it certainly seems pointless at present. Maybe they know something we don't?
Or maybe they've just gone insane with power.

[TrevorW]

First Contact Scenario

Don't believe it if they say "we come in peace"

If they look ugly then they probably are

If they look human ask for a blood sample

Whatever you do don't let them get a foothold, the moon is a good place for a meeting

If they ask for help sure thing in exchange for tech stuff but again don't let them get a foothold

No they can't have a sample of our blood

Nuclear weapons don't work in the case of an invasion do not use, try a computer virus instead

If all else fails shoot first then ask questions

[renormalised]

Which would be the response of most governments and one that might precipitate our first interstellar conflict. One which we would most certainly lose. In any case, we have a lot of growing up to do, least of all with our relations concerning other civilisations. We can't even live in relative peace together or seem to co-operate with one another to make this place better for ourselves. And you wonder why there's no open contact or "extraordinary evidence" of their existence...there's your answer.

[TrevorW]

Carl whatever we do it'll probably be wrong, it's in our nature to f... things up when dealing with a new race or civilisation

[renormalised]

It's not so much our nature as it's our social conditioning and upbringing.

We treat others the way we do not because it's innately human but because we learn to do so. If it was entirely due to our natures, we wouldn't have lasted as long as we have as a species, let alone a civilisation.

[Zaps]

Bell et al discovered CP1919 back in '67. There was some light-hearted debate about its possible ET origins. But there was never any serious consideration of suppressing anything. Sure, they waited until the facts were cemented before releasing their findings, but the story could and would never have been held in check.

Ditto any ET contact of any kind. It's almost 100% to be via academia, and there's simply no way such information could be kept secret for long. Shows like the X-Files are highly entertaining, but it's still complete fiction: "The truth Will get out there." Just ask the folk at Wikileaks.

[that_guy]

i wouldnt take the job tho... its just my opinion but id feel like a joke to the science community :\

[Steffen]

Who is Mazlan Othman?? That job should have gone to Jodie Foster!
;)

Cheers
Steffen.