extraterrestrial contact act

[verklingen]

check this out, i think it's a great idea. this kind of progressive thinking could carry us very far i imagine. we should first have a global recognition of planet earth's inherent sovereignty, with rights to freedom which naturally extended to all its inhabitants.

as each nation realizes how much of its success is dependent upon the collective success of all other nations, our societies will continue to integrate. and as such it only makes sense that we have a template in place for prospects of further integration, potentially including extraterrestrial civilizations.

here's a excerpt from the website:

THE UNIVERSE, as far as we know, is infinite.

Our Milky Way galaxy alone contains over 200 billion stars, many of which may have planets. Most people today, scientists and the general public alike, believe that life must exist elsewhere in the universe. Many believe that some planets may even harbor intelligent life.

If only one percent of the stars in our own galaxy have planets, and

If only one percent of those planets can support life, and

If only one percent of those life-bearing worlds developed intelligent life, and

If only one percent of intelligent aliens developed the technology to send a signal or to travel to other stars, then there could be at least 2,000 extraterrestrial civilizations in our galaxy alone that might have the ability to contact Earth.

And there are well over 100 billion galaxies that we know of in the universe, each composed of hundreds of billions of stars.

Many people believe, even if the number of space-faring civilizations is high, that the distances between the stars are too great for anyone to travel from their world to ours and that signals might be the only form contact can take.

However, there are now a number of new scientific theories that indicate this may not be true. Many physicists now believe it’s possible that wormholes, quantum tunneling and folded space may, with a sufficiently advanced technology, provide methods by which beings from one solar system could conceivably travel to another system in a very short period of time.

The question isn’t “can they get here?” anymore, it’s “if they get here, what do we do about it?”

What if, one day, Earth was contacted by one of these hypothetical civilizations? How, as a planet, would we respond to their offer to interact? What if they asked, “Do you have a method in place, or even a policy that outlines how Earth will proceed now that contact has happened?”

We would have to answer “No.”

Many people believe that, if we are now asking this question ourselves, then it’s time to provide an answer.


We believe that the “Extraterrestrial Contact Act” is that answer.
THE EXTRATERRESTRIAL CONTACT ACT is a bill that, when enacted into law, will establish a Contact Protocol to allow public interaction with Extraterrestrial Intelligences that may make, or express a desire to make peaceful contact with the people of Earth.

Such a meeting would be so momentous and the impact upon our world so powerful, that even if the probability of extraterrestrial contact is remote, we should nevertheless have at least a basic plan in place so that humanity has the ability to respond appropriately to an event of this magnitude.

What would the consequences be if we were unprepared for such an event?
What opportunities for learning and advancement might be missed?

Even if such an event doesn’t occur in our lifetime, this first, simple step in exo-political diplomacy will benefit future generations by providing a foundation they can build upon as our global society slowly but inevitably matures into an interstellar civilization.

THE EXTRATERRESTRIAL CONTACT ACT is also an organization dedicated to the promotion and adoption of this policy in all nations on Earth.

We invite the citizens of every nation on Earth to participate in and support this historic cause, not only through donations, volunteerism and media promotion, but also by inspiring each and every respective government to implement the Contact Protocol outlined in the Act and thus join with the United States in laying the foundation for future contact with Extraterrestrial Intelligence.

What may be science fiction today, could be science fact tomorrow.


Sincerely,

Darryl Anka
Executive Director
Extraterrestrial Contact Act

Extraterrestrial Contact Act

^they've got a link to the proposed bill on the site, follow it up if you're interested.

[dubtrice]

makes sense! wouldn't want just some random country representing our planet should an alien make contact.. who knows what could happen

[Terry]

I have read too much scifi to be overly optimistic about first contact.

Think about it, if we are contacted by a spacefaring civilization with the ways and means to travel the long distance to get here (I am assuming the planets in our solar system are uninhabited) they must have us at a GREAT technological disadvantage.

Technology implies beligirence, it's evolutionary. The only reason we have the ability to man rockets to the moon is because those weapons were developed from weaponized missiles, same with nuclear power, same with hydrogen power.

Most, if not all our technology comes from war, or the threat of it, mankind is only as advanced as warfare allows him to be.

Granted this cycle could be broken, and maybe aliens are pacifists who have long stopped killing each other over petty grievances, BUT if they were they probably wouldn't have needed the technology that allowed them to make contact with us in the first place.

(This theory is blatantly ripped off from Blindsight, a fantastic book I reccomend to anyone who likes scifi, and if you are cheap the author offers it for free here
Blindsight by Peter Watts)

[verklingen]

^ oh rubbish terry

come on man, think about it. consider our species, our civilization. technology has always been used belligerently by us, it's true. just look at our weaponry. we discovered atomic power and used it for mass slaughter before discovering a method of escaping our gravity. and since that time we have developed our ability to kill exponentially while hardly wetting the tip of our toe nail on the shores of the cosmic ocean. look the troubles of our world. that path has not served us at all, and to think we could continue down it while also advancing the technology necessary for interstellar space travel before belligerently killing ourselves off is absurd.

talk about anthropomorphism! such science fiction is merely a caricature of our own misgivings about our own species painted on a wider canvas. it's fun to explore but ridiculous to worry about imo.

[Terry]

Hey man I'd love to see first contact in my lifetime but I'm a natuarally pessimistic person, I'm sure there is life Out There I'm just worried we may have the shit luck to run into the asshole aliens.

But again, huge scifi nerd talking here, and scifi aint interesting unless the aliens are mean