(Newswire.net — March 1, 2015) — 55 years ago a passionate young radio astronomer aimed his 85-foot radio telescope dish at two nearby suns, the scientist was searching space for extraterrestrial life. The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence SETI, for decades hasn’t detected a shred of evidence that anyone else in the nearby sun system is trying to do the same, to find a civilization on some other world.
So, instead of just listening to space, SETI researchers started transmitting various messages into deep space. Now, there is a group that is strongly recommending that scientists should keep a ‘low profile’. They believe that reaching out to space is only a good idea if we are capable of dealing with the ‘dark side’ we discover.
“ETI’s reaction to a message from Earth cannot presently be known,” states a petition signed by 28 scientists, researchers and thought leaders, among them SpaceX founder Elon Musk. “We know nothing of ETI’s intentions and capabilities, and it is impossible to predict whether ETI will be benign or hostile.”
The group against radiating inter planetary handshake signals says that if the signal reaches some advanced hostile entity, they will have the advantage of knowing about our civilization. Of course, there are many others who believe in spite of Hollywood movie plots, that a more advanced race would have more advanced intellect and they are more likely to believe that with an advanced level of consciousness comes the thirst for knowledge, not the thirst for blood. We may never know for sure.