An advanced extraterrestrial species would presumably be intelligent enough to realize that the meanings of our gestures would not necessarily be the same as their own. If interested in us, specifically, they could probably study us closely enough to determine what our gestures (and our languages) actually mean.

@Moomin - Neither the man nor the woman are shown baring their teeth. There was some criticism of the design of the plaque but was generally seen to be nit picking. The overall intention was quite clear, to explain where we are in space and what we look like.

I was merely saying that messages could be misunderstood.
We on earth does it all the time.
So why cannot ET do it as well?

@some of the comments so far



;)

More on topic though:

I don't think they would need to suppress it at all. If they wanted to - be that governments or groups already organised in some other way - all they'd have to do is "discredit" the science and the scientists. There are plenty of "experts" out there that make a living and/or derive some kind of benefit from doing that already. And there are enough people out there who would be ready and already primed to believe them.

I'd like to think that discovering there was intelligent life out there in the universe would bring us earthlings together - but I won't be holding my breath for it if we did prove it.

20 years what could be the reasons?

The most likely reason is that: If they exist they are too far away to be detected --perhaps 30,000 light years.
When you consider life on Earth 30,000 years ago you see that there is the problem of co-temporaneous persistence of technology and civilization itself.

Our type of protein would likely be unusable by other creatures. Any civilization advanced enough to send signals across the galaxy would likely be able to produce protein artificially. We could do it ourselves if there a reason to do so.

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A good point in the podcast referenced in this link(http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/forum_thread.php?id=83126&postid=1947675#1947675) was made about the discovery of a signal or contact being so different than what we may expect that our preparations for response may be very inadequate.

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The mind is a weird and mysterious place

What I find interesting is if Earth had not been side swiped ( which created the moon and our seasons ) by a collision and countless mini impacts, would we be here at all..
Would we also be a silent world, would mankind ever have evolved?
So many things happened to our world for mankind to exist, would these have had to taken place on other worlds for life to evolve to our status?
Is it possible we are just a fluke in evolution, I hope not..

The most recent thought is that a super volcano in Russia may have pretty much wiped out all life in the last extinction with it's massive lava flows and gases..
I'm not sure when the first signs of man came to being (and it wasn't a God) but plenty of different life forms came and went on each disaster..
Thing to remember also is we have plate tectonics which changes our weather patterns, most planets don't have this, so this may have brought us into being and to evolve..
So many factors about Earth and it's history maybe unique to us alone..

I've had a quick look n the web for Russian super volcanoes, and none that I could find go back to 66 million years ago.
[quote]Karymshina is a Supervolcano in Kamchatka, Russia. that was discovered in 2006 The earliest known eruption occurred about 1.5 million years ago

You missed the Siberian Traps that occurred around 250 million years ago and was coincident with the largest mass extinction in history, the Permian–Triassic extinction event, although it is unknown whether it was solely responsible for the extinction event.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siberian_Traps

Russia and the continents on Earth as it is now didn't exist 250 million years ago.
Earth had only one continent called Pangea back then according to scientists.
And I think you don't know the meaning of a super volcano.
Yellowstone is one.
Perhaps you wonder about the name Siberian Traps.
The reason is because the name originate from a Swedish geologic scientist who have researched this event and named the geologic formations "Trappor" meaning "Stairs" in English.
When lava are spreading they even today make stairlike formations.
Anyway , what you say "no mention is made of one in Russia going back that far" is not true.

Just couple of thoughts.

What if there is a civilisation out there? Will they be asking themselves the same questions we are?

Lets assume the following is a given: They are a more advanced technological society. Build an FTL ship & crew it, then commence to seek answers to their questions, all the while broadcasting signals on a set schedule.

We receive those signals & translate/decode them. The big day arrives & bearing in mind the state of the world currently, where do they land? How can mishaps as depicted in the film "The day the earth stood still" be prevented from occurring? How can such an event be covered up by any government?

Sigh...

post withdrawn

Sigh...

What did you find wrong with that post? It was relevant to the topic being discussed, unlike several which should not be here but in the Non-Seti Science board considering that geology & geography has no bearing on contact with alien civilisations.

a) There is no ET
b) They are keeping away
To me b) seems more likely than not. I am quite sure that your opinions will be different :-)

From my Profile and many more questions to ask:

Does intelligent, capable of introspection, extraterrestrial life exist? Possibly not.

Despite the vast universe - and vast time - is a stable planet, orbiting a stable star, in a stable part of a galaxy usual? (I disregard 'Drake's Equation' as mere number playing.) Does one need exact combinations of chemicals, combining in exact order, to produce life? If Mars does not have/never had life, what does that mean?

If life starts, does one need tides, produced by a 'Double Planet' (IE Earth/Moon) in order to have creatures evolving in a liquid, transfer to land?

Our 'Double Planet' also stabilizes the Earth's rotation (less wobble), and results in fewer, and less dramatic climate changes. This is also necessay to complete evolutionary processes. Are 'Double Planets', with the correct type star, correct distance from the star, correct constancy, etc., abundant?

This leads to a more interesting question.

If life is abundant in the Universe, why would there be an intelligent creature on another planet? I would not include dolphin type, nor non-human ape type creatures. Neither has the capability to advance beyond their environment. If you have perfect conditions: Why would natural selection produce such a creature?

Despite my reservations, I love this attempt.

It seems likely that 'double planets' are reasonably abundant in space. We have two examples in our own solar system. Besides the Earth-Moon system, we have Pluto-Charon, too. The Copernican principle holds that readily observed conditions are unlikely to be confined to any one part of space.

High intelligence, relatively speaking, confers evolutionary advantages. It would foster the survival of any organism or species possessing it. Hence, it could build on itself, promoting greater and greater intelligence, over time.

Sigh...

What did you find wrong with that post? It was relevant to the topic being discussed, unlike several which should not be here but in the Non-Seti Science board considering that geology & geography has no bearing on contact with alien civilisations.

I missed Chris S's qoute "The Yellowstone Caldera has had at least three eruptions: 2.1 million years ago, 1.2 million years ago and 640,000 years ago,".
Just like he did when telling that the Siberian Traps are not mentioned in what is now today in Russia.
Sorry:)

The day the earth stood still was a sci fi film from 1951, we are now 67 years in the future. We can only hope that mankind has learnt something in the meantime.

If E.T. did arrive & learn our history, they would answer - Haven't learnt or changed much have we.

Happily, I think such pessimism is wrong. In 1951 the cold war was well underway, and with it the growing prospect of the destruction of civilization, if not humanity. Seven decades later, and this threat has subsided.

Nations are still far from perfect, when it comes to getting along with one another, but the scale of these conflicts is limited in size. Relations between the major nations, those with the real world-destroying power, is, on the whole, calmer , and more reasonable.

If some entities in space are watching us, waiting for us to become more civilized, before making contact, they will presumably have noted our progress. Ironically, we may be more critical of ourselves, lacking their broader perspective on our situation, than they are of us.

And perhaps still only Intelligence being a part of nature here, except for not any guessing either.

At least getting it to that of a Protocol here, when next reading through.

I personally don't think we earthers have what it takes to become members of the galactic brotherhood of intelligent beings or will have any time soon. So we are purposely excluded from the club until we show a lot of improvement in our treatment of each other.

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Bob DeWoody

My motto: Never do today what you can put off until tomorrow as it may not be required. This no longer applies in light of current events.