Reaction to alien signal

[Voyager275]

Ok, how about a distress signal? I know there would be nothing we could do, but would we at least send a message to see if they are still alive?

[jwenting]

Because our technolological knowhow is increasing exponentially.

and why wouldn't theirs do the same? You're delusional to think that we are inherently superior to anyone and anything else. We're not. We're the new kids on the block in this scenario, the underdog, the rut in the litter.

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Ok, how about a distress signal? I know there would be nothing we could do, but would we at least send a message to see if they are still alive?

and unless that message originated from very close to earth (in which case we might be able to do something, maybe), it would never get there before either rescue or before everyone died...

So again, pointless to respond.

[kerbiloid]

If we got a radio signal from an extraterrestrial radio signal, this would mean that they have revealed those location, while we - haven't revealed ours.

If they were a Mighty Interstellar Civilization , they wouldn't send such signals around.

Because Mighty Interstellar Civilization has star cruisers and hypersensitive radio-telescopes which would detect our TV programs source location without SETI signals or other fantasy years ago.

So, if we receive an alien SETI radiosignal that would mean: there is a immature naive civilization with more or less high technologies, it can be agressive.

And while we know about them, they still don't know about us. (Because if they know about us, they wouldn't send a broadcast signal, they would call personally us, the Earthlings).

In such case humans will put all efforts to build Interstellar Defence Forces and suddenly visit those aliens in their cradle - to establish a Good Neighbourhood before they catch it first.

[Spaceception]

I think it may depend on the type of signal, and how far away the civilization is, if the aliens know all about us, and send us a signal in an Earth language, or something we can easily understand, and are less than 50 light years away, I think there would be a massive public outcry to visit them asap.

If the signal is something we can barely understand, and the civilization is a few hundred/thousand light years away, many people would be interested, but because it's so far away, they would go on with their daily lives (For the most part, aside from knowing there's another intelligent civilization), while the scientific community/nerds would stay interested for perhaps their entire lives.

If the signal is something we can easily understand, and the aliens know about us, but are several hundred/thousand light years away, many people would be interested for awhile, and a larger percentage of people would try and keep up with them, there might even be an incentive to go visit them, despite being so far away, extensive warp drive research perhaps?

Either way, I think there would be a huge incentive to become an interplanetary species so when we eventually make contact, we won't make total fools of ourselves.

[Green Baron]

Nothing.

The military will try to find info for the ultimate weapon.

Scientists will try to find the question for the answer.

Google will try to find the best algorithm for guiding us all.

Hackers will try to find one virus to rule them all.

Secret services will try to find the best monitoring algorithm.

Gurus will try to find "The lord's voice"(tm)

 

... and in the end they all give up and admit that it was just a faulty equipment.

:-)

Edited June 6, 2016 by Green Baron

[HebaruSan]

NASA, ESA, Roscomsos, and a panoply of other experts would convene to compose the most bizarre, incomprehensible response possible, then wait in vain for a reply while the aliens look for better conversation partners.

   

[vger]

On 9/13/2015 at 8:27 PM, Voyager275 said:

Ok, how about a distress signal? I know there would be nothing we could do, but would we at least send a message to see if they are still alive?

In that case, absolutely do NOT land on the planet to gather specimens, even if the company orders you to.

 

On 9/13/2015 at 11:20 PM, jwenting said:

and unless that message originated from very close to earth (in which case we might be able to do something, maybe), it would never get there before either rescue or before everyone died...

So again, pointless to respond.

Probably right. The only exception might be if they had a LOT of foresight about inevitable catastrophes and sent a signal soon enough. Which arguably is what humans should be doing right now 

But if we intercepted such a thing, the logical conclusion would be that it wasn't meant for us, but for someone who is part of a "community" of worlds.

But then that makes me wonder, if we knew we were doomed, and we had access to some kind of FTL communication, would we start beaming a call for help over the cosmos in the hopes that somebody picks up the phone?

 

Edited June 7, 2016 by vger

[cubinator]

25 minutes ago, HebaruSan said:

NASA, ESA, Roscomsos, and a panoply of other experts would convene to compose the most bizarre, incomprehensible response possible, then wait in vain for a reply while the aliens look for better conversation partners.

   

I think perhaps a better response, over all that nonsense about heartbeats and stuff that is most likely completely incomprehensible to an alien that might not even have a heart, would simply be a large regular pentagon made of some material that requires complex technology to acquire, such as gold or even uranium, embedded into a circle or square of a different such material. That alone, coming from space, would be enough to convince me that there is an intelligent space-faring race out there somewhere. The only markings I would put on that symbol would be the location of the nearest pulsars (same as on the Voyager golden records), a diagram of a rocket, an example of our numbering system (basically the numbers -100 to 100, and maybe some interesting ones like pi, i, and e with graphical formulas), and a graphical rendering of our solar system that makes it REALLY clear that we are on planet 3, the one with one moon. If they don't have the tech to get here and take a peek, chances are they can't get much information from our slow radio signals.

[LordFerret]

I'm surprised nobody has mentioned the "Wow! signal".

[kurja]

Assuming another civ with tehnology similar to ours, what kind of data transmission speeds could we use? We could transmit at a few megawatts, but over let's say 100ly that's still a weak signal.

Afaik the "Arecibo signal" was transmitted at 1MW and about one (one!) byte per second; how far out could the "other earth" be and still receive a good enough signal? Ofc as the dialogue would take generations anyway the speed (data rate) isn't critical but going at a few bits per second isn't really helping either - transmitting 50Gb, one blu ray disc, would take over a millenia.

[magnemoe]

On 13.9.2015 at 7:43 PM, Voyager275 said:

Very simple, what would happen if we got a radio signal from an extraterrestrial radio signal? Would we respond or just let it pass by? Obviously if we responded we would reveal our location, and would stay concealed if we didn't respond. What do you think? Also if we did respond, what would we send them?

Two types of signals, first would be an random signal, this will be pretty short unless towards an location in space between us and the transmitter. We will not be able to understand it, signal will be encoded, compressed and good chance of being encrypted. 
Second is something targeted as us or other newer civilizations, it can just be an short message like the one we sendt back in the 70's 
Don't contain much data, but more interesting than the one we could not understand. 
Both is an proof of technological aliens. 
last is an more complex message like in Contact this could have huge impact 

[kBob]

My mom has a neighbor who will seriously tell you about all 58 (68?) types of aliens living here right now, so if we intercept a signal it's probably just a private letter and none of our business.  But really given the time involved I suspect any such signal is pretty much a one-way thing.

[Sereneti]

10 hours ago, HebaruSan said:

NASA, ESA, Roscomsos, and a panoply of other experts would convene to compose the most bizarre, incomprehensible response possible, then wait in vain for a reply while the aliens look for better conversation partners.

   

and some aliens are wondering about the ... weird... symbols on that plate

----
if there are realy inteligent life in the universe, they are avoiding us....
"hey, look, this stupid life on this planet only invent technology to kill each other..., do we realy, realy want to talk with it?"

[FungusForge]

Just a thought of mine, but I don't think first contact with aliens could actually succeed unless one side had extensively studied the other to break the language barrier, both technological and physical.

Think about it, even if their computers were binary, and not ternary or something, and their bytes were the same length, fact is that 01100010 would mean something different to them than it means to us. Our files would be completely different too, so even if they could receive our free wifi, it'd look about the same as opening a .mu file on notepad. It'd be gibberish without the proper software to read the file. A coherent two-way communication would almost strictly be limited to direct verbal "point at the chair and say chair" method of breaking the language barrier*. And, after we can roughly speak to one another, we have to make sure our atmosphere/diseases aren't a threat back and forth before we can have discussions that aren't through a space suit.

Fact is, realistically, first contact would likely be a long an arduous process.

 

*This is assuming they hear at similar frequencies to us, and that our vocal abilities are similar to theirs.

 

Anyway, as to how we would respond, assuming we actually could. Whether it be a ship swinging past Mars, or we developed a radio-esque FTL communication thing that picked up an alien signal, whatever. If it isn't public knowledge already, government would probably keep it under wraps while they figured out what to do. No need for unnecessary panic and whatnot. If it was public knowledge, public goes predictably bananas. Honestly not sure beyond that point.     ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

Edited June 7, 2016 by FungusForge

[adsii1970]

On 9/13/2015 at 0:43 PM, Voyager275 said:

Very simple, what would happen if we got a radio signal from an extraterrestrial radio signal? Would we respond or just let it pass by? Obviously if we responded we would reveal our location, and would stay concealed if we didn't respond. What do you think? Also if we did respond, what would we send them?

We send up so many electrical and radio waves from Earth there's no way Earth could ever remain hidden from any advanced alien species. Think of all the junk since the invention of radio - and as our communications technology continues to improve, we begin to use higher bands which travel even further. There's no way, even if we ignored an incoming signal, that Earth could remain hidden from them.

[magnemoe]

1 hour ago, adsii1970 said:

We send up so many electrical and radio waves from Earth there's no way Earth could ever remain hidden from any advanced alien species. Think of all the junk since the invention of radio - and as our communications technology continues to improve, we begin to use higher bands which travel even further. There's no way, even if we ignored an incoming signal, that Earth could remain hidden from them.

Two problems with this, first is that we have not send out signals so long, in practice 60-70 years, limiting the maximum distance to 70 lightyears. Second is that its an limit how far you can receive an signal both practical but also theoretical. 
At some transmitting strength/ distance background noise become stronger than the signal. You also has the practical problem of needing to catch enough photons to be able to decode the signal, for voice this is multiple KHz so you need to get enough photons every 1/3000 second, if you only get 10 photons every second this will be to low to decode anything and you would have problem knowing its not an static signal.
Yes directed signals are far stronger than broadcasts, however they are also weaker with the exception of strong radars and probably deep space communication. Both who are pretty rare. 

 

[DDE]

Returning to the OP subject, from what I've picked from Freitas's Xenology, which is pretty dated but should still represent SETI, SETI pretty much up-front tells us that they 'may' instigate a media lockdown and cover-up if they judge it to be For The Greater Good (tm).