Hello from the other side: Scientists to start sending messages into universe in hopes of getting a reply from aliens

Don't, our species is not ready to accept or defend itself from intelligent beings who are a million years ahead of us.

Yep, now why didn't the American indians think of sending a small unmanned boat out on the Gulf Stream ca. 1400 from the east coast of America, going towards Europe. with a message saying "We're here, got lot's of open pastureland, nice forests, hardly any of us here, come and see what you might want".

The Earth is a beautiful planet and it's a bit unappreciated by the bloody fools that live on it.

And if they got a reply what would they do

Were we consulted over this initiative and was a full risk audit conducted, or is this a scientist vanity project?

If I were the aliens I wouldn't bother either.

Earth was quarantined a long long time ago... far too dangerous ago place for your travelling alien. Seems the domiment species even kill their own kind by the million.. with no logical reason.

Anybody lost a spoon..

Because of this inverse square law, all of our terrestrial radio signals become indistinguishable from background noise at around a few light-years from earth. For a civilization only a couple hundred light-years away, trying to listen to our broadcasts would be like trying to detect the small ripple from a pebble dropped in the pacific ocean off the coast of California ¿ from Japan.

How about sending them some complex maths problems that we haven't solved and see if they come back with a correct answer. Might get a better class of alien that way.

We have been sending signals into space ever since the first powerful radio broadcasts, back in the 1920s.

Not a good idea unless you know who you are dealing with. Even animals try to blend in and have evolved over millennia to camouflage into their surroundings. Then came the American with the checked pants and the incessant need to boast, loudly, then a zap came from space and the globe got put into a large can, covered in brine and sold to a connoisseur of planets to nibble on as a side dish to a glass of Saturn. They really need to think this one through.

Lets look at this from the other side... suppose we had advance space travel and we began receiving messages from a galaxy far, far away. I'd like to think that we'd go in peace, but with our own planet the way it is, I am not so sure.....

I thought we had been doing it for the past 30 or 40 years. Neil Tyson said so.

By the time this message even reaches the edges of our galaxy mankind will be long extinct.

Don't they pick up our TV signals? They've probably seen EastEnders and decided not to visit.

On the big assumption there is some sort of intelligent life out there, having a handful of scientists decide whether messages are sent or not without anyone else having a say is verging on lunacy.This means they are playing with the future of our planet and all it's inhabitants. It'd be great if there are friendly aliens out there, but would be a total disaster if there are more advanced civilizations that may decide we have something they want.Disregarding the Hollywood take on alien encounters, I'd suggest that continuing with the assumption there is someone out there listening, it's 50/50 whether they are friendly or not. And if they were to prove to be friendly, who is to say that we will be friendly in return?Maybe this all needs a little more consideration, and the opportunity for us all to be part of the decision making process. After all big on-line betting companies have odds varying from less than 33 to 1 up to about 80 to 1, so maybe it isn't such a longshot after all!

¿Two possibilities exist: either we are alone in the Universe or we are not. Both are equally terrifying.¿ Arthur C. Clarke

And if they reply we are all going to s#@t ourselves

It was nice of Vakoch. on our behalf, to decide whether we wanted to braodcast our presence to the Universe.