Alien probes on earth

[PbFoot]

Ok, lets suppose that an unmanned (aliened)? probe lands on earth. Suppose that its presence and arrival is easily detected by multiple nations, and its purpose appears to be clear. Maybe it would be an autonomous rover type craft, like our stuff on Mars. This thing lands in an unpopulated area and starts roving around and sampling the soil etc. It is apparent that it is returning a signal. Human scientists observe it from a distance.

(I think if earth ever gets a visitor from another intelligent species, it would likely be a machine, at least at first.)

So, the question is, what do we do with this thing? Should we walk up and make goofy faces in the camera? Take it out drinking? Leave it alone? Try to send its creators a message? Bust it up and study the bits?

-PbFoot

[Madalch]

So, the question is, what do we do with this thing? Should we walk up and make goofy faces in the camera? Take it out drinking? Leave it alone? Try to send its creators a message? Bust it up and study the bits?
Find out where it's sending its signal to. Try to decode the information its sending so that we can get some idea of how these aliens communicate.

Then aim all of SETI's radio telescopes at that part of space and see if there are any messages we can get from them.

Check it to see if there's anything written on it.

Make a little sign saying "Hello" and place it in front of one of its cameras. (ETA: Better yet, draw a map of the stars in the region it's broadcasting to, and put that on the sign, so that they don't need to figure out English to know that we're saying, "We know where you live.")

[RoboTimbo]

and its purpose appears to be clear.

Would it's purpose appear to be clear if it were sent by an intelligence that was, by definition, alien?

We anthropomorphize our pets but they are at least terrestrial. Would we be prudent to project our motivations on an alien civilization and make assumptions based on that?

[bruto]

Since there don't appear to be any habitable worlds within a reasonable range, we can pretty well assume that they won't get the signal for a long time, maybe lifetimes. So we might as well steal it.

[Fnord]

So, the question is, what do we do with this thing?

Quarantine the area. Contain the device. Prevent it from communicating. Observe its activities. Determine its power source and disable it. Take it apart and see how it is built. Adapt its technology to our own. Build similar devices and send one back. Build other devices that could be armed and manned, and place them and their crews on high readiness. Wait.

Although making goofy faces into the camera first is sorely tempting ... ;)

[Doctor Evil]

Based on UFO mythology I deduce that the galactic way to say hello involves anal probing. It is in our best interest to appear friendly ....

[dirtywick]

Have to destroy it. Those aliens have to learn some boundaries.

[BPSCG]

So, the question is, what do we do with this thing? Should we walk up and make goofy faces in the camera? Take it out drinking? Leave it alone? Try to send its creators a message? Bust it up and study the bits?Have ACORN register it as a Democrat voter.

[PbFoot]

Would it's purpose appear to be clear if it were sent by an intelligence that was, by definition, alien?

We anthropomorphize our pets but they are at least terrestrial. Would we be prudent to project our motivations on an alien civilization and make assumptions based on that?

What I meant was that it does not outwardly appear to be a weapon. By the its sampling behavior it seems to be exploratory in nature.

-PbFoot

[BPSCG]

What I meant was that it does not outwardly appear to be a weapon. By the its sampling behavior it seems to be exploratory in nature.

-PbFootAnd people wonder why we need a border fence.

[Gord_in_Toronto]

Do what the Martians did with our first probes. Turn them off and analyze them. Be ready with fake information when more show up so it looks like the planet is uninhabited and uninhabitable. :D

[NobbyNobbs]

Do what the Martians did with our first probes. Turn them off and analyze them. Be ready with fake information when more show up so it looks like the planet is uninhabited and uninhabitable. :D

Linky. (http://www.cartoonstock.com/newscartoons/cartoonists/rdi/lowres/rdin574l.jpg)

[ARubberChickenWithAPulley]

Send them notice that their next probe had better be made with American parts.

[Beady]

Would it's purpose appear to be clear if it were sent by an intelligence that was, by definition, alien?

In the face of the completely unfamiliar, you have to base your hypothesis on postulates formed from the familiar. As with any scientific proposition, the hypothesis is only tentative, subject to additional information.

[Bikewer]

Read Greg Bear's The Forge Of God. Alien probes are not to be trusted.....

[TragicMonkey]

The first message the aliens would receive back from the probe would be a legal warning from the MPAA and RIAA saying that they understand some of their copyrighted content may have reached them through space, and that recording and keeping such content is a violation of international law and subject to criminal prosecution and heavy fines.

[quarky]

The likelihood of the probe landing in deep, dark salt water is great. The world they would sense from said probe would be very alien, even to us. Monsters are down there!

[TragicMonkey]

The likelihood of the probe landing in deep, dark salt water is great. The world they would sense from said probe would be very alien, even to us. Monsters are down there!

They'd run into either Snorks or the other aliens from The Abyss. Either way it won't improve Earth's interplanetary tourism trade.

[BPSCG]

Ok, lets suppose that an unmanned (aliened)? probe lands on earth. Suppose that its presence and arrival is easily detected by multiple nations, and its purpose appears to be clear. Maybe it would be an autonomous rover type craft, like our stuff on Mars. This thing lands in an unpopulated area and starts roving around and sampling the soil etc. It is apparent that it is returning a signal. Human scientists observe it from a distance.We shouldn't assume that just because it appears to be made out of a metal-like artificial substance that it isn't alive. For all we know, life on other planets may be iron-based, instead of carbon-based.

What we should do, therefore, is send Shemp or MdC out to try to mate with it.

[Disclord]

I think we should disable the probe and work from the assumption that the aliens who sent it are hostile. Who knows, they could have sent the probe to see if the earth is capable of supporting them in a take-over or has a food source (people!) for them to eat like we treat cattle. I think it's better to be safe than sorry - if we find they are not dangerous, then fine, but otherwise, we could be in deep trouble.

[TragicMonkey]

I think we should disable the probe and work from the assumption that the aliens who sent it are hostile. Who knows, they could have sent the probe to see if the earth is capable of supporting them in a take-over or has a food source (people!) for them to eat like we treat cattle. I think it's better to be safe than sorry - if we find they are not dangerous, then fine, but otherwise, we could be in deep trouble.

"Well, we were peaceful right up until you killed our silicon-based ambassador by ripping him apart. That's why we had to nova your sun. The Romulans were so right about you guys."

[RoboTimbo]

I say we bring democracy to their planet. Thank you Arthwollipot.

[Gord_in_Toronto]

Linky. (http://www.cartoonstock.com/newscartoons/cartoonists/rdi/lowres/rdin574l.jpg)

Exactly! Very nice. :D

[Disclord]

"Well, we were peaceful right up until you killed our silicon-based ambassador by ripping him apart. That's why we had to nova your sun. The Romulans were so right about you guys."

Oh, man, you made me spit my coffee out from laughing so hard! I should have been more detailed - I really meant we should prevent the probe from communicating with the senders of it. And yes, we should try and determine if the probe itself is a life form, treat it as if it's hostile while not doing anything to provoke it - like shooting at it or something (like in Earth VS The Flying Saucers).

[korenyx]

I wonder how long it would take James Dobson & friends to tell us it was from Satan!?

[CrikeyBobs]

Read Greg Bear's The Forge Of God. Alien probes are not to be trusted.....

Pretty decent, but Patrick Tilley's Fadeout is excellent. It's on my "read every few years" rotation. Actually, it's a long time since I read FoG. Thanks for the reminder. It's next.

[Beerina]

Quarantine the area. Contain the device. Prevent it from communicating. Observe its activities. Determine its power source and disable it. Take it apart and see how it is built. Adapt its technology to our own. Build similar devices and send one back. Build other devices that could be armed and manned, and place them and their crews on high readiness. Wait.

Although making goofy faces into the camera first is sorely tempting ... ;)

There ya go. Although I'd like to point out that any civilization not advanced enough to swat away our militaries would probably send a less obvious probe for just that reason -- don't give the destination civilization 50 or 200 years to ramp up a war footing using contemporary tech derived from the probe itself.

And those that could would be stupid to send such a probe with their current tech level -- though significantly older tech level would be useful*, if they didn't care about being clandestine.





* Hmmmm, as an engineering issue, you'd want to send a tech level such that the likelihood of a planetary-level industrial society being able to adapt it, and advance it in the time until you attack (200 years in the above example) at a wartime development rate, would be less than, say, 1% likely to outstrip you. And if you've been doing this to millions of civilizations for billions of years, you'd want significantly less than a 1% chance**.




** Which, in turn, suggests this plan of action would only work if there were certain attributes of physics your advanced tech relies on which are unpredictable from your version of "old tech" and are unlikely to be discovered in such a pattern of action. Or perhaps are dependent on some type of massive computational abilities the target civilization + your old tech would not be even remotely capable of in said time frame***.


*** This is kind of the opposite of the "game" galactic-level university researchers in A Fire Upon The Deep played, where they tried to come up with the minimal instruction set you could radio-beam to a collapsed civilization to allow them to 1) get back up to galactic tech speed or 2) construct a fantastically advanced item. The latter, think Contact, but the aliens are deliberately trying to make it easy rather than hard.

[Beerina]

Based on UFO mythology I deduce that the galactic way to say hello involves anal probing. It is in our best interest to appear friendly ....

I never thought of that! Some day, we will be the space travelers. :)


See, sticking an unnamed thing (wink, wink) up an unwilling girl's behind after making sure she's semi-conscious and unable to resist becomes ethical if you're from another planet.

[dudalb]

:alien011:



It's not an official Alien encounter thread on JREF until that smiley is posted.

[Fnord]

Send them notice that their next probe had better be made with American parts.
... by union labor, or by non-union labor paid a living wage - provided that it was not outsourced to a third-world world to deny union laborers their fair entitlements to living wages on their world(s).

[Darth Rotor]

Send the probe to silicon valley, and reverse engineer it. Then, send that to India, and have them reverse engineer it.

Then, send it back with a direct link to porn sites the world over.

Wait.

Then, go forth and conquer their decadent arses.

DR