Cav's Place

I have no doubt that we will be successful in our search for extraterrestrial intelligence within the next few decades, but I find myself wondering what will we do afterwards. Wonder if anybody even thought that far, or they’re just split between those who think that we’re alone and those who put every effort into proving we’re not, at the expense of any plans made for the day after they succeed.

Say we find obvious signs of intelligent life on or around an Earth-like planet, or perhaps signs of stranger forms of life from other interesting planets. That planet will most likely be hundreds of light years away from Earth and not only that we won’t be able to reach it, but even attempting to send a message would be pointless, as our best method of doing that is using radio waves and they only travel at the speed of light.
Won’t that be awfully frustrating? Finally having proof that they’re out there and not being able to do anything about it? Just staring at them and wondering if they’re not perhaps staring at us as well, each waiting for the other to become advanced enough to pay a visit, or at least make a call?

But let’s assume that we will discover some means of sending a message across interstellar distances in a reasonable amount of time before finding somebody to send it to. Does anybody know what will we do then? Do we want to make ourselves known in case they aren’t aware of us yet or don’t we? Do we want to risk initiating direct contact with a civilization that we know nothing about? Do we want to risk throwing a civilization that’s not yet ready for proof that they’re not alone into turmoil?
And if we do send that message, who will send it? What will it say? Once we’ll find a way to translate what each other will say, if they ask about us, what will we answer? If we mean to find out about them, what will we ask? And if they can reach us with relative ease, will we invite them over? Or, better yet, will we let their visits to be out in the open or only in perfect secrecy (as, perhaps, some have already happened)? And, when they come in the open at last, how will we greet them? How will we behave around them?
But, perhaps most importantly, once we’ll find one extraterrestrial civilization, will we focus on attempting to contact them or keep looking for others?

I think that the most likely scenario is that we’ll find them and be able to do nothing but stare in their general direction, so I’m asking these things less in order to find out the actual answers and more in order to find out whether or not those who lead the search know what to do once they’ll find ET.
Is there a clear plan or will everybody start shouting their opinion at the top of their lungs and attempt to beat the crap out of anybody who disagrees? Because, let’s face it, violence is the only way humanity at large knows to deal with differences of opinion in.

And at that moment we certainly won’t need yet another reason for violence, since those who firmly believe that we’re alone might act as if suddenly woken up while sleepwalking and UFO enthusiasts might see this as a confirmation of even the craziest of their current suppositions on the issue.
Can you imagine the potential religious wars, as if there aren’t enough already? Can you imagine the potential conspiracy theories and ensuing paranoia? Can you imagine how many would be ready to die to prove the discovery wrong and how many others would be willing to do the same thing to prove that some know more than they tell, or have known about it for a long time already? Can you imagine the chaos and how the balanced people who see it as a normal event and wonder what the next logical step should be will be caught in the middle, attacked by both sides?

Aware of us or not, waiting for us or not, ready for us or not, they’re there, perhaps occasionally even here, and pretty soon we will stumble upon them. The question is: Are we ready for that day? And since the answer is obviously no, the question becomes: How do we make the world at large be ready in due time, when we already have lots of other things we must ready humanity for on short notice?
That’s the worst problem regarding this issue because until humanity at large is ready for such an event, it most likely won’t be revealed to them. Those who might be in the know can’t be trusted to make such a contact public until they can trust everybody else not to turn the world into chaos if they did. And since mistrust breeds mistrust, the situation can only get worse.

I have no answers… Only know that this is an issue we need to solve, and that it seems even harder to do when the vast majority of people aren’t even aware of the needs of Earth, and certainly not willing to do their part in preserving it.
Perhaps the best way would be to have it taken out of our hands. Have a gigantic mothership come out of an artificial wormhole and block out the Sun one day, then wait out the chaos and hope reason and balance will take advantage of the shock felt by the other sides and eventually emerge victorious. I think that would be a true test for us. Not for us as humans, but for us as living beings trying to determine whether or not we’re worthy of being called intelligent.