If we are ever contacted by aliens, the man I’m having lunch with will be one of the first humans to know. His name is Paul Davies and he’s chair of the Seti (Search For Extraterrestrial Intelligence) Post-Detection Task Group. They’re a group of the world’s most eminent scientists and will be, come the big day, the planet’s alien welcome committee. His is an awesome responsibility, and one he doesn’t take lightly.
“Imagine a civilisation that’s way in advance of us wants to communicate with us, and assist us in our development,” Paul says. He pushes his mackerel across his plate. “The information we provide to them must reflect our highest aspirations and ideals, and not just be some crazy person’s bizarre politics or religion.”
This is why, Paul says, he very much hopes that our opening communication with the aliens will be drafted by him. “All the attempts to send messages up so far have been very crass,” he says. “If you’re going to leave it up to the mob to decide what’s important, it’ll be this really cool video game. Or some sporting event. Or some rock group.”
“Do you have any idea of what you might say to the aliens?” I ask.
There is a short silence. “I do,” he says.
Just a reminder – You can check out my interview with Jon Ronson in the issue of UFO Magazine that is on the shelves now.
Mar 12 2010 
March 12th, 2010 at 10:14 am
The man with a great responsibility… or so he thinks.
Anyway, why would we want a misanthrope to speak on behalf of the human race?
I think in this instance I much prefer the position of Seth Shostak, who think we could transmit the entire Internet to the hypothetical radio-fetishist ETs —“sure, it has a lot of porn, but that’s human too!” Right on, Seth!
March 12th, 2010 at 6:07 pm
I think maybe we should follow Dr. Kaku’s advice and not make contact at all (assuming there is something to make contact with) until we are sure what we would be dealing with.
March 13th, 2010 at 11:33 am
“I think maybe we should follow Dr. Kaku’s advice and not make contact at all (assuming there is something to make contact with) until we are sure what we would be dealing with.”
Kaku’s plan is sensible enough. However, remember the words of John:
“Life is what happens to you
while you are making plans”
What I mean is that, we should always expect the unexpected.
March 13th, 2010 at 11:21 pm
lol! I know that for a fact and for all we know it may have already happened.
March 20th, 2010 at 2:33 am
http://gorightly.wordpress.com/2010/03/20/gorightly-censored-at-ufo-mystic/
March 20th, 2010 at 8:07 am
I have approved your comment!
March 21st, 2010 at 8:20 pm
For UFOMystic’s response to Adam Gorightly, read here: Gorightly Censored at UFO Mystic! Or Not…