shuttle colombia shot down by plasma weapons, page-68

The mundane problem with contact is the great distance between things, not to mention the unknown consequences. Even we puny humans are a bit dangerous to other local, life-forms and ourselves, viewed objectively.

Let's say there is (smart) "life" a thousand, million light years away and you could travel at the speed of light, which is quite fast and involves expending quite a bit of energy, your message, provided it didn't degrade too much, which seems likely, could reach there in a billion years.

A reply could be back here in another billion years, so the message would need to be a good one. We sent off a Beatles tune lately didn't we?

"Hi, we're humans, and here's a picture of us. PS how do you like this example of mid-sixties popular music?"

...2 billion years pass...

"Bit tame, got any Iggy Pop? PS from your pictures you look delicious, are you soft in the middle or hard in the middle?"