Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!rutgers!rochester!pt.cs.cmu.edu!cat.cmu.edu!dep From: dep@cat.cmu.edu (David Pugh) Newsgroups: sci.space Subject: Re: Why no aliens Message-ID: <2826@pt.cs.cmu.edu> Date: 29 Aug 88 16:40:37 GMT References: Sender: netnews@pt.cs.cmu.edu Organization: Carnegie-Mellon University, CS/RI Lines: 22 In article RAM9@LEHIGH.BITNET ("Richard Mauren - RAM9") writes: > The reason for us not having had extraterrestial contact may be >simply that it is too dangerous. ... They would >be stupid to contact us because it would be so easy for us to >annihilate the planet with nukes. If ETI's are avoiding contact because they are afraid we might nuke them, then they are probably afraid enough to nuke just to be on safe the safe side (after all, we might find them even if they don't contact us). You may be half right, though -- it may be the case that any race "advanced" enough to make contact over interstellar distances always ends up destroying itself (either with nukes or something worse). Suppose, for example, that it is possible to build a weapon that would kill everyone on the planet. Now make it easy enough to build that any country/company/terrorists can build it. Any bets on how long we would survive? Don't laugh -- something like this may happen in the next 20 years (probably a biological weapon, but who knows). -- David Pugh ....!seismo!cmucspt!cat!dep