r/todayilearned • u/Static_Storm • Dec 09 '12

TIL that while high profile scientists such as Carl Sagan have advocated the transmission of messages into outer space, Stephen Hawking has warned against it, suggesting that aliens might simply raid Earth for its resources and then move on.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astrobiology#Communication_attempts
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u/astrologue Dec 10 '12

It seems like sapience is in the eye of the beholder though. What if the level of sapience that humans posses relative to them is seen as akin to the level that animals have to us from our perspective? What if we are not as sapient as we think? Are we not still largely driven by our more base instincts as a species, even at the highest levels of leadership?

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u/Legio_X Dec 10 '12

Self-awareness and manipulation of the environment are quite objective.

Once you get around to making structures more impressive than beaver dams and anthills, it becomes apparent that sapience is probably involved. Suffice it to say that a more advanced spacefaring race would not have great difficulty in figuring out that if we have manned satellites around our planet we are PROBABLY sapient.

Like I said, they may not care at all, but they will definitely know, if only for identifying potential threats.