Thoreau’s post on the potential pitfalls of advertising our presence to aliens who may be unfriendly reminds me of Robert Nozick’s morbidly delightful short story RSVP. It’s behind the subscription wall at Commentary, but can also be found in the collection Socratic Puzzles.
Perils of SETI
May 8th, 2008 · 3 Comments
Tags: Libertarian Theory
3 responses so far ↓
1 Robin Lionheart // May 9, 2008 at 8:50 am
That short story moved me. Thank you for telling me about it.
2 Erstwhile // May 9, 2008 at 11:48 am
I find it somewhat jarring to be reminded that, once upon a time, a thinker as brilliant as Nozick could write for Commentary. That magazine, which I used to borrow eagerly, has long since degenerated into a chamber pot of Belligerent and Tendentious.
I had thought that maybe I just got smart and the rag-azine had always been dumb. But the presence of Nozick unearthed in its catacombs betrays that lie.
Try to imagine, if RN were still around, how debonairly he would demolish the inane and deadly errors of neoconservatism.
3 mtc // May 10, 2008 at 1:50 am
I’ve always wondered if blasting EM radiation off into to depths of space might be a bad idea.
Reminds of a story my grandfather once told me from his WWII service: Some idiot in the next foxhole over got on the radio when he wasn’t supposed to, and sure enough German shells were soon raining down. The problem with communicating in the EM spectrum as we do is that anybody can hear it (excepting lasers/focused transmissions), and even if they can’t understand what you’re saying, they can figure out where you are.