🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <Added.0X6Kjdy00Ui306kk9I@andrew.cmu.edu> 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