The odds of us being the only intelligent life in the universe is pretty low. While we may never discover the answers to otherworldly sentient life in our lifetimes, it doesn't mean at some point in the future there won't be some kind of bridge built between our civilization and another. But what will that civilization be like? Will they come in peace or will the arrive for war? Odds are whatever first message they send will be a big sign of what's to come.
Reddit user, u/silly_vasily, wanted to hear about:
What would be the scariest message humanity could receive from outer space?
Seems Like An All-Around Win
homer simpson halloween GIFGiphyDeploy your planetary shield. Incoming gamma ray burst in 48 hours.
What do you mean? We are all getting superpowers. Total win.
Well, It Certainly Wouldn't Be All That Surprising After Our 2020
"Experiment unsuccessful, prepare for termination and reset."
This Would Be Horrifying
Screams, and an abrupt stop.
Did you know that a lot of signals in space indeed resemble a scream[?]
Oh Yeah, We Still Don't know Where It Came From
"Earthlings, can we have our ball back please?"
No can do. It kinda turned into our moon and now we need it to support life
Let's Examine The Subtext Of What Receiving A Message Would Actually Mean
Anything that we could understand would be pretty scary. Like they just send a "Hey we're aliens nice to meet you" message but if it happens to be in one of our languages that means they've been studying us or something like that.
We Should Certainly Try, No Matter What
angry lisa simpson GIFGiphyYou are the last.
Be better than us.
At Least They're Giving Us A Heads Up?
Just a countdown timer with no other context.
The countdown starts at 10 and unexpectedly stops at 5. People start to panick and get confused and worried, but as years go by and nothing relevant happened, most of them think it was a huge case of mass hysteria. People shrug it off and most start to forget about it.
But 5 years later, and completely out of nowhere, boom 4 - 3 - 2 and it stops again. Oh no...
Who Truly Knows What's Going On Out There?
the simpsons episode 3 GIFGiphyJust a distress signal on permanent repeat. Then another one a few years later. Then another one. Then another ten. Then thousands.
Then they all just stop.
[There's] a short story about this.
Humanity start getting signals from everywhere and when deciphering them it turns out they are basically goodbyes from every other species as the universe ends.
Want to "know" more? Never miss another big, odd, funny, or heartbreaking moment again. Sign up for the Knowable newsletter here.
@RepClayHiggins/X
