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246 Dangers Diamond’s Doubts Pulitzer Prize winning author Jared Diamond has issued several warn- ings about calling ourselves to the attention of other technological civi- lizations. Describing the astronomers’ vision of friendly relations as “the best case scenario,” he declared that “those astronomers now pre- paring again to beam radio signals out to hoped-for extraterrestrials are naive, even dangerous.” Given our past habit of imposing our rule on inferior human groups, to destroy their culture, even to wipe them out, Diamond thought that any advanced extraterrestrials who discovered us would surely treat us in the same way. He described the 1974 Arecibo message as suicidal folly, comparing it to the Inca emperor’s describing the wealth of his capital to his gold-crazy Spanish captors. “If there really are any radio civilizations within listening distance of us,” Diamond said, “then for heaven’s sake, let’s turn off our transmitters and try to escape detection, or we’re doomed.” Dyson posed two alternatives. Intelligence may be a benign influence creating isolated groups of philosopher-kings far apart in the heavens, sharing at leisure their accumulated wisdom; or intelligence may be a cancer of purposeless technological exploitation sweeping across the Galaxy. We are more likely to discover first the species in which technology is out of control. We should be suitably alarmed if we discover it and should take our precautions.” A Reminder. We must draw a distinction between capability and inten- tions. Asking if aliens could take action against us is a question of what they are able to do, but may not do. Asking if they are motivated to take action against us is a separate question. Danger arises when the two are combined. In this age of conspiracy theories, one popular speculation is that an alien message or artifact would be a gift designed to subvert us. More than 40 years ago, Fred Hoyle proposed in his novel A for Andromeda that aliens might give us the blueprint for constructing a computer that spreads its influence through human society, with the ultimate goal of taking over the Tank Earth. This concern was revived in Sagan’s novel Contact and the subsequent film. When extraterrestrials send us plans for a giant machine, the U.S. The Trojan Horse