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371 to reduce the risks involved by drawing on our most universal, least culture- bound findings about the psychology and behavior of intelligent beings. Perhaps there are universal principles recognized by all intelligent species from their experiences with their own evolution, with their environments, and with each other. Several authors have proposed approaches to drafting interstellar radio messages. Vakoch suggested three: first, construct a message that avoids areas of disagreement; second, allow multiple compositions, with each reply highlighting a different perspective; third, draft a coherent, unified message that includes perspectives that may be irreconcilable with each other (this seems likely to produce a very long message!) Vakoch cited linguist Kirsten Refsing’s view that we should send out as many different kinds of message as we are able to compose, in the hope that at least one of them would be understood.** Your present author and others have proposed that we try to draft an outgoing message in advance of a detection, as a way of focusing our think- ing. That message would be reviewed by an international body that would decide whether to send it. This exercise would have implications reaching beyond the immediate issue of message content.*” Vakoch thought that public support for SETI could be promoted through a widespread discussion of the contents of a reply message. He gave us several other reasons for drafting a message in advance: first, it is only when we begin composing a reply message that we will begin to understand that range of issues involved in deciding the content; second, this effort may facilitate the initial decryption of messages from extraterrestrials; third, we can begin to see interstellar compositions as a form of art; fourth, it may be advantageous to have a standard reply message in place; fifth, drafting such a message would provide a source of intellectual stimulation and a concrete sense of accomplishment to SETI researchers; sixth, this effort would prepare us for an active search strategy, in which we transmit messages to attract the attention of others.** At the same time, we must recognize that no stock reply could match more than one of the infinite possibilities for the alien message’s content. What we say in response depends on the nature of the alien signal and what it is telling us. It depends on distance, whether we can understand the message, and on the world’s reaction.” The practice involved in drafting detailed messages would leave us better prepared for contact. It also would offer opportunities for insight into ourselves; by explaining to another species what it means to be human, we may gain a clearer understanding. Building a global consensus on how to represent Humankind would have a significance reaching far beyond the immediate issues of contact.*° The drafting of a message to extraterrestrials would be heavily influ- enced by the fact that it also is a message to our own civilization. Many humans would be highly sensitive to its content. Should we withhold some What Should We Say?