Philosophical scenario - A chance meeting - Page 2

narf poit chez BOOM · #1 May 26th, 2006, 04:08 AM

Omni-directional signal: Aliens decode it. Nuff said.
Try for peace: That's a goal, not a method.
Just ignore them, go about your business: And give them vital future tactical information or never colonize in that sector of space?
Ignore the risk: It's a solution, of sorts, but I don't think a navy review board would like it.

dogscoff · #2 May 26th, 2006, 04:42 AM

Well, seeing as how we've been advertising our presence for the last half-century or so with radio signals and whatnot (even sending out invites to come and visit on the Voyager probes, although it seems somewhat unlikely they'll ever be picked up) I think you'd have to risk letting them find Earth. Send a message ahead telling them exactly what heppened (don't have to tell them to start building warships, they'll figure that out for themselves) and in the meantime try as hard as possible to begin peaceful relations with the new neighbour.

And if you get the chance to find out where _they_ live, then all the better.

NullAshton · #3 May 26th, 2006, 09:04 AM

Narf, I was thinking that you wouldn't bother to decode the signal in the first place. They'll probally be doing the same thing, and an omni-directional signal will not give them any clue as to where you are.

And no, the voyager spacecraft never were picked up. One came back as a massive chunk of technology, completed it's mission, and then ascended to a higher plane of existance. Another one of the voyager spacecraft got disintergrated by Klingons for target practice.

Hunpecked · #4 May 26th, 2006, 02:24 PM

In some sci fi futures, messages travel STL while ships travel FTL. So if the meeting with the alien takes place in a distant star system, the only practical way to warn your home system is to travel there yourself.

rdouglass · #5 May 26th, 2006, 04:46 PM

Well, you cannot totally ensure your race will survive but it would help if you never went home. If you never went home, the alien (or alien tech) could not track you back to the home system.

Of course you're never sure whether or not the alien scanned and read all records in the computers of your ship, used mental telepathy on you, read the warp point signatures on the quantum singularity, or other such hogwash. So without knowing the 'bounderies', you can't really know the solution.

But the best solution would be to blow each other and the nebulae up.

Baron Munchausen · #6 May 26th, 2006, 05:37 PM

Quote:

rdouglass said:
Well, you cannot totally ensure your race will survive but it would help if you never went home. If you never went home, the alien (or alien tech) could not track you back to the home system.

Of course you're never sure whether or not the alien scanned and read all records in the computers of your ship, used mental telepathy on you, read the warp point signatures on the quantum singularity, or other such hogwash. So without knowing the 'bounderies', you can't really know the solution.

But the best solution would be to blow each other and the nebulae up.

This is one way of enforcing an 'equal' result. Another way would be to exchange ships -- each crew take the other ship home -- so that each empire would know just about everything there is to know about the other. (Although life support compatibility is required here...

That would be the non-violent way of attaining an equal result.

Hunpecked · #7 May 26th, 2006, 07:31 PM

"Gee, this sure is a neat little vessel. I hope that human guy likes my ship as much as I like his. OK, time to go hom--Say, what's that ticking sou--"

KABOOM!

Renegade 13 · #8 May 26th, 2006, 11:13 PM

Easy solution.

Try to establish peaceful communications then, regardless of the results of the communication, leave as fast as you can. Don't head straight home, that'd be rather foolish. Instead, move out at a 60�-90� angle in relation to your world. Continue until you think you're out of his sensor range, then head off at another oblique angle, then another. When you're sure he can't see you, go home and prepare.

This of course presumes the other ship doesn't simply nuke you on sight!

narf poit chez BOOM · #9 May 27th, 2006, 12:00 AM

Or follow you at the edge of his sensor range, presuming it to be larger than your sensor range.

Jack Simth · #10 May 27th, 2006, 02:14 AM

Omnidirectional broadcast; contains all known facts, but no conclusions, of the encounter. Avaoid flavor. Pick a star at random that is between 30 and 150 degrees from your home star. Head towards it until you reach it, or run out of supplies. If you reach it, and find a settleable planet, start farming. If you reach it and there isn't such a planet, pick a different star along the same general line, within a few degrees, and head towards that.....