Hi All,

I just came across the lively discussion of the Nature paper in this forum! There
are a variety of technical questions that still need answering (survivability, delivery,
etc.). But the main point is that it's kind of hard to ignore a 10^15 energy
differential when energy is used as a proxy for ease of implementation.

The issue of motive is indeed thorny. My own bias is for "biological" messages
to escape some sort of predictable calamity. The later postings were in many
ways what I have in mind. That is, I'm trying to avoid engaging in "alien psychology" :)
-- like trying to say "there's a will to survive" when the more likely explanation is that those
with some sort of "will" DID survive! (and downward to selfiish genes a la Dawkins).

And no, I'm not (necessarily) positing some sort of "interstellar evolution"
owing to the distances and time scales, but rather that the solar system
(or even our perch in the galactic plane) is a danger place for a variety
of reasons -- perhaps those who survive replicate themselves somewhere
else as a hedge.

Think of an asteroid strike which would carve a moonlette out of earth.
If it were unavoidable, what might we do...

But at present, all the above is just bias, pure and simple :)

Cheers,

Chris