At first I was thinking how we would not be able to fit a
Voyager-style/size data information device on such a
small star probe, but then it quickly dawned on me that
I was thinking too old school in this area, to say nothing
of not big enough.

The star probe discussed here may not be able to carry
much in the way of instrumentation, but I could see a
lot of information about humanity and our world put on
many of these probes and spread out into the galaxy
like seeds.

Forget just a few large probes with a rather limited amount
of information: We could have thousands of little probes sent
all over the nearby galactic realm, increasing the chances of
someone finding them and learning more about us.

And no, I am not worried about some hostile ETI finding out
that we exist and where we live via these probes. My
presumptions for this are as follows:

* A truly nasty species probably does not have the means or
the interest in conquering the galaxy and is likely in the process
of destroying itself.

* Truly advanced ETI would not want anything from such small
and comparatively primitive creatures outside of maybe some
basic information to update their galactic database.

* With all the resources in the Milky Way galaxy and its 400
billion star systems, why go after one small system that is
already occupied?

* If there are ETI who do want to take over Earth and the
Sol system, there is blessed little we could do about it at
this point. And they wouldn’t even need fancy weapon
systems to do it: Just aim some space rocks at key areas
of our civilization and wait for the dust to settle.

* Sharing information might be interpreted as a friendly
gesture, since the probes would only be carrying these
data packets.

If some catastrophe does befall the human race, these
probes may contain the only records of our existence,
preserved for the ages in deep space in multiple places.

Could we place as much information on such a tiny craft as
I think we can? I also presume that anyone who could find
these star probes would also be able to find the data and
decode it.

As for the pros of sending interstellar messages via physical
means as opposed to radio or light waves, see this Web site:

http://www.winlab.rutgers.edu/~crose/cgi-bin/cosmicB.html