I am all for cautious study and exploration. I just worry that we'll become
SO cautious that we won't want to do anything for fear of harm. That's
the way towards stagnation and extinction.

What I don't worry myself about is an alien invasion. That's our primitive
tribal selves coming into play. I might even go so far as to say that it is
our feeling of collective guilt over our centuries of wrecking other cultures
for personal gain, at least in the sense that what we've done to others
could happen to us by someone with bigger guns.

If there are hostile aliens out there but they don't have star flight, then
no need to worry. If they are hostile or Borgish and can reach other
star systems, then tell me what we can do about it?

I think it is much worse for us not to venture forth into the Universe
than hide from the extraterrestrial bogeyman. And if the Cosmos is
full of worlds with little more than algae on them, won't we feel silly
for being scared.

At the rate we are going in terms of interstellar travel, though,
the Pioneers, Voyagers, and New Horizon are going to get awfully
lonely. They will need 77,000 years just to go the distance of
the nearest star system, Alpha Centauri.

And as for those Active SETI transmissions, I keep wondering if they
aimed them at the right places: Optically visible stars.

And as for Arecibo, Messier 13 won't get the message for 25,000 years,
plus it only lasts for 3 minutes (it was mainly ceremonial anyway).
Any responses we do get will require another 25,000 years to get
back to us.

We just aren't big enough to warrant any serious attention. But this
will give us a lot of time to catch up on our studying.