http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn16981-why-we-shouldnt-hide-our-...

Why we shouldn't hide our problems from ET

03:29 18 April 2009 by Douglas Vakoch

For nearly 50 years, the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence
(SETI) has scanned the heavens with radio telescopes for signs of
alien technology. At the same time, scientists have painstakingly
crafted messages to send in reply.

When NASA launched its Voyager missions in 1977, for example, both
spacecraft carried audio recordings depicting the diversity of life
and culture on Earth (see gallery).

But never have those messages truly represented all of humanity. On 15
May that will change as the SETI Institute launches a project to
collect messages from people around the world.

Though there are currently no plans to transmit these messages into
space, the project aims to foster a global discussion about whether we
should send more than symbolic messages to the stars, and if so, what
we should say.

The standard wisdom in interstellar diplomacy is to avoid controversy
– a sometimes elusive goal. In the early 1970s, NASA attached plaques
to two Pioneer spacecraft etched with basic mathematics, science and
line drawings of a man and woman (see image at right). Some complained
the space agency was sending "smut into space", with the naked figures
revealing more than they deemed proper for a first encounter.

Other messages have escaped such criticism. One from the Arecibo
Observatory in Puerto Rico depicts the human form in so few pixels
that its sex is not clear. The Voyager recordings excluded war,
poverty and disease.

However, a comprehensive message to the stars should not shrink from
the details. Might not an advanced extraterrestrial species, savvy in
the ways of intelligent being, notice that something was missing from
our description of ourselves? An acknowledgment of our flaws and
frailties seems a more honest approach than sending a sanitised, one-
sided story. Honesty is a good starting point for a conversation that
could last for generations.

If we continue to dodge controversy, we risk sending messages that are
both brief and boring. We sometimes clash in our beliefs and customs;
we disagree over matters of taste and morality. In no small part this
diversity of perspectives is what characterises us as a species. And
it may just make us intriguing enough to the inhabitants of other
worlds to elicit a reply.