Why sending messages into space is probably a bad idea

Humans have been sending radio signals and the likes into space for quite a while now. Some have been intentionally sent as messages to be decoded by an alien intelligence. Well, it turns out that this might not be a very good idea. All things considered, it might even be a very bad idea.

One of the most obvious and important things to consider is what kind of alien civilization we are most likely to contact through these messages. Assuming the aliens are capable of receiving and deciphering our message, they would have to be about as advanced as us. Maybe a little bit less. But most likely, they'll be a lot more advanced.

You see, the thing with alien civilizations is that they might've been around a lot longer than we've been. They could be as much as ten billion years ahead of us. That being said, just a civilization that's a million years ahead would be vastly superior to us. And the more advanced civilizations are, the more widespread they'll tend to be. And the more likely it is that they'll pick up our message.

So why is it a bad thing that most of the civilizations we'll contact will be a lot more advanced than us? Well, given the time they've been around, their societies will have evolved into either a dystopia or a utopia. In a dystopian society, we would expect a small elite, possibly just one supreme being, exerting absolute control over all other beings. In a utopian society, each of the aliens would be granted individual freedom.

The important difference between a dystopian society and a utopian society would lie in its potential benevolence and moral integrity. With a dystopian society, malevolence and a complete lack of morality are pretty much a given. As for an alien utopia, things might be a bit more complicated.

An alien utopia might've come about through annihilating the inferior, only leaving the most perfect specimens of their kind unscathed. Such a civilization would probably have no regard for other sentient life whatsoever, similar to most dystopian societies. Alternatively, they might've instead "upgraded" the inferior, and perfected their species through biological and/or technological means. Evenso, that wouldn't stop them from being speciesist.

However, they could go even further and "upgrade" other sentient life on their planet to their own level, as well as changing the planet's ecosystem according to their moral beliefs. If such a civilization visited Earth, however, it would probably start messing with our genes and those of other organisms without our consent, simply because they'd be "doing us a favour" and possibly because they have some weird fetish.

So if you don't want to be annihilated or assimilated, you better put your hopes on the aliens being apathetic.