Twittering Aliens

More than 10,000 tweets and videos were beamed into space this week using the radio telescope at Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico.

It was done as a promotional stunt for a television show, which suggests it was not a serious effort.  Given the assumption that aliens will probably never receive the message, the project is likely harmless enough.  However, Stephen Hawking and others suggest that calling attention to ourselves might be a mistake.  Interstellar civilizations are likely aggressive, they argue.  That may or may not turn out to be accurate, but it is a possibility that should not be ignored.

Losing everything because we didn't take the potential of communicating with aliens seriously would be the ultinate shame.