[CaptainCrunch]

Originally Posted by handgroen

I have an ongoing debate with some friends over whether or not it is ethical to send objects or interfere with planets we believe to harbor life.

My contention is that because of the dramatic distance between our planet and other prospective "earths," exploration is and will always be impossible. Even if you were to send a probe, it would be thousands of years getting there and hundreds of years for the data to be beamed back. Which IMO is a fruitless albeit still somewhat noble pursuit.
Sooo I think it would be interesting to send physical objects to planets we believe could be home to sentient life. Sort of a message in a bottle scenario. A device to create fire for example, or a hand driven crank that lights an incandescent bulb. The particular objects i'm not quite sure of.

This seems to always draw the ire of someone in the conversation. This person feels an intense fear of "screwing" with something we don't understand. My question is do you guys think that it's totally reckless to undertake a mission of that kind? and if not what would you like to send?

btw if i really like to wind up the person I'm talking with about this, I say we could send large amounts of highly radioactive material. So as to encourage mutation and accelerate evolution on planet x.

Lets be clear, we're going to send aliens fire. Sure we'll probably cause the great flaming stick war of Omicron Persi 6 and they'll remember, and they'll have a heightened sense of irony when they conquor us and roast us over the very fire that we gave to them.