You must come up with guidelines for a possible first contact with aliens situation...

Depends on setting

Actually this alien on the picture already shows the most basic part of any contact with other civilisations:

>Speak softly, and carry a big stick

>He's got paragraphs about what to do in case the aliens aren't DETECTABLE, or don't exist in the same number of dimensions

That man is a fucking hero.

Math is an abstraction. You are assuming they abstract the same way we do.

I read a book once where the alien 'philosophers' kept fucking confusing us with their anecdotal rambling when we asked about their tech or to speak with a scientist, before we eventully realized these WERE their scientists. Instead of abstracting with numbers, they abstract with 'universally recognized' metaphors we obviously just dont understand. But it comes to almost all of the same conclusions our math does. Comparing where it didnt match up was very enlightening for both sides. FTL is possible under their 'math', but they never figured out string theory due to a breakdown in metaphor.

It depends heavily on the context in which we meet. We might meet each other in space on the way to each others planet or find the ruins of their ancient civilization.
The most important thing would be do figure out their language and how to communicate. If they are emiting radio waves we will be able to figure out their language on the way to their planet.
If they are less technologically advance, we'll have to spy on them for a time before actual first contact so that their is no misunderstanding.
It is the responsibility of the more advanced civilization to set up safe and unambiguous communication and be patient when they freak out.
youtube.com/watch?v=yXWe8g0zziw&list=PLIIOUpOge0Lu97HzMt_BJu36UMaItB1cm

>Fuck off space Niggers we're full. You can crash on the Moon if you want.

>>Speak softly, and carry a big stick
This. Peacefully negotiate, but have enough nukes on hand to detested destroy all life on the planet.

>nukes
>destroy all life
Nah man, have enough RKVs stationed in interstellar space that you can launch at the planet when negotiations go south.
It has two benefits over just nuking the rock; it doesn't make everything radioactive, and it has the added benefit of smashing the planet apart for easy mining.

I'll just drop this here

...

Hilarious.

Am I missing some kind of reference?

Whip out dick to initiate a contest. If they don't have penises, move on to another world

RKKVs sound great in theory, but if you crunch the math they're wildly impractical, basically soft science.

Is this related to the "So you ended up in the stone age" T-shirt? They look kinda similar. Do you know where they all come from?

You really think so? I personally find the concept abjectly fucking terrifying.

I can't recall the name of it at the moment, but the scenario that springs to mind is of discovery of sentient alien life out in the universe and knowing that the only realistic decision we have is to annihilate it, hopefully before it does the same to us.

You mean this?

That's it. Thanks. Saved.

I had an idea for a short story about a 'first contact'. It would start with the aliens leaving a big canister of water floating in our solar system. No message of any kind; just a tank of water. Scientists would determine it to be seawater and discover some alien microbes in it. So it would seem to be some kind of empty habitat or aquarium. Ten years later, another aquarium would appear, but this time with little fishworms swimming in it. Ten years later a third aquarium with more types of fishworms. And so on, with the organisms becoming progressively larger and more complex. Slowly, we'd figure out quite about xenobiology and what conditions of the alien world must be like.

The final point would be that all aliens do have one thing in common: evolution. And to introduce yourself to an alien world, you have to show them what you are and how you came to be. All the aquariums were like snapshots of their own evolutionary path from fishworms to big brain monsters. Once we knew those facts about their history/biology, then real communication would be possible.

Blindsight, by Peter Watts. Fantastic read. The aliens in that one are basically super incomprehensible because the humans' assumption is that if it is an intelligent and dominant lifeform with interstellar capabilities, it must be sentient. Not unreasonable in Earth's context, but a core theme is the sentience is an evolutionary mistake.

What about creationists? Even if you don't think humans need to be, the aliens might.

ay bb want sum fuk

>it must be sentient. Not unreasonable in Earth's context, but a core theme is the sentience is an evolutionary mistake.
> Sentience
Are you sure you're using the right word? Non-sentient aliens might work for lovecraft stuff, but I'd say the ability to perceive things IS pretty Dan important for anything that isn't the Blind, Idiot God.

Read Blindsight. It's possible for a being to have evolved to be extremely intelligent yet not possess self-awareness. Basically, in terms of Searle's Chinese Room metaphor, it's a weak AI.

That's not very logical, now, is it?