THW: Avoid contact with intelligent extraterrestrial life

I will begin by briefly outlining my main points: 1) Pathogenous organisms could be transferred between our species, resulting in an epidemic either on our planet or on theirs. 2) Intelligent extraterrestrial life is likely to be aggressive and highly technologically advanced, and would therefore pose a considerable military threat. 3) There is little to be gained from interacting with extraterrestrial life. Firstly, the most prominent risk is of pathogenous infection; throughout human history, whenever we have encountered isolated groups of humans, there has always been an epidemic of disease; the sheer number of native Americans who died as a result of cold or flu is a horrifying example of this. The devastating impact of a flu or cold epidemic can be seen in human history, and these are for diseases which we know for a fact humans can be immune or resistant to. There exist some diseases which it is impossible for a human to be immune to: prion diseases, primary amoebic meningoencephalitis, and fibrodysplasia ossificians progressivia to name a few specifics. The human immune system has only evolved to cope with those pathogens it regularly encounters; any extraterrestrial pathogens brought to us by intelligent visitors would almost certainly be lethal and extremely contagious, resulting in a devastating epidemic. Just as this horrifying scenario could play our here on Earth, so too would it be possible to infect a visitor with flu and to cause a similarly devastating epidemic on their native planet. This is, of course, only a problem with greeting the extraterrestrials in physical proximity. The motion clearly forbids all kinds of interactions, and this would include communicating through radiowaves. The biggest reason we shouldn't communicate with extraterrestrials even remotely is the possibility of a military invasion: intelligence is only selected for in carnivorous or omnivorous creatures, as these are the organisms for which is is most crucial to be able to think tactically in order to outwit and kill prey. This means any intelligent extraterrestrials would have evolved a predator's killing instinct and aggression. In order for an extraterrestrial to be able to receive our communications and to send a reply, it would have to be from an extremely advanced society. This would presumably also include an advanced military presence; if we were to go to war with them, they would likely win. If pathogens didn't wipe us out first, the extraterrestrials themselves likely would. There is less to elaborate on point 3, and it is, admittedly, more of a refutative point than a positively argumentative one. I challenge my opponent to suggest some kind of gain humans could make from interacting with extraterrestrials which it would not either be considerably safer or considerably more efficient to pursue by other means. So, it is clear that interacting with intelligent extraterrestrials would have the considerable risks of pathogenous epidemics and military invasion, and quite what we would gain from doing so is not yet established. It is for that reason that I urge the voters to side with the motion to avoid contact with intelligent extraterrestrial life. Thank you for your time.