THW: Avoid contact with intelligent extraterrestrial life

Her comments have been thoughtful and articulate, and she has been respectful throughout the debate. Once again, I acknowledge the logistical difficulties Pro raises regarding communication with IEL, but none of the challenges are insurmountable. It may take decades to learn a new communication system, but that need not be a reason to avoid contact with IEL. Our own history on Earth shows that through years of various methods and persistent effort very different cultures are able to figure out the nuances of each others' language. There's no reason to think we couldn't at least attempt that with IEL. Pro asserts that "communicating with the IEL would be nigh on impossible," but without knowing the capabilities of IEL, this statement is unsupported. There is no way to categorically rule out all possible forms of communication. I have just showed that it would be possible under the right conditions. Neither Pro nor I are in any position to assign absolute likelihood to any methods of communication IEL might use, so we must reject Pro's claim that communication with IEL would be nearly impossible. Risks abound, but we have no way of determining that they are so overwhelming as to avoid all contact. Pro goes on to argue that IEL would be more likely to be aggressive or violent, but again bases her reasoning on how life evolved on Earth. Pro claims that evolution "is the only way to get to complex life" and that the dominance of aggressive beings "would be as true on another planet as it is on Earth. " But how can Pro make this case? Has Pro categorically ruled out every single possible mechanism for the development of life in the entire universe? If not, then Pro is not justified in applying the rules of natural selection on Earth necessarily to the entire Universe. All we know about life is limited only to Earth, so we should be humble about our knowledge of how it can manifest itself. I do concede the possibility that IEL could be aggressive, but Pro must concede that there is no evidence that evolution would necessarily work the same way everywhere in the universe as it does here. We simply don't know enough to assign a realistic probability either way, so we can only say that IEL with malicious intent would be possible, not likely or necessary. Why take the risk? As I mentioned, we can't say we know everything about life just from studying Earth. Evolution is so dependent on environment and biological history that studying IEL would almost certainly show us new ways that life can develop. Yes, humans might improve society through other means, but that, in and of itself, shouldn't be a reason to avoid contact. No cultural exchange has ever been without risk, and we have been enriched as a species as a result. We shouldn't choose to pass up an opportunity to improve our species because of a risk that we can't even fully assess. In summary, Pro argues that communication (to avoid pathogenic infection) would be nearly impossible; I argue that our own history shows that learning to communicate between different cultures is difficult but not unachievable. I also pointed out that we don't know enough about IEL to say what is impossible. Pro reiterated that IEL would most likely be aggressive because evolution of life necessarily favors aggression and violence. However, I reject this assessment because it is only based on Earth's evolutionary history. We just don't know enough about how life evolves outside of Earth. The potential, society-wide benefits of knowledge from the IEL would be worth the potential, unknown risks. Discovery always has risks, but it has served the human race well; there's no reason to think it can't in this context. Pro did not address the possibility that humanity's output of electromagnetic signals and radio waves has made contact with IEL inevitable. I would love to know her thoughts on this, but we are out of space. Thank you for your time.