The Reader‘s archive is vast and varied, going back to 1971. Every day in Archive Dive, we’ll dig through and bring up some finds.
Article one stipulates, not in so many words, that Thou Shalt Wait Before Calling the Media. Inserted at the insistence of astronomers such as Peter Boyce of the American Astronomical Society, article one directs research organizations discovering a possible alien signal to hold off making a public announcement until they “verify that the most plausible explanation for the evidence is the existence of extraterrestrial intelligence rather than some other natural phenomenon.”
Originally, the space lawyers were “woefully ignorant” of this need, says Boyce. “Everybody assumes [the communicator] will be like ET and start talking right away. It won’t be like that at all!” He added that the more information that is packed into a signal, the more difficult it will be to pick out from random background noise.
Making and maintaining contact is an arduous process, involving multiple third variables. For example: the possibility of facing immediate intergalactic war, or roadblocks set up by those who don’t believe, for religious reasons or due to full-on skepticism, that extraterrestrial life exists.
