To be clear, just a few of the reasons why this doesnât make sense are:
We donât know that humanity will create superintelligence soon.
We donât know that a superintelligence is likely to be malicious.
We donât know that there are alien civilizations in our galaxy or elsewhere in the universe.
If many alien civilizations in our galaxy achieved superintelligence thousands or millions of years ago, there are ways of them monitoring Earth. A civilization that achieved superintelligence 1 million years ago has had plenty of time to set up probes throughout the galaxy. A civilization that achieved superintelligence 1,000 years ago hasnât, but, as you mentioned, it can tell which planets have conditions conducive to life. It could notice the rapid increase in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, which is evidence of industrialization. It could also monitor for unintentional and intentional radio broadcasts. And this is only what we can imagine with our current science and technology and our current intelligence.[1]
Itâs unclear how our Earth-originating superintelligence would be a threat to alien civilizations that achieved superintelligence thousands or millions of years ago. This sounds implausible on its face and needs to be justified, which it probably canât be.
If alien civilizations have been dealing with many other alien civilizations with superintelligence for thousands or millions of years, they donât need a warning from us about it.
The simulation stuff is totally off the rails. That doesnât even have anything to do with SETI, METI, or the Fermi paradox. Plus, itâs extremely bizarre and sounds like complete madness. I donât think the simulation argument/âsimulation hypothesis makes any sense in the first place â on its own, itâs quite mad â and this takes the simulation idea up a notch to an even stranger place, with no attempt to logically support it (not that such an attempt could ever succeed, anyway).
All in all, this is just a whimsical sci-fi idea and not a serious or credible proposal for how to allocate resources that instead could, say, save the life of someone in sub-Saharan Africa.
Edited on Nov. 17, 2025 at 3:50 PM Eastern to add:
This post seems to assume that alien civilizations would have some sort of alliance or diplomatic relations. If true, and if there are many different alien civilizations in our galaxy, presumably with quite different ages, older civilizations with probes hidden everywhere could communicate information about Earth to younger civilizations without probes. This communication could happen either via radio broadcasts that Earth could not pick up on or via other communication technologies that Earth does not have.
The main point you miss is that the main goal of all this is to get a better negotiation position on Earth with our own superintelligence (and there are high chances that it will be soon and misaligned)- which at early stages will also very uncertain about aliens detraction in the universe. It is like crying into an open windowââa guy, Jack, is in my room and is going to kill me!â You donât know if there is police outsideâbut you hope to affect Jackâs calculus.
But, even if I accept that, it doesnât change the fact that a radio broadcast is unnecessary due to points (4) and (6). Doing the radio broadcast or not wouldnât change anything.
To be clear, just a few of the reasons why this doesnât make sense are:
We donât know that humanity will create superintelligence soon.
We donât know that a superintelligence is likely to be malicious.
We donât know that there are alien civilizations in our galaxy or elsewhere in the universe.
If many alien civilizations in our galaxy achieved superintelligence thousands or millions of years ago, there are ways of them monitoring Earth. A civilization that achieved superintelligence 1 million years ago has had plenty of time to set up probes throughout the galaxy. A civilization that achieved superintelligence 1,000 years ago hasnât, but, as you mentioned, it can tell which planets have conditions conducive to life. It could notice the rapid increase in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, which is evidence of industrialization. It could also monitor for unintentional and intentional radio broadcasts. And this is only what we can imagine with our current science and technology and our current intelligence.[1]
Itâs unclear how our Earth-originating superintelligence would be a threat to alien civilizations that achieved superintelligence thousands or millions of years ago. This sounds implausible on its face and needs to be justified, which it probably canât be.
If alien civilizations have been dealing with many other alien civilizations with superintelligence for thousands or millions of years, they donât need a warning from us about it.
The simulation stuff is totally off the rails. That doesnât even have anything to do with SETI, METI, or the Fermi paradox. Plus, itâs extremely bizarre and sounds like complete madness. I donât think the simulation argument/âsimulation hypothesis makes any sense in the first place â on its own, itâs quite mad â and this takes the simulation idea up a notch to an even stranger place, with no attempt to logically support it (not that such an attempt could ever succeed, anyway).
All in all, this is just a whimsical sci-fi idea and not a serious or credible proposal for how to allocate resources that instead could, say, save the life of someone in sub-Saharan Africa.
Edited on Nov. 17, 2025 at 3:50 PM Eastern to add:
This post seems to assume that alien civilizations would have some sort of alliance or diplomatic relations. If true, and if there are many different alien civilizations in our galaxy, presumably with quite different ages, older civilizations with probes hidden everywhere could communicate information about Earth to younger civilizations without probes. This communication could happen either via radio broadcasts that Earth could not pick up on or via other communication technologies that Earth does not have.
The main point you miss is that the main goal of all this is to get a better negotiation position on Earth with our own superintelligence (and there are high chances that it will be soon and misaligned)- which at early stages will also very uncertain about aliens detraction in the universe. It is like crying into an open windowââa guy, Jack, is in my room and is going to kill me!â You donât know if there is police outsideâbut you hope to affect Jackâs calculus.
But, even if I accept that, it doesnât change the fact that a radio broadcast is unnecessary due to points (4) and (6). Doing the radio broadcast or not wouldnât change anything.