What would happen if contact with alien life actually occurred?

I must have missed any discussions on Tabby's Star. Is that the cat nebula?

My thinking about any form of extraterrestrial life would be to propose
that
"We gotta do some comparative anatomy and genetics to look at the ideas of "common ancestry.

Even intelligent life displaying similar body plans as life on earth (tartigrades -to Humans), will have to be studied anatomically and genetically.

Ive always said that we will develop a multigalactic "worldview" about development or colonizations throughout the near in Universe.

Its gonna be several hundred generations (A guess) to accomplish space travel at 0.5(c) but then proxima and alphcentauri "near field planetoids" will be in the reach of science

Information on Tabby's Star is provided in that link to the Alien MegaStructure discussion from a while back. It is not the Cat Nebula.

My guess is that the first level of contact we're likely to get from extraterrestrial technology is going to come either from a Tabby's Star type of situation in which we stumble across some type of inadvertent change in starlight, or from an intentional disruption in starlight from an advanced species trying send out a beacon (this is the more recent scenario proposed by the scientists which identified a small number of stars in their sweep which are fluctuating oddly).

In either of those case it's going to be a "read only" type of situation in which we can observe something, but not interact with it (due to the distance). And I doubt we'll get any direct observational evidence of biology from that. More likely it'll be an exposure to new technology.

No one would have believed in the first years of the twenty first century that this world was being watched keenly and closely by intelligences greater than man's and yet as mortal as his own; that as men busied themselves about their various concerns they were scrutinised and studied, perhaps almost as narrowly as a man with a microscope might scrutinise the transient creatures that swarm and multiply in a drop of water. With infinite complacency men went to and fro over this globe about their little affairs, serene in their assurance of their empire over matter...

Where is Richard Burton when we need him?

I would look at a star's spectra and see any evidences of complex halogenated organic types of compounds in their atmospheres.
While these arent totally impossible to create naturally, their relative abundance in a spectra (if it shows a lot) would be a strong indicator that resource development or agriculture had taken place somewhere in that star system.

I never said that, I quoted Gooey.

That would only apply if the light were being filtered through a planetary atmosphere, right?

At present I don't even think they know if planets exist in that solar system (although I suspect planets exist around almost every star).

transmitted light or reflected light. at such distances itd be hard to say which.

I reqd the thread that referred to Tabby's star. I recall the discussions on the occulting structures in the stars surrounds. They should have different spectra also.

Really? The theoretical construction of a MegaStructure (Dyson Sphere assumedly) would necessarily change the spectral components of the starlight? I wasn't aware of that. What would cause that? Polarization of the light passing through the structure?

A 'uge, beautiful wall. Big league.

Just when I was getting used to the non-English speaking demographics in the neighborhood.

Let's see which food offered would be first accepted. If they go for pizza, well then we have an idea who they might relate to best. If they like corn beef and cabbage, don't be surprised if a communication interprets as, "You've done a grand thing Earthlings." If they like chicken soup, they might communicate, "So, you call this a planet?" I tend to think they will be pompous, and communicate that they left some Intergalactic Union (IU), referred to as Gexit in their galaxy.

But, to bring they up to speed, I'd think they should watch old reruns of Lucy, The Honeymooners, Ed Sullivan, Sid Ceaser, Milton Berle and Groucho Marx. Oh, George Burns and Gracie Allen too.

I once read a science-fiction short story in a 1960s American magazine, in which the aliens landed somewhere in the Deep South of the US. The alien leader was brought to meet the state governor, and then a member of the crowd that was watching decided that aliens were definitely some kind of n****r and shot the leader and his party. The story ended with the imminent expectation humanity's destruction.

sort of. if theres a molecular cloud of a chemical, a specific frequency light (sunlight would need to be calibrated from that star0 that would be compared to the trnsmitted light through the molecular cloud nd the spectra could be analyzed. Reflwection spectra is a bit different in that we nalyze directly vi the patterns of spectra that are unique for specific elements. WO if they built thwir dpheres out of Ti, that would be easily analyzed by the reflected spectra of Ti.

We used to do this with tables qnd film. Nowadys the instruments are all quantum chemistry based and the computer recorders and analyzers are awesome.
Its amazing that, as science gets more tools that used to take a persons time to do the grunt work, we now have the time to ask the questions and actually search the skies for different star spectral patterns.

The plot could play out anywhere; just change the accusation to the group that the majority do not hold in high esteem.

Democrats?

This is a tough question because, as Hawking pointed out, we can't apply our logic to an Alien civilization. They may very well have different circumstances as we do and benevolence may not be part of their culture. He particularly mentioned, I paraphrase, that if they have a "war like" culture, they will wipe us out in an instant.

However, assuming that's not the case, then we can deduce that:

Social: The world will probably be more united as we can trade with them and perhaps learn new technology. It will be very much like a poorer country here learning from a more advanced nation and hence rapidly improve their standard of living.

Religious: well, that depends on how advanced this alien race will be. If they can create live, seed other civilizations and do everything "God" can do, then obviously there will be huge changes here. It's hard to say because no one can prove that there's no God and neither can you prove there is a God. So even if an alien race can do wonders, there will always be those who will believe that there's an even higher existence. Of course there might be those who will worship the aliens as "Gods". And certainly there will be those who believe that they are the "devils" and wants to go to war with them.

Political: If you look at history, conflict result from cultural and religious differences. We fight among ourselves because of those differences. Therefore, if we introduce an external factor, there's a good chance political division will be less severe. Perhaps we can finally unit as just "human" race instead of white, black, hispanic, Asians...etc. However, the opposite is just as likely. There could be these pro-Alien group and those anti-Alien group which cause the human race be even more divided. Ultimately it depends on how advanced the alien civilization is because if they are similar to us, the latter is more likely.