The SETI Institute has just started a new "METI" (Message to ETI) program called
Earth Speaks dedicated to soliciting the public's help in determining what we should say if we are ever fortunate enough to make first contact:
Welcome to Earth Speaks, a research project that explores a critical question in the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI):
People from around the world are invited to submit pictures, sounds, and text messages that they would want to send to other worlds. The project aims to foster a dialogue about what we should say to extraterrestrial intelligence, as well as whether or not we should be sending intentional messages.
I really haven't put much thought into this beyond the personal belief that there is no reason to be afraid of what the recipients might think of us. Even if we appear brutish and untrustworthy to our ETI neighbors, the odds that we could pose any kind of threat to them over the long light years of space are so vanishingly small that they would have no reason to fear us.
Still it's an interesting exercise, and it will be fun to see what sort of message comes out of it.
