The odds of us being the only intelligent life in the universe is pretty low. While we may never discover the answers to otherworldly sentient life in our lifetimes, it doesn't mean at some point in the future there won't be some kind of bridge built between our civilization and another. But what will that civilization be like? Will they come in peace or will the arrive for war? Odds are whatever first message they send will be a big sign of what's to come.
Reddit user, u/silly_vasily, wanted to hear about:
What would be the scariest message humanity could receive from outer space?
Seems Like An All-Around Win
homer simpson halloween GIFGiphyDeploy your planetary shield. Incoming gamma ray burst in 48 hours.
What do you mean? We are all getting superpowers. Total win.
Well, It Certainly Wouldn't Be All That Surprising After Our 2020
"Experiment unsuccessful, prepare for termination and reset."
This Would Be Horrifying
Screams, and an abrupt stop.
Did you know that a lot of signals in space indeed resemble a scream[?]
Oh Yeah, We Still Don't know Where It Came From
"Earthlings, can we have our ball back please?"
No can do. It kinda turned into our moon and now we need it to support life
Let's Examine The Subtext Of What Receiving A Message Would Actually Mean
Anything that we could understand would be pretty scary. Like they just send a "Hey we're aliens nice to meet you" message but if it happens to be in one of our languages that means they've been studying us or something like that.
We Should Certainly Try, No Matter What
angry lisa simpson GIFGiphyYou are the last.
Be better than us.
At Least They're Giving Us A Heads Up?
Just a countdown timer with no other context.
The countdown starts at 10 and unexpectedly stops at 5. People start to panick and get confused and worried, but as years go by and nothing relevant happened, most of them think it was a huge case of mass hysteria. People shrug it off and most start to forget about it.
But 5 years later, and completely out of nowhere, boom 4 - 3 - 2 and it stops again. Oh no...
Who Truly Knows What's Going On Out There?
the simpsons episode 3 GIFGiphyJust a distress signal on permanent repeat. Then another one a few years later. Then another one. Then another ten. Then thousands.
Then they all just stop.
[There's] a short story about this.
Humanity start getting signals from everywhere and when deciphering them it turns out they are basically goodbyes from every other species as the universe ends.
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Redditor Isingsongstomycats wanted to hear about what can completely make us regret speaking to another person, so they asked:
"What instantly ruins a conversation for you?"
I'm ornery. Anything and everything can turn me off.
Blocked
honey boo boo phone GIF by RealityTVGIFsGiphy"Getting their phone out for no reason mid conversation."
Expensive_Pie_6943
"Sometimes I want to look up something pertinent to the conversation but I don't want to interrupt them to say that. Now when someone checks their notification mid conversation, that really burns me."
cutelyaware
Up & Up
"When someone feels the need to one up you on everything you say."
Apprehensive_Gap_368
"Had a coworker like this once, his one upping was so bad we would test it. Best one was a guy talking about catching a shark on a pole at the beach. He interrupted with the time he swam out a mile and got attacked by a shark and beat it and swam back with it."
Mess_Bubbly
Rude
"When they start saying nasty things about people they barely know."
WeirdShyKitten
"I have family like this. I once heard them go on on this rant about how the new waitress at their local coffee shop is fat and ugly. They made a thousands assumptions about this woman that included criticism to her service."
18062022
"Or start sh*t talking someone the second they leave the room. My dad's sisters do that, I was stuck in my parents house alone with them and I would get so paranoid every time I left the room. If they do that to each other, I can’t image the crap they talk about me."
vicki_chicki
War of Words
"When they ask for your opinion or talking about something fully subjective and then tell you how you are objectively wrong or get offended by you nor agreeing."
Prize_Interaction931
"Similar, but not quite the same: my old roommate would correct me on things that were objective, and not like facts."
"Like I mentioned it was hard for my folks to get a mortgage because they were self employed and he correct me that it wasn't. He wouldn't believe the story i was telling and told me what he thought might have happened with no knowledge on the subject."
"Needless to say I moved out."
SFXBTPD
Blah Blah
Bored Chris Rock GIF by BounceGiphy"When it feels like you're engaging a combination lock just to get responses to simple innocent pieces of a conversation. People who small talk you to death."
I swear small talk people should be arrested for attempted murder.
Useless
Golden Girls Rose GIF by TV LandGiphy"When someone drags a story out with useless details. Like something that happened on the drive to work but they start the story at the point when they first woke up and what they had for breakfast. Just get to the point!"
ticklemebits
Paused
"When they interrupt me mid sentence."
HelpMeSweetJesus
"If it sometimes happens on accident whenever they think of something and get over-excited it’s whatevs. Now when they constantly step over you it’s like your opinion merely feels like filler at best and they ain’t even listening. Not even worth the energy to continue at that point."
BAKED_TATER_
"One of my coworkers only listens long enough to figure out what she's going to say next, and then she interrupts. I guess we're only there to feed her lines."
Witty_Commentator
Do Better
"When someone gives you completely useless advice you didn't ask for. A couple weeks ago I mentioned to a coworker that I was glad to be going home because I didn't get more than a couple hours of sleep."
"Dude first of all had the audacity to say 'Well, you need to do better.' When I said I have medication resistant insomnia he looks at me like I'm an idiot and asks if I've tried melatonin."
errant_night
Duh
"Think of how stupid the average person is, and then realize half of them are stupider than that. And it doesn’t take you very long to spot one of them, does it. Take you about eight seconds. You’ll be listening to some guy, and say, this guy is f**king stupid. Then, then there are some people, they’re not stupid. They’re full of crap."
"Huh, that doesn’t take very long to spot, either, does it. Take you about the same amount of time. You’ll be listening to some guy, saying, well, he’s fairly intelligent. Ah, he’s full of s**t. Then there are some people, they’re not stupid, they’re not full of s**t, they’re freaking nuts."
teaching-man
Gross...
Disgusted Emma Stone GIFGiphy"Sexualization. We're talking about a new video game and suddenly I get asked if I play naked, or if I'm turned on by a game mechanic or some such nonsense. Yuck."
GreenAppleLady
Good conversation is hard to keep these days.
Do you have any conversational red flags to add? Let us know in the comments below.
