Don’t panic: Statement of the ET Contact Project regarding METI
Text revised and updated: 29 March 2025. METI = Messaging ExtraTerrestrial Intelligence.
Dr. Vakoch is President of Messaging Extraterrestrial Intelligence (METI).
“As astronomers launch ambitious projects for Messaging Extraterrestrial Intelligence, alarmists worry that transmitting intentional radio and laser signals into space may provoke an alien invasion. These critics overlook one fundamental fact: it’s too late to hide.”
Dr. Vakoch, Feb 3, 2020
Dr. Vakoch is currently not associated with the ‘Contact Project.’ His statement was directed at the fact that humanity has been announcing its presence via radio signals to our cosmic neighborhood for the last 100 years. He did not mean to imply that alien presences are already here.
The Contact Project would like to draw attention to these calculations:
The mission of ‘The Contact Project’ is to investigate UAPs/UFOs on every conceivable frequency, using real-time tracking, radio receivers and transmitters, HD video, HD images, optical and radio telescopes, and passive & active radar so that the question of the nature and origin of UAPs can be answered without doubts.
What does the Contact Project want to do?
We want to do METI (messaging ETi) with a target that’s already here, UAPs. We don’t have to worry about attracting the attention of “hostile” aliens by messaging them, as they already know of us, if that’s what UAPs/UFOs are.
As things go, this possibility wasn’t seriously considered by the METI organization in 2015, because the subject of UAPs was still considered too crackpot then.
So, the statement issued by the METI organization regarding messaging extraterrestrial intelligence only covers targets outside of Earth’s atmosphere (statement here).
Since then, this outlook has changed somewhat with the release of a preliminary assessment of the American Director of National Intelligence on UAPs (assessment here).
The METI statement called for a worldwide scientific, political, and humanitarian discussion about the implications of messaging ET before anything should be initiated. Arguably, since UAPs first made headlines in 1947, there’s been a worldwide discussion about “them” for over 75 years.
A lot of that time, much of humanity reacted like an ostrich, sticking its head in the sand when hearing UFO reports. Or like three monkeys. Which comparison do we prefer?
Did it never occur to anyone that these phenomena may be more than swamp gas or the result of delusions? Sadly, as a result of the swamp gas hypothesis, the METI statement covers only METI targets outside of Earth.
METI might wish to reconsider their statement. Because currently there seems to be no position on contacting UAPs, to the best of my knowledge.
METI says:
ETI’s reaction to a message from Earth cannot presently be known.
If extraterrestrial civilizations have a presence on Earth in the form of UAPs/UFOs or drone-like von Neumann probes, they will certainly be able to monitor our news and events. There was no obvious reaction from UAPs/UFOs to the Voyager space probes or the Golden Records on them. And there was no obvious reaction to the Arecibo message.
METI says:
We know nothing of ETI’s intentions and capabilities, and it is impossible to predict whether ETI will be benign or hostile.
Experience shows that when UAPs are pursued by military jet fighters, they don’t react hostile. Civilian planes are not attacked either. It’s reasonable to assume that the intelligence behind UAPs is mostly benign.
“The threat to humanity from each other is magnitudes greater than from ETi. That hasn’t and shouldn’t stop us from talking to each other, and that includes ETi.”
The Contact Project
GALACTIC FEDERATION?
All sorts of explanations about UFOs and their prospective occupants have been given, from the no-contact rule of a Galactic Federation to higher dimensional frequencies that mortals can join only after exhaustive preparation.
I didn’t make up the Galactic Federation link to UAPs; this claim comes from highly decorated former Israeli Space Security Chief Haim Eshed.
Healthy skepticism is, of course, in order, as most sightings have a prosaic explanation, ranging from misidentifications to pranks and hoaxes. But they don’t account for every sighting.
To admit in 2021 that some UAP cannot be explained was a major step forward by the US government.
The Contact Project wants to find out if there is just one UAP that will respond to radio or other contacting efforts. And that is easy.
And to prepare for the possibility of a positive response from an UAP?
Not so easy.
The Contact Project can be found at https://contactproject.org.
