What kind of message are we sending?

On February 22nd, 2017, the Scientific Journal, Nature, published a report first received in November 2016 detailing the discovery of 7 Earth-like planets in orbit around an ultra-cool dward star.  The star, TRAPPIST-1 is approximately 39 light-years away.  This discovery and the possibility that one or more of these planets is both within the habitable region we know of, and reasonably expected to contain water, the possibility of life residing on these planets has led me to contemplate life on our own planet.

TRAPPIST-1 is approximately 39 light-years away, let's round that up to 40 for the sake of simplicity for this post.  Radio waves, and TV broadcasts are both a form of electromagnetic radiation, and travel at the speed of light.  So, any signal we broadcast today, would reach their star in 40 years time.  Technology behind the development of Television began in the 1920s, but it wasn't until 1936 when the BBC began the first regular broadcast service.  If we take this as the first broadcast that can reasonably be expected to reach TRAPPIST-1, it would have arrived in 1976, and, if a reply were sent immediately, that reply would arrive on Earth in 2016.  Assuming any contact made with an alien race would be a matter of public knowledge, and not covered up as is the case in most conspiracy theories, then we can reasonably assume no contact has been made.

This all presupposes that a number of things are true:
- That one or more planets in orbit around TRAPPIST-1 have life
- That life on these planets is technologically advanced
- That they are both capable of receiving, and sending signals of this nature

Let's just suppose for now that these are all true, the fact we have had no contact can tell us that they have either not yet noticed any of our signals, or, they have noticed but chose not to reply.  So, the latter begs the question, what have they actually received.  When you think of the year 1936 and what was happening in the world at the time, there begins to raise a concern about what impression of humanity any alien race would actually get.  From 1976 in our time, they would have begun receiving broadcasts from Earth in 1936 onward.  If they chose not to reply, and chose to document what they received since, then for the last 41 years they have been receiving among other things, news reports of our history from 1936 to 1976.

A lot of things happened on Earth during that time period.  While some of us would like to say that time does not accurately depict the world as it is today, that assertion is becoming harder to justify.  The same rhetoric and toxicity of politics from World War 2 is alive and well.  The actions of the Nazis in World War 2 are now being echoed by Donald Trump.  Going further the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945 were moments most people hoped would never be repeated, but with a President who repeatedly asked "if we have nukes why can't we use them" that possibility is no longer one reserved for tinfoil hat wearing crackpots, it's a very real possibility once again that credible voices now call into question.

We can't take back the broadcasts that have already been sent, but the world we live in today is not just a world that is for our eyes only.  If there is life out there, everything we do and cover through mass media is being sent out into the cosmos.  With the Universe being infinite, the possibility of life existing elsewhere is a mathematical certainty.  When you look at the state of this planet and what is happening to our world, and you look at what humanity has done, in spite of its achievements, the question remains.  What sort of message are we sending?  To any alien race receiving our broadcasts and looking at us, what would they think?  Are we a race that you would actually want to meet?  Is the reason behind the fact we have never encountered intelligent life beyond Earth simply that? - that the reason it hasn't ventured near us is because it knows better.  It is intelligent enough to know that we are not yet ready, that we can't even treat one another with decency and respect, so it's unreasonable to expect us to treat any other race as such.