Contemplating our anthropic legacy

TRACES OF HUMANITY: Should some other form of intelligence stumble across the remains of humanity, what would our anthropic signature look like? Samuel Arbesman contemplates humanity's legacy. "Advocates contend that sending out signals can catalyze our own thinking about detecting extraterrestrial intelligence, while also forcing us to think about humanity’s legacy. In what has become a boisterous debate, however, many scientists, including such eminent scholars as Stephen Hawking, have lately argued against elaborating our human signature. To advertise our whereabouts to strangers, they say, with unknown motives and capabilities, is highly dangerous. Terminating any messages from Earth is a far safer path."