Altruism In ET Civilizations: Dangers of First Contact - Brin (pdf)

AT LAST!!! Sorry about the previous uploaded CORRUPT version. ( the other files are now back on the tracker now too. )

This one WORKS and is tested.
Re-sourcing out this one took 6 hours to find again...Came through a few hands to mine. Next to impossible to find.

from the author:
"Do I think that METI will bring down some horrid devastation upon us? Not really. At least I think the odds are low.

But I do think it is time for us to start applying good habits to low-probability events that might have devastating outcomes. There are a great many of these, apparently, in the pipeline. Smart guys like Bill Joy and Michael Crichton and Jared Diamond are already out there, calling for renunciation and paternalistic control, in order to evade these catastrophes.

In fact, I share the renunciators’ worries... while disliking their proposed methodology. Given that paternalism has seldom worked, or delivered wisdom, in the human past. Like most of my fellow catastrophe specialists, at the Lifeboat Foundation, I prefer enlightenment processes of discovery, debate, reciprocal criticism and deliberation/negotiation.
What assumptions? Elsewhere, one finds a pervasive and almost religious belief that advanced alien civilizations must automatically and by-definition be peaceful/altruistic. Even though true altruism, in nature, appears to be about as rare as hens’ teeth. (Under Stalinist Lysenkoism, this notion of universal altruism was also tied to an expectation that all advanced life forms would be socialist! A dogmatic element that no longer seems to be part of the standard catechism.)
And, here’s the crux: it would pretty much have to be done physically. In person. A sudden switch from one steady state -- isolation -- to a new equilibrium of chatter and trade. What a terrifically optimistic explanation for the Great Silence.

That is, optimistic compared to most of the others. It still depends on one thing. Us, getting our act together.

I like this theory for another reason. It offers, by far, the nicest potential destiny for our descendants. We'll be the postmen, the envoys, the ship captains, the explorers... the cops. With plenty of others to befriend, but nobody to push us around.

It also offers a way for the galaxy to seem so empty, without actually being so.

Oh, if only...