It's too late to hide from aliens: Expert says we need to think more carefully about the messages we send to ET

Comments made by Douglas Vakoch, president of Meti International

He says current signals aimed at ET contain far too little information

Meti plans to send its first radio transmission to aliens by end of 2018

Some are worried contacting aliens is a bad idea as they may be hostile

If an advanced alien civilisation is out there, they probably already know we exist.  

That's according to a group of researchers who claim we should be more careful about the messages we put out.

Douglas Vakoch, president of the San Francisco-based non-profit Meti (Messaging Extraterrestrial Intelligence) International, says current signals aimed at ET are too simplistic

'It's too late to conceal ourselves in the universe, so we should decide how we want to represent ourselves,' Vakoch told Forbes. 

'Extraterrestrials may be waiting for a clear indication from us that we're ready to start talking.'

His team at Meti International has launched a project to develop messages for aliens that are both informative and provocative.

They plan to send their first radio transmission by the end of 2018, with an emphasis on messages that reveal basic mathematical and scientific concepts.

'It would be ideal to use a powerful transmitter like those used for planetary radar studies, such as Arecibo Observatory,' said Vakoch. 

A number of such signals have already been sent, with perhaps the most famous being fired out by the Arecibo radio telescope in 1974. 

Its binary digits reveals some details about our solar system, humans species and Earth's biochemistry.

Vakoch says that we should include an instruction manual of sorts so that aliens can decode are messages more easily. 

''There are a lot of hidden assumptions embedded in the ways we portray three-dimensional objects on two-dimensional surfaces,' said Vakoch. 

'Even if aliens use pictures, they may use a different set of conventions to map solid objects onto flat surfaces.' 

During his interview with Forbes, he also said that the messages need to be far more detailed.

For instance, instead of sending a few details on biochemistry, we should include the entire Periodic Table of Elements. 

Some scientists, however, believe we should refrain from containing aliens at all in case they are hostile. 

In February, a leading scientist involved in the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (Seti) said that if aliens visit our planet, they could take control thanks to their use of superior technologies.