Even if the aliens are short, dour and sexually obsessed, I want to know about them.
A group of international scientists have come up with a new message that they hope will lead to first contact with extraterrestrials.
The missive, known as the Beacon in theGalaxy, opens with simple principles for communication, some basic concepts in math and physics, and a return address should any distant recipients be minded to reply.
The group of researchers, headed by Dr Jonathan Jiang at Nasa's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California, says that with technical upgrades the message could be broadcast into the heart of the Milky Way.
The scientists recommend sending the message to a dense ring of stars near the centre of the Milky Way, which they believe is the most promising area for life.
The first message would not be the one that leaves Earth. The Arecibo message was sent in 1974 from an observatory in Puerto Rico. It won't arrive any time soon because it was aimed at a group of stars 25,000 light years away. There have been messages sent into the heavens including an advert for Doritos and an invitation to a Klingon opera.
It is not easy to communicate with the stars. The odds of an intelligent civilisation intercepting a message are extremely low, and even if contact were made, establishing a fruitful conversation could prove frustrating when a response can take tens of thousands of years. Frank Drake, the designer of the Arecibo message, posted a missive to some scientific colleagues, including a number of Nobel Laureates, as a test run for the message. None of them comprehended it.
There are other concerns as well. If aliens come to us, the outcome would be similar to when Columbus landed in America.
Dr Jiang and his colleagues believe that an alien species capable of communication across the universe may have learned the value of peace and collaboration, and that humanity could learn a lot from them.
The risk and benefit of sending messages are both small, and it is better to move out into space and hopefully, according to a senior research fellow at the Future of Humanity Institute at the University of Oxford.
He said it was worthwhile to think about how we can communicate with aliens.
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