Greetings from Earth

Scott Hardie | June 7, 2017
If you could send a text message to a distant exoplanet, up to a couple of sentences in length, what would you say?

This isn't just an academic question for me. Long story short, I know some people who have rented time on a powerful satellite dish and intend to beam a message tens or possibly hundreds of light years away to a known exoplanet. The message will incorporate one of the various "universal greetings" already developed by experts (like this one), so the science part is already settled. What's left to be decided is what to say in a text message that goes along with it. They asked me what I would say. Pointless though the exercise is, I confess that after pondering the question for a long time, I still really have no idea. It's harder than I thought, or perhaps I'm making it too hard.

What would you say?

Steve West | June 7, 2017
The planet Earth is not perfect. It is populated by men and women who oftentimes think only of themselves. But there are enough who think of our species as a whole to make our future focus remain on the betterment of mankind. Despite the abominable acts of some, we have accomplished many great things. Peace, justice, and love are promoted and advanced by the majority. Welcome.

Samir Mehta | June 8, 2017
[hidden by request]

Scott Hardie | June 9, 2017
Good ideas! You guys make it look easy. In the end, someone else chose the message that was sent, and he made it up on the spot:

hello from humans :)