I actually think radio silence is a very rational thing to do, and Stephen Hawking agrees with me. Do not describe that issue as cut-and-dry.
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2010/apr/26/stephen...
This is the problem with smart people. Here we have absolutely tangible existential threats like fossil fuel depletion and die off, and here we are fretting about aliens and AI-- two things not even proven to exist.
(I edited this post to remove my shock-induced LULZ and other flapdoodle and concentrate on the important stuff.)
The more I re-read this and reflect on it, the more shocked I am. The first post in this serious was a bit of an eyebrow-raiser for me, but it still remained on the sane side of the fence. Yes, dangerous AI is worth thinking about. Lots of things are. Alien invasions aren't completely implausible either, and the Fermi Paradox is definitely worth thinking about. But this has jumped from thinking about the Fermi Paradox to arguing that we halt all radio emissions and space exploration now or the aliens will come for us. This is not a rational leap.
As I said elsewhere in this thread: could this be some kind of ploy to make basic CS research illegal for anyone but deep-pocketed VC-linked concerns (and governments)? Probably not, but that could very well be the result. The sorts of regulations discussed here would make independent CS research illegal. Please tell me this "conspiracy theory" is insane. I really want to believe it is. Someone please tell me I'm crazy. Please? Anyone?