Cosmic Silence?

For me, His Master’s Voice raises a very a number of important questions. For one, why haven’t humans been contacted yet? Even if human weren’t to be the target recipients of a message, wouldn’t it be reasonable to expect that we would come across some sort of “radio chatter” between different planets or ships? The fact we have not come across any intergalactic chatter doesn’t necessarily meant though that aliens do not exist. Perhaps means of intergalactic communication entail technological methods that we cannot detect. For example, it has been proposed that quarks, a sub atomic particle we barely understand, can be used to send faster than light messages. It might also be possible that extra-terrestrials communicate telepathically, such as in “Ender’s Game” or “Speaker for the Dead,” and we would not know what forms of energy to look for. There is also the theory of mediocrity, which is the concept that even though we humans are anthropocentric and take pride in humanity, to other civilizations we may not be at all intriguing. Perhaps other species are also operating under some sort of Prime Directive and do not believe we humans have reached a technological level to be interfered with yet.
Another question that intrigued me about the novel was the purpose of the Senders’ message. Personally I believe the message had an altruistic intent. As stated in the novel, the Senders would have had to exert a substantial amount of power to send an intact message throughout the galaxy. This rules out that it was simple “radio chatter.” It would also be illogical to believe that the Senders had a malicious purpose to send the message. They would have nothing to gain by sending the blueprints for a plague or disease millions of light years away to an unapproachable planet where they could not gain a military advantage or even consider conquering. Even if they sent a blueprint for a gateway or portal to bring their armies to the planet, by the time the message was decoded thousands or tens of thousands of years would have passed. Though, it would be wrong to rule out malicious intent entirely. Perhaps the Senders had a sadistic psyche such as the Hippae and would have reveled at the idea of intergalactic genocide. What appears to be the case, however, is a well intentioned case. The humans were able to decode formulas for energy producing substances and life. Perhaps the Senders wished to aid themselves as well as other species by enabling civilizations to produce cheap energy, thus removing the catalyst for many conflicts. The formula to create organisms was perhaps done to make a statement that path to success lies not in destroying life, but creating it.