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Exo-Intelligence Atlas
Paradi / Contact Protocols
How a serious first-contact workflow would handle verification, message design, governance, and transmission.
Category index
Contact Protocols / 14 pages
How a serious first-contact workflow would handle verification, message design, governance, and transmission.
Contact Protocolsprotocol
IAA post-detection protocol
1989+
Verify first, announce carefully, coordinate globally
The IAA post-detection declaration is one of the clearest public documents outlining what responsible behavior after a candidate detection should look like.
2 referencesOpen dossier
Contact Protocolsprotocol
IAA reply protocol
1995+
No reply should be treated as a unilateral hobby project
The reply protocol makes the governance point explicit: if humanity ever decides to respond, it should not be done casually or by a single actor acting for everyone.
2 referencesOpen dossier
Contact Protocolsprotocol
Draft principles for sending communications to ETI
2025
Outbound messaging has an active governance debate
The draft position paper captures the still-open argument over whether, when, and how humanity should deliberately send messages toward extraterrestrial intelligence.
2 referencesOpen dossier
Contact Protocolsprotocol
Deep Space Optical Communications
2022+
Laser communication is already real at deep-space engineering scale
DSOC is not a SETI system, but it demonstrates the practicality and constraints of high-rate optical links across large distances.
2 referencesOpen dossier
Contact Protocolsprotocol
Lunar Laser Communications Demonstration
2013-2014
Proof that optical links are not science fiction
LLCD is a useful historical benchmark because it shows laser communication as an operational demonstration, not just a concept sketch.
2 referencesOpen dossier
Contact Protocolsprotocol
Galileo optical experiment
1996
A historic example of laser signaling across interplanetary distance
GOPEX is a compact reminder that laser-based signaling across space has already been demonstrated experimentally in the Solar System.
2 referencesOpen dossier
Contact Protocolsprotocol
Radio messaging
Concept
Radio remains the most culturally and technically central contact channel
Radio messaging remains attractive because it is mature, comparatively forgiving, and deeply embedded in SETI history.
3 referencesOpen dossier
Contact Protocolsprotocol
Laser messaging
Concept
Laser messaging trades coverage for focus and bandwidth
Laser communication can be powerful and data-rich, but it demands tighter pointing, better targeting, and a more deliberate geometry than wide-area radio strategies.
3 referencesOpen dossier
Contact Protocolsprotocol
Mathematical encoding
Concept
Math is often treated as the safest bridge, but it is still a design choice
Prime numbers, binary structure, ratios, and recurrence patterns are usually the first candidates for universal framing in an interstellar message.
3 referencesOpen dossier
Contact Protocolsprotocol
Pictorial encoding
Concept
Pictures feel intuitive to humans, but interpretation remains hard
Pictorial encoding can carry dense ideas quickly, yet it also smuggles in assumptions about bodies, perspective, orientation, and context.
2 referencesOpen dossier
Contact Protocolsprotocol
Latency and distance
Concept
Most realistic interstellar exchanges are radically slow
Distance is the hardest emotional correction in contact talk. Even a nearby target like Proxima Centauri turns communication into a multi-year back-and-forth at minimum.
3 referencesOpen dossier
Contact Protocolsprotocol
Governance and consent
Concept
Who speaks for Earth is not a trivial problem
Governance pages are necessary because communication with extraterrestrial intelligence, if ever attempted seriously, would carry symbolic and political weight far beyond the transmitting institution.
2 referencesOpen dossier
Contact Protocolsprotocol
Risk of reply
Concept
The risk debate is unresolved and should remain explicit
The strongest position is not 'replying is obviously safe' or 'replying is obviously catastrophic.' The strongest position is that the trade-offs are real enough to deserve public argument before action.
2 referencesOpen dossier
Contact Protocolsprotocol
Long-term institutions for contact
Concept
Any real exchange would outlast individuals and likely governments
The IAA reply language is unusually clear that communication separated by years or decades would require stable institutions capable of continuity.
2 referencesOpen dossier