Resistors Hold Strong: A Report from the EU's Executive Sector

I can't help but mimic the sentiments of the head of EU military on this matter. The resistors have maintained their position through the debate that the world is not in a financial situation that can accommodate such an outrageous construction. I'd like to summarize our reasons for choosing to deem this plan as not worth our time or money. And what better way to start than with the most glaring issue: uncertainty. The Machine Accord consistently has spewed statements like "who knows what this machine could do and what kind of benefits it could provide us with" to which we retort "exactly, no one knows what this machine is capable of." So, why would we spend unprecedented amounts of money on something that we have little to no idea about? Frankly, I find it disturbing that places like Japan and the Latin American Union see an extra-terrestrial direction to build a machine as having more importance than rebuilding their economies.

We should also consider the failed space exploration that has occurred in the past and reflect on our tendencies to overreact or sensationalize news of extraterrestrial contact.
I urge you all to read the following clip from an article entitled "Do We Have an Alien Contact Contingency Plan?"

In 1992, the government paid for a SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) project through NASA—the Microwave Observing Program's mission was to conduct targeted analyses of nearby stars—but deemed it unworthy of funding one year later. There is, however, a nongovernmental organization established by the International Academy of Astronautics to "prepare, reflect on, manage, advise, and consult in preparation for … a putative signal of extraterrestrial intelligent (ETI) origin." That organization, the SETI: Post-Detection Taskgroup helmed by the theoretical physicist Paul Davies, 

has a set of recommendations in place.

Even though this only describes one incident I think it exemplifies how we should be approaching news of alien signals. And that approach is through a privately funded sector not through government. I understand that in our case it is not exactly feasible to have individuals come up with 5 trillion dollars but perhaps that fact alone teaches us an important lesson: this machine is NOT worthwhile.

The resistor nations seemed to come to the conclusion at our last summit that: we were okay with the potentiality of the machine being built by the accord. If the accord wants to raise the funds that are necessary for completion then by all means they should go ahead. We will sit back and watch the results but we are not prepared to endanger our economies and militaries. Having said that, we are prepared to allow trade to continue to be restricted. Personally,  I think it is ridiculous that this machine has engendered such animosity between nations that we can no longer trade freely however, I can not trade with countries that have such reckless business practices as to invest in a costly machine that does not have a defined purpose yet.


Thank you,
Viviane Reding


http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/explainer/2010/07/if_mars_attacks_.html