What impact on human society if we got a visit/msg from intelligent aliens?

I will fill in more details on this one later. Look, even if you don't believe alien contact is possible enough to discuss, this still has real potential as a discission.

Think of history, for one thing. Civilizations so different as to be practically alien to one another have collided before. The consequences were...dramatic, especially for the less technologically advanced civilization, but also for the other one. From that history, and from science fiction, which has wrestled with first contact scenarios many times, some interesting questions emerge about how humanity might react to an ET visit/contact. Like:

-- Who speaks for humanity? And with which values and priorities?
-- How do we keep cultural misunderstandings from ruining first contact and how do we manage the new relationship?
-- If we only get a message\, what should our reply be? In which language or images?
-- How cautious should we be? Should we assume hostile intent\, or peaceful intent because the aliens are more "advanced?" How could we tell their intentions?
-- Would humanity unify and drop its petty fighting? (It never has before\, but alien contact would be sui generis.)
-- What might happen to human religion if we find out we are not alone and not the center of the universe\, as most of our major faiths assume?

Sounds fun and thought-provoking to me. Not silly. Check back here the week before our mtg for some background thoughts and think pieces.

Optional Backgrounders –

-- TBA.