Alien wolds: 1741

When, upon leaving Europe, we land in the nearest Borders of Africa, doth it not seem as if we were got into another World?

--From The general history of China--

That's an easy feeling to get. You can feel it going from urban to rural areas, traveling to different cities, even visiting different places in the same city; not to mention all the different communities on the internet. It's surprising, considering how "small" and "interconnected" the world is supposed to have become, that it isn't more homogeneous. If anything, it seems like the more connected a society becomes, the less homogeneous it is.

Aliens

Let's contact species which have spread all over the universe, because species which spread really quickly are great to have around.

Aliens: 1761

Two Frenchmen and four negroes having set out in a canoe towards the coast of a little dessert isle situated south of Martinico, and separated from the island by a strait of about a league in breadth, they stopped at an advanced point of ten or twelve paces into the sea, and eight or ten feet high above the water. There, within eight paces of them, they saw a Triton, or sea-man, the half of whose body appeared above water.

--From The Universal Magazine--

Well, a bunch of people saw it, so it must be real (they got a picture and everything!).

Talking to extraterrestrials: circa 740

Staying the night at Summit-Top Temple,
you can reach out and touch the stars.

I venture no more than a low whisper,
afraid I'll wake the people of heaven.

--From The Selected Poems of Li Po--

Perhaps the universe is filled with intelligent creatures, but clearly we cannot be numbered among them. To imagine a sky filled with sentient beings, all of them angels and none of them demons, how much hubris and stupidity does that take?

Instead of trying to contact them, it is better by far to let them sleep.

Contacting aliens: 1696

...it is reasonable to believe, that the Winds and Currents brought from America those several things towards the Azores and Porto Santo, which are recorded by Fernan Colon, in the Life of his Father Christopher... ...to be some of the Reasons moved the said Christopher Columbus to attempt the Discovery of the W. Indies. The things mentioned by them, are 1. a piece of Wood ingeniously wrought, but not with Iron,... ...2dly, Another piece of Wood like the other... ...3dly, very large Canes, much beyond any growing in those Parts... ...and that on another of those Islands... ...was cast on Shore two Mens Bodies with larger Faces, and different Aspects from Christians; and that at Capo della Verga were once seen two Canoas or Barks with Cabins, which were believed to be forced to Sea, when accidentally they had been going from some one Island to another.

--From Philosophical Transactions--

We know what happened to the people in the Americas after they unintentionally made Europeans aware of their presence. Why do we allow people to purposefully try to send messages to aliens?