Will We Learn to Listen Before We Speak? 

     It's exciting news that there are now plans to expand the Very Large Array in New Mexico to almost four times the present number of antennas.  This will make one of our most important receiving stations for various forms of electromagnetic diffusion in the universe far more sensitive and extend our understanding of new cosmic phenomena being discovered by our space-based units like the James Webb Telescope.  It will supplement existing Earth-based facilities such as the Green Bank radio telescope in West Virginia and hopefully make up for the abandonment of the giant Arecibo structure in Puerto Rico, which has been allowed to fall into irreversible disrepair.  

     This step forward brings us back to the question of whether, as a researching planet, we should rely a bit more on "passive" research before broadcasting our presence to the universe with increased radio signals sent into space.  After all, some of our earliest televised emissions were of Hitler's speeches, filled with genocidal hatred and conquest!  More recently, the late Stephen Hawking, arguably the Einstein of our age, warned that we might not want to attract the attention of space-faring intelligence, especially if its intelligence was artificial rather than organic.  Perhaps we should take a hint from Native American culture, which stressed the great importance of observation as a prelude to any kind of confrontation.  Or even from the old carpenter's adage: "measure twice, cut once."  Work with vast amounts of data involving the search for Earth-like exoplanets suggests that a good deal of time and effort on the analytical front is necessary before we can properly digest the importance of the amount of observation we are already receiving.  Let's hope that the new Very Large Array will aid us in better understanding what we see and hear as we "Keep watching the skies."