Don't Repeat the Past (or, in this case, Future) (Score 1)

As soon as I read "mass spectrometer," I instantly began to hope that we don't overclock the spectrometer to, say, 105%. Such experiments may very well produce evidence of extraterrestrial life, but such life may prove to be extremely violent. The life may even turn our technology against us and decide to engage us in an interstellar conflict. Chances are that being the scapegoat-seeking humans we are, we would probably divert our resources towards trying to cover up the event. In that case, ff we become engaged in a conflict with such life, we may not be prepared for the style of warfare we encounter. I'm guessing that our entire planet could be conquered in, say, seven hours if the opposing race was advanced enough. Before you know it, we'll all be herded into condensed urban living areas and ruled in a totalitarian distopia by the first brown-nosed bureaucrat to offer Earth's surrender to the superior alien forces.