[Hollywoodghost]

I agree--If ET comes he will be treated like an ambassidor from another land. The last thing we want to do is slice and dice him. What would happen if two weeks latter Emperor Ming comes with his battle fleet asking what happened to his son he sent on the peace mission?

[Modernman]

I agree--If ET comes he will be treated like an ambassidor from another land. The last thing we want to do is slice and dice him.

I imagine any first contact situation (other than a crash-landing) would be done on the aliens' terms, not ours. Any physical first contact would need to be planned out ahead of time by both parties. I would say, most likely, it would involve our representatives going to meet them on their spacecraft, since an advanced space-faring race would be much better at making sure there are no unfortunate cross-species exchanges of disease or whatnot.