Looks like top-thinkers in making contact with extraterrestrials have become a bit star-crossed.

The scene is the International Academy of Astronautics (IAA) that has a permanent study group and task groups set up to look at issues regarding the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) and policy issues of contacting alien starfolk.

What has surfaced is heated debate over “Active SETI” - that is, beaming out deliberate and powerful Spinal Tap-like signals that are cranked up to #11 on the volume control knob.

Several active participants in the IAA SETI deliberations have raised a warning flag, along with their collective eyebrows on the matter.

I contacted one of those people engaged in the whirlpool of debate, Michael Michaud, a former director of the U.S. State Department’s Office of Advanced Technology. He is also recent author of the seminal and scholarly book: “Contact with Alien Civilizations - Our Hopes and Fears about Encountering Extraterrestrials”.

“While I am glad to see media interest in the Active SETI issue, some journalists have misrepresented the debate. None of us are calling for a ban on all transmissions. We recognize that it is unrealistic and probably unnecessary to stop the routine radio, television, and radar signals that the Earth emits every day.”

But what Michaud and others within the IAA are calling for “is more open, democratic consideration of whether it is or is not advisable to transmit powerful targeted signals when we know nothing about the capabilities or intentions of the civilizations that might detect them,” he told me via email. “My personal goal is to get people to think in terms of species interests, not just personal, organizational, or national interests. We are learning to do this as we face global problems such as climate change or the possibility of an asteroid impact. The bottom line is responsible behavior that keeps the interests of the larger society in mind.”

Michaud contends that the exact mechanism for addressing this question is open to debate.

“As a starting point, I suggest that people who want to send unusually powerful, targeted signals from radio telescopes be asked to submit such plans to the International Astronomical Union for approval. If an organization composed of astronomers has reservations about such Active SETI, the issue would have to be seen as one of more general public concern,” Michaud said.

Furthermore, some critics who claim that interstellar flight is impossible or totally unrealistic make the false assumption that such missions must carry biological beings with the life spans of humans, Michaud said, adding that some also assume that all journeys must be round-trips.

“These assumptions do not stand up under objective scrutiny, particularly when we consider that an alien civilization may be far more technologically advanced than we are,” Michaud told me.

Michaud and the other IAA members engaged in the Active SETI discussion all strongly favor searching for signals. “If we detect another civilization, we could again make a conscious decision — with the interests of Humankind as our measure — as to whether we should or should not initiate communication,” he added.

“It would help if certain journalists would stop using outdated cliches about contact. The term ‘little green men’ is just silly,” Michaud continued. “If direct contact ever takes place, it is far more likely to be with intelligent machines than with biological beings. It is even more stupid — and irrelevant — to describe the potential threat as one of being eaten.”

Michaud underscored the point that it took 50 years (the 1930s to the 1980s) for the public to take seriously the potential threat from collisions with Earth-crossing asteroids, and to begin thinking about how to deal with them.

“If we date the beginning of SETI to 1960, a more realistic approach to direct contact is due about now,” Michaud concluded.