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[Tarran]

...I see your point.

[Sean Mirrsen]

Well, not "just as" good, seeing as we would probably find ways to survive the imminent changes, especially since strip-mining would take time and the changes themselves wouldn't be instant. Now, if they decided to drop it on us, we might need a few ships of our own to survive that, likely by first going into space with an ark ship, and then gaining momentum and squashing everything they throw at us until we obliterate them.

[Il Palazzo]

I always loved the theory that Alien Life would be so inherently different and unnatural that there could never be any true peace or understanding between us and them. We all assume they are humans with brow ridges but what stops them from being fundamentally different, physically and mentally, than us? Nothing. That's the scary shit. Aliens like humans would be a dream, because they would resemble our motives, but aliens that are actually alien are the true nightmare, what morals do they have? What views of life do they hold? Individuals to them might be nothing, or maybe the entire alien species is an individual... Do they use binary, trinary, do they even use computers? We assume that because the universe has the same elements and a consistent set of physics, that it's impossible aliens to be truly different.

I believe that the idea about "contactable" aliens is, that among the countless varieties of "thinking oceans" and "space dolphins" and "parasitic xenomorphs", there would be at least a few alien species which evolved similarly to human race. So the "rubber forehead" aliens actually ARE the only ones we can hope to contact. And it's not unfathomable to assume that there indeed are some conquistador-like bastards out there in the Universe - simply thanks to statistics and large numbers.

Well, aliens that want to strip mine earth is a (very) distant possibility, think about it this way In their eyes: You've got earth, which is slowly running out of resources, and you've got resource rich planets like Mercury, and Mars. Moons like Io, Titan, Triton, or even our own moon. Why would you even waste resources wiping out the human race when you could get it for free without fighting and in greater quantities by completely ignoring the defenseless humans?

And to put into larger scale - why not strip mine the whole rest of the universe, as pretty much every star system, apart from the oldest ones, is composed of the same stuff as Earth and it's neighbours? Why the hell even bother anyway? What are you building with all those materials?

[Tarran]

What are you building with all those materials?

Players of halo might have an Idea. But really, why would they need something that big?

[lumin]

This is why I've always thought that there are already aliens aware of us and have simply chosen not to interfere (or maybe they have???).  Because assuming that space and time are infinite, is it so hard to believe that there are aliens that are perceivably infinitely more technologically advanced than us (from our point of view)?

So I think the idea that we're going to find them before they find us, much less be "prepared" for them, is a bit naive.  They could fart and probably destroy us in a blink of an eye.

[Kebooo]

  But suppose you're controlling the aliens, and you find some primitive alien race.  Do you force yourself on them? 

Ask yourself the same scenario, with humans as the "aliens". Hells yes, we'd force ourselves on them. Even if not in an overtly militaristic way.
They'd have Coke, Bibles and Nike rammed down their throats (or respective digestive orifices).

I completely disagree.  There are examples of cultures forcing themselves on each other but what culture is forcing their ways on Saudi Arabia or Yemen through anything but influence?  If we fear alien influences, then we really are paranoid xenophobes.  What if they bring technology that cures all of our diseases, provides food for us, new techniques to educate our people?  Why is it always "oh, a nice friend" vs "full force and exploitation", why don't we weigh the possible lives that could be saved from alien contact?

You see, humans are at X intelligence.  Say the aliens are at 10X intelligence.

Well, a majority of humans aren't forcing culture on each other, they're using influence and persuasion.  A vast majority aren't destroying each other.  And dare I say it, bay12games users, probably the vast majority, aren't prepared to do those things we're demonizing other humans for.  So basically the vastly more intelligent aliens are more likely to be less understanding than us saintly bay12gamers?  Do people not see the hubris in this idea?

[RedKing]

saintly bay12gamers? 

You're talking about folks who came up with a way to breed and harvest mermaids for their valuable bones and skin. Just because they could.

Now extrapolate that to aliens who could do basically the same thing to us. Just because they can. Technology and morality do not walk hand in hand.

[Willfor]

You're talking about folks who came up with a way to breed and harvest mermaids for their valuable bones and skin. Just because they could.

Now extrapolate that to aliens who could do basically the same thing to us. Just because they can. Technology and morality do not walk hand in hand.

But RedKing, we could never have invented the LHC unless we were absolutely pure of heart. We must be, as a species, saintly inventors of the ultimate goodness! And any alien who could do it must also be like us in that regard!

[Kebooo]

Technology and morality do not walk hand in hand.

But they probably correlate.  I imagine it would be difficult for any species to progress through civilization and then high levels of technology without being a social and political animal.  And the groups that were more social, more caring toward one another, would have the greatest advantage over the others.  Why do we assume a super intelligent, social species would wish to harvest another fully aware, sentient species, or treat us poorly?  Or why do we even consider that anything but very improbable?  Does anyone here really believe that if in two hundred more years of our social progress (150 years ago the US enslaved men), that we would actually force ourselves on an alien race we found?  Hell, I don't believe we'd do it even now.  It's perfectly possible that giant tiger men with T-Rex heads and squid tentacles carrying super lasers will land and slaughter us all, but given we have one example of a fully aware, sentient civilization, at its greatest level of advancement - 2010 humans, why do we assume such a thing is even remotely plausible?

Yet here we saintly bay12gamers exist, condemning the forceful indoctrination of other cultures.  But those evil, super intelligent conquistadors couldn't be like bay12gamers, since we are truly a miracle of nature.  No, we exist as an anomaly, other super intelligent creatures are going to be aggressors, because some humans are aggressors.  We here are the truly special individuals that have overcome our beastly nature and transcended into a new, angelic form, where we can finally understand that we shouldn't go harvest and enslave other sentient beings.  Even though it was perfectly acceptable to mass destroy cities just 60-70 years ago,  a misguided drone attack garners outrage and condemnation.  No, these super intelligent species will of course not have gone through any social transformation, they will be just like our ignorant and violent Spanish conquistadors, which conquered other ignorant and violent nations, since after all, they will derive so much personal gain from taking Earth over, like the Spanish did from taking gold.

[Pathos]

I think what NASA means by "be prepared" is "hope the aliens are peaceful so we can murder them, steal their ship technology and launch a conlonisation of the rest of the universe".

Basically: We're hoping WE'LL be the murdering aliens, and not anyone else.

On the note of strip-mining nearby planets: Assuming aliens need an atmosphere similar to ours to survive, they'd use ours as a launching ground / colony for the mining of nearby planets. We'd still be screwed.

[Tarran]

If we are very lucky: We will encounter extremely advanced friendly aliens.

If we are lucky: We will encounter highly advanced friendly aliens.

If we are middle: We will encounter same tech friendly/hostile aliens

If we are unlucky: We will encounter highly advanced hostile aliens.

If we are very unlucky: We will encounter extremely advanced hostile aliens, that want us only for our bodies...



Think about it this way; why would someone want to travel light years just to conquer us? Would you travel years just to take over someone else? Or would you do it to make friends? I, myself, would make friends.

And for all of you that would want to conquer them; it would be very difficult to maintain the territory since its way too far away. Ex; England with china, except much, much farther away.

[TheDarkJay]

I like the Bunny comic take on this.

If we encounter aliens, either they'll decide to bomb the shit out of us for no apparent reason, or we'll start bombing the shit out of them for no apparent reason. Then we'll run into another species even bigger and badder than us, and be completely fucked.

[Footkerchief]

If we are very unlucky: We will encounter extremely advanced hostile aliens, that want us only for our bodies...

Sounds like a Larry Niven novel.  (I hate that guy)

[Pillow_Killer]

Um. Humans are extremely xenophobic, agressive,shortsighted, narrow-minded, high hive-morality when it comes to conflict. If anyone should be worried about fidning agressive aliens, it's these other species.

[Cheeetar]

high hive-morality

?