Aliens arrive in orbit around Earth and after a brief spell of panic, it turns out they’re genuinely peaceful and benevolent - and they manage to convince most people that this is so.
They like us and they want to help by giving us a collection of advanced technologies that will definitely abolish disease, hunger, poverty, war, environmental damage, serious crime and pretty much anything else that is a problem right now, 100% guaranteed.
However, the inherent and completely unavoidable nature of their technology is such that it will reduce the fertility of humans to less than 5% of its current rate.
So the choices are:
[ul]
[li]All humans live long, healthy, peaceful, fulfilling lives, but the human race probably goes quietly extinct in a century or two (disease is no longer a problem, but people eventually still die, painlessly of old age).[/li][/ul]
or
[ul]
[li]Things carry on as they are now.[/li][/ul]
The aliens don’t wish to force change on us against our will, so they will accept a majority decision, polled on an internet message board.
I’d decline; we need to continue on with survival.
Maybe I don’t understand the math, but does 5% fertility mean that population decline is unavoidable - that you cannot just use more sex or test tubes to overcome it?
I’d vote to decline, although you say their intentions are genuinely benign it doesn’t seem that way to me, more like a means to (albiet humanely) remove a potential competitor.
Anyway, we may be able to get to that stage (without the unfortunate side-effects) on our own, especially now that we know it is possible.
…then we visit them and liberally drop anti-matter bombs all over their home planet…
Without fighting the hypothetical, I’d say no. Abolishing disease, hunger, poverty, war, etc. is easy if you’re willing to accept “extinction of the human race” as a side effect.
However, this is a hypothetical that needs fighting. It’s a stupid hypothetical because you’re suggesting an entire basket of technologies that have only two modes: utterly useless and extinction-level event. Hell, if this stuff is so dangerous, why not tell us how their spaceships work and we’ll put it on the moon.
Humanity didn’t realise that accepting the assistance of the aliens would result in their extinction though.
I actually only read that book recently, it wasn’t what I expected, though in a good way. Also interesting, for a book written in the 1960’s, that the last member of the human race and a somewhat heroic individual was a black man.
Please feel free to go fight it in your own thread.
The question is actually this (the alien story is just a wrapper):
If we could solve all of the big problems for those people alive now, resulting in comfortable, long, happy lives for all, would it be worth it, if it meant the peaceful decline of the human race?
No. Frankly humans would then find some new way to kill each other off and then we would not only be a declining population but one fighting over scraps.
the hypothetical is played out in Stargate SG-1, except for the part where the downside is known. do you really think people would choose extinction for a little bit of longevity?
I don’t have any problem with human extinction, which would have a negative impact on absolutely nothing except the human species, which the universe and the earth can get along without perfectly well, and did so for a long time. Unless it were cataclysmic, the extinction of the human species would nave no discomforting effect whatsoever on me or anybody I know or anybody living today, and is guaranteed to certainly transpire, sooner or later…
The very existence of Aliens, as described in the OP, implies that humans are relatively unimportant in the cosmic scheme of things. The question is somewhat analogous to a bunch of lemurs in Madasgascar sitting around wondering what would happen to their species if benevolent human donors rescued them from extinction by building biospheres for them to live in for a few generations until the novelty wore off and the project were disbanded because something more important came along, like coffee corporate profits or a war on drugs or sectarian strife or the flag-waving of a superpower.
That’s not a very accurate summary of the choice to be made here. It’s continuation of the human race vs the solution to every big problem faced by people alive right now. An end to war, crime, slavery, hunger, poverty, disease etc right now.
I don’t think it’s a simple question. People are suffering now - I’m sure they would like better quality of life. People who might have been born in the future won’t mind not being born.
Now that we know the technology in question is possible, we ought to be able to replicate it ourselves, without needing assistance…humans seem to be pretty good at that sort of thing.
A large part of the crime, poverty, etc. In the world is based on ‘us vs. them’ thinking: ‘they’ are a different race/religion/nationality/whatever, and must therefore be put down in some way shape or form. Once the aliens show up, they become ‘them’, and all of us here on Earth, regardless of race creed or color, become ‘us’. Problem halfway solved!
At least, that’s how I’d like to think it will go.
Well, we ought to put the long-term interests of the species ahead of our own short-term desires. This would mean declining the aliens’ offer, fixing our problems ourselves, and continuing the species indefinitely.
I have a nagging worry that there is a sizable portion of the voters who would sell their birthright for a mess of pottage.
Agreed, I think this question pretty much comes down to how misanthropic and selfish a person is, if you don’t like humanity anyway then its extinction is a good thing and/or if you personally can have a good old time in your own lifetime then screw the future.
I know we shouldn’t fight the hypothetical but I would also wonder how the aliens managed to survive and become a space-faring species with this ‘dangerous’ technology yet humanity will inevitably go extinct using it…they’re screwing us over for sure.
