“HELLO!!! Mangeorge what about Haiti, Panama and Vietnam???”
—Thorleifur
Hello, Thor. If I recall correctly, we got our asses kicked out of those countries. Whether militarily or politically.
I believe the “super powers” are just beginning to learn that it’s just not economically expedient to use military force to dominate another country.
I did not mean to imply that these world leaders were a bunch of sweet guys.
Good luck with getting rid of whoever it is that’s pushing you around. Holland?
I’m sorry, I’m not up to date on current events in Iceland. My failing.
Enlighten me.
Peace, and try not to be so fucking hostile.
mangeorge
Physics-wise the resources necessary to travel interstellar distances is ENOURMOUS!The distances involved are immensely vast, and the cost of the energy resources alone make material exploitation economically impractical. Matter is the same everywhere, and any technology great enough to travel interstellar distances could not find any form of matter here that they could not find at home. Terraforming [the technology of altering a planet’s environment to suit your own needs] would be easier and cheaper than conquest. Robots and genetic engineering replace the slave labor motive. A hive intelligence [ants, bees, etc] might throw itself across interstellar distances to spawn and breed. Religion could send them [to convert us; or destroy us as offences to their faith]. A dying planet or star could drive a race into something desparate [could go both ways]. What do you Earthlings think about my list?
I think that if aliens could get here, they wouldnt be all nice and care for our suffering like a lot of “abductees” think. Anyway, i dont think there are any “intelligent” species at least in this universe. Look at this planet, so far we’re the only intelligent species, so intelligence or at least the capability of gaining technology is very very rare. However, i think that there is most definately life on other planets, just not capable of creating technology.
Let’s turn the original question around
and ask, if we manage to visit another
world someday, what’s the likelihood that
we will be perceived to be friendly or
hostile… It depends on who we send,
likewise for visiting aliens…
However, I will add this caveat. Given the
nature of the TV signals we’ve been
broadcasting for many years, any visiting
alien would be advised to be on his guard.
Maybe a “shoot first and ask questions
later” mentality might be prudent…
mangeorge wrote:
> I think that as we become more advanced
> we also become less hostile.
History suggest that the more advanced we
become the more advanced methods of killing
we devise. We also get more clever about
convincing ourselves that we act for the
greater good when we kill.
Personally, I think a truly intelligent
species would tend to be well adjusted
enough to just stay home with the wife and
kids, rather than wandering the galaxy
looking for other civilizations to befriend
or conquer.
Imagine what they must be charging the tourists for admission…
COME ONE, COME ALL! SEE THE AMAZING BAGS OF LIQUID HYDROGEN-OXYGEN COMPOUNDS! THEY DO THE MOST AMAZING THINGS! ONE MIGHT EVEN THINK THEY ARE SENTIENT! STEP RIGHT UP…
I think aliens smart enough for inter-stellar space travel would probably be reasonable and peaceful. However, their germs might wipe us out due to lack of immunity.
I heard that when the Eurpoeans colonized the Americas, more native Indians died from disease from the new germs from Europe (especially small pox) than from war fare.
More people died in the world from a flu outbreak soon after WW1 than from either of the big wars, WW1 or WW2.
I don’t think humans have ever taken a weapon with them on an outer space trip (to the moon, space station or satellite) or attached one to a probe we sent. However, we have taken our germs with us.
The problem with your germ theory is that microbes that evolved along with alien biochemistry are unlikely to have ANY effect on terrestrial organisms. Your mention of the Europeans infecting the Native Americans isn’t applicable; the microbes affected their new hosts because they were, after all, the same species. Even on earth (with certain exceptions), diseases that affect one type of animal usually don’t cross over to another. Add xenobiology to the mix, and the likelihood of cross-infection is all the more remote.
HMMMM, I think we’ll all end up in some kind of terrarium when the aliens come. Actually, there seems to be a few different potentialities:
They are highly advanced, peaceful, and wish to study us and/or teach us (although, looking at our history, they’d probably think better of that and limit what they give us)
They are highly advanced, warlike and wish to use us as slaves and/or food.
They are highly advanced, and like us, peaceful or warlike, depending on who has more of “x” commodity than they do and the level at which they need it. I’m thinking Ferrengi.
They are highly advanced and just don’t care whether we “here” or not.
This whole thread reminds me of one of the freakiest sci-fi stories I ever read. Story starts with you reading memoirs from this guy from earth that becomes ambassador to this planet where 3 other ambassadors have been seemingly tortured to death. As story progresses, you read as he tells of the tortures they have put him through and how he reacts to the tortures and his hosts. Comes to realize that this torture is how they determine the “worthiness” of others. Story ends by his coming to some “enlightenment” through this torture and subsequent destruction of most of his body and him saying, “I think I’ll send for my wife”. VERY FREAKY! Can’t remember author or name of story. Got most of the generalities right but I may be a little hazy on some of the details. Whoever wrote this was very twisted or needed to purge some serious issues!! Anyone out there familiar with it?
I think by far the most likely scenerio would start with a series of radio (or other electromagnetic wave) communications, which of course would involve several years, round trip, between sending a message and receiving a response. After several back-and-forth message iterations (which may take generations) we may each finally understand WHAT the other is saying, rather than just that they are saying something. After some information is then shared (which may take several more decades), we may decide to send each other an unmanned “care package” which would include articles of interest, tissue samples, Chuck Berry records, etc. This package, of course, may take a few centuries to arrive. Only after all that, I believe, we might think about making physical human/alien contact.
I think the possibility of aliens just showing up out of the blue is very, very, very unlikely. Of course if they do just show up out of the blue, with no sort of warning, then they must certainly be hostile.
“For what a man had rather were true, he more readily believes” - Francis Bacon
In the movie Independence Day, the aliens’ ships were first detected by radio waves. They were detected by the SITE people in New Mexico, the same people who have come up with this SITE@home screen saver for your pc. However, I think there was only a day or so between the time the radio waves were detected and the time the alien ships were hovering over Earth ready to attack.
As Mark Mal wrote, I think this short time difference would be likely if the aliens were hostile and trying not to let themselves get discovered. They may have a way of masking their radio waves or capturing them so that they are not released througout the galaxy. Otherwise, if they are peaceful, I think Mark Mal’s estimate of a long time of exchanging radio wave communications before making physical contact would be likely.
This is a good question and the discussion about radio waves is interesting. It seems that by boldy announcing our prescense to the universe by broadcasting our radio waves since early this century, we have naively presumed that any possible alien intelligence out there is friendly and peaceful. It is like we stood up and shouted “HELLO out there! Here we are. Come and visit us if you can!” However, if the intelligent aliens are violent and not peaceful, we might regret sending our radio waves. Therefore, perhaps we should try developing a way to keep our radio waves to ourselves, or disguise them, and hide from aliens. Better safe than sorry?
<<Of course, any civilization that managed to come to Earth would be more technologically advanced than us, since they would be able to come to our planet and we wouldn’t be able to go to theirs.>>
Not really, Just because they could reach our planet and we cant reach theirs wotn rellay mean they are more advanced then us. They may be more advanced in a certain area like engine technology, or may have access to a element that allows a more efficient way of propulsoin then any material we have on earth. We might have better weapon technology or medical technology or whatever.
Now about the disease thing, even if there are different species, we might be carrying some basic bacteria that is no big deal to us, but may have never been encountered by them and vice versa. Also about the disease being transfered from different species , wasnt the ebola viruse transfered from a ape. Bubonic plague transfered from rats?
<<<This is a good question and the discussion about radio waves is interesting. It seems that by boldy announcing our prescense to the universe by broadcasting our radio waves since early this century, we have naively presumed that any possible alien intelligence out there is friendly and peaceful. It is like we stood up and shouted “HELLO out there! Here we are. Come and visit us if you can!” However, if the intelligent aliens are violent and not peaceful, we might regret sending our radio waves. Therefore, perhaps we should try developing a way to keep our radio waves to ourselves, or disguise them, and hide from aliens. Better safe than sorry?>>>
If the aliens that recieve our message are hostile, what makes you think they will want to come here. If our radio waves we broadcasted in the middle of this century are recieved around our time or in the future, they will presume we are still on the technological level of the 1950’s, when we are in fact on the technological level of the year 2000, that is something they will have to think about. they will have to figure out how much of a advance we could have made. By then i bet they will say the hell with us and leave us alone before they get into something they didn’t expect.
<<<1.They are highly advanced, peaceful, and wish to study us and/or teach us (although, looking at our history, they’d probably think better of that and limit what they give us)
2. They are highly advanced, warlike and wish to use us as slaves and/or food.
3. They are highly advanced, and like us, peaceful or warlike, depending on who has more of “x” commodity than they do and the level at which they need it. I’m thinking Ferrengi.
4. They are highly advanced and just don’t care whether we “here” or not. >>>
Just because they are a space faring race doesnt mean they will be highly advanced. Another possibility is we might be their first contact also, sure they might have seen plant life , and other organisims, but they might have never met a intellegent race. They probally will try to study us, as we would try to study them. They probally will try to be on their best behaviour as we would try to show our best qualities and all our peaceful achievements, while trying to hide each others violent tendecies etc.
I’m going through a lot of threads to do this, but the discussion, being hypothetical, should be moved into the Great Debates section.
“[He] beat his fist down upon the table and hurt his hand and became so
further enraged… that he beat his fist down upon the table even harder and
hurt his hand some more.” – Joseph Heller’s Catch-22
One could also consider the improbability of a race becoming spacefaring without being at peace on their homeworld. It would be difficult for humans to ever colonize other planets without being united here. Perhaps the method of unification would determine the attitude of the explorers. If a planet were united through war and conquest, the race would likely be hostile. If treaty and negotiation led to a unified world, the race would probably be benign.
As to the question of why you would “watch” since 1947, how about this scenario?
Atomic bomb tests lead an alien race to take a closer look at our planet. Upon seeing our warlike species, they decide to enact a “quarantine” on our planet, allowing us only a limited amount of space travel and exploration, until such time as we become peaceful enough to interact with other planets. Kind of an intergalactic U.N. peacekeeping force.
I dont believe this scenario, just continuing a debateable thread
I believe it will be lke Contact…they will learn of us by the television that is popping out there.
You seen the state of television now? Hell, I would not go near any planet with shows like “When Good Pets Go Bad” “The 700 club” and repeats of “The Gong Show”. For all we know, they think Chuck Barris may be our leader.
But if any have the stones to actually land, Murphy’s Law will have them land in the backyard of Hussein or Falwell’s residence which will generally doom us. Hopefully they wil be hostile