Would Visiting Aliens be Benevolent or Malevolent

Lung · June 11, 2003, 02:50

That's "nice or "mean", to those of you still in high school

I'm sure this has been posted here in the past, but Lung just had a brainstorm, and it was typically brilliant

It has been said,that any visiting alien species would be more technologically advanced than us by virtue of the fact that they were able to get here from beyond our current means of space travel. From this it was deduced, quite logically, that they would therefore be less barbaric and be harmless to us. I thought that was a fair assumption, but that was before my brainstorm

Q Classic · June 11, 2003, 02:58

quite possibly. but then again, what would make them think we were anything other than vermin, taking up space and resources that would be better suited to their benevolent programs of exploration?

BustaMike · June 11, 2003, 03:10

The little kid in Signs explains all the possibilities in a short, timely manner.

Alexander's Horse · June 11, 2003, 03:14

I think they'd point and laugh a lot.

The Mad Monk · June 11, 2003, 03:21

If I were visiting aliens, I'd try to be benevolent.

Lung · June 11, 2003, 03:26

Even if you could take whatever you want? What a saint you are

yavoon · June 11, 2003, 03:28

manifest destiny of the galaxy I imagine.

The Mad Monk · June 11, 2003, 03:33

The poor things would be shocked enough as it is -- humans? Here?!

I wouldn't want to be cruel...much.

Lancer · June 11, 2003, 04:54

First I suppose they would be dissappointed the planet is populated. Or, they might be glad there were slaves at hand, or a ready source of meat.

If they wanted the planet the fact that we are trashing it would be a good excuse to cull the herd...or rid the planet of the harmful species. Or, they might just force us to hand over all the blueberries, and leave us wondering.

FrustratedPoet · June 11, 2003, 05:58

I expect they would simply squash us like bugs and harvest our planet for what little resources are left.
Isn't that exactly what we would do if we were in their place?

Lancer · June 11, 2003, 06:04

Assuming it took everything they had to get here I suppose they couldn't just leave. However whatever their fuel was we might not even be mining. They could eat little globs of silicone...who knows, they might not use what we use or like what we like. They might settle happily on Venus after dropping by to share their best silicone recipes.

Skanky Burns · June 11, 2003, 06:34

They would probably treat the planet as a big zoo, charging their own kind huge amounts of money to come look at us, but not allowing us to expand to any other planets.

Spiffor · June 11, 2003, 06:47

If they develop good enough machines to come all the way down here, they must be a highly scientific kind. I'm sure they will observe us before taking any steps (and observe Earth in general).

If we have resources they are interested in, they will calculate the cheapest thing to get them : either they'll trade us some worthless things, or they'll attack / enslave us.

Jack the Bodiless · June 11, 2003, 07:18

I have reservations about the likely benevolence of aliens.

The argument appears to be "they would have destroyed themselves if they were aggressive". However, this assumes they don't have an evolutionary or cultural restraint against harming their own kind, and it's likely that they would. If so, they're free to be as aggressive as they want to be to other life-forms.

And I have a suspicion that many peaceful intelligent races would fail to make it into space, because of what I'll call "the spear principle". Humanity has produced many pre-industrial cultures, all well-suited to their environments. And there is nowhere on Earth where humans have been pushed down the food chain by a more advanced predator. With the exception of diseases, no land animal eats humans and survives for long: the locals, no matter how "primitive", will hunt it down and spear it to death.

So our own history tells us that we will always develop technologies which secure our position at the top of the food chain, but the spear is sufficient for supremacy over non-humans. More sophisticated weapons are needed only against human enemies. Many intelligent but peaceful races may have achieved supremacy over all other life forms on their planet, and then simply ceased developing beyond that point: their equivalent of "spear mastery". More aggressive races, however, would be more likely to get involved in an "arms race" leading to high technology, because they're always up against enemies comparable to themselves. They may be disproportionately more likely to become spacefarers if they DON'T destroy themselves.

Flare · June 11, 2003, 08:16

Unfortunatly, I would pick either Neutral or Malevolent. The alen race would probably be decended from predators, & we ALL know how nice we are. However, the point could be argued both ways. ~Shrugs~ Let us go into space & find out, shall we?

Winston · June 11, 2003, 09:35

Aliens.

I think they'll be a bit more malevolent than the arch-angels, but far, far nicer than those pesky types living inside the Earth's core.

Now giant mutated bedbugs is a whole different story.

Ben Kenobi · June 11, 2003, 09:35

Quote:

I think they'd point and laugh a lot.

AH must be an alien...

Whaleboy · June 11, 2003, 09:53

Theyd be more inclined to be nice, because if they were benevolent, they would have most likely destroyed themselves. In order to develop tech to travel between stars, its reasonable to assume they develop tech to harness huge amounts of energy. Warlike people will turn this into weaponry and could destroy themselves. We only recently passed that test in october 1962, and we're not out of the woods yet!

Cruddy · June 11, 2003, 10:11

Quote:

Originally posted by Lung
That's "nice or "mean", to those of you still in high school

Maybe not. Perhaps they want to install a benevolent dictatorship - so the first thing they do is round up all civil servants, politicians, soldiers and kill them (no need for them, you see).

They might be benevolent to some, but to all? How's about the xenophobic morons who don't even believe there's life outside their home town, let alone another country or another planet?

Cruddy · June 11, 2003, 10:13

Quote:

Originally posted by Winston
...
Now giant mutated bedbugs is a whole different story.

Nah, leave them out and let's try to stay on topic, eh?

Arrian · June 11, 2003, 10:21

elijah, I think Jack the Bodiless has a real good point about "peaceful" aliens.

I see no reason alien visitors wouldn't subjucate us for the benifit of their empire (or, as FP put it, "squash us like bugs"). Why assume goodwill toward a primitive civilization like ours?

-Arrian

DaShi · June 11, 2003, 10:30

I agree. Imagine that we are the aliens arriving on a peaceful planet. What would we do?

Arrian · June 11, 2003, 10:55

We would kick ass, steal, exploit, and maybe feel bad about it later.

-Arrian

FrustratedPoet · June 11, 2003, 11:06

Quote:

Originally posted by DaShi
I agree. Imagine that we are the aliens arriving on a peaceful planet. What would we do?

Cause the aliens to all die of the common cold, most likely.

Lorizael · June 11, 2003, 11:09

If it's likely that any aliens with advanced technology would have gotten that technology through some type of arms race, what prevents them from destroying themselves? This isn't actually meant to be a pessimistic question, because, after all, humans have managed to avoid that fate.

MAD was all well and good, but if the Soviet Union was still alive, would the world be?

DinoDoc · June 11, 2003, 11:11

Quote:

Originally posted by FrustratedPoet

Cause the aliens to all die of the common cold, most likely.

Free resources!

Lorizael · June 11, 2003, 11:14

Yah aliens wouldn't be likely to have any resistance to our diseases, but what are the odds the diseases have any idea what to do against whatever weird biology the aliens have got?

Arrian · June 11, 2003, 11:24

It cuts both ways, too. If they are vulnerable to our diseases, we could be vulnerable to theirs. We could decimate each other's populations without firing a shot.

-Arrian

Proteus_MST · June 11, 2003, 11:25

Quote:

Originally posted by Spiffor
If they develop good enough machines to come all the way down here, they must be a highly scientific kind. I'm sure they will observe us before taking any steps (and observe Earth in general).

If they are of a highly scientific kind, it could also backfire.
Mabe they use humans for their Experiments, just as human scientists do with Rats, Pigeons or Escherichia coli

After all, being highly scientific doesn´t mean that you are also highly ethical

Arrian · June 11, 2003, 11:30

They could have a totally different ethical code than we do (leaving aside for a moment that we humans do not have 1 ethical code), which allows them to "morally" do nasty things to us.

After all, we kill each other, why shouldn't they kill us?

-Arrian