A realistic view of what would happen if extraterrestrial life visted our planet

[Wickatricka]

This debate has been going on for decades but on the grand scheme of things what would happen? Well the fact is if this civilization is more advanced then us then most likely we would see the same thing that happened between Christopher Columbus and the Native Americans but on a much larger scale. (See: http://www.understandingprejudice.org/nativeiq/columbus.htm ) There is no plausible way that these aliens would have conquered greed. A lot of scientist say that we should not seek out alien interaction just for these purposes. A lot of people say that if they are so advanced that they traveled all the way here then they must be a peaceful race and all they want to do is further extended their knowledge along with ours about the universe. That however is a very optimistic view. At first that is probably what they would say their intentions are but who's to say they would not have a much more sinister plan in mind?

On another note if we found a alien planet that had a less advanced society on it what do you think we would do? Yeah history does seem to repeat itself. So if we do ever find another life form that is alien then we should treed lightly because we never know what's afoot.

 

[DugMachine]

As much as i'd love alien contact, I would be suspicious as hell. Most explorations end up with some sort of killing one way or another so I wouldn't greet them with open arms. If we were to find a less advanced planet? Well assuming we could get there, I imagine an all our war of nations trying to reach it first and conquer it. I don't see earth being peaceful in it's exploration of the universe.

 

[Euryalus]

It's too hard to think of things say
Hopefully something epic like Halo, or beneficial like Mass effect. Probably not though.

EDIT: It would probably go something like this

 

[Slaanesh]

I think encountering an alien species with concepts similar to our own(or just don't seem that alien to us) is probably the best type of alien to encounter. There could be diplomacy, like with the humans and the other alien species in Mass Effect(although that was after a war, correct?). And in the unfortunate situation where we are enslaved, we could always try Peter Griffin's strategy:
In the worst case scenario, we encounter an Outer God. I'd rather participate in a war with aliens then spend a single minute in a general area with Nyarlathotep.

 

[Euryalus]

In the worst case scenario, we encounter an Outer God. I'd rather participate in a war with aliens then spend a single minute in a general area with Nyarlathotep.

Meeting the avatar of the blind idiot god would certainly be a colossal buzzkill.

 

[WeaponisedCookie]

Realistically, we wouldn't know. The whole aliens will kill and enslave us stems from humanity's own example. For all we know, the aliens could be culturally 'enlightened' or already bound by regulations to not kill random civilisations. I remember a youtube video by this noteworthy astronomer on this very topic. His name and the video alludes me, unfortunately.

 

[KINGBeerZ]

I would personally believe that assuming they are like humanity that above all else it may be really awkward. I mean think about it assuming they're similar to humanity they may have had situations on their own planet with different races comitting horrible atrocities (Like what was done to the native americans or the aboriginals). But still assuming they are like people they may have come to realise the folly in such courses of action and may not want to repeat them.
So they may try to be civil and polite but i could still quite easily see racist attitudes triumphing and causing a general air of uncomfortability for the two races to be around one another. Not so much hatred but uncomfortability like being around a cousin you really don't like but don't want to offend.

ps. I hope I orderred my thoughts clearly as i was sort of just thinking as i went.

 

[TheIronRuler]

I think encountering an alien species with concepts similar to our own(or just don't seem that alien to us) is probably the best type of alien to encounter. There could be diplomacy, like with the humans and the other alien species in Mass Effect(although that was after a war, correct?). And in the unfortunate situation where we are enslaved, we could always try Peter Griffin's strategy:
In the worst case scenario, we encounter an Outer God. I'd rather participate in a war with aliens then spend a single minute in a general area with Nyarlathotep.

.
This reminds me of a book called "Footfall". Read it, it's fucking sweet.

 

[-Drifter-]

This debate has been going on for decades but on the grand scheme of things what would happen? Well the fact is if this civilization is more advanced then us then most likely we would see the same thing that happened between Christopher Columbus and the Native Americans but on a much larger scale. (See: http://www.understandingprejudice.org/nativeiq/columbus.htm ) There is no plausible way that these aliens would have conquered greed. A lot of scientist say that we should not seek out alien interaction just for these purposes. A lot of people say that if they are so advanced that they traveled all the way here then they must be a peaceful race and all they want to do is further extended their knowledge along with ours about the universe. That however is a very optimistic view. At first that is probably what they would say their intentions are but who's to say they would not have a much more sinister plan in mind?

The problem with that theory is that is assumes extra-terrestrials are basically humans from space. Try to remember that what we define as "intelligence" is limited to what we know about life on our own planet, and trying to apply that definition to beings from other worlds who've evolved from a different starting point under different circumstances is unlikely to work out. Like WeaponisedCookie said, there's realistically no way to know how they'd react to us, if at all.

 

[jollybarracuda]

I really don't think it would be possible to even comprehend what could happen. Just because creatures on Earth feel pain, greed, and happiness, doesn't mean that another species from a totally different planet would feel those things. They could have emotions that wouldn't even register in our minds, and vice versa. So for example, while humans are known for acts of ruthless expansionism, that could be a concept more alien that anything on Earth to an alien species, even one more advanced then ourselves.

Speaking of a more advanced species, I think that gets generalized a lot. Here on Earth, we have cell phones that can reach people around the world and the internet that allows global communication on a ridiculous scale, yet we still use gas in cars and struggle to get 3D effects working properly. Who's to say that an alien species is able to create faster-than-light transportation, but hasn't been able to make a working cell phone.

At least, that's my take on it.

 

[DEAD34345]

The fact is that when we only have a vague idea as to how we as a species would react to extra-terrestial life, we have absolutely no chance of correctly predicting how the extra-terrestrial life would react to us. I think it'd be a pretty damn miraculous coincidence if a species created on a totally different planet would even have the same concepts of life and death, war and peace, colonisation, diplomacy etc as us. Without even that sort of common ground would we be able to interact with them in an intelligible way at all?

My guess is that if we did encounter an advanced alien life at this stage in our history, it probably wouldn't have much interest in us at all. If it has advanced enough to travel between completely different solar systems then we would almost certainly have nothing of value to offer it on our planet, and we probably wouldn't be the first primitive species they had bumped into in their travels around the galaxy.

 

[DudeistBelieve]

I mean.... just assuming the fact that we make contact with another intelligent being, the optimist wants to go no matter how war-like that other race might be there would *HAVE* to be a moment for intelligent beings to go "HOLY SHIT! WE'RE NOT ALONE!!!!"

I can't imagine a civilization more advanced then us would have malicious intentions towards us. If anything they'd treat us the same we treat monkeys or dolphins. A degree of respect for their limited intelligence, but very few humans are going to spend time trying to talk to a dolphin.

 

[The Ubermensch]

I propose that the topic of discussion in this thread be turned towards our own First Contact procedures when we, as a tier one or higher society, interact with a <tier one (like we are now). From this we can extrapolate what an Alien society would do

First First Contact I would assume that we'd go ahead with it anyway, regardless of the potential consequences

Additional First Contacts would be postponed until the society reached space fairing naturally... Idealistically, we all know that if a planet had... well I'm just going to say that Avatar would happen play by play (and it really pisses me off because it should be a much more complicated story). However, even in the "Idealistic" category... I and I'm sure many others would be quite fascinated in the intelligence of the sapient entities, their cognitive developments, physical structure etc.

Because of this I'm inclined to believe that Aliens do exist and are experimenting on humans... I just made that decision then... Shit, does that mean I believe in the Roswell conspiracy? and all those red necks?

Anyway based on this and my deductions, if Aliens did visit our planet, they would test, whilst doing their best to not interfere with our natural progress... unless they found space oil

 

[TheNaut131]

People have all these little reasons as to why life hasn't contacted us or would have no interest in us. We're too evil/stupid, our planet's uninteresting, etc, etc. Personally, I just think it's because it's too much work. I mean c'mon, even though distance for an extraterrestrial being traveling the universe might be slightly different and not as sever, we're still an unknown species on a relatively diverse planet. Sure, depending on how their thinking process works they might not be interested, but some from of life will. The universe is pretty much infinite and their could be a number of variations of life.

We could the freakiest motherfuckers they've ever seen with an interesting culture, developing every day. But they might not want to try and deal with us. Not because we're bad in their eyes, but because having to analyze our language, communicate with leaders, organize positions, and the like could be too much of a hassle. Why not watch from a far and let these being get on with their existence. We'd only be causing each other more headaches. Oh, and perhaps there are restrictions in place, telling them not to interact with foreign life.

If we ever do encounter life it'd either be on the terms of research or invasion. A species researching us would have to know what they were doing if they revealed their presence on a massive scale. They'd most likely be able comprehend the possible danger of this, research wise at least, especially if it was a mental evaluation. Unless they wanted to see how humans would react to this...anyway, as for the invasion side, that's kinda it. They might introduce themselves, perhaps set up terms, but after that it's game over man. In the end they'd just sorta rape us.

 

[000Ronald]

Go read Foundation And Earth. I'll wait.

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...

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Done? Cool, let's talk now. Now I know that's not a straight example, but it brings up the problem with the question you're asking. There is no way to tell what a different species than our own with equal or greater intellect than ours would do. Sure, we'd like to think they'd be all happy and enlightened, but they might not be.

Did you ever see Signs? Did you catch the part where they were talking about aliens, and what they would potentially be like? Did you miss the part where literally every part of it was wrong?[/footnote]Clearly I'm assuming you did, otherwise I wouldn't be spelling it out so blatantly.[/footnote] What you have to understand and assume to even have a starting point is that everything we think we know about alien life...is probably wrong.

So...there's that. Hope that helped.

 

[Daniel Ferguson]

District 9.

 

[Jadak]

There is no plausible way that these aliens would have conquered greed.

Really? Don't get me wrong, I generally agree with this outlook on aliens overall, but no plausible way to overcome greed? That seems unlikely, not to mention the fact that that's assuming their psychology is anything remotely similar to human, which is a tad baseless at this point.

 

[Nemesis729]

If an alien race could reach us, they could destroy us, it would literally take less than a day, we wouldn't stand a chance, but this is only if they decide to kill us, which I doubt they would. If they really have to technology to reach us, from wherever they are from, chances are they will have forms of alternate energy, and won't need our resources, which we really don't have to much of anyway. I believe only good things would come from contact.

 

[Innegativeion]

If an alien race could reach us, they could destroy us, it would literally take less than a day, we wouldn't stand a chance, but this is only if they decide to kill us, which I doubt they would. If they really have to technology to reach us, from wherever they are from, chances are they will have forms of alternate energy, and won't need our resources, which we really don't have to much of anyway. I believe only good things would come from contact.

Yeah, I agree.

See, the main difference between the European colonization of the Americas and an alien encounter would be that we, as a species, would have very little to offer the more advanced race since it can be assumed they have far more efficient resources than us if they can travel across star systems.

The Native Americans were sitting on many resources useful to the Europeans. I don't think that would be so a space-faring race. After all, what sort of resources could earth have that they couldn't find on an uninhabited planet that wouldn't try to fight back, anyway?

Funny scenario I just came up with:

The white house gets a message from a UFO, casually presenting a charter from some galactic government that gives them permission to mine on mars, and request we not interfere. Then everyone loses their shit and freaks out.