An... interesting hypothetical

[tobi the good boy]

Offer a trade with the aliens. i provide insight on the culture of our planet, how kowledge of technology and philosphies for the bodies of the recently dead, I live and i also begin my indoctrination

 

[Brandon237]

I don't know, I mean, how would I know that they were edible if the native plant and animal life wasn't. They'd probably be composed of the same basic compounds. I'd probably just eat a little native plant every day until adapted or died.

Clever idea, and many natural poisons your body will become immune to with exposure, see bee sting therapy. So the idea is legit assuming you don't die instantly.

And that is what I would do, I will not murder friendly blue people because I want food...

 

[binvjoh]

I don't know. Depends how intelligent they come off as. Basically if I'd consider them more like animals than individuals.

 

[Sparrow]

So what are the natives eating?

Alien planet. Alien biology is, by definition, alien. They can eat the native plant and animal life just fine, since it's their home planet. It's only incompatible with you because you aint from around there.

Besides, that's not the point. The point is what you would do.

Using this logic, eating anything alien would mean that eating the aliens (still following?) would be just as lethal.

 

[Chrono212]

Beg to eat their dead! D:

Try to explain your plight and find if there are any other solutions :/

 

[ReaperzXIII]

Course I'd eat them! The only thing stopping me from tasting the rest of you guys is the fact you are the same species as me! Anyway survival of the fittest or the thing with the element of surprise and I want my supernatural mystery name to be: The Skull King! After he eats u he uses ur skulls to create his throne!

I will be feared by all the townspeople!

Also anyway I can make them believe I am a messenger from The Prosperity God Uchtros and my mouth is how they will get to paradise? Uchtros has spoken! TO reach paradise you must be bbq'd and covered in bbq sauce before being sent through the portal to Uchtros!

 

[Therumancer]

I thought this up a while ago, and I've been trying to decide how it would turn out ever since. For the life of me, I can't decide.

Imagine, if you will, that you're stranded on an alien planet. By some miracle, the atmosphere is breathable and the wildlife isn't trying too hard to kill you. Unfortunately, you're running low on supplies and there is only one single edible thing on the planet: the natives. They're intelligent, friendly, and peaceful. They have done you no wrong. So the question comes down to this: murder an innocent or slowly starve to death.

I want to think that I'd do the noble thing and die, but I simply can't know for sure.

Interesting, though there are too many details missing to make a fair analysis. If you want to make the situation more messed up, consider that Suicide is considered a sin within Christianity and I believe a number of other religions. Choosing to starve to death or commit murder could be an interesting conflict within such morality.

That said, assuming I'm powerful enough in proportion to the natives to be enough of a predator to ensure my own survival, chances are I could uplift the society as well. While by no means "good" or "right", I might consider doing something like declaring myself their god, and demanding sacrifices, however at the same time I'd be sharing knowlege and/or technology that will probably expand their progress quite rapidly. The scant few lives lost to keep me around for the rest of my lifespan could arguably be mitigated by the number of lives saved in the long run by the things I would teach. Since I'm not going to live forever, there is no reason to be concerned about my followers rising up with that knowlege and destroying me, chances are I'll be dead before they got to that point since I'd be planting the seeds.

Sort of like the relationship some authors have come up with for how aliens dealt with humans in our distant past, or how vampires built human civilization, or whatever else.

All that aside, it's a messed up situation in general.

 

[beniki]

Explain to them that I come from a race that is historically proven to do anything to survive, and has caused the extinction of many, many species, and that unless they find alternatives, they will be my only food source.

And I'm getting hungry.

 

[Czargent Sane]

four words.

"bring me your dead"

EDIT: well, I would love to say I would chose to starve, but frankly i'd never get to make that choice. if I couldnt digest the animals and such I would never think "oh, but the people should do fine"

 

[zombiestrangler]

Ask nicely. If that doesn't work... make it look like an accident.

 

[krugerrand123]

Eat the evil ones.

 

[PurplePlatypus]

Ok so not only do I magically know they are edible but they alone are edible on this planet, also due to magic I assume. Not only that but they also, by magic, they contain everything I?m going to need to actually remain somewhat healthy and not suffer from some deficiency somewhere down the line.

No I?m going to go somewhere away from as much as I can and kill myself and hope I haven?t contaminated everything beyond the point of no return. It will also save me from the whims of alien diseases. Actually no, that will probably be of little use, everything is already doomed, certainly it will be when I die and get my decomposing self everywhere. And if I?ve killed myself that?s probably only after I?ve gotten my blood everywhere. Naturally after my death the wildlife with find and eat my body thus will begin the spread of death.

 

[hittite]

Ok so not only do I magically know they are edible but they alone are edible on this planet, also due to magic I assume. Not only that but they also, by magic, they contain everything I?m going to need to actually remain somewhat healthy and not suffer from some deficiency somewhere down the line.

No I?m going to go somewhere away from as much as I can and kill myself and hope I haven?t contaminated everything beyond the point of no return. It will also save me from the whims of alien diseases. Actually no, that will probably be of little use, everything is already doomed, certainly it will be when I die and get my decomposing self everywhere. And if I?ve killed myself that?s probably only after I?ve gotten my blood everywhere. Naturally after my death the wildlife with find and eat my body thus will begin the spread of death.

... Little ray of sunshine aren't ya.

 

[Fwee]

I'd graft them into my skin and share their nutritious blood, because I'm immune to hypothetical questions.

 

[dragonslayer32]

If indeed as stated in other posts, the natives have special organs to filter out poison, I'd just have them transplant said organs in me, it says in the origional post that they are smart...

 

[GrinningManiac]

I'd man the f*ck up and eat the goddamn arsenic-based fauna

If I died, it'd be because I wasn't eating ENOUGH of the goddamn critters

NOM NOM NOM grrr

 

[hittite]

If indeed as stated in other posts, the natives have special organs to filter out poison, I'd just have them transplant said organs in me, it says in the origional post that they are smart...

I probably should have brought this up earlier, but hey, I forgot. Things don't have to be poisonous to be inedible. It could simply be that the chemical makeup of the organisms on the planet make them indigestible with human digestive enzymes. Meaning that anything that isn't toxic has the nutritional value of sawdust.

 

[cheese_wizington]

So what are the natives eating?

Alien planet. Alien biology is, by definition, alien. They can eat the native plant and animal life just fine, since it's their home planet. It's only incompatible with you because you aint from around there.

Besides, that's not the point. The point is what you would do.

Then aren't the natives incompatible with me also?


This makes no sense.

 

[thedoclc]

I thought this up a while ago, and I've been trying to decide how it would turn out ever since. For the life of me, I can't decide.

Imagine, if you will, that you're stranded on an alien planet. By some miracle, the atmosphere is breathable and the wildlife isn't trying too hard to kill you. Unfortunately, you're running low on supplies and there is only one single edible thing on the planet: the natives. They're intelligent, friendly, and peaceful. They have done you no wrong. So the question comes down to this: murder an innocent or slowly starve to death.

I want to think that I'd do the noble thing and die, but I simply can't know for sure.

actually, if the natives have tissue that you can eat that lets you absorb the nutrients that you need to survive as a human, then they had to get those nutrients through some means, which you could repeat and spare the locals.

I win.

No you don't.

For those trying to knock down the hypothetical, here's a hard-science version. The alien planet's life does not use an amino acid which is essential for human survival. Without this amino acid, you die. (Since there are eight to ten amino acids which humans beings cannot survive without, depending on which text you consult, it would hardly be surprising.) Now, it turns out that the planet's life forms do not use methionine, threonine, or isoleucine, three amino acids without which we humans cannot live. Eat these amino acids or die. The only beings who use these three amino acids are the alien's sapient species, who modify other amino acids to form them. These amino acids are used to make a protein inside the sapient being's cardiac muscle.

In order to get the amino acids you must have to live, you must eat the cardiac muscle of these beings. In addition, the beings have a feudal culture which forbids any desecration of their dead; under no circumstances will they give you their dead, and they will fight to the death to protect their dead. Neither you nor the alien sapients are able to synthesize these amino acids in the lab, in your case because you do not have any know-how, and in their case because their culture is not technological enough. Nor do you have the time or resources to try this on your own. Maybe a future expedition can study the biochem of these creatures and learn how they work, but you're just a lonely pilot who is -very- hungry and far from home.

There you go, a hard science version to get to the same question.

 

[dragonslayer32]

If indeed as stated in other posts, the natives have special organs to filter out poison, I'd just have them transplant said organs in me, it says in the origional post that they are smart...

I probably should have brought this up earlier, but hey, I forgot. Things don't have to be poisonous to be inedible. It could simply be that the chemical makeup of the organisms on the planet make them indigestible with human digestive enzymes. Meaning that anything that isn't toxic has the nutritional value of sawdust.

I see now, it is all about nutrition... Still, they have to get it from a source so I'd still have them put whatever they got to give it to them, into me (the previous statement is not to be taken in the wrong way...) I'd be the first hybrid, they shall call me Blade...