An... interesting hypothetical

[Littlee300]

I'll take my chances and just eat the alien plants.

I'd rather be poisoned or whatever than killing the innocent natives.

Just eat whatever the animals are eating. They are probably carbon based life forms if the air is breathable.

 

[Some_weirdGuy]

i'd probably die cause i'm a fussy eater XD


edit: OP, you should probably put the 'hard science' post into the original post, cause of how many people are completely ignoring what you've said in it. (looks up at EVERY post above)

 

[GLo Jones]

I'd charge in, killing the older natives, and capturing their young. I'd then try and farm them in a controlled environment.

 

[newwiseman]

I'd have to say to your hypothetical it's impossible for a single species to survive on a planet, evolution leads new species to form just to take advantage of resources not exploited by others. Second, 99% of the other animals on the planet would have the same bio chemistry as the native sentiments.

 

[hittite]

i'd probably die cause i'm a fussy eater XD


edit: OP, you should probably put the 'hard science' post into the original post, cause of how many people are completely ignoring what you've said in it. (looks up at EVERY post above)

You know what, I think I will.

 

[Alade]

I formulate a plan to systematically kill a lot of them at once and then ration the food from then on.

No need for excessive evil or moral dilemmas. Survival of the fittest.

 

[WrathOfBanja]

Most of the indigenous life is arsenic in origin, the natives, who are the only "normal" carbon based life, have developed an organ that streams the arsenic from their system. Everyone should know arsenic is highly toxic to us.

So once the food passes through them, its good, right?
Obviously the answer here is to just eat their excrement!

 

[JoshGod]

surely there are enough that i can eat that die on thier own?

 

[Section Crow]

instincts would overlap my conscious and i'd eat em' like they were Kentucky fried chicken

 

[kikon9]

The problem with this scenario is that any alien that is edible to us, must also have a food source which is edible to us.

 

[Dimensional Vortex]

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.

Sir, that is probably the most intelligent question I'm going to hear today, and I think you win instead of that other guy.

 

[Atmos Duality]

I formulate a plan to systematically kill a lot of them at once and then ration the food from then on.

No need for excessive evil or moral dilemmas. Survival of the fittest.

And rather pointless survival at that, seeing how you won't be able to procreate.
But at least the natives will have something scary to talk about for centuries to come.

 

[TheSEPH88]

I'd level with them about what I needed and hope that if they really are that friendly and peaceful they could supply me with the bodies of their dead.

i'd try to find fresh corpses.

In a situation like this I'd have to think what my opinion would be if the situation were reversed and I'd say that I would allow them to eat the anyone that died.

Could I not eat the corpses of already deceased natives?

Wow, I thought I had an original idea for a second.

I would also do this.

 

[Faladorian]

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.

If the planet's life forms didnt use the amino acid, then the creatures wouldnt have it in their body anyway and eating them would be in vain

 

[hittite]

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.

If the planet's life forms didnt use the amino acid, then the creatures wouldnt have it in their body anyway and eating them would be in vain

ahem...

 

[HT_Black]

Two questions: Are they primitive? And what element are they composed of?

Give me those answers and I'll give you mine.

 

[hittite]

Two questions: Are they primitive? And what element are they composed of?

Give me those answers and I'll give you mine.

1: yes

2: I'm gonna say they're composed entirely of sucrose simply because I feel like it. How? Wizards.

 

[HT_Black]

Two questions: Are they primitive? And what element are they composed of?

Give me those answers and I'll give you mine.

1: yes

2: I'm gonna say they're composed entirely of sucrose simply because I feel like it. How? Wizards.

Well, if that's the case, then my days are short. Since their mental capacity probably isn't anything to write home about (made of sugar and all that), I'd konk a few over the head, put them into a large sack, and hightail it for wherever the nearest wizard is so I can get him to send me back home (or barring that, so I can beat him over the head and steal his stuff).

 

[ultrachicken]

I would plead with them to let me eat the dead, or criminals or something.

If not, then I would surely crumble under fear of death and hunger and just eat them.

 

[thedoclc]

I thought this up a while ago, and I've been trying to decide how it would turn out ever since. *snip*

If the planet's life forms didnt use the amino acid, then the creatures wouldnt have it in their body anyway and eating them would be in vain

I said they modify other amino acids into those amino acids, and are the only ones to do so. This has been observed in nature; we -create- the amino acid ornithine in our bodies. We don't rely on it from our diet.

And ornithine isn't even an amino acid coded for in DNA. The enzymes which make it are, of course.

So, yes, an organism could have an amino acid in its body which is not found in another organism or in the creature's diet.