If we made first contact with extra-terrestrials and developed interstellar space travel...

[Jedoro]

I'd learn everything I could about them and their race. "If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles."

Not saying the aliens would be our enemies, but someday they might be. Knowledge would also help with peaceful relations, but I like knowing about potential enemies.

 

[Chechosaurus]

I'd buy 'em a pint and chat shit with them in the pub. I love chatting shit about space and aliens and all that jazz. Personally, I don't think that aliens would ever make contact with us because if they had the tech to get here from another star system then they are certainly more advanced than us and wouldn't want to hang around with us because we've got nukes and we all hate each other. It'd be like having dinner at a friend's house and he hates everyone, owns loads of knives and tortures small mammals.

 

[Daedalus1942]

Okay, say we, the human race, say.. discover that somewhere in the universe there is a fully sentient race, end end up with the same high advanced technology as them (assuming they are technologically advanced), and eventually they discover and offically contact us,and either we end up with a hostile relationship with each other, or we engage in peaceful diplomatic relations, Mass Effect style. And also, Mass Effect style, we use said technology to seek out inhabitable planets and colonize them, making the most of whatever we find here.

what exactly relations would you try to make with aliens? and what lifestyle would you seek out with the new galactic society you'd be living in?

Me? I'd try to be friendly with anyone of them I can, just as I do with my fellow humans.

but I wouldn't share the philosophy that the aliens are superior to us, but I won't believe they are by any means inferior either.

Also, I'd consider a career as a diplomat between humans and whatever aliens we meet up with, trying to use mediation to help see peace between humans and aliens.

Hot long nights with various creatures of the Asari species? Count me in!
Also, to do with your space travel theory... what if they are actually extra-dimensional rather than from outer space, huh?

 

[Rainboq]

Quagmire: Interbreeding
Me: I have no idea

 

[Zorg Machine]

I would show them how to do tequila shots and we would instantly become friends. after that they would give me lifts and stuff in their spaceship and let me drive when they're drunk and so I would become a qualified pilot. lastly, one of their uncles would try to sell me a low quality spaceship with "only" a mark 3 FTL drive... I would buy it and legaly change my name to spaceman Spiff.

and that is my master plan... if aliens are allergic to citrus I will probably start an interstellar war though...

 

[Arcane Azmadi]

There is no possible way we could share a galaxy with another alien race. Fuck, we can't even share a single planet with people of the SAME race. Either we'll start an unprovoked war and commit genocide, or we'll provoke a war and be wiped out (or if the aliens are morally superior to us, be at least confined back to our own planet again).

That's assuming the aliens don't decide to wipe us out in sheer horror or disgust as soon as we make contact.

 

[TeacakeWeasel]

Hey, you can do whatever you want to do space politics wise, but i already have a goal regarding first contact, to be the first human to act like a di--head to aliens, this can be summed up into three steps.

1- Travel to the alien homeworld.

2- Find the most important city to their society.

3- take off all of my clothes and start running down their streets singing "Flash Gordon" by queen until i am arrested for public indecency.

This will seal my name in history as an important influence in human/alien relations as the man that nearly screwed it all up.

 

[Kollega]

I take it you don't eat animals or agree with their use to work because you think that's wrong? I'm not making any judgement here, I just want to see how far your lack of species-ism goes...

Ooooh-aaaaaah, imma-hypocrite!

You know what i meant. I meant "prejudice against other sapient species". So cut that out.

 

[zHellas]

The Human Race would probably attack them...I would preferrably try to make peace with them, but if war starts I'd side with the aliens if Humans start the war first.

 

[oppp7]

If they made contact with me personally I'd play a prank on everyone and teach them Elvish(LoTR elvish) and make them think that was our language. Then I would point them in the direction of the White House and have a good laugh.

 

[Kollega]

Hahaha it is an interesting question though. Where do you draw the line between species that have sapience and species that do not? I didn't mean to call you a hypocrite, I'm genuinely interested in how you distinguish these aliens from animals, or humans and animals.

As of now, the line is somewhere between chimps and humans if memory serves right. I'm pretty sure that standard qualifiers could be more or less applied to aliens - if he/she/it can reason and create, i'm pretty sure that he/she/it can be called sapient (disregarding communication barrier, obviously).

 

[LostFable]

I'd be on the first ship off this rock, regardless of where its heading or what its doing.

I second that.

I would be very nice to them, you never know what might happen if you piss an alien off...

And that.

 

[Kollega]

snip because i'm tired

I have never, ever told i support experimenting on animals. Quite the opposite, in fact.

Screw that, i'm leaving untill i get accused of being a Nazi - if that did not already happen. I hate Nazis. Shouldn't have let myself get dragged into this in the first place. Also Godwin's Law.

 

[Kollega]

What?! I didn't say you supported experimenting on animals... I was just wondering how you distinguish humans from other animals, and what an alien would have to do to get the same respect as a human. There's no argument or accusation here. What I was trying to say with the experimentation point was that it was the reason there is any agreed line distinguishing sapient and non-sapient creatures. Chill out man, I'm not trying to bait you or trick you or make you look stupid or win an argument, I'm just trying to find out what you think about something!

I should have just said that i respect any other sentient lifeforms (i.e. anything with a centralized brain) just as much as i do humans, if not more so - but then i'll be back at stage one:

Ooooh-aaaaaah, imma-hypocrite!

You can see how well this works out.

As of late, i was thinking of simply dropping any and all moral standards i try to uphold and become like all other sane people - a jaded, hateful nihilist - just so no-one would dare to call me hypocritical, no matter if it's justified or not. This idea sounds more and more appealing.

 

[Kollega]

Haha it is a lot easier to criticise than to create or justify ideas. The reason I was asking the question is because I'm struggling to find good justification for our enslavement and careless use of the rest of the animal kingdom and yet I would balk at the idea of giving up eating cows/sheep/chickens/fish/pigs/etc. I think that in a progressive future, very few people if any will eat animals, but it's a step I'm not willing to take myself. Fucking hypocrite

Well gee, tell me about that. I thought about becoming a vegetarian - i could have even tried - but then i remembered my annoying tendency to flap in the wind because of how thin i am. Seriously, i think that i've weighed more when i was twelve.

I hope that in the future we'll have salami growing on a genetically-modified trees (not literally, of course).

I also like how any meaningful discussion always tends to be completely irrelevant to thread's subject, thus derailing it.