Poll: Do you think that we will go to war with aliens?

[Jacco]

I think it would depend on the time and politics surrounding it.

If the aliens acted like the Covenant and just started bombing our planets without warning, then absolutely we would and should fight them. But if they were like the Vulcans and landed to have drinks with Zephram Cochrane, then no. I imagine we wouldn't just start shooting at them.

If we were an established power in the galaxy, then it would depend on the politics.

 

[lechat]

No. The fact is, unless we're talking about a wandering, dilapidated ship like the one in district 9, they don't need anything we have. If they found us, that means they have space travel far beyond ours. Our space travel is practically a box car compared to theirs, and as such, it's highly unlikely we have anything they haven't already got/done better. It'd most likely, be more trouble than it's worth to invade.

they may have mastered space travel but only be able to practically travel to the nearest world which is habitable. namely ours

imagine if you would that earth ran out of oil (very realistic) but suddenly we realized mars was jam packed full of the shit... only problem is the place is populated by a species that is a mix somewhere between forest gump and an intelligent bag of hammers
given human history how likely is it that we would just wipe the motherfuckers out and take their oil?

 

[Joccaren]

Personally, I would have to say yes, due to the fact that any alien life could pose a significant threat to our continued survival.

This is arguably why we would NOT fight them.
If their existence poses a threat to us, then there is a fair chance of them coming out on top in any war we enter into with them. Hence, starting a war in which they have a fair chance of winning is one of the stupidest things that could be done. Instead you'd try to be diplomatic and make peace with them, then use behind the scenes tactics like funding terrorist groups in their species to weaken them instead of outright going to war with them.

You can also consider it a game of chance. Before you start a war, there is a 50/50 chance that they pose a risk to us. After you start the war, there is a 100% chance they pose a threat to us. I know which one I'd prefer.

As for whether we would go to war with them, that would really depend on the aliens. Were they hostile or dictatorial, and attempted to threaten us or W/E, we'd probably go to war. Were they neutral, or diplomatic, we'd probably make peace. A lot of what would happen would come down to how first contact was established, which greatly increases our risk of death when we get to the private space travel stage, as some xenophobic moron could just attack the aliens because they're aliens, cause them to think we're an aggressive species, and have them start attacking us. You just gotta hope something like that doesn't happen, or that they're smart enough to know that even a small colony of us doesn't represent the whole.

 

[LetalisK]

Of course we will. That's what humanity does, goes to war with everything and anything. If we find aliens, we will without doubt start a war with them. Maybe not immediately, but it won't take long. As a species, we are violent as fuck.

That's ridiculous. We don't fight wars with animals. Or the environment. We fight wars with each other. We're not any more violent than most species and we're a good deal less so than most.

We don't fight wars with animals because that would imply the animals could effectively fight back. No, we've moved on to harvesting animals as a resource.

 

[Strazdas]

OF course we will. we will shoot first regardless of alien intentions. because we are humans, we kill everything that is different and scares us, and im pretty sure aliens wont be.... i cant even think of a thing humanity will not be scared of if aliens come in such form.

 

[jetriot]

Of course we will. That's what humanity does, goes to war with everything and anything. If we find aliens, we will without doubt start a war with them. Maybe not immediately, but it won't take long. As a species, we are violent as fuck.

That's ridiculous. We don't fight wars with animals. Or the environment. We fight wars with each other. We're not any more violent than most species and we're a good deal less so than most.

We don't fight wars with animals because that would imply the animals could effectively fight back. No, we've moved on to harvesting animals as a resource.

Deep shit right here.

 

[Mister K]

Well, if there will be a lot of oil on their planet, the USA will find the lack of democracy on it far too disturbing and will unleash their peace-carrying nukes.

Jokes aside, I think that at first our relationship would be peaceful and after some kind of disagreement we will have a few military conflicts, and then there will be a peace treaty. Nothing new.
Unless, they are the race of fight-thirsty conquerors, whose technology is far, FAR superiour the ours. Then we are screwed.

 

[The Thinker]

All right, you guys are all ragging on humans for being war-like and mean. Stop it! Some of my best friends are human! And, as far as I know, none of them have ever gotten into a war with anyone, let alone an alien species!

My answer: I'm going to assume, to be difficult, that by "we" you meant "the Escapist community". In which case, no. Except maybe in this "XCOM wars" thing I see hanging around my profile page.

 

[Abomination]

I imagine the more xenophobic nation they encounter first might determine how they treat us, or maybe they would take such things into consideration.

That being said, if an alien space faring race encountered us we would be in no position to fight them off - no matter what Hollywood has taught us.

If we were to encounter an alien race by virtue of mastering interstellar flight one hopes we did so by learning how to co-habitate with those different from us so we would have no incentive to attack a relatively primitive lifeform.

If - through sheer random luck - we encountered a space-capable race at the same time as us being space-capable then the variables are massive and it is impossible to predict.

 

[M920CAIN]

I sure hope so. I want to live the action of all the alien movies I've ever seen.

 

[chadachada123]

Depends on them, and depends which type of human they find first.

First contact happens to be with scientists? No war, good results, unless the other species is a war-based one.

First contact happens to be with soldiers? Good luck, humanity, you'll need it. Unless the aliens are better than we are, in which case, they'll cut us some slack instead of killing, raping, and enslaving our people.

 

[Abomination]

I sure hope so. I want to live the action of all the alien movies I've ever seen.

Yeah, the idea is they make first contact with people on the exact opposite end of the spectrum as to this poster.

 

[DkLnBr]

Will we declare war the instant we meet them? not sure, I suppose it has to do with a lot of variables. But will we declare war (or vise versa)with aliens at some point? Defiantly. call me jaded, but humanity has fought a war over just about everything at this point, and thats against a species we can already relate to. Its not hard to de-humanize and misinterpret customs of the squid monsters from Rigel 7

 

[Daverson]

No more likely than we'd be to go to war with each other... which unfortunately happens to be very likely.

 

[Froggy Slayer]

Why does everyone always seem to assume that humans are the worst species out there?

 

[spartan231490]

Of course we will. That's what humanity does, goes to war with everything and anything. If we find aliens, we will without doubt start a war with them. Maybe not immediately, but it won't take long. As a species, we are violent as fuck.

That's ridiculous. We don't fight wars with animals. Or the environment. We fight wars with each other. We're not any more violent than most species and we're a good deal less so than most.

We don't fight wars with the environment? That's your argument? How does that even make sense? And if you really want to make that argument, I'll point out the extermination of pests, the clear-cut logging in the rainforest, strip-mining, pollution, and a thousand other things humans have done to the environment as being pretty dang warlike, and certainly violent.

We don't fight wars with animals? Yeah, we do actually, it just doesn't seem like a war because they can't really fight back. We call it extermination. North American Timber Wolf, the American Bison, Eurasian Wolf(Sweden), Whales, Pests, the list goes on. We have exterminated dozens of animal species intentionally, I'd say we're pretty violent.


Really, really? We routinely exterminate large groups of our own species, what other species does that? Some primates. Seriously name one other species that is more violent than us. One.

 

[Yabba]

Unless this race has evolved beyond greed and selfishness, I think the same thing would happen with aliens and humans as when Columbus discovered the Americas and the natives.

 

[Froggy Slayer]

Really, really? We routinely exterminate large groups of our own species, what other species does that? Some primates. Seriously name one other species that is more violent than us. One.

Ants do. Many species of insect are very violent indeed, and if the had the same sentience quotient as us they'd probably appear extremely amoral at best. The only reason other species don't seem as violent as us is that they don't have the technology or the co-ordination to commit mass murder.