Problems with a Human/Alien society.

[the spud]

Is one species legitimatley better than the the other? Greater than less than, man. If they were pretty much interchangeable, I think we could work it out somehow.

 

[Iron Lightning]

If there was to be a society were Humans and another Alien race in the future, lets say 200 years, what problems would be encountered along the way? The one problem that comes to my mind is that when both Human and Alien children go to the same school they would have to learn each others history and other things. It is hard enough learning about my races history, it would be bloody difficult to learn another races history. What other problems to you guys/gals think would happen?

Bad question, you define absolutely nothing about our hypothetical alien brethren. Are we talking nigh-incomprehensible cthulhuoids, newly discovered primitives, or just those Star Trek aliens that you couldn't tell apart from a human if they just wore large hats?

In all likelihood we'd find no common ground whatsoever with species from another planet. We barely share any characteristics with different species from our own damn planet. So, I guess the most likely scenario is that the biggest problem with a human/alien society would be our mutual incompatibility quickly dissolving said society.

 

[5mj7R7yf4Dwr3gdZyyu9PeGNwYjlNrjzuh3iTXQG]

Atheists on earth are a one digit [percentage], they're very small.

Except not. If you count only those who personally identify as atheist, maybe, but plenty of freethinker types don't, yet aren't particular to the idea of a sentient supreme being, let alone one aware of human affairs. The numbers of irreligious [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irreligion], however, are quite significant[footnote]At least in those places we can get accurate numbers, which is difficult where a state religion is established. Also, it depends on how you determine such numbers; churches tend to overestimate the sizes of their parishes, so by adding them together and subtracting from the census, you'll get high religiosity figures.[/footnote]

As for integrating with alien allies, it probably wouldn't happen until we homogenized our cultures as much as we could.[footnote]Provided integration is physically possible. It's likely we'd breath completely different mixtures, if not different mediums. Almost certainly, one of us would have to wear environment suits whenever visiting the other.[/footnote]

But that would be a long time coming. More likely, the higher tech civilization would wipe out the lower tech one through disease and warfare (since that's what commonly happens Earthside, between human civilizations.). If we're nice, after we stomp them out, we'll engineer a cuter, more human-compatible version of their species to use as pets, sex slaves or industrial workers.[footnote]That is, if they're cheaper than robots for any of these purposes.[/footnote]

So H. G. Wells had it right the first time.

238U.
EDIT: Fixed markup. And spelling. And homophones.

 

[frizzlebyte]

I think the single most important issue would be trust. We've produced so much fiction where the aliens are bent on killing us, humans would have to get over the negative cultural tropes.

 

[Dalek Caan]

If there was to be a society were Humans and another Alien race in the future, lets say 200 years, what problems would be encountered along the way? The one problem that comes to my mind is that when both Human and Alien children go to the same school they would have to learn each others history and other things. It is hard enough learning about my races history, it would be bloody difficult to learn another races history. What other problems to you guys/gals think would happen?

Bad question, you define absolutely nothing about our hypothetical alien brethren. Are we talking nigh-incomprehensible cthulhuoids, newly discovered primitives, or just those Star Trek aliens that you couldn't tell apart from a human if they just wore large hats?

In all likelihood we'd find no common ground whatsoever with species from another planet. We barely share any characteristics with different species from our own damn planet. So, I guess the most likely scenario is that the biggest problem with a human/alien society would be our mutual incompatibility quickly dissolving said society.

Lets say its a species that at the same time as Mankind is also discovering space faring and colonizing of planets.

 

[Twilight_guy]

Cultural friction. Alien and human society has a completely different cultures. We kill each other over which god we believe in what do you think happens when an alien with a completely different comes around. Mass effect has a thin clock for racism for a reason, cultural friction would exist and it does cause racism and hate.

Aside from that, if the aliens aren't humanoid carbon based oxygen breathers they may need special facilities to live and survive and that may cause problems and isolate the two of us.

The religious Humans and Aliens may do that but what about the atheist ones? Maybe we will all come together and bugger of to another planet to live in peace. Also if hey did breath a different type of air then they could wear tanks on their backs like grunts from halo and they would need to visit a special station to top up on their air. Humans would need to do the same on alien planets. Lets not forget that maybe 200 years in the we could surgically altar ourselves to breath both types of air.

Religion is one component of culture. With a completely alien culture our attempts to greet them, could be perceived as an act of war (or the opposite their attempts to greet us could be perceived as an act of war). Misunderstandings due to cultural differences are common today among humans that share the same planet and have for thousands of years. They could easily occur between different species.
I'm not saying that their will be problems I'm just saying what I think could happen and possible problems that could arise. Nobody really knows what will happen if or when we discover other life in the universe. (Also do you really think that all atheists would just get along universally?. Not believing in any particular religion does not automatically make every atheist think in the same way or agree on other important matters).

 

[spartan231490]

If there was to be a society were Humans and another Alien race in the future, lets say 200 years, what problems would be encountered along the way? The one problem that comes to my mind is that when both Human and Alien children go to the same school they would have to learn each others history and other things. It is hard enough learning about my races history, it would be bloody difficult to learn another races history. What other problems to you guys/gals think would happen?

This is the problem that would occur: We would try to kill their men, rape their women, and pillage their land. It's what humanity has done every time two races have met in the past. Europeans have 1-4% neanderthal dna, but no neanderthal remains have been found with any homo sapien dna. Why? because cro magnon was better at those things. It's what we do.

 

[Iron Lightning]

If there was to be a society were Humans and another Alien race in the future, lets say 200 years, what problems would be encountered along the way? The one problem that comes to my mind is that when both Human and Alien children go to the same school they would have to learn each others history and other things. It is hard enough learning about my races history, it would be bloody difficult to learn another races history. What other problems to you guys/gals think would happen?

Bad question, you define absolutely nothing about our hypothetical alien brethren. Are we talking nigh-incomprehensible cthulhuoids, newly discovered primitives, or just those Star Trek aliens that you couldn't tell apart from a human if they just wore large hats?

In all likelihood we'd find no common ground whatsoever with species from another planet. We barely share any characteristics with different species from our own damn planet. So, I guess the most likely scenario is that the biggest problem with a human/alien society would be our mutual incompatibility quickly dissolving said society.

Lets say its a species that at the same time as Mankind is also discovering space faring and colonizing of planets.

Then my answer remains the same. The aliens' level of technological development has little effect on their base nature. Humanity is still very much the same animal that it was in hunter/gatherer societies. I still expect that we will be utterly incompatible and will keep to ourselves if not simply war with each other.

 

[Kenko]

It'll slowly go down the path of modern multiculturalism and violence and such will ensue. If different races, religion and ethnicities need their own living space for things to be peaceful. Same thing will be needed with aliens, so unless someone is willing to give up land for them I do not see this working.

 

[Doclector]

Well.

We'd go ape s*** and start killing them. Then they'd either destroy us or run for their lives and pray we never find them.

Humanity hardly has a good track record with tolerance and understanding.

 

[Zacharious-khan]

main problem is humans are dicks, second problem is mass effect 1 and 2, all the stuff that happened with humans and aliens there.