Why do we assume UFO/Aliens are always hostile?

[Joccaren]

Uhh, we don't?
Ever seen E.T?
Its one of a number of movies where aliens aren't hostile towards us. Why don't we see these as often?
They tend to be slower paced and more thought provoking as opposed to what it is assumed people want to see these days - the latest Michael Bay flick with things dying and explosions everywhere, and in those cases its easy to put in aliens as the antagonist because for all intents and purposes they don't exist. You don't risk offending anyone by making aliens the antagonist, and can basically do what you want with them with no complaints.
Also keep in mind that in most of even these movies there's still a good faction of aliens that are on our side to fight against the evil ones, so really its only in movies like independence day and that that aliens are purely hostile. Its really not as common as you might think.

 

[someonehairy-ish]

The reason that that is the popular portrayal is because any action oriented film needs an antagonist. Aliens are a good suggestion to be antagonists because they represent the unknown, which is scary and also because its easy to justify killing them. If you have a human faction as the antagonist there will always be some moral implications about killing them, unless you spend a lot of screen-time establishing just how evil they are first.
I personally think that if aliens wanted to wipe us out, they wouldn't come in person. They'd use missiles with pre-programmed targets to wipe out major population centers, or send in unmanned military vehicles. If they've got the tech to cross that distance of space, they'd probably also have the tech to wipe us out without ever needing to set foot on Earth.

If they aren't hostile, we wouldn't ever see them. What'd be the point of expending the resources required to travel huge distances just to visit the interstellar equivalent of a stone-age tribe in the heart of the amazon. Hostile aliens make sense because we have something they want, be it resources or prey or whatever.

That doesn't make a lot of sense. Unless they've managed to slaughter all the prey spcies on their home planet, they aren't going to trek across space for some. Also how would they know that any earth lifeforms are compatible with their biology, we could all be poisonous or indigestible to them.
Also there's no reason to assume we'd be quite so laughably outmatched. Interstellar travel would be quite easy for a species with a natural ability to go into cryostatis. That's not an impossible thing; some earth species can do it. Or they could just be a space-resistant species in the first place. Again, not completely impossible, something that had developed in low atmosphere environment would be more robust and more able to adapt to a vacuum, so their spaceships wouldn't have to be quite so advanced in order to compensate for physical frailty.

There's not much incentive for aliens to visit except for curiosity. If they saw us as a threat, well, read what I said above. Raw resources like metals, minerals, energy and water can be gathered more easily.

 

[O maestre]

well look at our own history, rarely do advanced settlers or explorers actually end up having a jolly good time with the natives. everytime a more advanced culture has met with a native population it has lead to nasty stuff like war, slavery, disease, genocide and exploitation

there are very few instances of benevolent results from the earthly "white mans burden" one can only horror at the consequences of a galactic "grey mans burden"

then again aliens may be completely different from us and not be assholes.... but who is going to take that chance? regardless when our alien overlords arrive ill be the amongst those going "yes massa" and spit shining space boots

 

[beastro]

Well look at colonization of the new world (North America) and Africa.

Native attempted a peaceful stance that only ended in them being mowed over. The Europeans needed more resources and it is more beneficial to just wipe them all out, so there would be no one left to stop them from taking all the resources. The only case they wouldn't destroy life for the resources would be the event humanity just gave up and entered a life of slavery.

Really they wouldn't have anything to gain by living side-by-side with the local life. See how the colonization of Africa went and how the Africans rose against them. It left several dead and because we left them with a weapons from an age ahead of them Africa just fell apart. Nobody, not even us, would win if they came with honest open arms.

If aliens want resources then invading an inhabited planet, especially this one, is the last thing they'd do.

Why spend so much trying to drag Earths resources out of our gravity well when there's a galaxy full of asteroids, moons and planetoids with little to no gravity to have to struggle against?

 

[Carnagath]

Because of the only thing that is constant around the universe: Evolution. This is the law for every planet that can support life. Evolution is nothing more than constant war. The stronger exterminate the weaker and they survive. There can be no higher intelligence born without establishing themselves as the prime species on their planet first. Evolutionary struggle is "in the DNA" of every living species. So, there are no alien benevolent fairies. They have fought to get where they are, and they will be at least cautious towards us. Of course, we are such a "recent development" in the history of the universe, that we most likely do not matter at all. A civilization that has been colonizing space for the last billion + years probably wouldn't even consider us intelligent. A really advanced civilization has definitely even abolished their organic form in favor of an immortal "mechanical" (or similar) form. We are just rolling around in dirt. There is no reason to be hostile towards a species that is infinitely primitive compared to you. So, I believe if we ever contact such a civilization, they will be indifferent towards us. Maybe we already have, and they just can't be bothered to reply back to us.

 

[V8 Ninja]

I would guess that we assume that because most non-plant organisms on Earth are inherently hostile. The food chain reigns supreme, and if a single species was able to construct a spaceship and travel hundreds of light-years away from their home planet then that species is clearly at the top of the food chain.

 

[Twilight_guy]

We assume alines will be like us, just more advanced and looking different. Still, we assume culturally they will somehow be similar to us. It's mostly because humans can't properly comprehend the concept of completely alien, we have to relate it back to ourselves somehow. As humans, we are violent and short sighted. If we see something different we often try to destroy it. We project those ideas onto the concept of aliens and assume that they will try to destroy us. Also, the idea of alines as a monster plays on the emotional fear of something completely foreign, unknowable and hostile. (also, fear of foreigners).

 

[SadisticFire]

Well evolutionary speakin' you notice how herbivores arn't that intelligent, and not as aggressive as say, any large predator?(Most of them) That's because they don't need to be aggressive, plants don't fight back that much. While predators need to be aggressive to eat other animals, because animals fight back. In fact, it's unlikely that a species from da' sky to be friendly, it just wouldn't make much sense. It would require more energy to get food.

 

[Jenvas1306]

well...
Humans are assholes, we hate what is different from us. If we had the technology we would probably fail to even consider we are doing wrong by destroying less developed civilisations. We already have so little mercy or sympathy with our own species, how should we get along with something compleetly different?.
Think of us how humans are in the 'In a Mirror darkly' episodes from startrek.

On the other hand, as human beings we have the option to act wise, mercyful and be more than just evolved apes, but thats the way that takes more effort.

 

[TheTim]

I would rather assume them hostile and find out they're not, then assume they're friendly only to find out they have some extermination plan for humanity.

 

[someonehairy-ish]

Snippety snip

predator

So you're saying they'd hunt us for sport?

Or is that an accusation >.>

 

[MorganL4]

1. Aliens are a good target as they are foreign and there is no morality attached to killing them

2. Because we assume aliens act like we do.

My hope is that if a race develops interstellar travel, they will have advanced enough to see how senseless killing one another over things like land, religion, and resources is.

 

[vxicepickxv]

Any race that is sufficiently advanced to come to this backwater part of the universe wants resources, and might not care how it acquires them. This would be especially true if the initial gatherings of information came from a form of AI, which is the simplest system to creating a ship capable of interstellar travel.

 

[Fenra]

When it comes to media, they are the ultimate blank slate, we know nothing about them, therefore if you want a blank, faceless threat they are ideal

 

[Yopaz]

Let's see what have been the result of exploring and finding a new human culture in the past? Have we been friendly towards the new humans that are so different in language and culture?

Our default setting seems to be on annihilate and/or enslave these people. Why should our setting be different towards aliens?

 

[AgentG]

Well look at it this way, even if you're from an advanced alien species most likely you're exploring space for more resources or space to spread your species out. Now if it's a war like species then of course they would attack to take over what others have. If it's a scientific type of aliens they would want knowledge now can you honestly say that a race that has mastered space flight would see any scientific knowledge in a planet like ours? They would take one look and go elsewhere.

Now as for the benevolent aliens species they would most likely have rules to forbid in messing with lesser races so again we would be ignored.

Plus let's just say we are the aliens in this and we mastered space flight, we find a world filled with turmoil that the resident species can't even get along with each other, had messed up the planet and most likely would react negatively to the arrival of aliens on their world...would you want to go there? If there are aliens we would seem like a backwards planet not really fit for contact just yet. So the only ones that would come here is that we got something they want, now you can deal with the possibly harmful natives or just wipe them out and take what you want if you wanted to be just logical about it.

A good case of this was done in the movie Explorers (from 1985 hard to find but a good classic) when the aliens see Earth's programing and although they see the good side to earth they also see our darker nature and don't want to just show up on Earth's doorstep.


Again the very term 'alien' means something that is completely foreign to us which leads to what someone said about aliens not thinking like we do. The odds are they wouldn't have the same values and ethics or even the way they see things logically would be different by that very term so there is no telling how they would react as well.


Plus lets face it, a lot of entertaining things can be done with the hostile alien films for those that love action and explosions and violence such as The Thing, Independence Day (guilty pleasure) hell even Avatar the blue aliens were kind of xenophobic to other races when you think about it, then there's also the Aliens and Predator films, Attack the Block.

They just seem to make more than say E.T., Flight of the Navigator, Explorers, Cocoon, etc.

 

[shrekfan246]

1. Aliens are a good target as they are foreign and there is no morality attached to killing them

2. Because we assume aliens act like we do.

So you think if humans ever could develop the technology to travel space and find other race, you assume the first thing in our mind is to destroy what we find?

Looking at the history I would assume we would exploit the resources if we can. After that happens the integration between the 2 populations and after that starts either the separation or mutual beneficial work.

There are very few civilizations that have been completely wiped out. Without ANY traces of the population left. Incas, Mayas and Aztecs civilization got destroyed but the population integrated to the new population or created new native population.
And yes I know there are some really mysterious disappearance of !civilizations! Olmecs, Nabateans, Aksumite Empire, Mycenaeans, Minoans... Etc. There is only proof of their civilization being destroyed, but no traces of what happened to the population.

Uh... so you don't remember what the European colonists did to the Native Americans when they began settling in North America? Oh, sure, they haven't been completely eradicated, but they're still by and large treated like second-class citizens, which is 'funny' when you consider that we were the ones who pushed them off of the land they were already settled upon.

Also, there are many, many, many different portrayals of aliens in pop-culture, some evil, some indifferent, some friendly, and saying that anything is a 'default' assumption is a bit silly and presumptuous. Not to mention that actual aliens could completely blow our minds in how they act, because for all of our portrayals of them, we still typically tie them back to how we, humans, act.

 

[2xDouble]

Obviously the OP has ever watched Star Trek.

Like any "intelligent" (human) species, there are hostile aliens and non-hostile aliens.

We, as a survivalist culture, must assume that something unknown (and obviously powerful) must be dangerous until properly identified. That's just common sense. (You wouldn't go into a chemistry lab and drink something out of a beaker because it looked like juice, would you?)