Just a quick thought

Maybe violence isn't in an aliens nature? I'm nowhere near a pacifist. But if aliens have been around for a while now or have visited, don't you think they would have done some sort of damage? Humans by nature are extremely violent otherwise we wouldn't be on top of the food chain. At the end of the day whether we're humans in society or a wolf in the wild its all still survival of the fittest. I also would like to note that for the universe itself is complete chaos and destruction. But perhaps violence isnt necessary to survive where aliens are from?

a reply to: RexPlex

Violence is not natural it is caused by resource scarcity or the artificial feeling of such.

When you have enough resources for everyone what reason is there to be violent?

a reply to: RexPlex

Violence isn't what propelled humanity to the top of the food chain. It was ingenuity, intelligence and the Grays from Zeta Reticuli (joke). How about I drop you in the middle of the jungles of Africa or S. America and see how your human violence stacks up against the violence of the rest of the animal kingdom?

It's a fair point though, are aliens pacifists? I suppose at the moment we have to assume they are because we are still scratching around on this pale blue dot. But there are assumptions abound when discussing this kind of topic and nobody can be proven right until they arrive and we discover if they are firing doves of peace or lasers of war. Part of me hopes for the lasers, they make for a better show.

a reply to: RexPlex

Maybe it's not where 'They' are coming from, but perhaps it is! Maybe that's why they have left their world to seek other places to live that do Not Have Violence! Another passing thought, eh?

S+F for You Rex!

a reply to: RexPlex

Violence should be a last resort, not an initial reaction.
Humans aren't inherently violent. Mankind is.

originally posted by: RexPlex
Maybe violence isn't in an aliens nature? I'm nowhere near a pacifist. But if aliens have been around for a while now or have visited, don't you think they would have done some sort of damage?

If aliens have watched the TV show "UFO" from a distance, then they would know to keep their distance from us. In one episode the alien was being friendly and saved the human's life, but they killed the alien anyway. In fact all the humans did was shoot aliens first and ask questions later.

Only half-joking about that, but the half serious part is our entertainment does portray violence toward aliens.

If you want to project the demeanor of aliens, it's hard to do without human bias since we are all humans, but I suspect alien attitudes could be quite diverse even within a species, and even more diverse when considering various species, so if my guess is if alien intelligence is at all abundant, it probably spans the gamut from completely non-violent to extremely violent and everything in between.

Any sane intelligent species would not entertain violence. The only reason we have violence on this earth is because of greed!
The greedy have set up a system that enables them to profit from violence, just look at the arms industry!

Violent or not, could you ever trust something so secretive?

I couldn't. Whatever they're doing here cannot be good. You should always question the motives of anyone or anything that works in the shadows.

a reply to: RexPlex


Violence is and always has been a key element of any life form. It is a survival tactic even to eating your own young if necessary. The way out of this animal trap of ours is to foster a brand of consciousness that makes a mockery of what the average person today calls consciousness.

Contrary to what you suggest about "enough resources," in today's world political philosophies are more key to violence than not enough water or bread.

a reply to: RexPlex

I think violence is a trait not only in humans but other animals as well.

The fight or Flight response.

The other thing to consider is the age of a civilization. A civilization that is a thousand / hundreds of thousands / million or billion years ahead of us may be completely peaceful with very high moral codes / standards. They make think we are backwards because of what we do, how we treat each other, the planet etc. Just because they are extremely high in the moral realm does not mean they did not act as humans did during their course of evolution / advancement.

originally posted by: RexPlex
But perhaps violence isnt necessary to survive where aliens are from?

There's a difference between "violence" and "aggression." Violence has a negative connotation, and is associated in some way with destruction. A less judgmental word is aggression, which involves taking strong actions to take, protect, or defend something.

We're a successful species because we are smart enough to figure out new ways to be aggressive. Sometimes that entails violence, but not always.

Aliens and violence is a very interesting subject and their are many facets to consider.

Are they violent towards each other? What role does violence and exertion of military or personal prowess play in their society?

Like many, I'd like to think that the violent races tend to kill themselves off before they ever become an interstellar society, but that requires a lot of assumptions we just can't make. There can be violence with out emotion. Violence could be a natural way an alien society establishes and maintains a strict hierarchy. Or, they could be like humans, where violence is often fueled by emotion and (often less than rational" beliefs.

There is also another wrinkle to consider. We do a lot of things to animals, whether for research, production of food, or just so someone can feel powerful, that would clearly be considered an act of unacceptable violence if directed at another human. Even humane studies, like tag and release, involve what would be considered abduction and assault if carried out in the same manner vs. another human. When I swat a mosquito, do I do so as an act of violence? Or is the mosquito considered so beneath me that death for the mosquito is just the most convenient solution for the nuisance and threat of disease or discomfort the mosquito represents?

We love to think of ourselves as a step or two above all other life, and that that bestows the right to do what ever we want to lesser species when it comes to addressing our wants and needs. It isn't too far a reach to think that some aliens may look at us the same way we look at animals, even those that show some degree of sentience. Some may even look upon us as being as insignificant as insects are to us. They may not bear us malice and they may even make some effort not to trample us too badly as they go about their business, but they may kill us just as we would kill a mosquito for being too much of a nuisance or posing some even very limited minor threat to their being or agenda.

The point is that their sense of morality may be very different than ours, or they could be very moral when dealing with their own kind, but see us in the same way we see "lesser" beings.

A good point is made about resources and violence. It seems that most of the resources on a habitable planet are as easy or easier to mine or gather from asteroids, comets, moons or uninhabited worlds than from an inhabited planet. That is, of course, unless the life itself is the resource they wish to gather. Or, the real estate itself is the resource for desired for a species colonizing the local patch of the galaxy.

I can see aliens harvesting our planet of some of it's lifeforms and humans being injured or killed incidentally as often happens to animals in our world, in the name of development. Of course, some could view us like we view animals we slaughter for food. We could be just one of the lifeforms an alien race would fill their freezers with when making a stop to refill their pantry.

If they are culturally and morally more advanced than us, they may be determined to do us no harm, no matter how primitive we seem in comparison; or, they may have a code of "humane treatment" for lesser beings in the same way we carry out "humane" research on animals or slaughter them humanely.

I think the more common sentient and space fairing races are in the galaxy, the better our prospects when encountering extraterrestrials. If they have to have codes for existing alongside other space faring species, then their is a good chance that the more morally and spiritually advanced species have, to some degree, forced the others to accept laws and regulations for dealing with primitives that try to guarantee us at least humane treatment and protect us from being colonized over.

Of course, not all humans respect laws meant to protect lesser and endangered species, so we can't count on a lack of rogue aliens bucking treaties and conventions to do us harm, unless visitation by many species is so common that they just couldn't get away with it.

a reply to: Totemic

To them either we ARE or we ARENT, they do not think like we do,if they do not want us around then they simply remove us,it is that simple.

This is why the Governments want data,so they can fight back if anyone decides they dont want us here anymore.

This is why we MUST disenfranchise the filthy few people who are collectively destroying our Planet and Humanitys future,these people will get us annihalated if we do not stop them IMMEDIATLY.

We have nothing to defend against,if we were not wanted we would already be GONE BABY GONE.

TPTB on Earth do NOT WANT people to realise how POWERLESS they really are,for goodness sakes other races have FREELY GIVEN high level technology far above and beyond the governments,many times,they are TRYING to help us decide to stop the ravaging these filthy few are doing to all of us and to the Planet.

Why would they give tech to THE REGULAR PEOPLE but WITHHOLD it from Governments and Militarys?

Because they are trying to enable us so we can have a level playing field,this is why TPTB kill people every day to suppress this truth.

Humanity is being HELPED,and TPTB are NOT being helped they are being HINDERED,this dynamic tells the entire story.

These races RECOGNISE Humanity as being SEPERATE from TPTB and they UNDERSTAND we are fighting an INNER battle,it is a GROWING PHASE WE MUST MAKE IT THROUGH, Humanity only becomes better when TPTB are removed forever.

Anyone can see how peacefull and progressive Humanity would be if artificial dynamics of resource scarcity were not thrust upon us in Global cycles.

The real battle is to destroy TPTB,to create openness and transparancy on a GLOBAL level,to BRING HUMANITY TOGETHER AS ONE FUNCTIONING GROUP.

No borders,no conflicts,no regression,no wars no resource scarcity,no diseases,this IS EASILY ACCOMPLISHED once the FILTHY FEW ULTRA-RICH ARE REMOVED FROM POWER.But WE THE PEOPLE MUST DO THIS,this is a Humanitarian Growth phase we must get through.

There are cases in which UFO/Aliens have presented with malice.

UFO attacks on humans - Tragic Consequences Documented

Then there was the story of the family being terrorized by little men - The Kelly-Hopkinsville Encounter

Perhaps Travis Walton was returned to tell his story on what happens if you interfere with UFO's and their surveillance of their earth study initiative? Travis Walton Abduction Case

There has also been interference by UFO's with our weapons and aircraft.
malmstrom AFB Missle/UFO Incident

Violence is present with UFO/Alien cases. It's not all - sunshine and roses - as some UFO cults would have you believe, imo.

ETA - Welcome to ATS RexPlex!

~ Cirque

Most violence is a result of some sort of prejudice, at least in the early stages of humanity. Now some modern wars are resource related. Considering interstellar species have unlimited reources it's reasonable to assume that they have no need for conflict. It's also reasonable to assume that they can reproduce highly intelligent and "perfect" beings using genetic engineering of some sort, thus eliminating all forms of crime and evil. Also, since they are likely to understand much of the universe and its creation, they probably have few differences with regard to religion, something that also creates many wars on Earth.

Most of the people around the world made a bad image about the aliens,describing them as beeing littles,with big eyes and grey or green skin with big heads and a very high intelligence,wanting to exterminate our popullation and to exploit our resources.The part with exterminating us and to exploit our resources is just a subject for movies.Aliens study us and i think that they consider us a perfect species to populate other planets,that is why they abducting peoples.I also believe that our intelligence was influenced by them because researchers found out that there is missing part in our human history,a period of 30.000 years in which our brain growed up incredibly fast,something that other species couldnt make it in million years.
So,we are a project,an achievement for aliens and now they watch us growing and sometimes they help us whitout knowing this,correcting our mistakes and they hope us to become almost perfect like them.... .

a reply to: RexPlex

Perhaps humans are food animals.

if such a scenario applies then neither agression nor violence applies. ...

We can't assume that we understand the mind or motivation of 'the other'.

KPB