Aliens - Pets, Slaves, Or Equal Individuals?

Upon reading UnMature’s post entitled “Unadvanced Alien Civilizations”, I began to think what we’d make of these creatures…

Pets- Well, sure they aren’t attractive like a puppy or a dog…but lizards and reptiles aren’t exactly cute either… Never-the-less, if we capture aliens, would we view them as pets since they’d make good companions?

Slaves- If we managed to get our hands on some aliens, would we force them to carry out our everyday task because their strength could surpass ours?

Equal Individuals- Would aliens be seen as equal individuals to us? I’m not sure how to elaborate on this one…

What do you think we’d do with unadvanced aliens? Manipulate them? Treat them as Equals?

I think, none of your statements refer to an alien-human relationship. They are better than humans, we can't enslave an alien!!

The aliens are better than humans? Well...I was referring to the possibility that they were unadvaced...like less advanced than humans.

i think wed treat them as one of our own and possibly help them out in advancing their civilization.

Wouldn't the humans downplay the fact that they are different? At one time or another, every race has been enslaved to some extent by another. Why would aliens be any different?

How have we treated new peoples throughout history? Figure that out and you'll have your answer.

If we've treated other human beings like slaves or subhuman, imagine what it'd be like with another species/life form. However, we may be so intimidated by them that we act normal and treat them with respect. Who knows? It'd surely be a life changing experience.

So, I'd hope that we'd treat them as equal individuals.

[edit on 1-3-2005 by _Anubis_]

If you mean by us going to their world and finding them less advanced than us then surely they wouldnt be well treated. I mean most would treat them fairly if there wasnt any hostile activity going on but youd have your usual bullies or whatever you want to call them, who take advantage of them and such.

These days? I'm not so sure. Modern society prides itself on being more "enlightened." Some groups of people, I would say that's true. With groups like PETA, I find it entirely plausible that some groups would gladly work with these lesser advanced civilizations to help "enlighten" them in anyway that they can. However, groups like "Focus on the Family" make me think that we'll set off the new Crusades. That's scary. That's not to say that I like or endorse PETA. I don't, and in fact, disagree with them on many issues, but there are many groups of people who I'm certain could look at such a civilization without prejudice.

You would think the truth would be closer to.......
Humans: Slaves, pets, equals or food....or just funny looking balding apes?
Hmmm....maybe you could have a very rudimentary discussion at a very basic level with the upright walking Ape....but it doesn't help that the Human brain is a sweet tasting delicacy, much desired on the outer planets of the blllzzzzttteewww star system.

The main thing that would determine how a less advanced civilization would be treated by Humans is the following(at this point in time):

What would we have to gain by dominating this culture?

If by swiftly treading over these beings we would gain something of a strategic military or industrial importance, the powers that be would do so in a moments notice.

If there was nothing to really gain, then the powers that be may make the case that it is not "cost effective" to interact with these beings on a peaceful level.

That's the way it would be handled currently, sad as that is.


Now, that's not to say that "looks can be decieving" and we could see something we take as a primative race, try to dominate it, and find ourselves in a giant mess of hurt. That could happen if we came across a civilization that did not choose to use technology in a manner similar to how we do.

On our current timeline, with our realatively "young" cosmic nature, this is les likely to be the case(excluding the single/simple celled life we will soon acknowledge on mars).

We are currently much more likely to have an advanced race come knocking on our door.

If that happens, we can only hope they do not have a humanistic viewpoint when meeting with us.

X

I think us being human and all we would take advantage of the situation and make them are slaves ( or vary posibly food ).


[edit on 1-3-2005 by Alien Life Form]

If an advanced race came knocking at our door, would it be the same if we reversed this thread?

That is to say- are Aliens (Or what every creatures), thinking the same thing as us? Could they be thinking we'd make good potential pets or slaves? A very haunting concept (to me at least).