Why we DO NOT want contact

Originally posted by wisintel
sources.... I imagine there are incredibly easier ways to get these resources rather than destroying an intelligently inhabited planet. There is enough raw material in the oort cloud to make 1000 earths. If these alien civilizations came to our solar system looking for resources they most likely wouldn't make it past the asteroid belt.

Correct, Earth has no particular value for mineral resources, and presents an undesirable gravity well.

On the other hand, Earth could be very valuable for biological resources.

In conclusion, the idea that contact with an intelligent space faring civilization would somehow mean the end of our civilization is ludicrous. It is Hollywood driven imagining. When you think about it critically there is absolutely no logical reason for another civilization to wipe us out.

No, there can be logical reasons, most importantly, eliminating a potential rival before they have the opportunity to challenge you. However, that would probably happen if we should get significantly more powerful. If we were to achieve that condition, there could be political questions in others whether it would be better to try to ally with us or to eliminate us.

At present the value of our potential biological resources outweigh our dangers to others off-planet.

Note that eliminating us is very easy: gravitational control + asteroids = Weapon Of Civilizational Extinction.

reply to post by mbkennel


I have to reply to this even though noone may ever read it. When you stop to think about the vastness of the cosmos. There are in the visible universe, a billion billion galaxies each containing a billion billion stars. Why would any civilization ever need to compete for anything.

We could never be a "rival". I would argue that you aren't thinking big enough. The ideas of rivalry and competition are only relavant to scarcity based society. When you start thinking in the terms of civilizations that have access to the cosmos, scarcity isn't even in the vocabulary anymore.

Once we on earth get to the point that we are able to access the resources of our own solar system, our society will move past the scarcity paradigm and the only resources that will truly hold value will be knowledge and infomation.