The aliens we DON'T want to meet

snowspirit
Some aliens might just be very curious explorers. Scientific minds, with zero empathy for what is alien to them.
Wanting to study us, the way people studied animals decades ago, with the weird belief that we don't feel pain, or that it doesn't matter if we do.

I believevthis to be the more logical scenario. And I believe indifference is the word, as it coincides with the abduction phenomena and hybridization program. Hence the cover up on a world wide scale. Because our government's are powerless to stop it. Very well are complicit with the Alien agenda, but its neither a good or bad scenario. We just so happen to be lower on the totem. And that does not bode well with many. Im over it. ITS OK its been going on for eons anyway. At least they return the subject intact usually.

I've always been of two minds on E.T. contact. On one hand I want it because of the potential gains in technology and culture. Proof we aren't the only sentient species, and just the general things we all hope for that it would bring.

The much larger part of me has always suspected any contact with spacefaring E.T.'s is not going to go well for us. A lot of people assume that being able to travel the stars means you don't need resources, or you have eliminated violence from your species, or you only want peace. They assume that only humans could be so aggressive, that they are out there but avoid us because we might nuke ourselves.

I say that's a bunch of crap. The only thing we can reliably base our assumptions on is our own measure of sentience. As the species at the top of the food chain on Earth, we know we got to it through a combination of intelligence, reasoning, physical dexterity and biological resilience, bipedal movement and our raw, unadulterated ability to destroy anything that we perceive as a threat - or anything that has something we want.

Why did we really go to the moon? Well, as Neil Tyson is fond of reminding us, it's because we were in the potential for war, and the Soviet Union had the advantage. Why will we, eventually, go to another planet in our solar system? It'll be because of resource contention and/or strategic gains. We'll only commit mass resources like that to gain more resources.

Now that's our measure of sentient life as we know it. Oh, I know, you're all balking and thinking about our many noble pursuits. Our love of family and friends, and regard for life. And we are making strides in being a better species, sort of, but we still are predators at our core.

If that's what it took for us to get to the top, it's a far more reasonable expectation that any other intelligent species was similar. Suddenly having access to huge amounts of resources doesn't mean you somehow give up your base instincts. When people from Europe came to "the new world" they had access to all sorts of new resources...that they proceeded to obtain by the systematic suppression of indigenous people.

Could there be benevolent species out there? That have mastered interstellar travel and wish us no harm? There could very well be, but if so they probably do avoid us. If there has indeed been real contact already, which I suspect, I doubt it's been good. If these E.T.'s showed up with the power to help us solve our problems and fix us, they wouldn't need to hide in the shadows brokering deals with government entities to do so. Not that we're getting any better here anyways. I suppose it could be some Prime Directive-ish thing.

Nope. The sad reality, for me, is that as much as I want us to encounter extraterrestrial life: I'm fairly certain we're better off not, at least for the time being.

And yet, I say all this, but I still hope...

I like Carl Sagan's thoughts on this matter. If you read or watch Contact, I can see a situation similar to that playing out. I doubtit would come as a radio signal though. The ideal location for contact to be made would be a sterile neutral zone, like the moon for instance, and it would be wild.

I agree that the cost of an alien invasion is not worth the trouble. If contact were ever made at all it would likely be peaceful. Most likely though they would just study our development, UNLESS they had a hand in our development. They may have a vested interest in us, for whatever reason.

PS,

How sure are we that an Andromeda strain type situation would actually play out? Here on Earth its pretty rare to catch a disease from another species of animal.

reply to post by ForteanOrg

ForteanOrg
It is entirely possible that another type of being evolved on this planet and reached levels of civilisation we can't even start to imagine. They may have left the planet a long time ago. We would have no memories of them, as our species probably would not even have existed in their days. And their buildings, machines, cities and other creations we fail to understand may all have eroded away. We have this crazy belief that "older civilisations" would leave traces - but maybe they simply did not fancy or see the need for huge monuments or stone buildings. Look at us: if our species would leave the planet (or be extinguished, whatever), I guess a few hundred thousands of years would suffice to erase any trace of us.

Of course, the possibility does exist but it's extremely unlikely that it actually did happen, and at least to my knowledge; there is no evidence to support the theory that another species has ever reached the point of establishing even a primitive civilization other than ourselves. After all, they would have to start somewhere and somehow and we find traces of our own beginnings all over the place.

Most likely, if another civilization ever was established by another species hundreds of thousands or even millions of years ago, we would find either fossilized artifacts, the remains of their ancestors or some other trace of them. Especially considering that the fossil record of living organisms reach almost all the way back to the very beginning of life on Earth.

Not to mention, that if this hypothetical civilization and species went extinct in an ancient mass-extinction event by either natural forces or global warfare; we would most certainly find traces of them considering that there would be bodies all over the place just laying around. And one would imagine that at least one or a few of these corpses would eventually become fossilized.

I have a hard time believing that if humanity went extinct somehow, even if the majority of our civilization eroded over hundreds of thousand or even millions of years, there would be no traces of our species. The only possibility in that case in my opinion would be if Earth simply exploded into dust or if the sun would become so hot that it turned the entire planet into ashes, which won't happen, according to scientists, for at least 5 billion years from the present.

But it is an interesting idea.

reply to post by JayinAR


re: the Andromeda strain, that makes me recall the story about the super wierd disease called "Morgellans disease" that was the subject of a story on "Unexplained Files". This is the weird disease that people get hairs, or some type of filament growing out of an abcess type lesion. Really makes me wonder.

reply to post by Thecakeisalie


At least when I think of it, we're probably better off not meeting any aliens - As a whole, we're not ready to begin dealing with entities outside of our own planet. Right now, we cannot even work globally to resolve problems between nations, let alone our own country. If you want to go back to your Mass Effect universe for another example: The reason that humans were not part of the Council or Spectre program was because we were originally viewed as impatient and greedy.

Maybe if ATS members were chosen to represent the world, then we would fare better. But if it's like the movies, where the President, or other government officials are to represent mankind, then we might as well admit defeat here and now. I mean, they would look at it from a "greedy" standpoint: "Hey, that (alien race here) has technology that would take thousands of years to reproduce; better make friends quickly before North Korea invites them to play basketball. And they mine gold as a cheap currency? I must get me some of that!".

If the aliens are coming here, I would think it's because after looking at several other worlds, maybe ours just happens to be one that intrigues them more than others, or that they are observing the wildlife on this planet, much like we go to zoos, dive in the oceans, or go on safaris.

-fossilera

JadeStar
Habitable worlds are plentiful. Inhabited worlds, probably not so much. If simply looking for resources it is unlikely we'd be invaded.

Mineral resources, of course not.

Biological, however.... A planet with a rich ecosystem of natively evolved life? (Except perhaps the earliest Archae & Bacteria which might have come with comets) This could be quite rare in fact.

Consider, hypothetically, ET slave traders. Now they wouldn't take the native species just as they are, but being good genetic engineers they could potentially create organisms intelligent enough to work but not enough to escape with the hyperdrive, and because of that technicality they wouldn't be covered by the Galactic Federation Treaty Resolution 887732.

All those ET abductions are to get additional 'native' genetic material to graft back into the breeding lines. Actually keeping humans would be illegal, and they'd get the Major Powers involved, but since it's a "grey" area of the law, and gee the hooman-grindle hybrids are just so helpful at keeping the production figures up, nobody really does anything about it.

Remember, slavery on Earth was very, very profitable.

And farms are for growing, not invading!

If they can fly here, and fly away, with ease, they are far more advanced than we are.
It stands to reason that they are also far more advanced as far as being civil is concerned.
Why does anyone worry if they are hostile, when we cannot even get along with others of our own species?
Hmmmm....
Fix that before worrying about people from other planets.
Work on this planets issues first.

They don't make open contact because we are far too base mentally, for them to even bother with.
All this they want to enslave us nonsense, is NONSENSE.
If they can fly here, fly away, they can destroy us enslave us, no problem.
They don't make contact because we are not ready, because we, as a race, are far too stupid and obnoxious for them.

Deal with it